Stannard victim of hit and run
Promising young Manawatu triathlete Lizzie Stannard has had her season ruined due to a hit-andrun accident.
The Palmerston North woman should have been racing at the ITU World Cup event in New Plymouth on Sunday, but instead she is recovering from an accident in Cambridge last month.
Stannard was hit by a car while riding her bike and has been out of action since.
The 19-year-old was visiting a friend in Cambridge, then was meant to enter a triathlon while she was there. While she was out riding the day before, a car knocked her off her bike. The driver didn’t stop to help. Stannard had no recollection of the incident, but said she was ‘‘very lucky’’.
‘‘I was riding along Victoria Road coming into Cambridge. I can’t remember what happened, but these two ladies rescued me and they ended up being nurses.’’
Stannard believed it could have been a black Ford and it may have been speeding in the 100kmh zone.
‘‘I don’t know if [they] hit me or clipped me and drove off. It’s not the kind of thing you want to happen.’’
Stannard has had a couple of close calls going through roundabouts before, but nothing like this.
She landed on her left side when she came off her bike, but luckily there were no serious injuries.
‘‘I’m still getting back into it. I couldn’t really walk properly for a couple of weeks.
‘‘Nothing was broken, but my knee and shoulder were really bruised and I had limited movement in my knee.’’
She slowly started physio, taking ‘‘baby steps’’, and she has been swimming for the past two weeks.
The strap on her helmet slashed into the back of her ear and she had to have stitches. Her bike was smashed, too.
‘‘If [the car] was a couple of centimetres to the left I might not have a leg.’’
Stannard said the police, who visited her in hospital, then spoke to her once she was home, were investigating, but she was yet to hear anything.
As well as missing out on the New Plymouth race, Stannard was meant to race a World Cup in Mooloolaba and the Oceania championships in Auckland, but the accident ruled her out of those,too.
‘‘My season was pretty much over before it started. Maybe I’ll do some racing in China in May to see if I can qualify for the under-23 world champs.
‘‘I’m going to Europe in June to get some racing under my belt.’’
The event in China is a World Cup, but it won’t be her first, having raced at a World Cup in South Korea last year.
As well as working her way back to full health and competing, Stannard is studying part time and working a couple of part-time jobs.