Travel is a facet of the modern day sportsperson’s routine.  Be it to world championships, an away fixture or simply a pre-season training camp, the fast-pace of competitive sport leaves little time to put a passport in the safety deposit box, never mind overcoming jet lag.

Postcards are scribbled in between tough training regimes; long-distance telephone calls to loved ones rack up lengthy bills. To quote a cliché, sportspeople often really do ‘live out of their suitcases’.

Blissful destinations are regularly visited, and long-haul flights to sun-kissed areas of the world can be the norm, but although her sport may involve a regular jump in the sand, In The Winning Zone’s Rising Star for November leads no holiday life.

Instead, she lives a determined, competitive lifestyle, and she seems to be taking it in her stride (or bound?).

Meeting with her in an Edinburgh coffee shop, Jayne Nisbet seems like an ordinary, down-to-earth girl, pursuing a degree at university and partaking in a sport she loves.

However, her sporting story so far reads somewhat more extraordinarily.  In February she bagged three gold medals in the Scottish Junior Indoor Championships with championship best performances in the high jump, long jump and in her main event, the triple jump.

In April she broke the Scottish national triple jump record with an outstanding leap of 13.01 meters, and currently stands as the number one triple jumper in the UK at the under-20 age level, and all round number one high jumper in Scotland.

Jayne has already reached a number of sporting milestones in her career, but her head is completely focused on the task at hand: Training harder and jumping further.

“At the moment I train 7 times a week” she states, and she proceeds to explain her tough training program:  “It’s winter training at the moment so Monday and Friday I do weights, Tuesday it’s sprints and a Thursday longer runs, with plyometrics on a Wednesday.  Saturdays I do high-jump and Sundays are hill runs”.

Clearly her lungs must be fit for bursting with dedication and passion for her sport, but how did she become such an athletics enthusiast in the first place?

“I started training at 15. I used to be a swimmer and I didn’t want to leave because of the friends I had made, but eventually I realised I wasn’t going to be competitive in the sport, and I had been asked by an athletics club to join so my dad pushed me towards it.

“The day after I had stopped swimming my dad had already contacted the club to say that I was interested.  Being a teenager, I fell out with my dad and my mum ended up taking me. My dad takes the credit for getting me into the sport but I like to say it was my mum!” she jokes.

Her parents may have advised her to take up the sport, but going from being an average swimmer to a Scottish record holder in triple jump in four years takes more than just a change of kit. 

Much drive and determination is required, and Jayne has bags of it, and she is determined to jump higher and further to continue beating records. 

Recently having moved up an age-group, she understands that challenges lie ahead: “I recently moved up to the under-23 category so I’m back at the bottom of the pile, I was at the top of the under-20s and now I’m the baby!”   But how did she get to where she is now?
 
Primarily, she pins it down to the coaches she has worked with in her career so far. Having worked with former Scottish high jump record holder and Commonwealth bronze medallist Moira Maguire from the outset, Jayne has learnt her high-jumping skills from a winning athlete.

Jayne is also blessed with a fantastic triple jump coaching team in John and Anne Scott at Edinburgh Athletics Club, and she believes their dedication and focus have brought her to where she is today.

Secondly, she has an outstanding training group, which has helped hone her spirited edge.  Currently training alongside some of Scotland’s country’s most talented athletes day in, day out, Jayne is placed into a competitive atmosphere during every training session.

 Perhaps her greatest advantage however is that she has a training partner who is striving for the same goals as her. “My training partner, Nony Mordi, is one of my closest friends, but also my closest competitor. It is competition every day, she is currently better than me so I know if I can get near her then it’s a step towards getting to the top. Everything she does in training, I strive to do better.  My training is all about what I can make of it.  It can be emotionally straining, but it makes me stronger going into competition, so it’s really good.”

Obviously the pinnacle of her career so far would be grasping the Scottish triple jump record, but there are other highlights that stand out in Jayne’s fascinating athletics story so far.

“I represented Great Britain at the European under-20 championships in Hengelo in the Netherlands during July this year. It was such a good experience to meet everyone from the Great Britain team. I was the only Scottish girl there and I was in a room with 6 girls I didn’t know, so it was pretty scary. I became really friendly with everyone though and it was a great experience to jump against Europe’s best junior athletes, the people I am striving to beat in the future.”

Although Jayne didn’t get into the final, she jumped a 12.71 jump – the second best jump of her life, in a pressurised situation.  Is this a true sign of a champion in the making?

Though her sport has taken her to a number of destinations around the globe so far, there is one major event much closer to home, which is a realistic goal and a massive excitement for the 19-year old.

“London 2012!” exclaims Nisbet, “I really want to be there.  I jumped Commonwealth Games standards with my 13.01 jump, so I just need to keep jumping that for the next couple of years until Delhi [host city of the 2010 commonwealth games]. I think the length for London will be about 14m. Realistically, I jumped a personal best this year so 14.20 in five year’s time shouldn’t be out of reach. I really want to be there.”

On top of her busy athletics schedule, Jayne is also studying full-time for a degree at Stirling University, travelling every day from Edinburgh. Although her weeks are not filled with trips to Edinburgh’s bars and nightclubs, she still leads a fulfilling social life. “I have friends outwith athletics and a boyfriend who is also an athlete. We help push each other to achieve our best. Although everything fits around athletics, I still find time to shop and catch up with friends.”

Considering some competitive athletes retire from their sport without breaking a record or taking a gold medal, the Edinburgh teenager who has only been competing in athletics for 4 years is showing signs of a true champion of the future.

She speaks about her sport with such fervour and passion, and has performed with the same dedication on the world stage.  Jayne mentions a quote which inspires her, from one of her idols, Swedish High Jumper Kajsa Bergqvist: “Dream, but don't forget to live. Then you might end up living the dream.”

In 2012 Jayne will be twenty-four, and her long haul career of continuous training will have been channelled down to one short haul journey to London to compete on the biggest sporting stage.  She wants to do it; she has the belief she can do it. If her future draws any parallels with what she has already achieved, Jayne Nisbet probably will do it.

IC
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