Kelly Stokes has become the second Hampshire triathlete to qualify for this year’s Ironman World Championships after overcoming nine knee operations to make it to Hawaii.

The 33-year-old from Bishops Waltham, who works for Hampshire based NATS as an air traffic controller, will join fellow local athlete Rob Arkell in Kona for the sport’s most prestigious event, which takes place on October 10.

Stokes has booked her spot at the qualification only championships by bagging a podium place at Ironman Copenhagen, and now is set for a dream trip to Kona to compete with the best of the best.

What makes her story even more incredible is that the qualification comes after nine knee operations – one of which took place at the start of this year.

“This year was a first for my right knee,” laughed Stokes. “I have had eight operations on my left knee which started from a football injury. My right knee decided it wanted to get a bit of operation action as well.

“Luckily I had a really good physio and though I need to do the rehab forever it really helped and hopefully now both my knees are in good nick.

“When I started triathlon my first Ironman was in Copenhagen three years ago and I didn’t even know what the World Championships was. I just wanted to finish.

“As I learned more about the sport and the history of it I learned Hawaii is the big daddy and how much it meant to be able to qualify and how hard it would be to try and qualify.

“This year I had wanted to really go for it but I had a knee operation that put me out for three months so it was a real long shot. I thought really I had no chance but picked Copenhagen as it was later in the year.

“In my mind I just feel really lucky because there were so many great girls just minutes behind me on the day and I just held them off to qualify.”

The race itself was eventful for Stokes.

Her bike didn’t turn up on her flight meaning she had to rush to get it built on time when it did eventually arrive, and then a series of minor problems beset her during the race.

However, it didn’t stop her clocking 59 minutes for the 2.4 mile swim, 5.21 for the 112 mile bike and 4.14 for the marathon for a total time of 10.41 and third place in the female 30-34 age group.

“After the disaster of my bike not turning up until late I hoped that was the bad luck out of the way,” explained Stokes.

“It was windy at the start and the swim was really choppy but I like the swim. I was a few minutes slower than last year which I was a bit annoyed with, but I wanted to go under an hour and did that.

“I got on the bike and realised my bike computer wasn’t working, so I had no idea what speed I was doing or whether I was going too fast like lots of people do. I just had to do it on feel as I had only the time of day on my watch.

“Within another few miles I managed to knock my visor off so I had no cover for my eyes so had to do most of it with my eyes half closed! I thought to myself that bad luck comes in threes and with the bike arriving late, the computer and the visor I had mine.

“I kept going and trying to do the maths every time there was a 40km sign to try and go the right speed.

“I was riding a tri bike for the first time in a big race as I finally got a really nice Cervelo this year and I think that made a difference.

“I tried to just drink anything I could with energy because it was hot and at the end I checked my time and thought it was a bit slower than I had thought but it had been really windy.

“I just thought I’d see what happens on the run and within a mile I realised I’d gone a bit hard on the bike and it wasn’t going to be exceptional.

“There were a few amazing girls racing and I kept expecting them to come past.

“My mum and dad surprised me by coming out for a day trip to support and seeing them was a real surprise and gave me a massive lift.

“I had listened to a lot of podcasts about mental training before the race because I had felt that perhaps I had eased off too easily in the run in the past.

“This time I had going through my head that even if I was struggling if a tiger came up to me then could I run away?

“Every time the answer was yes so I knew that really I could push through any pain and keep going.

“I apologised to my mum and dad that I didn’t think I would be qualifying for Hawaii and just tried to have the best race I could.

“I saw the time at the end and thought, though it was a PB, I wanted to go faster and I didn’t think it would be enough to qualify but I was really happy because I felt I had pushed myself as hard as I could in the conditions.

“I didn’t have any technology with me and it wasn’t until a bit later that I was told I had come third which totally shocked me.

“I didn’t really believe it but it turned out I had come third and I found out the next day that was enough to qualify me for Hawaii.”

With only a matter of weeks between races it is now a case of Stokes having to recover and prepare for the notoriously hot, humid, hilly and windy conditions that await on Hawaii.

She said: “I’ve got less than six weeks to prepare and though I’m not sure of the percentage it is ridiculously humid because of the lava fields and the temperature will be in the mid 30s. I am told the heat is unbelievable.

“The training will have to be done but that is more maintenance between the races.

“There are places that have heat chambers and I am trying to see if I could use one, otherwise I am going to spend a lot of time sat in a steam room.”

Stokes is self coached, and trains up for up to 20 hours a week.

“I’ve had great support,” she admitted.

“I don’t have a coach but have had lots of really good advice from Portsmouth Triathletes and David Lloyd Port Solent Tri Club, as well as Garth at Vanrku Cycling and the physio work at Reactivate. My surgeon, Mr Cossey, got my knee working again too.

“Also friends and family have been very understanding when I am going to bed early and not having too many glasses of wine.”