Naomi Metzger – three championships, a medal and two PRs in 2022

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 18^th with 13.97m, commenting at the time: “I would have needed a PR to…