Jumper focused on defying gravity

RAISING THE BAR: Rotorua high jumper Sarah Cowley, who has just returned from a training stint in the USA, 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 the heptathlon event 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 and arrived back in New Zealand yesterday, after a two-week stint training in the United States. Cowley said her main goal at the moment was turning her legs into jumping gold, likening them to springs.

"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.

"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. The addiction of it is I get to do what I love doing and defy gravity at the same time."

The former Rotorua Girls' High School student, who is now based in Auckland but still has family in Rotorua, said she would love to beat the New Zealand women's record this season.

Her personal best is 1.91cm while the New Zealand women's high jump record is 1.92cm.

Cowley said she would also love to spend more time in Rotorua but she could not train here because there was not an adequate track.

"It is a very special place to me. I do not get to spend as much time there as I would like to because there is no synthetic track, but maybe in the future I will be able to [live and train there]," she said.

Cowley, who enjoys going back to her old high school to talk to students, said she would love to see more athletes come out of Rotorua.

"There is no reason why we can't have more sportsmen and sportswomen from Rotorua on the world stage."

She also thanked all the Rotorua and Bay of Plenty supporters who helped her during her training and competitions.

This will be Cowley's second Commonwealth Games, after competing in the heptathlon event in Melbourne in 2006.