Hi everyone.

After a successful few months of winter training, I entered 2009 with great anticipation as I planned an assault on the indoor season, culminating at the European Indoor Championships in Turin, Italy. Unfortunately, I hurt my foot taking off during a technical jumps session and scans revealed I had a tear in my plantar fascia under my heel.

It was early January and there was still plenty of time to prove fitness before the Europeans in March. I trained carefully, but had to pull out of some big international meetings in Glasgow, Arnstadt, and Malmo, as the tear was healing slower than expected. I managed to jump 2.18m off a short approach (4 strides) the week before the European trials and still felt in good shape.

I travelled up to Sheffield with mixed thoughts, hoping I would feel no pain as I attempted to jump my way into good form before the Birmingham Grand Prix the following week. Sadly, I had four warm-up jumps at low heights and made the decision to pull out as the foot was still quite sore. I watched on in frustration as the competition was won with 2.25m and the first British athlete cleared a below par 2.22m.

I knew that the foot needed more time to heal so immediately withdrew from the Birmingham Grand Prix and subsequently the European Indoor Championships. This was difficult to take, as the injury seemed so innocuous at first, but the poor flood flow to the heel meant that the tear would take a long time to heal. Indeed, a scan today revealed the tear is still present but almost fully healed.

The European\'s were won with a modest 2.32m, whilst 2.29m was good enough for silver. This further highlighted the indoors as a missed opportunity. However, I have been able to stay in good shape and do plenty of gym work to keep my spirits up as I look forward to a more productive outdoor season.

My injury would have been difficult to avoid, but I hope it clears up soon and doesn\'t rear its ugly head again. I can take confidence from a solid winters training in which I set personal bests in the gym and on the track where I posted a time of 6.85 seconds for 60m through the electronic gates and also 11.08s for 100m during a testing session. Reasonably fast for a high jumper.

My training partner Matt improved his best to 2.19m from 2.15m, which indicates that our overall training program has been effective. I look forward to warm weather training in Formia, in Italy in early May, by which time I would hope to be back jumping, and setting myself the goal of reaching the World Championships in Berlin in August. The target would be a top 5 finish to improve on the previous couple of years.

Speak to you again soon,

best wishes

Tom