She may be confined to her hotel room for the next two weeks, but a lack of space will not stop Adelaide Thunderbird Shadine Van der Merwe from being court-ready when she returns to Adelaide next week.
The international defender landed in Australia on Sunday with teammate Lenize Potgieter after travelling from their homes in South Africa.
The duo are now on day five of their 14-day quarantine in separate hotel rooms in Brisbane.
With minimal equipment at hand, Van der Merwe got creative with her body weight exercises and even completed a five kilometre run within the confines of her small room.
“It started as a bit of a challenge as I have a lot of time on my hands at the moment,” Van der Merwe said.
“I pushed my bed over against the wall to give myself some extra space to move and I tracked the distance on my Garmin.
“I started just running back and forth, but that got a little bit dizzy so I added a run into the bathroom and to the hotel room door to mix it up.
“It took much longer than I normally would to run that distance, but there was a lot of changing direction which will help when I am back on court.”
Shadine now has her sights on completing a 10km run in her room next week.
“I know the girls are all training hard back in Adelaide so I want to make sure I am as ready as I can be to keep up with them when we get back,” Van der Merwe said.
“My exercise bike just arrived today, so I’ll add that to my routine too.”
It has been a strange adjustment for the South African international who has had to find new ways to adjust to the different time zone.
“Normally we can get out for walks and keep ourselves busy to combat the jet lag, but I’ve found it much harder this time,” Van der Merwe said.
“The exercise helps and I love painting and drawing. I’m no Picasso but I find it very fun and calming.
“I’ve been trying to work out the TV channels and I have been watching The Voice and Kath and Kim in the evenings.
“Lenize introduced me to Kath and Kim when we arrived in Adelaide and we binged watched all of the episodes. It is hilarious.”
Next week, the Adelaide Thunderbirds media team will check in with Shadine’s neighbour Lenize for an update on how she’s finding quarantine, so stay tuned.
