by Stuart Weir
Morgan Lake, photo by Getty Images / British Athletics
This is the last and final (7th piece) from Stuart on Feb. 15, 2020. Stuart has this lifelong love of athletics, and his appreciation of the athletes, and the absolute focus they must have to get their bodies to compete at their very best is always visible. This piece is on the jumps in Glasgow.
Jumps
Ukraine took both the women’s long jump and high jump at the Müller Indoor Grand Prix in Glasgow with mixed performances by the home athletes. Yaroslava Mahuchikh won the High Jump with 1.93 and she is only 18. Bethan Partridge (GB) was second with 1.90 – one centimetre below her PR. Disappointingly Morgan Lake could only manage 1.86 to finish fourth. The winner said: “It was a good competition but seriously I was so bad but I got some good points. I’m happy to be a part of the competition. I move onto the outdoors and hopefully I’ll get better and better”.
Morgan Lake, photo by Getty Images /British Athletics
Bethan Partridge commented: “I didn’t expect to come second so I’m really happy. I didn’t jump well last week but I’m happy to be back over 1.90m and now I need the precious final centimetres to get me to the Olympic standard. I feel I’m in really good form but I want a PB and I want to keep building on that, hopefully coming into trials next weekend I’ll be able to jump another PB. My body feels good, I haven’t been injured and I want to make the most of that while I still can”.
The long jump was won by Maryna Bekh-Romanchuk with a magnificent 6.90 from Sweden’s Khaddi Sagnia 6.53. Jazmin Sawyers and Katerina Johnson-Thompson were third and fourth, both on 6.47, with Abu Irozuru fifth with 6.42. The format used was as follows: After each jumper had six jumps, the top three got one extra jump.
Bekh-Romanchuk said: “It was a good competition and I put out a good jump but I hope there’s a bigger jump to come next competition. I’ll be at the final world indoor tour event then the indoors is over. The jump-off is a strange format but it’s changed so that’s just how it is. I got my European Indoor bonze medal here in this arena last year and it was a special championship in a special year. I’m happy with the competition and the way I’m going, maybe the world record isn’t out of reach”.
Jazmin Sawyers, photo by Getty Images/ British Athletics
Jazmin Sawyers commented: “It was frustrating to have so many fouls but I feel really good. My indoor seasons have been pretty poor over the last few years but that is much better than it has been in previous years. I feel in a good place heading into the rest of the season. I need to sort my run-up out but I’ll try to perfect that ahead of next week’s British Championships. I will shut down after next week and I want to be in the best possible shape for the outdoor season and the Olympics. I have to get my qualifying mark out of the way as soon as possible, hopefully next week, but we’re so strong in this competition. People think if you get the standard in Britain you’re in the team but that’s not the case in Britain because we’re so strong but I have to jump further and further”.
Katerina Johnson-Thompson, photo by Getty Images / British Athletics
Katarina Johnson-Thompson said: “The first two no-jumps were actually decent jumps. The winter training has been really good but it’s been different because of the lateness Doha and it’s been a little disruptive but I’m in a good place”.
