Injured Coomes forced to delay return to competition

Champion figure skater Penny Coomes has revealed the knee injury she sustained last year will prevent her from competing this season.

Coomes, from Maidenhead, had hoped to be back in competitive action with skating partner Nick Buckland this winter season, after making a long, hard, recovery from the broken knee cap she suffered last August.

However, the wires that have been placed in her knee to strengthen it have recently become painful and Coomes took the decision to have them removed in order to give herself the best possible chance of being fit for the Olympics in 2018.

The skater, who competed for Great Britain in the 2010 and 2014 Olympic Games, has put herself through a punishing schedule of physiotherapy and gym work to get back to fitness.

It’s been, as she joked on twitter, ‘no rest for the injured’.

Having missed the ISU Figure Skating Championships in November, an emotional Coomes got back on the ice in training before Christmas.

But, the European bronze medallist released a statement last week when her name did not appear on the Bavarian Open entry list.

The update read: “I’m sorry to announce that I will not be competing this season.

“As I increased the training load in preparation for the Europeans the wires in my knee became a problem.

“Due to increased pain I was unable to continue training.

“Nick (Buckland), my medical team, my coaching team and I all made the tough decision to remove them asap to give Nick and I the best possible chance to be at our best for the 2018 Olympic season.”