Banchory high jumper Claire McGarvey may have “scaled back” her schedule – but she still secured her second consecutive Scottish title at the weekend, leaping 1.76m to take gold at the National Indoor Championships in Glasgow.
It was a flying first competition of the indoor season for the 21-year-old, who will compete for four weekends consecutively as she contests the Scottish University Championships, the British Championships and the British University Championships all before the end of the month.
Encouragingly, the 1.76m clearance was only 2cm off McGarvey’s personal best.
The Glasgow University neuroscience student had an unblemished scorecard for her first three heights, clearing 1.58m, 1.63m, and 1.68m at the first time of asking.
By the time she cleared 1.73m, the Scottish title was already won – but McGarvey then cleared 1.76m before three attempts at 1.80m saw her finally bow out of the competition.
The victory follows her Scottish outdoor title, which she won in Aberdeen in August.
With McGarvey choosing her competitions more wisely this year, her 2023 indoor season has been far less hectic than 2022.
Last year, McGarvey competed in the high jump eight times indoors, taking a British University silver and a fourth-place finish at the UK Championships in Birmingham.
This year, however, she hopes a more measured schedule will allow her to sustain her performances over a longer period.
She said: “I’ve just scaled it back, because I wasn’t really able to maintain it (form) going into the outdoor season (in 2022) – I didn’t want to be in that position again when I was going into the outdoor season really tired.
“I didn’t do the National Open and I didn’t go to the Czech Republic, due to my university dissertation deadline.
“Last year, I just did everything that was there, but this year I’m trying to pick what works for me rather than just do everything.”
McGarvey’s relationship with coach Allan is one of ‘good balance’
The high jump could be said to be one of the few events which is as challenging technically as it is mentally.
It requires a level of focus and stamina, particularly when competitions are drawn out with numerous attempts at multiple heights.
But McGarvey says her working relationship with current high jump coach, Ken Allan, allows a good blend between rewarding a good jump, while still striving to improve.
“I think we bounce off each other a lot,” she said. “We’re very different people. It makes a good athlete-coach relationship, because, if I disagree, I’m happy to tell him and he’s happy to listen.
“We’re quite honest with each other, which helps for something like high jump because a lot of it is mental.
“I’m quite critical of everything and I’ll look at everything, and say: ‘That’s a bit rubbish, I don’t like that’, and he tries to put a very positive spin on everything.
“If we were both that way, it would be all: ‘it’s fine, it’s fine’, and, if we were both very critical, it would just be too doom and gloom. Everything would be feeling rubbish.
“I think there’s a good balance.”
McGarvey looks to prove UK-level worth, after winter of solo training
Be it by chance or by application, McGarvey has managed to stay uninjured while her training partners are on the physio bed.
She misses the social interaction with her training group, which includes last year’s UK number two David Smith.
But McGarvey added that there is no hiding place when training sessions are one-on-one, and it has meant she sets herself a high bar.
“I’ve been pretty much training by myself this winter because most of the group has been injured. I’ve kind of just been doing it by myself.
“It’s not great, but at the same time I’ve not minded it either – I thought I was going to dislike it a lot more than I have.
“Because I’ve been alone this year, there is nowhere to hide. You can’t just turn up, do it, and walk away. This year I’ve been a lot more intentional about what I do and why I do it.”
Ranked number one in Scotland for 2022, McGarvey has managed to start her 2023 indoor season by reclaiming momentum which had ebbed away toward the end of last year.
This year, however, a more carefully charted course could see her break the 1.80m barrier for the first time in her career, and the UK Championships in a week’s time could well be the ideal venue.
She said: “I just want to come out of it feeling I jumped well, because it’s so easy to get caught up in what other people around you are doing, and looking at what they’re jumping.
“I just want to come out of it thinking I did myself proud. I want to feel like I deserve to be there, because I only just have the qualifying height, which is 1.77m for this indoors.
“I really am sneaking in, so I just want to kind of prove that I’m worth being there. I want to feel like I jumped well and was in among everyone else.”
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