Jazmin Sawyers

Jazmin Sawyers
Medal record
Women's Bobsleigh
Representing  Great Britain
Winter Youth Olympics
2012 Innsbruck Bobsleigh
Women's athletics
Representing  Great Britain
World Junior Athletics Championships
2012 Barcelona Long jump
European Championships
2016 Amsterdam Long jump
Representing  England
Commonwealth Games
2014 Glasgow Long jump
Commonwealth Youth Games
2011 Isle of Man Long jump
2011 Isle of Man 4 x 100m relay

Jazmin Sawyers (born 21 May 1994) is a British track and field athlete who competes in the long jump. She has also competed as a bobsledder and a heptathlete.

She was the silver medallist in the long jump at the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

Career

Early life and career

Born in Stoke-on-Trent,[1] Sawyers was initially a child gymnast, participating in the sport from the age of four. At ten years old she began to take part in athletics events at school and decided to start practising in various events.[2]

As part of City of Stoke Athletics Club, she focused mainly on high jump and long jump.[3] At the 2007 English Schools Championships she was the high jump runner-up with a personal best of 1.70 m (5 ft 6 3⁄4 in), finishing behind Katerina Johnson-Thompson.[4] The following year she won the English Schools' titles in the long jump and the pentathlon – a feat she repeated in 2009.[3] In 2010 she won a scholarship to study at Millfield public school.

Youth and junior medals

Her first international appearances came in 2011. At the 2011 World Youth Championships in Athletics she placed ninth in the heptathlon. She cleared six metres in the long jump for the first time that year and surpassed that mark to win the gold in the event at the 2011 Commonwealth Youth Games.[3] She was also a 4×100 metres relay champion with England at that event.[5] She was also approached by the British Bobsleigh Association that year to train for the inaugural Youth Winter Olympics. Acting as brakewoman, she formed a two-man bob team with Mica McNeil.[6] In January 2012 she represented Great Britain at the bobsleigh at the 2012 Winter Youth Olympics and Sawyers and McNeil became the country's first ever medal-winning team at the competition (and the only medallists for Britain that year), taking the silver medals behind the Dutch team.[7] As a result, she was chosen as one of the carriers for the 2012 Summer Olympics torch relay.[2]

Sawyers' bobsleigh training at the start of the year meant she was ill-prepared for heptathlon in the summer of 2012. She opted to focus on the long jump instead, as this combined well with the explosive strength training she had undertaken for the winter sport.[2] This proved to be a successful switch as she set a personal best of 6.64 m (21 ft 9 1⁄4 in) to place third at the UK Athletics Championships and also set the world-leading junior mark.[8] Sawyers was the bronze medallist at the 2012 World Junior Championships in Athletics – her distance of 6.67 m (21 ft 10 1⁄2 in) was beaten only by the wind-assisted jumps of British rival Katerina Johnson-Thompson and Germany's Lena Malkus.[9] Her performance was the second best wind-legal jump by a junior woman that year.[10]

Sawyers gained a place at the University of Sheffield and began training there as well with local coach Tony Minichiello.[2] She continued her focus on the long jump into the 2013 season. She was runner-up at the BUCS university championships indoor and outdoors. She repeated that placing at her two major events that year, taking silver behind Shara Proctor at the UK Championships then another silver at the 2013 European Athletics Junior Championships behind Malaika Mihambo of Germany.[11] At the end of the track and field season she won her first meet abroad at the Gugl Games in Linz, Austria.[3] She changed university to study law and criminology at Bristol University. She based her training near the University of Bath, however, working with coach and former long jumper Alan Lerwill.[12]

2014 Commonwealth Games medal

At the start of 2014 she set an indoor best of 6.44 m (21 ft 1 1⁄2 in) to place second the Johnson-Thompson at the UK Athletics Indoor Championships.[13] Outdoors, she had a string of victories (including a win at the universities championships) in the buildup to the 2014 European Team Championships, where she placed ninth overall. She was again second best to Johnson-Thompson at the outdoor national championships but both gained selection for the long jump for England at the 2014 Commonwealth Games. However, Johnson-Thompson withdrew prior to the championships and the other leading English athlete Proctor could not compete in the final due to injury, making Sawyer's England's leading medal hope.[14][15] At the competition in Glasgow her final round jump of 6.54 m (21 ft 5 1⁄4 in) was a season's best and resulted in a silver medal – her first international senior medal and just two centimetres behind winner Ese Brume.[16]

References

  1. ↑ Jazmin Sawyers. Glasgow2014. Retrieved on 16 August 2014.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Jazmin Sawyers. Sport Sheffield. Retrieved on 16 August 2014.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Jazmin Sawyers. Power of 10. Retrieved on 16 August 2014.
  4. ↑ Sainsbury English Schools Championships 2007. Power of 10. Retrieved on 16 August 2014.
  5. ↑ Commonwealth Youth Games 2011. World Junior Athletics History (archived). Retrieved on 16 August 2014.
  6. ↑ McFolley, Malcolm (17 December 2011). Britain's youngest bobsleigh team unfazed by 75mph ice charge at first-ever Youth Winter Olympics. Daily Mail. Retrieved on 16 August 2014.
  7. ↑ Hope, Nick (22 January 2012). Winter Youth Olympics: GB bobsleigh duo win silver. BBC Sport. Retrieved on 16 August 2014.
  8. ↑ Minshull, Phil (7 July 2012). Winter wonder Jazmin Sawyer still loves the Long Jump. IAAF. Retrieved on 16 August 2014.
  9. ↑ Valiente, Emeterio (13 July 2012). Barcelona 2012 – Event Report – Women's Long Jump Final. IAAF. Retrieved on 16 August 2014.
  10. ↑ Long Jump – women – junior – outdoor – 2012 Top List. IAAF. Retrieved on 16 August 2014.
  11. ↑ Sainsbury's British Championships 2013. Power of 10. Retrieved on 16 August 2014.
  12. ↑ Reynolds, Tom (30 July 2014). Just how much can Jazmin Sawyers achieve this year?. BBC Sport. Retrieved on 16 August 2014.
  13. ↑ British Athletics Championships Indoor 2014. Power of 10. Retrieved on 16 August 2014.
  14. ↑ Katarina Johnson-Thompson out of Glasgow 2014 with foot injury. BBC Sport (21 July 2014). Retrieved on 16 August 2014.
  15. ↑ Peach, Simon (31 July 2014). British record-holder Shara Proctor pulls out of Commonwealth Games long-jump final in tears after suffering thigh injury in run-up . Daily Mail. Retrieved on 16 August 2014.
  16. ↑ Glasgow 2014: Jazmin Sawyers jumps to silver in long jump. BBC Sport (31 July 2014). Retrieved on 16 August 2014.
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