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Johannesburg - Decathlete Willem Coertzen will return to training next week after recovering from an ankle injury that derailed his 2014 season.
The 31-year-old national record-holder, who was ninth at the 2012 London Olympics and achieved the same position at last year's IAAF World Championships in Moscow, picked up the injury six weeks before the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
He was forced to withdraw from the Commonwealth event after the injury flared up in the high jump discipline, and also withdrew during the high jump at the African Athletics Championships in Marrakech in August.
Ready to get back into the swing of things, he was not sure what to expect in the coming season, but he hoped to put up a solid fight at the 2015 global championships in Beijing.
"After a terrible year this year I just want to go out and get a good score at the world championships," Coertzen said.
"I felt I was in the best form of my life this year and I just want to get into that same sort of shape again next season."
He believed he could improve his South African decathlon mark of 8,343 points, set in Moscow last season, if he could work on his weakest discipline, the pole vault.
Coertzen hopes to vault nearly half a metre higher than his 4.63m personal best over the next couple of years.
"The pole vault is the key so I'll probably compete in more pole vault events next season," he said.
"If I can sort that out I think I'll give a lot of guys a good go because if I can improve to 5.00m or 5.10m I can get into a medal position at major international championships."
