Able and willing

Guohua Zhou of China stands at the start of her run up, composes herself, and sets off at full speed down the runway before taking off and jumping into the sand, landing nearly five metres away. Oh, there is one small detail that I forgot to mention. Zhou is totally blind. Imagine the courage it must take to launch yourself without being able to see where you’re going – talk about a leap in the dark! Someone lines her up and tells her when it is safe to go. A coach or assistant typically stands behind the sandpit shouting so that she can direct herself towards the sound. That helps. But it still requires courage to execute. It can go badly wrong. I once saw a blind long jumper lose the direction, veer to the side and literally take out the no-jump judge as he sat on his chair!

Zhou won the F12 long jump with a leap of 4.92m at the 2019 World Para Athletics Championships. These took place last year in Dubai, United Arab Emirates with more than 1400 athletes from about 120 nations inv...