Elizabeth Ndudi heading to European U20 Championship 'to win'

AMBITIOUS: Elizabeth Ndudi competing in the Women's U20 Long Jump event. Photo by Ben McShane/Sportsfile

For Elizabeth Ndudi, the goal at this week’s European U-20 Championships is straightforward.

“Definitely to win,” she says. “It’s pretty tight, we’re on an equal pedestal, so it’s going to be about who can jump that big jump on the day.”

The 18-year-old’s long jump best of 6.44m puts her just 11cm behind the top-ranked athlete at this week’s event in Jerusalem, Israel.

“Obviously I’m going in to do a PB, to jump well technically, but the overall goal is to win,” says Ndudi.

Listen to the 18-year-old speak and it’s hard to place her accent, its clear Irish foundation blended with a variety of international influences. Ndudi was born in Dublin, growing up in Sandyford with a mother who’s half-Irish, half-Dutch and a father who’s Nigerian.

She moved to France at the age of 11, where she’s been based since, coached by Julien Guilard at Racing Club Nantes. With dual nationality, what swayed her to represent Ireland?

“It is my country,” she smiles. “I always said when I was younger that if I made it to the Olympics, I’d represent Ireland because we don’t often see big Irish athletes in athletics at the Olympics. I wanted to be one of those. I’m very close to my Irish ties.”

Ndudi took up athletics at the age of eight, her mother bringing her down to Dundrum South Dublin (DSD) AC after witnessing her speed in sports days at St. Attracta's national school. “Straight away I loved it,” she says.

She has juggled sprinting with long jumping ever since, winning a slew of national medals with DSD before making her mark on the international stage at last year’s European U-18 Championships in Israel, finishing seventh in the long jump.

“It was a great experience, the first really high-level competition I had. There’s lots of things I learned from last year and I’m going in (this year) with experience.”

Ndudi won the national senior indoor and outdoor long jump titles this year and set Irish U-20 indoor and outdoor records, but she knows much more is possible than her PB of 6.44m.

“I really feel like I could get that 6.50m, 6.60m. I’ve had great jumps where my coach and I see it goes further but most of the time, it’s the jumps where I break by 1-2cm, so that’s definitely in there.” 

She hopes to produce the big one this week, with the qualification round tomorrow and the final on Thursday morning. But however it goes, a new adventure soon awaits.

Ndudi will enrol at the University of Illinois later this month, coached by Petros Kyprianou, who has guided a horde of world-class long jumpers. Why did she choose the US scholarship route?

“People can see in the US, in track and field, they dominate the sport,” she says. “The setup between school and sport is a lot easier (there).

"In France, they put education over sport so having to juggle going to school from 8 to 6 then having to train would be pretty difficult. In the US, it’ll give me time to focus on athletics and also have a really good education.”

She did her homework before making her choice and “only heard great things” from those who’d been coached by Kyprianou. “He was saying if my goal was to go to the Olympics, that’s his goal too. I like that we’re both ambitious in that way.”

Ndudi would love to secure a spot at the Paris Games next year, especially given their proximity to her current home in Nantes. “It’s a very ambitious goal, but I like being ambitious so if that’s something I can work towards, I’m definitely going to try.”

Meanwhile on the opening day of action in Israel yesterday, Nick Griggs sauntered into the men's 3000m final, where the Tyrone teenager will look to defend the title he won two years ago.

With temperatures hitting 33 degrees this week, Griggs said he’s been preparing by “putting on a coat, tights, a half-zip and then going into the sauna for half an hour” ahead of the championships.

“It wasn’t fun, but I got it done,” he said. His final takes place at 5.35pm Irish time tomorrow, and can be watched live on Allathletics.tv.

Leevale's Lucy-May Sleeman clocked a big PB of 11.54 to finish fourth in her 100m semi-final and advance to today's final, which takes place at 6pm Irish time.