Nony Mordi sips a cup of tea in a bustling Edinburgh coffee shop. Stories are bouncing around the room but none are as intriguing as this one. Mordi’s is a success story. She speaks through a smile, mapping out the steps on a journey, which propelled her from the sand pit at her school to the Commonwealth Youth Games, all in the space of seven months.

A lover of all sports, Mordi participated in football, hockey and athletics throughout her school career at Madras College in St Andrews. She participated in most track events before finding her forte in what was possibly the defining week in her sporting career so far. In the space of seven days the 20-year-old leapt from being an athlete with ambition to a record holder in an event she hardly knew. 

“The Fife Schools Championship was coming up and I decided to have a go at triple jump because I hadn’t done it before. I did a session jumping into the sand at school and then competed in the Championships midweek. I broke the Fife Schools record, jumping 11.08m – I was pretty shocked, I didn’t know much but I knew that getting over 10m was good.”

Mordi hardly had time to catch her breath before she was back in the thick of the action. Her school coach asked her to compete at the Scottish Schools meet, which was on the Saturday of the same week. Again, Mordi stepped up to the task and equalled the Scottish Schools’ record with only her second competitive jump. 

Things gathered pace from there. Following her impressive introduction to the triple jump, she spent the summer honing her natural talent and improving her technique at Fife Athletics Club. August brought about her next major competition, the Scottish under-20s Outdoor Championships. Again, Mordi improved on her previous records by jumping a record breaking 12.34m at Grangemouth. She had jumped the standards necessary for participation in the Commonwealth Youth Games later that year.
 
“I remember having a huge jump at the Scottish under-20s that year and someone running at me with a form shouting ‘you’ve qualified! Fill this form in and we’ll take you!’ so that was quite crazy.”

In just three months, the seventeen-year-old Mordi had gone from a beginner with ambition to a Commonwealth Games athlete. The next four months were filled with intense training at her club alongside fellow triple jumper Jude Beimers, under coach Ian Gordon in preparation for the Commonwealth Youth Games in Bendigo, Australia. She was representing her country for the first time, in the highest profile competition at her age group, on the other side of the globe. Daunting? You would think so, but Mordi took it in her stride, she was enjoying herself.
 
“The Commonwealth Youth Games was amazing, it was pretty surreal. I was more excited than scared,” she smiles, “I was just really proud to be competing for Scotland.” All the other people on the team had competed for Scotland previously in inter-territorial events and I didn’t really know anyone at that level in athletics so I was a bit overwhelmed. But it was really fun.”

The versatile athlete finished just short of the medals in fourth place in the triple jump, but she picked up a silver medal in the 1600metre relay event. Considering she was ranked 4th on personal bests going into the competition, Mordi held her own in her first international competition.

Throughout the latter half of 2004, the Fife athlete proved that she had the talent and natural ability to become a champion. Now, four years on, she holds the Scottish National Indoor and Scottish Outdoor Native records for triple jump. 

Mordi is studying medicine at Edinburgh University and training alongside another two Scottish promising talents at Edinburgh Athletics Club: Jayne Nisbet and Gillian Cook.  She is coached by John Scott at EAC and believes that her coaching and training group has helped her improve as an athlete. “I have a really good training group. We push each other on and we’re always bouncing ideas off each other,” she comments.

Though she has experienced success throughout her career so far, it has not come easily. As is the case with most successful athletes, determination and hard work have pushed Mordi towards her goals. She trains at least 6 days a week and believes that the sacrifices she makes are well worth it if they will help her succeed.

“I just need to be sensible, I wouldn’t really see it as a sacrifice but just something that should be done. I want to compete well for myself and for Scotland and if I didn’t prepare myself well then I wouldn’t feel good about it.”

When questioned on the most memorable moment of her career, Mordi mentions her participation in the Commonwealth Youth Games, but it is a competition at the start of this year which she marks as the pinnacle so far. She wore the Great Britain vest for the first time in an international match against the Netherlands in February. “I was selected for the under-23s so I was happy with that. The squad was selected on form at the time so everyone had earned their place there,” she said. The 20-year-old built on her impressive form to clinch a gold medal in her first appearance for Great Britain. 

Mordi herself believes that she is working towards the peak in her career, which she hopes will come in tandem with the two biggest sporting events of the next four years, the Commonwealth and Olympic games. A realistic goal for the triple jumper is the Commonwealth Games in 2010 in Delhi. “I’ve got the provisional standard at the moment. They could put the standard up again but hopefully I’ll be progressing at the same time so it’s a pretty realistic target,” she comments.

But her dream is not unlike that of any other athletes. The Olympic Games in four years time is the ultimate goal, and if Mordi continues to progress, reach her goals and achieve the standards, she will be there. “To compete in the Olympics in London in 2012 would be amazing. To get to a final would be really amazing and to win would be a really big achievement for me.”
 
In her successful career so far, Mordi has been progressing all the time, breaking records, achieving goals and winning medals “Since I started triple jumping I’ve had personal best jumps every year so I’m improving all the time.”

In the space of seven months she jumped from beginner to Commonwealth Youth Games medallist. If she drives herself at a similar rate, there is little doubt that she will reach her targets and achieve her goals, and for Nony Mordi, that’s what it’s all about.

“It has got to be personal goals that you set yourself and that you’ve achieved, that’s what winning is all about. Whatever level of sport you’re at you can see if you’ve been successful if you’ve set a goal and reached it.”

IC
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