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Australian pro Rebekah Keat has already posted a blistering time of 8:39:24 on the Challenge Roth course in 2009 and she’ll look for the title against a tough pro field on Sunday’s 30th running of the race.
On the women’s pro field:
“They had to choose five girls for the press conference and I didn’t get to make it, and I thought ‘when you’re not in the press conference and you’ve got the fastest time here, you know you’ve got a good field.’ In a way it was a good thing. I think you’ve got five girls that could go sub-nine; it could be history in the making.”
On focusing on Roth for the year:
“At the start of the year I said to Siri [Lindley, her coach] I want this to be my ‘A’ race. Too many years I focus on Kona and I get so nervous and I have way too much pressure going into it and I haven’t even done that well there. I’ve always had good races at Roth and I wanted to come back here and not worry about points this year and have a really good day. They say ‘you went 8:39 in 2009’ but I’m so much fitter now and surely I can go quicker. It’s a lot of pressure to put on myself. There’s no reason I shouldn’t go 10 minutes faster, but so much can happen on the day.”
Watch the complete interview with Bob Babbitt above.