Laura was one of 172 aspiring young athletes who have received a very pleasant New Year boost with a grant awarded from the Ron Pickering Memorial Fund. Ron Pickering OBE was a BBC sports commentator and national athletics coach; the fund set up by his widow has helped many in Britain’s senior athletics team in their early careers, including Jessica Ennis and Phillips Idowu.
This is just the boost Laura needs to prepare her for the coming season of competitions. She, like many of us, was ill over Christmas for a couple of weeks and admits, “I’m just recovering now and getting into the swing of things.” However, she is looking forward to 2011 and tells us, “I’m now training hard and I have my first competition of the year on the 22nd of January at Loughborough. It’s only an Open competition and I am not doing triple jump, but competing at long jump and also 60m sprint – which will be a gentle way to get me back into it all.”
The first round of indoor competitions where Laura will be competing at triple jump are coming up in early February; the McCain City Challenge on the 5th and 6th and then the British Championships on the 12th and 13th, both to be held in Sheffield.