Morgan Lake is the best high jumper in the UK. A former heptathlete, Morgan had an exceptional year in 2023. Stuart Weir did this interview with Morgan for RunBlogRun. We are looking forward to seeing Stuart Weir traveling again later this year!
Morgan Lake on how a good 2023 can be a springboard into the Olympic year
2023 was an excellent year for the GB high-jumper Morgan Ake. She jumped 1.99 indoors to win in Hustopeče, Czech Republic, setting a new British Indoor record, and 1.97 at the Paavo Nurmi Games in Turku, Finland, before finishing fourth in the World Champs at Budapest with another .97. Her assessment of the year was: “To get a British record indoors in February last year was amazing, but obviously, I did not have the best European championship in Istanbul [Seve th]. But I think I learned quite a lot from that championship, which I then took into the outdoor section. Perhaps I went to Istanbul seeing myself as a medal contender after the 1.99, thinking because I’ve jumped it (1.99) before, I’ll just jump it ag in’. And I learned that you need to keep your head down and keep working, and nothing’s guaranteed.
“I think I had that mentality going through the su mer. Every competition was a new experience, a new opportunity, y’all. So it’s taking each competition as its ent. I had a good Diamond League season [five top 5 finis es]. It was nice to be back on the circuit. I hadn’t really been there since 018. So it was nice to be back in those high-level competitions. Fourth in Budapest, which is always a bitter-sweet feeling, being so close to a medal, but also from the previous year of placing 7th at European Championships when I had been quite down about what happened in that 2022 season with missing the World Champs with COVID and then fourth in the Commonwealth Games and 7th in Much. I couldn’t really catch a break. So, I felt that 2023 gave me more confidence in my jumping and that I can be there in the global age. She explained that her new mindset led to a goal that she and her coach Robbie Grabarz had set: “We didn’t say ‘We’re gonna get a meal.’ It was just ‘be in that fight for a medal’”.
When she came to the Worlds in Budapest, it seemed the culmination of that good season – 1.99, the consistency in Diamond Leagues – giving her the confidence that she could be in…
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