ZIMBABWE leading triathlete Andie Kuipers is keeping the faith of an Olympic berth following her podium finish in a recent African meet in Hurghada, Egypt.
The US-based athlete has invested immensely in her dream competing in races across several continents.
Kuipers has even gone as far as deferring her final semester at Wingate University to try and make it for Paris this year. She however remains pragmatic in her approach cognizant of the fact that she still has age and stamina on her side and will certainly push for the Los Angeles Games in 2028 should she somehow miss out on Paris.
"Am extremely happy. I feel that I have really underperformed in the begining half of my season due to some personal reasons, but I am definitely on the up now. After spending four weeks with my coach in Switzerland I was able to regain the confidence I needed and really just start to love the process of training again," Kuipers told The Sports Hub
"I still can’t quite believe the race I had this past weekend, although I would have liked to run faster, as I didn’t run the time I would have liked to over the 10km, I cannot be upset with silver and am ecstatic with my ranking points."
Her quest to qualify for the Olympics has seen Kuipers race in front of her home crowd at the Bonaqua Triathlon Africa Cup Troutbeck and the African Games in Accra, Ghana among other races this year.
The silver medal has given her renewed vigour, puts her on the brink and also came with it a massive jump in world rankings. She is excited to continue racing and funds permitting, see where her sojourn will take her.
"Had a really good race and now have a world ranking of 188 which means if I have two more good results I can qualify," she said.
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"I was ranked 313th and now I will most likely do two more races in Asia, finance permitting. I will now go on to race two more races before the cut off period, which is the 27th of May, but due to finances and limited time I may not be able to get to those races but I am working on making a plan around this as my Paris dream has never been more alive."
