SA long jumper Margaret Gayen records Commonwealth Games B-qualifying mark
LONG jumper Margaret Gayen made sure she checked one small but important detail before celebrating at Santos Stadium on Saturday.
MARGARET Gayen made sure she checked one small but important detail before celebrating at Santos Stadium on Saturday.
A week earlier the super talented Hazelwood Park 19-year-old had prematurely began throwing around the 'high-fives' believing she had jumped a Commonwealth Games long jump B-qualifier.
Only an hour later, did she learn that her 6.42m leap did not count because she had an illegal tail wind at her back.
Having leapt a massive 6.61m at an interclub meeting at Mile End last Saturday, Gayen went straight over to check on the wind reading.
Only upon learning that it was a legal wind did she allow herself to get excited.
"After that disappointment (last week), I checked straight away what the wind was,'' she says.
"I couldn't believe it to be honest. I didn't expect to go quite that far."
Gayen's jump was a massive 32cm personal best and smashed the B-qualifying mark for the Glasgow Commonwealth Games by more than 30cm.
The jump was just 3cm shy of the Commonwealth Games A-qualifying mark and only 5cm shy of the South Australian open record.
She shattered her own state under-20 record.
The rangy teenager, put her massive improvement down to ironing out flaws in her run-up and learning how to harness her speed.
Gayen is one of the fastest 100m sprinters in Australia and made the national 4x100m relay squad for the 2013 World Athletics Championships in Moscow.
"All of last season I had trouble with my run up,'' she says.
"I improved a lot in sprinting and I couldn't control that speed when I was running up to take off in the long jump."
Gayen worked with her mother and long jump coach Debbie over the winter and is now able to use her speed at takeoff.
She is currently ranked third in the world in the long jump for 2014, although most northern hemisphere athletes are out-of-season and have yet to compete.
Gayen will continue competing in the sprints and will race Olympic hurdles champion Sally Pearson at the Adelaide Track Classic in February.
Gayen's qualifying jump capped a wonderful week for South Australian long jumping.
The previous weekend Tim McGuire leapt 7.94m, also at a club meeting in Adelaide, shattering his personal best and the B-qualifying mark.
McGuire is ranked no. 1 in the country so far this season and has thrown his name up for Glasgow selection.
He is 16cm shy of the A-qualifying mark.