UGEN Lorraine

General
LATE REPLACEMENT
Primarily a long jumper, she was a last-minute replacement for the English 4x100m relay team that won gold at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, QLD, Australia, after Corinne Humphreys sustained an injury. She only discovered she would be competing less than 24 hours before the event started, and had not run a relay in over four years. "I did my first exchanges in the warm-up area and it went pretty well. We didn't have hours, we had minutes, 10 minutes I think. I didn't feel too nervous. I was only going to accept it if I felt I was capable of doing the job. They gave me a really big lead and all I had to do was hold it. The last time I did a relay was at university, a good few years ago." (theguardian.com, 14 Apr 2018)

WOOED BY AMERICA
Between 2011 and 2015 she attended the Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, TX, United States of America. She was offered a scholarship to study there, but her initial plan was just to use the meet-and-greet trip arranged by the university to enjoy a free holiday to North America and then return to London, England. "I was getting recruited by a few schools and at first I really wasn't that interested. I love London and I was like, 'I'm never leaving London'. But one of the schools was very persistent, and they were like, 'You know, we'll bring you on a visit, we'll pay for your food, your accommodation, everything - just come and have a look'. I thought, 'I'm going to take this quick holiday and enjoy myself out there and then come back to London'. So I went on the trip and then I realised that wow, 'This is just so much different'." (Trans World Sport YouTube channel, 13 Dec 2018; LinkedIn profile, 01 Jan 2016)