Long jumper Sarah Warnock is Scottish Indoor Champion
The Capital hopeful looked set for a big breakthrough after landing UK bronze two years ago in a personal best of 6.42m but her bid was derailed by an ankle injury that summer.
But the 24-year-old feels she is starting to resemble her former self in the wake of leaping 6.13m to see off Edinburgh AC club-mate Gillian Cooke at the Emirates Arena to complete a hat-trick of national titles.
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Hide Ad“I’m just happy to be jumping again,” she said. “I jumped 6.10 a few weeks ago and I was celebrating like I’d done a personal best. I was thinking: ‘it’s fine. I can jump. My injuries have gone’. This was a tricky day because we had to wait a while, then someone got injured. But it’s still a season’s best and it’s going in the right direction. I just have to keep it there. And I defended my title.”
Warnock, who works part-time in an ice cream shop in Musselburgh to fund her sporting career, admits it was difficult to keep her cool during a six-month spell when little went to plan. Now pain-free, she will look towards this month’s UK Indoors in Sheffield with greater ease.
“Before, my ankle joint wasn’t stable,” she said. “So my bones were sliding forward. And because I continued to jump on it, I hurt my groin. It just went from bad to worse but I was stubborn and kept going.
“Before the Scottish Open two weeks ago, I said: ‘I don’t know if I want to do this’. So to see six in the metres column is a big relief.”
Elsewhere, Lasswade’s Guy Learmonth opened up his 800m season with victory in Vienna in a time of 1:47.35.