FREDDIE Curtis is prepared for the long road ahead in his bid to return to competition.

The 21-year-old, from Hardwick, near Bicester, required shoulder surgery earlier this year.

But with his last competition being 15 months ago, he is prepared to take his time in order to return in 2017.

And he has been using the lay-off as a chance to work on other areas of the sport.

Curtis said: “I recently went out in Finland with some of the top javelin throwers and best coaches in the world, but unfortunately injury holds you back from being able to put it into practice.

“When you practice every day like I do, there’s a lot of work that goes into making it all happen and not being able to take part is frustrating, but you have to pick yourself up.

“Now it’s all about working back to fitness and hopefully I can throw again next year.

“It’s quite a long period off from throwing which is quite frustrating, but I’ve been able to work on psychology, planning and visualisation – things which wouldn’t always get as much time as normal.”

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