by Stuart Weir
This is the first part of a two-part series on Naomi Metzger, written by Stuart Weir. The British long jumper had a fantastic summer this season with two Personal Bests and one medal in three championships.
Naomi Metzger – three championships, a medal, and two PRs in 2022
When Naomi Metzger picked herself up out of the sand following her first jump in the Commonwealth Games triple jump competition, she was delighted, if a little surprised, to see that she had jumped to a personal best. The event that she had been targeting for a year or two could hardly have started better! And not that she was finished. She produced the four best jumps of her life to take the bronze medal alongside two fouls. The jumps in order were: 14.32m, 14.23m, 14.37m, and 14.36m.
She recalls the competition: “A lot of things worked in my favor. The qualification round was canceled, so I didn’t have to jump twice and my legs weren’t tired when it came to the final. A lot of my family came to watch, and normally they are not able to come. That gave me a boost. That there were 30,000 people in the stadium and that many of them were actually watching the triple jump made it special. I just felt happy because I love a big crowd – and a big crowd that was interested in what I’m doing. Sometimes there’s a huge crowd, but they’re not watching the triple jump. I felt that all eyes were on me at that moment. So I wanted to do something good for myself, the country, and the crowd.
“One technical thing that I did differently was that I didn’t count my strides. I always count them. But sometimes, when I get to 13,14,15, it gets scrambled in my head. But this time, I didn’t count. I just ran as fast as possible, and I think that made a difference. I think the fact that I was jumping freely made the PRs happen. I saw that my first jump was a PR, but I barely celebrated because I thought it was probably wind-assisted. When I saw that it was legal if I was really excited but also terrified that Kimberly Williams would produce a big one and knock me down to the fourth place. It was perhaps in my favor that it was a cold evening, and Kimberly being Jamaican, is used to warmer conditions!”
Oregon 2022 was the first World Championship for which Naomi had been selected. She finished 18th with 13.97m, commenting at the time: “I would have needed a PR to make the final. I don’t feel like I underperformed – it was average of what I normally jump, but I still think I’ve got more to go. I’m honestly not too down – I’m looking forward to the next competition”.
Looking back at Oregon at the end of the season gave her a slightly different perspective, given that the distance she would have needed to reach the final – 14.27m – was one that she surpassed at both the Commonwealth Games and the European Championships, four times in all. “Now, I look back on it as a real learning curve. If Oregon had not happened”, she explained, “perhaps the Commonwealth’s happiness would not have happened. I needed the world’s disappointment to drive me forward to those PRs in Birmingham. I wasn’t sure I was going to make the World Championships because I didn’t have the standard, and it was like, maybe I’m going, maybe I’m not. But when I got to Oregon, I got so caught up in the size of the event that it got the better of me. I had a lot of anxiety going into the event and wasn’t really focusing on my performance. I was looking at the competitors around me, and I kind of froze. It was the first-ever world champ, and has a real learning experience. It was quite difficult for me, but I kept thinking that there was a Commonwealth Games in two weeks which was the event had been focusing on for years”.
In the European Championships, she made the final, effectively with her first jump of 14.24m, and finished sixth in the final with 14.33. Her assessment of Munich was: “If someone had told me at the beginning of the season that I would come sixth in the European Championship, jumping14.33, I would’ve been over the moon because that would have been a big PR. Sometimes you lose perspective. 14.45 got the bronze medal, which wasn’t too far ahead of me but I couldn’t get the extra distance. And I feel that medals are within my reach, which makes me feel very positive going forward”.
While she felt privileged to be able to compete in three championships in one season, she also felt that it had taken its toll on her. “By Munich, I was mentally and physically exhausted because it came soon after the Commonwealths. The qualification was easy. Despite feeling tired, I seemed to jump 14.24 quite easily. The final started pretty well – 14.33m – but then the fatigue started setting in, round after round. As I get more experienced and learn how to manage myself, I should be able to perform twice. The competition was quite close, and looking at it coming in, you couldn’t have guessed who would get the bronze medal. Overall, I was pretty happy with the distance I jumped. I think one reason that I was able to go out and get the qualifying with my first jump was that the Commonwealths had given me so much more confidence”.
In Part 2, Naomi explains more about how she progressed from a good to a medal-winning triple-jumper.
