Hewitt to return home after funeral
KIWI triathlete Andrea Hewitt looks set to return to New Zealand in mid-December as she comes to terms with the sudden death of her fiance and coach Laurent Vidal.
Vidal’s funeral was held 10 days ago in Southern France, and was attended by past and present teammates of Hewitt, members of the French triathlon community and former coaches and staff from Triathlon New Zealand.
Graeme Maw, high performance director at Tri NZ, was in attendance and hailed an inspirational ceremony for the Frenchman who has been credited with bringing the best out of Hewitt personally and professionally.
‘‘It was a pretty moving experience, and a pretty inspiring experience, remembering such an amazing young man,’’ said Maw.
He had a brief discussion with Hewitt about her plans, and confirmed the triathlete was likely to stick to her original schedule which saw her return to New Zealand in December, perhaps a week or so earlier than originally planned.
‘‘She’s exercising to keep herself well and fit in the meantime, and when her head and heart are ready, she’ll start what we could call training again.
‘‘Hopefully by the time she gets back to New Zealand she’s back in full training. The coaching question is obviously the big question, but her motivation for Rio was pretty unchanged really when I spoke with her.’’
Maw accepted that emotions would have an effect on some decisions over the coming months, but they were supporting her in every way they could.
‘‘She’s a wonderful young lady, the first thing to take care of is that. She has family still with her in France, and they’ll stay with her until December, but all indications are that she wants to go for Rio.’’
He said there was no pressure on Hewitt to make decisions with regard to the upcoming season or who will coach her should she decide to compete.
‘‘It’s one thing going for a swim and a run, but actually focusing your mind in the way that an athlete needs to do is very much secondary to dealing with the energy and emotions that you’re going to have in this time.
‘‘It’s not going to straighten out in 10 days.
itself
‘‘We all know it’s a conversation and I’m sure Andrea herself is thinking about it, but it’s not her primary decision.’’
He hoped the fact that Hewitthad already qualified for the Olympics with 12 months to spare and didn’t need to be race ready until August would take some pressure off her and said his organisation would look to support her ‘‘as a person first, an athlete second’’.