SCOTSTOUN Stadium once again proved to be a vibrant hive of activity for the second day of athletics action, and we simply can’t get enough of it!
After Steven Mackay, Zachary Saunders and Jamie Oldham kicked off Jersey’s athletics campaign at the Games in style – with the latter making history to break the 100m Island record after clocking a time of 10.41 seconds – there’s no doubt that their performance well and truly put Jersey on the map.
Now, it was Lucy Woodward’s time to shine, as she geared up to commence the Women’s Heptathlon with the 100m Hurdles and High Jump events, targeting PB’s.
The Jersey crowd more than made their presence known in the mammoth Scotstoun Stadium, as they came out strong to usher in a feeling that the whole Island was behind her. Every wave of the flag, every cheer and even her mother and sister adorned in Jersey flag face paint making the big screen – helped fuel Woodward for each leap over the hurdles and every attempt in the High Jump.
With nerves high for the 100m Hurdles and her seven-year personal journey to battle a mental block adding that bit more emotional weight to the High Jump, every bit of that support was needed and, if anything, helped push her to new heights.
As all eyes shifted to the Caesarean, Woodward truly rose to the occasion to produce what’s been the performance of her career so far, getting started strong in the 100m Hurdles with a new PB time of 14.05 seconds and tallying up 971 points.
That put her in good stead for the High Jump, where she picked up right where she left off to smash expectations on the big stage.
After battling many obstacles to reach this pinnacle of the sport, these events were full of emotion for Woodward, with every attempt a real milestone for the athlete.
Through following her story to the Commonwealth Games and hearing about the challenges she’s overcome, watching the High Jump was a tense affair – everyone was just rooting for her to topple that PB and you really could feel that support around the stadium.
Woodward cruised by the initial heights before reaching 1.64m – was this the moment she’d score another PB?
With the whole of the Scotstoun Stadium behind her, she ran up for her first attempt, clattering into the bar to receive a red flag.
After a short break, it was time for attempt number two – maybe now it was time? She ran up again and leapt up, but it wasn’t meant to be, as the bar dropped again.
With her hopes of landing a new High Jump PB solely on the third and final attempt, the pressure was on – could she rise to the occasion?
As we all followed each step of the run up, you could feel hearts pounding as she prepped to jump up and leapt over the bar – she did it! The wave of the white flag prompted a raucous celebration, as Woodward couldn’t help but show what it meant in front of the passionate crowd with her emotion on full show.
Woodward then strived to go one step further and really smash her goals with a huge PB at 1.67m, rallying the crowd to fuel every step. Unfortunately, that wasn’t meant to be, but Woodward still smashed it out the park to commence her Heptathlon in style, record another PB and accumulate another 783 points.
Speaking after what was a monumental morning, Woodward told the JEP: “I’m genuinely ecstatic – I’m always nervous for the hurdles but once I got that done, I could just relax into it and I had a PB, which is the best way to start a Hep.
“I then just did the High Jump PB with a very stressful round of jumps – I think my family must have been on the edge of their seats, but I attempted 1.67m and got the crowd behind me as it was a huge PB – it wasn’t meant to be today but 1.64m is still a PB, so 2/2 PB’s.”
With the Shot Put and 200m events set to take place this evening, at 7pm and 8.04pm respectively, Woodward has established herself as a force to be reckoned with in the field, looking in fine form to smash her goals.
