Morgan Lake stays grounded after historic jump ahead of World Championships"

Morgan Lake. Getty Images for British Athletics

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Morgan Lake insists breaking the British high jump record has not changed her mindset heading into the World Athletics Championships.

The 28-year-old became the first British woman to clear two metres when she achieved a new personal best at the Diamond League final in Zurich at the end of August.

Her performance in Switzerland placed her third in that competition and a repeat of that showing in Tokyo would put the Milton Keynes native well in contention for her first medal at a global event.

Lake’s best performance to date was when she finished fourth at the 2023 World Championships in Budapest and the 10-time British champion heads to Japan off the back off her strongest year yet.

Lake said: “I wouldn’t really say it [clearing two metres] has changed my confidence at all, but I think I have been a lot more confident this year because I know it’s there.

“I’ve had really good numbers in training, in terms of my stuff in the gym, my hurdle jump, so even though I hadn’t hit the two metres yet, I knew it was in me

“I think it was more of a personal goal and relief, just to have jumped two metres now is nice to have done but I wouldn’t say it’s changed my confidence at all, I think I’ve gone on that same wavelength all year.”

What made Lake’s achievement in Zurich even more impressive was she cleared the bar at her first attempt, as she bettered her previous personal best of 1.99m from February 2023.

Reflecting on that night, she said: “It was a strange one because obviously it was such a big goal and so amazing to achieve it, but with the World Championships just round the corner you just had to park it and move on.

“Obviously, I have had time to think about the occasion, what it meant to me and everything, but it’s probably one of those things that I’ll think about in two weeks’ time.”

Tokyo is the sixth World Championship Lake, a heptathlete at the start of her career, has been selected for – having first travelled to Beijing as an 18-year-old in 2015. She has the added honour of being Great Britain’s captain for the championships, which was bestowed on her by her team-mates.

“We had a team vote, we got sent a list of all the team members and we all had to vote on who we wanted to be captain,” Lake said, speaking at a Novuna-backed British camp – with the company financing the ambitions of millions across the UK, from helping business grow and individuals plan for the future, to backing British Athletics on the global stage.

“The Saturday before we about to fly Paula [Dunn, performance director at UK Athletics] called me to say I’d been voted as team captain.

“It’s such an honour for anyone to be voted as team captain – I think it was so nice that other athletes voted for me – and it was such a nice bonus to the year as well.

“There have been a lot of highs this year and that was another one, and it’s been 10 years since my first World Championships now, so it’s a bit of a full circle to get team captain this year."

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