Jo Willoughby enjoyed a vintage 2019 and she’s chasing more success in 2020.

The Gloucester Athletic Club member is looking to build on a stellar 12 months that saw her win double gold in the European Masters in Venice.

The 55-year-old finished first in both the long jump and the triple jump in the W55 category and such was her impressive form that all the signs are that she will need to make more room on her mantelpiece for more medals in the coming year.

Willoughby is a seriously good athlete. Back in the day she was rubbing shoulders with – and beating – some of the best in the land.

She was good enough to compete for both Great Britain and Wales and was good enough to qualify for the Commonwealth Games some 30 years ago.

In those days she was a member of Bristol AC – she was born in Bristol and qualified for Wales through her father – although back then she was just a long jumper as only the men competed in the triple jump.

“I started when I was 14,” said Willoughby, who moved to Longlevens in the mid-80s. “Bristol was always my club and I stayed with them even after I moved to Gloucester.”

And at that stage of her career it was clearly the right decision. Up until the age of 15 she’d been competing for the Welsh junior teams before stepping up to senior level.

And she wasn’t competing at these meetings just to make up her numbers as she showed in the English Schools’ National Championships, an event that she won at the age of 16.

“I jumped 6m 4cm as an under-17,” she said. “I was third in my age group in the UK.”

In those days there were some seriously good long jumpers about – including 1988 Olympian Beverly Kinch – and Willoughby had to wait until she was 25 until she got a GB vest.

“I never got a look in,” admitted Willoughby who was Welsh long jump champion from 1988 to 1990 and also finished second three times and third once.

But eventually she did, representing Great Britain in both Norway and at Crystal Palace, which was the ‘home’ of English athletics in those days and a hugely atmospheric stadium.

It was also that year – 1989 – that she qualified for the Commonwealth Games in Auckland in January 1990 but unfortunately that was to bring with it great disappointment.

“I couldn’t go,” she explained. “For financial reasons Wales only took 12 people, it was a big disappointment. I’d got the qualification and I still wasn’t selected.”

Willoughby, by her own admission, fell out of love with the sport after that – she also picked up a couple of injuries – and it wasn’t until her youngest daughter Dayna started showing an interest that athletics came back into her life.

That was in 2011 and Willoughby said: “Dayna joined Gloucester Athletic Club, she was good at the 100 and 200 metres.”

Willoughby’s husband Ian was also a member of Gloucester AC and he was pretty decent in both the 400m and 110m hurdles, finishing third behind Commonwealth Games gold medallist Berwyn Price when he set a new British 110m hurdles record at Cwmbran Stadium.

“Ian’s personal bests were a respectable 14.64 seconds for 110m hurdles and 53.56 seconds for the 400m hurdles,” said Willoughby. “He also competed for Bristol and Gloucester and represented the Civil Service, Midland Counties and competed internationally for British Telecom in the European Telecom championships, finishing second in the 110m hurdles on two occasions.”

Dayna’s involvement, meanwhile – she was in her early teens – meant her mum became a familiar face at Gloucester AC although she didn’t remain a spectator for long.

“I got fed up standing around watching Dayna train,” she laughed, “so I started doing a bit of training myself.”

And as is so often the case that was the start. These days she is also a qualified coach – she has her own group of jumpers who she looks after at Gloucester AC including Joel Townley who has won two English Schools’ Championships – as well as being a regular competitor on the age group circuit.

“I went with Ian to the Midlands Masters Championships in 2014,” explained mum-of-three Willoughby. “I’d pre-entered but I didn’t take any spikes, only trainers.

“I did the long jump and the triple jump in the W50 age group and Mel Garland said I could win medals at international level.”

And Garland, a top competitor herself, was absolutely right even though Willoughby was still a relative novice in the triple jump.

“It came quite naturally, it was just a hop, skip, jump,” she said quite matter-of-factly.

And she certainly was a natural because in March 2015 she won gold in the European Indoor Masters in Poland, a competition in which she also won silver in the long jump.

“I’m better at the triple jump than I am the long jump these days,” she added.

That same year she competed in the World Masters in Lyon, finishing sixth in the long jump. A ruptured calf kept her out of the triple jump and sidelined her for most of 2016 but she was back competing in 2017 and by 2018 she was back on the winner’s rostrum.

“I won the triple jump at the European Indoor Masters in Spain,” she said.

Indeed she did but that only tells half the story.

“I produced an amazing personal best,” she continued. “I jumped 10m 75cm, my previous best was 10.37. It was a British record and only 4cm short of the world age group record.

“It was fantastic, I just didn’t expect it. I was the oldest competitor in the age group, it was so exciting.”

This year she graduated to the W55 age group and she laid down a marker straight away by finishing second in the triple jump at the World Indoor Masters in Poland.

“I jumped 10.52 which equalled the European age group record,” she said.

But she surpassed that with her superlative efforts in Venice in September when she led the way in the long jump with 4m 69 and in the triple jump with 10m 45 to claim her first outdoor medals.

And the bad news for her rivals is that she has no plans to retire any time soon.

Her husband is still a decent athlete too – he competed in Venice – and Willougby, a retired teaching assistant, said: “I plan to compete for as long as I can.

“My two big aims for next year are the European Indoor Masters in Portugal in March and the World Masters in Toronto in July.”

Athletics clearly takes up a lot of her time and as well as coaching at Gloucester AC – the club is based at Blackbridge Jubilee Athletics Track – she gives a lot to the club in many other ways as well.

“I officiate for the club in field events and I’m part of the management group that run the track,” she said. “I used to be on the committee as well.”

She still belongs to Bristol and West as an honorary member, although she competes now for Gloucester AC and Midland Masters.

“I am still competing for Gloucester Athletic Club in Midland league matches in the long jump and triple jump which is the main track and field competition we do,” said Willoughby. “The club has had consecutive promotions taking us from Division Four to Division One in three years.”

And what of her daughter Dayna, now in her early 20s, who got her back into athletics?

“She doesn’t do athletics anymore,” laughed Mum.