Laura Samuel (born 19 February 1991) is a British

track and field Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a ru ...

athlete who competes in the

triple jump The triple jump, sometimes referred to as the hop, step and jump or the hop, skip and jump, is a track and field event, similar to long jump. As a group, the two events are referred to as the "horizontal jumps". The competitor runs down the tr ...

. She has a personal best of for the event, which ranks her third among British women. She was the silver medallist at the

2014 Commonwealth Games The 2014 Commonwealth Games (), officially known as the XX Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Glasgow 2014 (; ), were an international multi-sport event celebrated in the tradition of the Commonwealth Games as governed by the Commonwea ...

and also the

2010 World Junior Championships in Athletics 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to s ...

Career

Born in

Leicester Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area, and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest city in the East Midlands with a popula ...

, she became involved in

athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competitio ...

while at primary school becoming interested after local coaches visited the pupils there. She joined the Leicester Coritanian Athletics Club and later joined

Loughborough University Loughborough University (abbreviated as ''Lough'' or ''Lboro'' for Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a public university, public research university in the market town of Loughborough, Leicestershire, England. It has been a university sinc ...

's athletics team, when she began studying there. Initially Samuel focused on short

sprint Sprint may refer to: Aerospace * Spring WS202 Sprint, a Canadian aircraft design *Sprint (missile), an anti-ballistic missile Automobiles *Alfa Romeo Sprint, automobile produced by Alfa Romeo between 1976 and 1989 *Chevrolet Sprint, a rebadged v ...

ing events, but by 2007 she had begun to focus more on

long jump The long jump is a track and field event in which athletes combine speed, strength and agility in an attempt to leap as far as possible from a takeoff point. Along with the triple jump, the two events that measure jumping for distance as a gr ...

. She won in that discipline at the 2007 English Schools Championships and was runner-up the following year. In 2009, she switched to the triple jump and this immediately brought her higher up the national rankings: she won the English schools title, came fourth at the senior

British Athletics Championships The British Athletics Championships is the premier national championship in track and field held in the United Kingdom, and are organised by British Athletics. The event has doubled as the main trials meet for international team selection for maj ...

, and set a personal best of . She won the senior national title in the triple jump in 2010.Laura Samuel
Power of 10. Retrieved on 2014-08-12. She went on to compete at her first international competition soon after and was the silver medallist at the

, setting a British junior record of to place second behind the favourite Dailenys Alcántara. Samuel won the British triple jump title indoors and outdoors in 2011, and also made her debut on the

IAAF Diamond League The Diamond League is an annual series of elite track and field athletic competitions comprising fifteen invitational athletics meetings. The series sits in the top tier of the World Athletics one-day meet competitions. The inaugural season was ...

circuit, placing seventh at the

London Grand Prix The London Athletics Meet, formerly known as the London Grand Prix and subsequently as the Anniversary Games and London Diamond League, is an annual athletics event held in London, England. Previously one of the five IAAF Super Grand Prix even ...

. She equalled her personal best in 2012 and repeated as the outdoor UK champion in both 2012 and 2013. She began working with coach

Aston Moore :''For the actor, see Ashleigh Aston Moore''. Aston Llewellyn Moore (born 8 February 1956) is a male Jamaican-born former track and field athlete who competed for Great Britain, specialising in the triple jump event. He competed at the 1976 S ...

Birchfield Harriers Birchfield Harriers is an sport of athletics, athletics club, founded in 1877. Its home is at Birmingham's Alexander Stadium, England. As well as welcoming recreational runners they cater for all levels of experience up to and including Olympi ...

– one of the country's top jumping coaches. She went unbeaten indoors in 2014, having wins at the London Indoor Games and Botnia Games before taking the British indoor title. At the British Championships outdoors she was beaten into second by

Yamilé Aldama Yamilé Aldama Pozo (; born 14 August 1972) is a Cuban-born triple jumper. She represented Cuba until 2003, Sudan from 2004 to 2010, then Great Britain from 2011 onwards. A four-time Olympian (2000–12), she won a silver medal at the 1999 Worl ...

, bringing an end to Samuel's four-year streak at the national event. Both were selected to represent

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

at the

. Samuel outdid her older compatriot in the final as Aldama failed to start the competition in

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

. Samuel jumped a personal best mark of – adding over thirty centimetres to her four-year-old personal best. This resulted in her taking a surprise silver medal behind Kimberly Williams of Jamaica. This performance moved her up to third on the all-time British triple jump lists after

Ashia Hansen Ashia Hansen, (born 5 December 1971) is a retired British triple jumper. Fourth in the 1996 Olympic final, she broke the world indoor record when winning the 1998 European Indoor title, and went on to win gold medals at the World Indoor Cha ...

and Aldama. Glasgow 2014: Will Sharman and Laura Samuel win silver medals

BBC Sport BBC Sport is the sports division of the BBC, providing national sports coverage for BBC BBC Television, television, BBC Radio, radio and BBC Online, online. The BBC holds the television and radio UK broadcasting rights to several sports, broadc ...

(2014-07-29). Retrieved on 2014-08-12.

International competition record

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Samuel, Laura Living people 1991 births Athletes from Leicester British female triple jumpers English female triple jumpers Commonwealth Games silver medallists for England Athletes (track and field) at the 2014 Commonwealth Games British Athletics Championships winners Medallists at the 2014 Commonwealth Games 21st-century English sportswomen Commonwealth Games silver medallists in athletics