Spain’s Ana Peleteiro is gearing up for what could be an incredible achievement, winning consecutive triple jump titles at the IAAF World Junior Championships in Eugene in exactly one week.
Peleteiro made the headlines two years ago when the championships were staged on home soil in Barcelona. She was still only 16 and managed 14.17m to take gold which until now remains her personal best mark.
Most expected her to continue progressing and perhaps emerge as one of the sport’s most talented young stars, but as in most careers, she experienced some setbacks which hindered her overall performance in 2013.
She had to settle for bronze at the 2013 European Athletics Junior Championships in Rieti with 13.29m, far from the distance she had reached a year prior.
She split with her former coach and struggled academically in school and to top it off she was injured for three months and could not practise properly.
These setbacks forced her to modify her training structure and she has now decided to train with Juan Carlos Alvarez Madrid and she has upped her workload from 4 to 6 weekly sessions and has added weight lifting to her programme.
It already seems like these changes are paying dividends as Peleteiro leads the world junior triple jump rankings with a 14.07m effort she produced in Salamanca in June.
She also represented Spain in her first major senior competition taking ninth place at the European Athletics Team Championships in Braunschweig on 21 June.
This will surely be an invaluable experience as she prepares for Eugene but also for when she takes part in the European Athletics Championships in Zurich this summer.
Although it will be hard for Peleteiro to contend for a medal in Switzerland, she will be one the youngest athletes in the field and on a good day anything is possible.
“I’m looking forward to competing with the big girls there. It will be an extra effort to keep training in August for the first time,” she said.
Hopefully this will be the first of several successful seasons at the senior level for the young Spanish athlete.