High jumper Heather Cumming (34559/3)

THREE personal bests are not enough for Box-based high jumper Heather Cumming, who is targeting more improvement after a superb performance at the weekend.

Cumming, 16, qualified for the English Schools' Championships at under 17 level and notched up three personal bests of 1.66m, 1.68m and 1.70m at a Division Two Southern Women's League match in Bournemouth.

Her personal best going into the competition on Saturday had been 1.65m, and her 1.70m leap easily won her the competition.

Cumming's performance meant she qualified for the English Schools' Championship at Gateshead in July as well as for the UK School Games at Bath University in August, where she trains.

But Cumming said her treble of personal bests had been far from expected.

She said: "I was expecting 1.62m. I had been training all winter but my jumping was really bad and I was getting quite stressed about it.

"I was changing my run-up every week but my coach was saying, Just wait until Saturday, it will be fine'.

"On Saturday my run-up was good and my technique was good.

"I'm aiming for 1.75 now, that's what I want to get and the sooner I get it the better."

Cumming's coach Deborah Bray was delighted with her young charge's performance on Saturday.

Bray said: "For Heather to have qualified for the English Schools' so easily at her first outdoor competition of the season is tremendous and takes a lot of pressure off her.

"The icing on the cake will be selection for the UK School Games later on in the year.

"That competition is going to be held at Bath University where she trains, so it will be great to represent the South West on home territory."

Cumming went to Team Bath as a long distance runner but was advised to try high jump instead, a decision which appears to be paying off for the young athlete.

She is in her second season as a high jumper and she finished fourth in the English Schools' Championship last year.

She leaped a highly respectable 1.62m in that competition in the driving rain but is hopeful of doing much better this year.

She said: "This time I'm in the top age band of my age group, last year I was one of the youngest.

"If I get 1.75m towards the competition then my aim is 1.80m-ish, but it will be a lot of work to do that.

"If you can win with 1.60m then that isn't a problem but if you win with a PB that will be even better. I'd rather get a PB than win.

"With the training schedule I'm doing now I should improve. I do more sprint work and running to build up muscles.

"Before I was just jumping and was training two times a week but now it's more like six or seven times."

Cumming, who dreams of taking part in the 2012 Olympics in London, trains two hours a day, five days a week and competes on Sundays, with Friday being her only night off.

1:38pm Friday 2nd May 2008

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