Although she has been dogged by injury through her career, Jane Jamieson remains an outstanding heptathlete.
She underlined this in 1998 at the Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur where she recorded a score of 6,354 points to take the silver medal behind world number one, Britain’s Denise Lewis.
But, in a pattern typical of her career to date, Jamieson has struggled since that success to complete a heptathlon competition.
She finished fifth in the World Indoor Championships in February 1999 and was selected to compete at the World Championships in Seville later that year.
But Jamieson carried a calf injury into that meet and was forced to withdraw after three events.
From that time until July 2000 she struggled with a number of injuries, leaving her without a qualifying score for the Sydney Games.
She says the injuries have been frustrating because her performance in Kuala Lumpur convinced her she was on track for Sydney, but since that meet she has been unable to progress.
"When things like that happen they keep telling you it makes you stronger, which it does in a way, but it’s just so frustrating," she says.
"I’ve been told I’m really annoying to live with when I’m injured."
A back injury had hampered her progress early in 2000, but finally she broke through in July.
And it was quite some breakthrough, a near personal best of 6,227 points in Darwin. It was her first outdoor heptathlon since Kuala Lumpur.
Of all Australians, only Jane Flemming (6,695 points), Glynis Nunn-Cearns (6,387 points) and Jamieson herself with her Commonwealth Games effort have recorded better results in the heptathlon.
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