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'I hit the car so perfectly head-on that my whole body was compressed,' Kat Matthews says of her accident in September.

In terms of pushing myself, I actually think I'm in a better place. In fact, what Matthews is attempting – her comeback is being made into a five-part documentary by the Professional Triathletes Organisation – is extraordinary. Also, the bones in my spine are still showing signs of oedema, which is a bit of a worry four months on. "Oh, I want to win this year," she says firmly. "We probably pushed that a little bit," she says. She makes it sound as if she is coming back from a stubbed toe and entering a 5km parkrun. She turned professional in 2019 and has not looked back since. "It might sound slightly arrogant but qualification shouldn't be too hard if I can get back to where I was," she says. But she has swiftly become a force. But Matthews, who comes from Exmouth and is also a captain and a physiotherapist in the Royal Army Medical Corps, is clearly not your average person. "The driver was, like, 80 years old," she says. "Apparently, I got up straight away and was charging around swearing my head off shouting, 'I'm fine, I'm fine'," she says.