Athletics: High jumper Cowley ready to fly in pursuit of medal

Rotorua high jumper Sarah Cowley is gearing up for the Commonwealth Games in July. Photo/Supplied

Rotorua Olympian Sarah Cowley will look to defy gravity when she competes at the Commonwealth Games.

The top athlete competed in heptathlon at the 2012 London Olympics and has since turned her focus to high jump for the Commonwealth Games in Scotland in July.

Cowley, 30, has been hard at work training for the big competition after a two-week stint training in the United States. She said her main goal at the moment was turning her legs or springs into jumping gold.

"At the moment our focus has been high jump specific and building my springs so that they are stiffer," she said. It has been going really well."

Cowley was one of the first athletes named in the New Zealand Commonwealth Games team earlier this year and believes she can win a medal in Glasgow.

While her physical attributes will get her a long way in the sport, Cowley's mental attitude could be her biggest strength.

She has focused a lot on sport psychology with her coach and wants to be in a good mind set for the Commonwealth Games.

"I'm after a height [at the Games] but focusing on a height won't get it for me. The main thing is my mind set and if my mind set is pure."

She said to do well in the sport this year she needed to be relaxed but aggressive in her execution. She said she needed to be like a "flying ninja warrior monk."

"So basically allowing your body to do what it wants to do ... and basically flying."

Cowley said she decided to switch from heptathlon to high jump after the 2012 Olympic Games.

"I wanted to keep going with track and field but I was not sure if the body could handle the rigorous challenges of heptathlon, and mentally I needed a change."

She said it was a good change and it had made her a better athlete.

"I know it is a cliche but the journey has made me a better person and a better athlete," she said. "The addiction of it is I get to do what I love doing and defy gravity at the same time."

This will be Cowleys second Commonwealth Games after competing in the heptathlon event in Melbourne in 2006.