GILLIAN COOKE is chasing yet another place in sporting history.
Not content with having represented Scotland in three different events at Commonwealth Games, and Great Britain at the Winter Olympics, she has set her sights on what would be a remarkable double: competing at the Winter Games in Sochi early next year and at Glasgow 2014.
She is taking her first steps in a campaign which she hopes will result in Commonwealth long jump selection next year. Yet a Winter Olympic bobsleigh medal is also on the agenda. It's no Mitty-ish delusion, despite the fact that she could barely walk following a serious crash this year.
Cooke won Scottish district titles in gymnastics and fencing before taking up athletics. She was fourth in the triple jump at the Commonwealth Youth Games, represented Scotland in long jump and pole vault at successive Commonwealth Games and set a native record in the latter in 2002. She also represented Scotland in sprints and set a national indoor long jump record of 6.43 metres in 2008 which matched the 35-year-old outdoor mark.
Athletics went on hold, though, when she responded to a Facebook advert. Within five months she was one half of Great Britain's 2009 World Championship-winning bobsleigh duo, although Olympic ambitions were derailed a year later by a crash on the final run in Vancouver which left her with nerve damage. Undaunted by a serious back injury this year, she is now in pole position for GB1 at the Sochi Olympics.
Might she not risk blowing both dreams by attempting too much? "Sochi is the clear priority," she said, "and I will ensure I'm in the best possible shape for that, but I see trying to qualify for Glasgow as being helpful along the way. I am not too good at long-term targets. I need intermediate goals. When I am in good shape for long jump, I'm in good shape for bobsleigh. It will give me an extra incentive this summer."
It was, after all, her long jump and sprint background which helped fast-track her to a world bob title with Nicola Minichiello within five months. "You need the same qualities for both sports," explains Cooke. "The real challenge is the timing. I need to be sharp for jumping in mid-summer and for bobsleigh I need to be sharp in winter.
"This summer, I won't have optimal preparation for jumping, so anything I get will be a bonus. I'd rather not leave it all to next summer, though, because it's so tight. Sochi finishes at the end of February and the Commonwealth trials are at the end of June. Ideally, I need to be maybe four kilos lighter for jumping than for bobsleigh."
Scotland's qualifying distance is a modest 6.20m. It was 6.40m for Delhi in 2010 and the Scottish record is held by Jade Nimmo at 6.47m. Cooke does not rule out taking it, "but probably not this summer; I will need to be more focused on long jump to go that distance, but come the Glasgow Games, that has to be the aim.
"I am confident I can jump 6.25 this year," adds Cooke. "I'm not sharp, because I am in hard training for the Olympics, but it will put me back on the radar, athletics-wise. I'd like to go six metres as a start, but 6.10m would be handy, because it would qualify me for the UK Championships."
Recent bobsleigh tests at Bath showed Cooke is in the shape of her life. "I would not expect to hit personal bests at this time of year but, compared to other years, I am up. In some events, I set outright pbs. That's very encouraging, especially in bounding tests which have a great relevance to long jump. I set a best for that, mainly because another girl put me under pressure. But that encourages me to think I can still do pbs in long jump as well, definitely."
As GB No.1 brakewoman, she says: "Everybody is gunning for me, but I have to be confident I can remain fastest. There will be a lot of competition. I'm not looking beyond GB1 for the Olympics. That's the only team that will put me where I can get the result I want. The other two teams are development. For a medal, I can only look at GB1.
"Our early-season results this year included three top-6 places and, [in] the race we crashed in, we were possibly on for second until the second last bend. We know it's there, and if everything goes right on the day we will be right in the mix for medals in Sochi."
A scan on her injury failed to show up a damaged spinal vertebrae and Cooke competed when she should not this year. "There was a lot of impact and it got squished . . . European and World Championships, Olympic test event. Obviously, I wanted to compete . . . but I was in an awful lot of pain."
How bad? Could she walk? "Well, most of the time," she says. "At the end of every run I had to lever myself out. When I was in that forward position, I got stuck there."
Quietly understated at all times, Cooke hides an inner steel and an inspirational side, revealed when she speaks of her pleasure in addressing school kids. She recounts a tale of "primary pupils long jumping into flower beds after I left. And when I talked about bobsleigh, some of them got a box, painted 'GB1' on it and were pushing it about and jumping in."
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