An injury interrupted 18 months has coincided with Edinburgh’s Sarah Jones’s change from judo to wrestling.  But winning the gold medal at last weekend’s City of Sassari tournament in Sardinia shows she is in good form for this month’s final qualifying event for October’s Commonwealth Games in Delhi. 

Jones, a 27 year old Glasgow Western Infirmary physiotherapist, was one of a group of judo players who switched sports in order to compete in Delhi, judo not featuring in the event. 

“The wrestling programme started in February 2008 but I had anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction so I didn’t start until December 2008,” said Jones, who competes in the 72kg division.

“I was on the mat until April, then re-ruptured it and had surgery again, so I only just got back on in December.  I had a whistle stop tour but it’s a great programme and I’m getting back into things now.”

As a member of the West of Scotland Institute of Sport, part of sportscotland’s area institute network which focuses on preparing Scotland’s best athletes to perform on the world stage by providing high performance expertise, Jones has been fast tracked through the operation and recovery process.

“The institute has been a huge amount of help,” she said.  “They organised and paid for my surgery and it was just five or six weeks before I got it.  After that I had a huge amount of help from physio Craig More and strength and conditioning coach Tim Silvester.  

“I was back on the mat just five and a half months post-op.  There’s no way had I not been in the institute it would have been that fast.  I could have still been on a waiting list in the time I’ve been rehabbed and got back on the mat.”

Injuries have meant that in the short time she has been involved in wrestling Sarah has only had 10 bouts.  But she has been more than making up for lost time.  This year she has won the English Open and was second in the Austrian Open. 

Her gold medal in Sardinia was her first international win and helped the Scottish team finish third place out of the 22 competing countries involved.  Importantly for Sarah it confirms a clean bill of health for the final Delhi Commonwealth Games event, the British Closed event in Glasgow on 26 June.

“At the moment everything is about collecting results so that you are looking good for the Commonwealth Games in Delhi,” she said. 

“The British Closed is our final qualifier, then everything has to be submitted by 20 July and then we’ll wait until 20 August to see who is in the team.  Delhi is my aim this year then I hope to keep going for the 2014 Glasgow Games which would be exciting, being a home games.”

Consistently good Scottish results are testament to the success of the Scottish Wrestling Association’s programme managed by its Performance & Development Manager, John Keogh, and its National Coach, Vladimir Gladkov.

“Our men did well in Sardinia to get three silver medals and the girls did really well considering 18 months ago they were judo players rather than wrestlers and we only had one girl on the programme,” said Keogh.  West of Scotland Institute supported sisters Donna and Fiona Robertson won gold and silver respectively; Kathryn Gallagher and Sean Keogh both won silver.

“Five of our athletes have already met the pre qualification criteria for Delhi and I have no doubt others will qualify in this month’s British Closed Championships.

“The judo girls have made a colossal effort in transferring their talents to wrestling.  Their attitude on training and learning their trade is phenomenal and what they are achieving has never been done before in Scottish wrestling. 

“Without the institute I don’t believe this would have happened.  We have 16 institute recognised athletes and we have been supported fully in everything we are doing.

“We can coach the athletes on the technical side but to have the likes of Tim Silvester, a top class strength and conditioning coach building programmes specifically for each athlete, as well as the backing of sports physiotherapists and nutritionists, makes an enormous difference.

“The fact they are treating them like professionals has helped give them a professional athlete’s mindset. 

“We have a great working relationship with Phil Reid and Graeme Hutcheon at the West Institute and I’m grateful to Callum Wood from sportscotland for supporting us and helping us make this happen. 

“It augurs well for us and not just for Delhi.  This will have a knock on effect for Glasgow 2014 and potentially give some of our athletes the chance to compete for GB in the Olympics.”

RE-J

Images courtesy of John Keogh, SWA