Teams Talk: Annie Emerson On The SLT Cheetahs

Annie Emmerson produced one of the biggest surprises of the SLT Teams draft – and she doesn’t regret it for one moment.

Having won the random draw to take first pick of the women, most would have expected her to have selected Katie Zaferes, the most dominant woman in Super League history and someone really returning to form at the right time.

SLT Cheetahs: Sophie Coldwell, Maya Kingma, Leonie Periault, Anna Godoy, Jonny Brownlee, Tyler Mislawchuk, Tamas Toth, Aaron Royle.

If not then maybe double Olympic gold medalist Georgia Taylor-Brown or Cassandre Beaugrand, who has shown her class at SLT racing before.

Instead she went for Sophie Coldwell as part of an interesting team that has a real sense of balance to it.

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Here, Annie talks to us about her team, tactics and management style:

STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES

There are loads, but the fact we have Sophie Coldwell and Jonathan Brownlee who will be my team captains brings that kind of experience that is worth its weight in gold.

The women’s team looks very strong. Maya Kingma is so strong on the bike and Leonie Periault is coming into the form of her life.

Everybody has overlooked Anna Godoy, but she was third place at the SLT Arena Games in Rotterdam.

Jonny is really hungry for success, has raced Super League before, has a wealth of experience in this style of racing and in the form of his life.

Tamas is new to this racing but is excited about it. Aaron Royle I love to death. He has experience and is a great swimmer and biker as well.

Looking at the teams across the board, I by far have the strongest team.

WHO DON’T YOU HAVE WHO YOU WISH YOU HAD?

There’s not anybody missing. Bringing these teams together we were always aware there would be strengths and weaknesses.

Jonathan Brownlee is such a great swimmer, biker and runner, Sophie is good at everything, Maya Kingma has incredible strength not just in the swim but tactically on the bike as well.

Aaron Royle is the guy who will really seal the tem. He’s such a nice guy and trained in Leeds with Jonny Brownlee and they will work incredibly well together.

Are we missing anyone? Absolutely not.

TEAM TACTICS?

It’s a little bit early to talk team tactics – and when we do have we will keep them to ourselves.

MANAGEMENT STYLE

Having spent years under the brilliant Brett Sutton I know how to manage. I have a lot of experience and know the SLT racing having worked on it for a few years now across the main events and the SLT Arena Games. I understand what is required to race well over this style.

how do you think slt teams will change the race dynamics?

I think each athlete will be hungry for their own individual success but as we have seen in all of the teams there are strengths and weaknesses and the strengths will want to pull up the weaknesses.

I think the guys who are maybe slightly weaker will really want to perform for the rest of the team and I think that is how it will change things. Once your individual chances have gone you’re going to be going all out to help your other team members and that is going to make SLT racing really exciting in 2021.