Commonwealth Gold for Jazmin Sawyers
In March 2023, Jazmin Sawyers captained Great Britain at the European Indoor Championships in Istanbul. Talk about leading by example: she won the long jump competition with a 7-meter jump. There is so much going on simultaneously at a track meet that it is impossible to see everything. Your correspondent can report that he was watching and saw the seven-meter jump and the athlete’s ecstatic reaction.
Having joined the seven-meter club, Sawyers was ready to move on, but it didn’t quite happen. In Budapest in August 2023, she failed to qualify for the long jump final in the World Championships. Then, in April 2024, she sustained a ruptured Achilles in her take-off leg, resulting in her missing the 2024 Olympics along with all of that season, 13 months without competition.
She had won long jump gold in the 2011 Commonwealth Youth Games and silver in the 2014 Commonwealth Games, the last time they were in Glasgow. Her jumps at this year’s Commonwealths were not legal because of a following wind, but that takes nothing away from the measured distance of 6.90 and 6.93. If there was a happier gold medalist this week, then I did not spot them!
She commented on her win: “It hasn’t properly hit me how this is the thing I’ve been telling myself all the horrible bits in training are for. The feeling is overwhelming. I will do the horrible bits 100 times over, I’ll do it and do it and do it. This is amazing.
“12 years on almost to the day, I won a silver here in Glasgow at my first major championships. It was a shock silver, and I’ve held Glasgow close to my heart ever since. It was the start of my career and so sensational, and I had the time of my life, and I take that as one of the best moments of my entire career, but when you’ve done that there’s only one thing to do, which is to upgrade.”
She was asked after the competition why she talks to herself and what she says! “I don’t say the same thing every time. I’m just saying my cues from my coach. Today I was reminding myself to stay tall through the running, keep my take-off leg straight. People want to hear it as they think it will be inspiring, but I don’t think it’s inspiring; it won’t be relevant to everyone. But giving yourself clear directions and telling your body what to do can be so so helpful.”
Jazmin is a supremely talented individual. She has a degree in law. She is an accomplished seamstress who makes many of her own clothes. He has an almost professional singing voice. She won a medal in bobsleigh at the Youth Olympics. She sometimes does television commentary on athletics and has been MC at European Athletics award ceremonies.
And if I may finish with a personal story. Several years ago at the Oslo Diamond League, I asked her if she would do an interview with me. She replied, “Of course,” and agreed a time. Later that day she found me and asked if we could rearrange – she had been asked to sing at a function in Oslo! It could only happen with Jazmin!
