Shara Proctor breaks long jump record and shrugs off 'plastic Brit' tag
Anguilla athlete determined to realise her Olympic dream for Britain after a personal best in Birmingham
Shara Proctor celebrates her win in the indoor long jump. She broke the British record with a leap of 6.80m. Photograph: Matthew Childs/Action Images
After Shara Proctor broke the British indoor long jump record, she wrapped herself in a union flag and took a celebratory tour of the track. While she was enjoying the appreciation of the enthusiastic crowd, the officials of UK Athletics were, perhaps unnecessarily, steeling themselves for some negative press.
Proctor, 23, comes from Anguilla and was only cleared to compete for Britain in late 2010. She is one of a group of athletes who have been branded with the ugly label of "plastic Brits" and, like several others born overseas but now competing for GB, she has become more familiar than she would like with people questioning her loyalties. "Everybody has an opinion," Proctor says. "It doesn't make me angry, because I am a very calm person. I just use it as motivation to do well."
When Tiffany Porter, born and raised in the USA by an English mother, broke the British 100m hurdles record last year, the woman she took the record off, Angie Thorp, made some mealy-mouthed pronouncements on Porter in the press, suggesting she was only in the GB team because she had not been good enough to compete for the USA. So when Proctor broke the long jump record, UKA were quick to track down Jo Wise, one of the two athletes who had jointly held the record, and let the press know that Wise was nothing other than happy for Proctor's success.
At best, those who lump Porter, Proctor and others together as "plastic Brits" are simply oblivious to the nuances of their individual cases. At worst, they are being wilfully ignorant. As Proctor says: "Everybody doesn't know my background, or my reasons for being a British athlete, so I just have to brush it off and do what I have to do."
Anguilla is one of 14 British overseas , along with the likes of the Falklands and Gibraltar, and like them it isterritories which not recognised by the International Olympic Committee. So Proctor is unable to compete for her home island in the Olympic Games. For an athlete of her calibre – she is now ranked fifth in the world this year – it is a cruel consequence of a bureaucratic whim. But Proctor has a British passport, so can be part of Team GB.
"I wouldn't be able to compete in the Olympics for Anguilla," Proctor says. "And you know that is every athlete's dream, to be in the Olympics, so I had to do what was best for me." She had to skip the 2010 Commonwealth Games, where she could have represented Anguilla, so as not to hinder her qualification for Britain. Her personal best of 6.81m is 31cm beyond the distance that won the Commonwealth gold. It was a sacrifice, but given that she had to do it if she was going to compete in the Olympics, a justifiable one. That did not, however, stop her family and fans in Anguilla from being disappointed.
Proctor had been chasing the British record of 6.70m throughout the indoor season, falling short of it in meets in Moscow, Glasgow and Sheffield. Finally, with her third jump in the Aviva Grand Prix, she broke it by one centimetre. With her sixth jump she went further still, out to 6.80m. A record that had stood for 28 years – Sue Hearnshaw set it in 1984, Wise equalled it in 1997 – had finally been beaten.
Proctor says she has two ambitions for the year: one is to be on the Olympic podium, the other is to break the British outdoor record of 6.90m, set in 1983 by Bev Kinch. She believes she can leap further still."I still have a lot of stuff to work on, that wasn't the prettiest jump. I am looking for big things, I could definitely jump a lot further. That 6.90, British record outdoors, I am going for that." She has previously said that "If I win a medal in London it will be for Britain but, in my heart, Anguilla." It is necessary expediency on her part, and Britain will benefit from it.
Proctor, 23, comes from Anguilla and was only cleared to compete for Britain in late 2010. She is one of a group of athletes who have been branded with the ugly label of "plastic Brits" and, like several others born overseas but now competing for GB, she has become more familiar than she would like with people questioning her loyalties. "Everybody has an opinion," Proctor says. "It doesn't make me angry, because I am a very calm person. I just use it as motivation to do well."
When Tiffany Porter, born and raised in the USA by an English mother, broke the British 100m hurdles record last year, the woman she took the record off, Angie Thorp, made some mealy-mouthed pronouncements on Porter in the press, suggesting she was only in the GB team because she had not been good enough to compete for the USA. So when Proctor broke the long jump record, UKA were quick to track down Jo Wise, one of the two athletes who had jointly held the record, and let the press know that Wise was nothing other than happy for Proctor's success.
At best, those who lump Porter, Proctor and others together as "plastic Brits" are simply oblivious to the nuances of their individual cases. At worst, they are being wilfully ignorant. As Proctor says: "Everybody doesn't know my background, or my reasons for being a British athlete, so I just have to brush it off and do what I have to do."
Anguilla is one of 14 British overseas , along with the likes of the Falklands and Gibraltar, and like them it isterritories which not recognised by the International Olympic Committee. So Proctor is unable to compete for her home island in the Olympic Games. For an athlete of her calibre – she is now ranked fifth in the world this year – it is a cruel consequence of a bureaucratic whim. But Proctor has a British passport, so can be part of Team GB.
"I wouldn't be able to compete in the Olympics for Anguilla," Proctor says. "And you know that is every athlete's dream, to be in the Olympics, so I had to do what was best for me." She had to skip the 2010 Commonwealth Games, where she could have represented Anguilla, so as not to hinder her qualification for Britain. Her personal best of 6.81m is 31cm beyond the distance that won the Commonwealth gold. It was a sacrifice, but given that she had to do it if she was going to compete in the Olympics, a justifiable one. That did not, however, stop her family and fans in Anguilla from being disappointed.
Proctor had been chasing the British record of 6.70m throughout the indoor season, falling short of it in meets in Moscow, Glasgow and Sheffield. Finally, with her third jump in the Aviva Grand Prix, she broke it by one centimetre. With her sixth jump she went further still, out to 6.80m. A record that had stood for 28 years – Sue Hearnshaw set it in 1984, Wise equalled it in 1997 – had finally been beaten.
Proctor says she has two ambitions for the year: one is to be on the Olympic podium, the other is to break the British outdoor record of 6.90m, set in 1983 by Bev Kinch. She believes she can leap further still."I still have a lot of stuff to work on, that wasn't the prettiest jump. I am looking for big things, I could definitely jump a lot further. That 6.90, British record outdoors, I am going for that." She has previously said that "If I win a medal in London it will be for Britain but, in my heart, Anguilla." It is necessary expediency on her part, and Britain will benefit from it.
