There has been no shortage of sacrifices made by Jazmin Sawyers in recent months but it will all be worth it if she claims Commonwealth Games gold on the Gold Coast.
The long jumper revamped her coaching setup in October, moving from Stoke-on-Trent to Florida ahead of April’s competition in Australia.
Sawyers admits to feeling home-sick in the US, missing her family, friends and boyfriend as she fine tunes her preparations.
And the 23-year-old, a former heptathlete and bobsledder, revealed there’s no Disneyland and sunbathing in the US, with the long jumper putting her life on hold to get into the best possible shape for an assault on a Commonwealth title Down Under and improve on her silver from Glasgow four years ago.
“I’m trying to take the same attitude I took to Glasgow with me to the Gold Coast,” she said.
“I’m not going to put any expectation on myself, I’m going to go and enjoy it, because I’ve done the training and now I am ready.
“That relaxed, go have fun attitude is what brought me the results last time, so I’m hoping that my training will carry me through and that attitude will do the same.
“I’m working on my speed and the last two strides in the long jump but really, most of the hard work has been done so we’re just fine-tuning at this point.
“Ultimately, you go to training in the morning and then you come home. I’ve moved to a country I don’t really know and that is culturally more different than I expected.
“I’m away from all my friends, family, boyfriend and that’s a big sacrifice, to uproot your life to move to a different country.
“It has been a challenge, but to me it is worth it to get results.”
Sawyers, who won double Commonwealth Youth Games gold in the Isle of Man in 2011, claimed silver in Glasgow four years ago and admits she has unfinished business in Australia.
Since then Sawyers managed to claim a silver at the 2016 European Championships in Amsterdam and finish eighth at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, but the Commonwealth Games is a title she has been targeting.
“The Commonwealths are so special because it was my first major championship and it went so well last time,” she said.
“With Team England it’s not about us being different or special or better.
“It’s a nice opportunity to recognise the home nations in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, but we can all celebrate that together.
“It’s not like, ‘Now I’m English, we’re not friends today because we’re competing against each other!’
“We know a lot of the other athletes from the GB team, so we’re supporting them and they’re supporting us.”