England's Jazmin Sawyers finally banished years of major championship disappointment by producing a golden comeback in the women's long jump at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
The 32-year-old completed a remarkable return from a career-threatening Achilles injury to win gold on a night that also brought silver for England's mixed 4x400m relay team and bronze for pole vaulter Owen Heard.
Sawyers had endured a string of painful setbacks. She finished fourth at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games in 2022, failed to reach the final at the 2023 World Championships and then suffered the cruellest blow of all when a ruptured Achilles tendon ruled her out of the Paris Olympics.
Instead of competing in France, the Stoke-on-Trent athlete underwent surgery and spent the Games working as a BBC commentator.
A year later, she was back where she belonged.
Her fourth-round leap of 6.93 metres proved enough to secure Commonwealth gold, finishing ahead of Nigeria's Ruth Usoro (6.87m) and Australia's Brooke Buschkuehl (6.80m).
"It hasn't properly hit me how this is the thing I've been telling myself all the horrible bits are for," Sawyers said.
"The feeling is overwhelming. I will do the horrible bits 100 times over. I'll do it and do it and do it. This is amazing."
The victory represented the latest chapter in a special relationship with Glasgow.
Almost 12 years earlier, Sawyers had won a surprise silver medal at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in the city the breakthrough performance that launched her international career.
"It was the start of my career and so sensational, and I had the time of my life," she said.
"I take that as one of the best moments of my entire career, but when you've done that there's only one thing to do, which is to upgrade."
Sawyers will now shift her focus to representing Great Britain at the European Athletics Championships in Birmingham, which begin on 10 August.
But after years of frustration, injury and near misses, Glasgow has once again provided one of the defining moments of her career this time with the gold medal she had spent so long chasing.
