After a slightly disappointing end to last year’s season, what with not qualifying for Commonwealth Games and ending the year with an injury, so far, things are looking much more positive!
When I started back winter training in September, my coach and I discussed a plan of action for the indoor season. Winter training has gone really well and I am quicker and stronger than I have ever been. My weight sessions in the gym have been adapted since last year and this has meant that I am doing more plyometric work which I then immediately transfer onto the runway with my triple jumping. It seems to be working well as my distances have improved a great deal since last year. Being stronger in the gym has enabled me to become quicker on the track too. Overall, my winter training has been going well, however, I picked up a slight ankle injury a few weeks ago which meant for the past few weeks I have had to do rehab training to strengthen it up.
At the beginning of January, I had my first indoor competition of the season at Eton where I competed in long jump. Going into the competition I felt both excited and nervous, particularly nervous as I still had a slight injury. It turns out I had no reason to be nervous as I won the competition with a distance very close to my personal best! I also had some long no jumps which, had they not been red flagged, would’ve been distances of 6 metres plus!
Following my successful competition at Eton, a couple of weeks later I competed in the South of England Championships in London, where I was keen to jump well again but this time in my favoured event triple jump. This was my first competitive triple jump of the season and again I was nervous. Leading up to the competition, my coach and I decided to adapt my training schedule slightly to make sure that my injured foot would be as strong as possible. The competition went well and I won the gold medal with a distance just under 13m, not too bad for an opening triple jump! After jumping well in the long jump at Eton a couple of weeks ago, I had also entered the South of England long jump competition in the hope of producing a new personal best distance. Unfortunately, I didn’t and missed out on 1st place by 23cm, however, I won the silver medal and was still very happy with this, considering long jump isn’t what I usually train for.
A few days after becoming Women’s Triple Jump South of England Champion, I received confirmation that I’d been selected to compete for England in the triple jump in Bratislava, Slovakia! I am absolutely delighted and will be flying out this weekend with the rest of the England Team. This will be my first international competition and I am looking forward to representing the country and furthering my jumping distance. To complete my indoor season, on Sunday 15th February, I will be competing in the British Championships in Sheffield where I will be up against the top triple jumpers in the country. It is going to be a tough competition, but I am hoping to end the season with a personal best jump.
Click on this link to follow my progress this season.
A short clip of me jumping at the South of England Championships: