Athlete Jazmin Sawyers has said she felt “incredibly lucky” to have had the support of her home city after winning a gold medal for England at the Commonwealth Games.
The 32-year-old from Stoke-on-Trent came out on top in the women’s long jump on Saturday with a distance of 6.93m, ahead of Nigeria’s Ruth Usoro and Brooke Buschkuehl of Australia.
Her success in Glasgow came after multiple setbacks in her career, including a serious injury which forced her to miss the 2024 Olympics.
Despite the previous disappointments, Sawyers said she always tried to keep believing in herself and praised her home city for getting behind her.
“I’ve always felt it… some athletes talk about how you have to go it alone but it was never all me. I never had to do all this alone,” she told BBC Radio Stoke.
“I always felt like I had the support of thousands and thousands of people because I felt like everyone in the area has been backing me the entire time.
“One of the beautiful things about Stoke is that when somebody says ‘I’m going after something’ everyone goes ‘go on then, we all reckon you can have a good go at that’.”
