Nicola McDermott joins IAAF Diamond League high jump competition

From Adcock Park to the IAAF Diamond League, Nicola McDermott has become a bona fide international track and field star and now Tokyo 2020 is in her sights.

Nicola McDermott competing in March 2019. Picture: James Worsfold

• The athletics newcomer who has become a national champion
• Central Coast Stadium makes play for NSW Waratahs home games

Nicola McDermott cannot wait to compete in the finals of the Diamond League after well

and truly establishing herself on the elite circuit.

At the start of the season, the talented high jumper’s dream was just to break into the circuit.

She went one better; competing with the best of the best on a weekly basis.

Her dream run started at the Ostrava Golden Spike on June 20 — a competition she had been a last-minute addition to.

Despite travel fatigue she managed to jump a personal best and automatic Olympic qualifier of 1.96m and secure third place, which booked her entry into the following three Diamond League events in Eugene, Lausanne and Monaco.

High jumper Nicola McDermott pictured on the eve of her Commonwealth Games selection in 2018. She went on to win bronze. Picture: Sue Graham

It took McDermott time to adjust to being a small fish in a very different pond.

“It took me until Monaco on July 12 to finally learn the way to jump in the fast-paced

competition,” McDermott said.

She said a conversation with friends on the circuit that morning settled her mind for the

competition.

“It made me focus not on the negative aspects of being shipped around the world with an

entire stadium demanding my best performances and entertainment, or feeling inadequate to

be there — it made me focus on the fact that I love high jump,” she said.

“I never feel more free than when I am jumping, and to do it with the best women in the

world, in one of the best stadiums in the world, in great shape with a crowd that roars and

claps with a raise of my hands — with that I was willing to jump out of my skin.”

McDermott, Donnica Clarke Foundation scholarship holder number 38, was thrilled to secure

a podium finish with a jump of 1.94m in front of her Central Coast-based coach Matt

Horsnell and his wife, as well as her parents, who she hadn’t seen in months.

“People might say that 1.94m is a top-shelf achievement, but now that I have cleared 1.96m I

am chasing the higher heights,” she said.

McDermott is “painfully close” to the 1.97m mark. Picture: Bradley Kanaris

“The 1.97m was painfully close, which excites me because I know I have everything I need

to get it in these next competitions.”

McDermott returns to the Central Coast in the coming weeks to sit university exams. She will

return to Europe in late August, ahead of the Diamond League final in Brussels on September

6 and the World Championships in Doha later that month.

IN OTHER NEWS