Laura Samuel (born 19 February 1991) is a British

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...

athlete who competes in the

triple jump The triple jump, sometimes referred to as the hop, step and jump or the hop, skip and jump, is a track and field event, similar to the long jump. As a group, the two events are referred to as the "horizontal jumps". The competitor runs down th ...

. She has a personal best of for the event, which ranks her third among British women. She was the silver medallist at the

2014 Commonwealth Games The 2014 Commonwealth Games ( gd, Geamannan a' Cho-fhlaitheis 2014), officially known as the XX Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Glasgow 2014, ( sco, Glesca 2014 or Glesga 2014; gd, Glaschu 2014), was an international multi-sport ev ...

and also the

2010 World Junior Championships in Athletics The 2010 World Junior Championships in Athletics was an international athletics competition for athletes under the age of 20 which was held at the Moncton Stadium in Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada from 19 to 25 July 2010. A total of 44 athletics ...

Career

Born in

Leicester Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city l ...

, she became involved in

athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competiti ...

while at primary school becoming interested after local coaches visited the pupils there. She joined the Leicester Coritanian Athletics Club and later joined

Loughborough University Loughborough University (abbreviated as ''Lough'' or ''Lboro'' for post-nominals) is a public research university in the market town of Loughborough, Leicestershire, England. It has been a university since 1966, but it dates back to 1909, when L ...

's athletics team, when she began studying there. Initially Samuel focused on short

sprint Sprint may refer to: Aerospace *Spring WS202 Sprint, a Canadian aircraft design *Sprint (missile), an anti-ballistic missile Automotive and motorcycle *Alfa Romeo Sprint, automobile produced by Alfa Romeo between 1976 and 1989 *Chevrolet Sprint, ...

ing events, but by 2007 she had begun to focus more on

long jump The long jump is a track and field event in which athletes combine speed, strength and agility in an attempt to leap as far as possible from a takeoff point. Along with the triple jump, the two events that measure jumping for distance as a gr ...

. She won in that discipline at the 2007

English Schools Championships English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

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 . She won the senior national title in the triple jump in 2010.Laura Samuel
Power of 10. Retrieved on 2014-08-12. She went on to compete at her first international competition soon after and was the silver medallist at the

, setting a British junior record of to place second behind the favourite Dailenys Alcántara. Samuel won the British triple jump title indoors and outdoors in 2011, and also made her debut on the

IAAF Diamond League The Diamond League is an annual series of elite track and field athletic competitions comprising fourteen of the best invitational athletics meetings. The series sits in the top tier of the World Athletics (formerly known as the IAAF) one-day mee ...

circuit, placing seventh at the

London Grand Prix The London Diamond League, formerly known as the London Grand Prix and subsequently as the Anniversary Games, is an annual athletics event held in London, England. Previously one of the five IAAF Super Grand Prix events, it is now part of the Dia ...

. 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 Aston Llewellyn Moore (born 8 February 1956) is a male Jamaican-born former track and field athlete who competed for Great Britain, specializing in the triple jump event. He is currently an athletics coach, based in Birmingham, West Midlands. He ...

of Birchfield Harriers – one of the country's top jumping coaches. She went unbeaten indoors in 2014, having wins at the

London Indoor Games London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major se ...

and Botnia Games before taking the British indoor title. At the British Championships outdoors she was beaten into second by

Yamilé Aldama Yamilé Aldama Pozo ( ar, جميلة الداما; born 14 August 1972) is a Cuban-born triple jumper. She represented Cuba until 2003, Sudan from 2004 to 2010, then Great Britain from 2011 onwards. A four-time Olympian (2000–12), she won a ...

, bringing an end to Samuel's four-year streak at the national event. Both were selected to represent

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

at the

. Samuel outdid her older compatriot in the final as Aldama failed to start the competition in

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

. Samuel jumped a personal best mark of – 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. This performance moved her up to third on the all-time British triple jump lists after

Ashia Hansen Ashia Hansen, (born 5 December 1971) is a retired British triple jumper. Fourth in the 1996 Olympic final, she broke the world indoor record when winning the 1998 European Indoor title, and went on to win gold medals at the World Indoor Cha ...

and Aldama. Glasgow 2014: Will Sharman and Laura Samuel win silver medals

BBC Sport BBC Sport is the sports division of the BBC, providing national sports coverage for BBC television, radio and online. The BBC holds the television and radio UK broadcasting rights to several sports, broadcasting the sport live or alongside flag ...

(2014-07-29). Retrieved on 2014-08-12.

International competition record

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Samuel, Laura Living people 1991 births Sportspeople from Leicester British female triple jumpers English female triple jumpers Commonwealth Games silver medallists for England Commonwealth Games medallists in athletics Athletes (track and field) at the 2014 Commonwealth Games British Athletics Championships winners Medallists at the 2014 Commonwealth Games