Laura Samuel
Medal record
Women's athletics
Representing  England
Commonwealth Games
Silver medal – second place2014 GlasgowTriple jump

Laura Samuel (born 19 February 1991) is a British track and field athlete who competes in the triple jump. She has a personal best of 14.09 m (46 ft 2+1⁄2 in) for the event, which ranks her third among British women. She was the silver medallist at the 2014 Commonwealth Games and also the 2010 World Junior Championships in Athletics.

Career

Born in Leicester,[1] she became involved in athletics while at primary school becoming interested after local coaches visited the pupils there.[2] She joined the Leicester Coritanian Athletics Club and later joined Loughborough University's athletics team, when she began studying there.[3]

Initially Samuel focused on short sprinting events, but by 2007 she had begun to focus more on long jump. She won in that discipline at the 2007 English Schools Championships and was runner-up the following year. In 2009, she switched to the triple jump and this immediately brought her higher up the national rankings: she won the English schools title, came fourth at the senior British Athletics Championships, and set a personal best of 12.98 m (42 ft 7 in). She won the senior national title in the triple jump in 2010.[4] She went on to compete at her first international competition soon after and was the silver medallist at the 2010 World Junior Championships in Athletics, setting a British junior record of 13.75 m (45 ft 1+1⁄4 in) to place second behind the favourite Dailenys Alcántara.[5]

Samuel won the British triple jump title indoors and outdoors in 2011, and also made her debut on the IAAF Diamond League circuit, placing seventh at the London Grand Prix. She equalled her personal best in 2012 and repeated as the outdoor UK champion in both 2012 and 2013. She began working with coach Aston Moore of Birchfield Harriers – one of the country's top jumping coaches.[4]

She went unbeaten indoors in 2014, having wins at the London Indoor Games and Botnia Games before taking the British indoor title. At the British Championships outdoors she was beaten into second by Yamilé Aldama,[6] bringing an end to Samuel's four-year streak at the national event. Both were selected to represent England at the 2014 Commonwealth Games. Samuel outdid her older compatriot in the final as Aldama failed to start the competition in Glasgow. Samuel jumped a personal best mark of 14.09 m (46 ft 2+1⁄2 in) – adding over thirty centimetres to her four-year-old personal best. This resulted in her taking a surprise silver medal behind Kimberly Williams of Jamaica.[7] This performance moved her up to third on the all-time British triple jump lists after Ashia Hansen and Aldama.[8]

International competition record

YearCompetitionVenuePositionEventNotes
2010 World Junior Championships Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada 2nd Triple jump 13.75 m (+0.9 m/s)
2014 Commonwealth Games Glasgow, Scotland 2nd Triple jump 14.09 m
2016 European Championships Amsterdam, Netherlands 15th (q) Triple jump 13.65 m

References

  1. ↑ Laura Samuel. Glasgow2014. Retrieved on 2014-08-12.
  2. ↑ Laura Samuels. SportsAid. Retrieved on 2014-08-12.
  3. ↑ Athletics: Triple-jumper Laura Samuel in GB junior team for McCain Loughborough International Archived 2014-10-18 at the Wayback Machine. Leicester Mercury (2009-05-15). Retrieved on 2014-08-12.
  4. 1 2 Laura Samuel. Power of 10. Retrieved on 2014-08-12.
  5. ↑ Women's Triple Jump final. IAAF (2010-07-23). Retrieved on 2014-08-12.
  6. ↑ British Athletics UK Championships. Power of 10. Retrieved on 2014-08-12.
  7. ↑ Fordyce, Tom (2014-07-29). Glasgow 2014: Five England silvers on thrilling night of athletics. BBC Sport. Retrieved on 2014-08-12.
  8. ↑ Glasgow 2014: Will Sharman and Laura Samuel win silver medals. BBC Sport (2014-07-29). Retrieved on 2014-08-12.
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