The 16-year-old Beaulieu student, who has cerebral palsy, had been training on Jersey’s Commonwealth Games pathway with the aim of competing in the T35 100 metres and 200 metres at the global event in Birmingham. However, she has gracefully accepted the decision of the organisers to opt for other para-disciplines and is instead channelling her focus on other achievements on the track – including the 2024 Summer Paralympics in Paris.
‘I was surprised and I was sure there was going to be a T35 race, but they’ve obviously decided they’re not going to do it,’ said Greenwood, who earlier this year ranked among the top 20 in the world for the senior women’s T35 100m.
‘I think at first I was very disappointed because that was where I thought I would make my breakthrough, but I think something like that, it’s important not to focus on it. If I can’t put my energy into that, I need to find something else I can focus on and for me that is making the GB squad qualifying time, which is just under 17.5 seconds. That is my new goal since I sadly can’t go to the Commonwealth’s.
Greenwood, whose personal best stands at 18.71s, added: ‘I’d spent years training for it and preparing for it and I think for something like that to be taken away from me is difficult. It’s something that you realise you can’t control, so instead I’ve got to focus on things I can control.’
