Abigail Irozuru

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Abigail Irozuru
Abigail Irozuru at the 2020 Gyulai Memorial in Szekesfehervar, Hungary.jpg
Irozuru at the 2020 Gyulai Memorial
Medal record
Representing  United Kingdom
Women's athletics
Commonwealth Youth Games
Gold medal – first place 2008 Pune Long jump

Abigail Irozuru (born 3 January 1990, in Manchester) is an English track and field athlete, specialising in long jump.[1] She was sponsored by Virgin Trains West Coast and had a Class 390 Pendolino train named after her in September 2011.[2]

She competed for the Sale Harriers, the same club as former Great Britain athletes Diane Modahl and Darren Campbell.[3]

Irozuru began participating in athletics as a 14-year-old after she excelled at a youth athletics match by winning the 100 m, 200 m, 4 × 100 m and the long jump.[citation needed] This led to an invitation by Ian Wiltshire to start training at the City of Manchester Stadium before its conversion to a full football stadium.[citation needed] Her talent quickly shone through and in 2006 Irozuru won Silver at both the English Schools Championships and British Schools Championships competing against highly accomplished young jumpers.[citation needed]

After establishing herself as an elite junior athlete, Irozuru moved to London to study for a law degree at University College London where she firstly worked with UK Athletics head long and triple jumps coach John Herbert who also coached Jade Johnson to the 2008 Summer Olympics.[citation needed] Her current coach is Larry Achike who helped her achieve 2012 National Indoor Long Jump Silver and Gold in her first senior international in Bratislava. On Saturday 9 June 2012 at the Georgi Pavlov International Athletics Meeting in Sofia, Bulgaria Irozuru jumped 6.80m in the sixth round, setting a new personal best and meeting the Olympic A Qualifying distance for the 2012 Summer Olympics.[4] On the 24 June 2012 at the Aviva Olympic Trials & UK Championships in Birmingham she was disappointed to jump 6.48[5] which meant she had to compete at the 2012 European Athletics Championships in Helsinki, Finland.

After retiring in 2016, she made a comeback in 2019,[6] improving her personal best to 6.86 m, and reaching the final (placing seventh) at the World Championships in Doha.

References[]

  1. ^ "Athlete Profile".
  2. ^ Athletes given helping hand by Virgin Trains: Long Jumper Abigail Irozuru gets Virgin Pendolino train named after her Virgin Trains 28 September 2011
  3. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2012-03-20. Retrieved 2012-03-27.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  4. ^ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JJHE3PcSiQ/
  5. ^ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4H8Je7mdWU/
  6. ^ Meet Abigail Irozuru, the once retired long-jumper, businesswoman and World Championships debutant The Daily Telegraph 22 September 2019

External links[]

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