By Owen Morgan
Sabrina Fortune has designs on making 2024 a year to remember inside and outside the shot put circle.
One of the world’s best F20 throwers, Fortune has her sights on success at the World Para Athletics Championships in Kobe this May and the Paris Paralympics in August.
But she is also hoping her profile as a top athlete competing in those global events will help promote her artistic ambitions away from the sporting arena.
The 26-year-old from Deeside AAC established herself on the world stage by winning shot put gold at the 2019 World Para Athletics Championships and retaining her title in Paris last year.
In her spare time, though, Fortune enjoys a number of artistic hobbies, including animation and cake designing.
She hopes this will be the year her creations are recognised alongside her athletic achievements.
Sabrina Fortune competing in the red of Wales. Pic: Owen Morgan
Fortune has certainly started 2024 in eye-catching form on the indoor circuit.
At the recent Welsh Indoor Athletics Championships, she threw a world lead of 13.88m to take the national title.
The north Wales athlete was delighted with her performance, but feels there is more to come during what is going to be a busy year.
Fortune said after her performance at Cardiff’s National Indoor Athletics Centre: “It was a really good throw; the only issue was there’s no speed behind it, really.
“I’ve been doing loads of weights, now it’s speed work I need. It’s a bit sluggish, but it’s okay.
“It’s something that’s going to take a little bit of work to get right, especially for the worlds this year, which are in May. But I think it’s going to be really good.”
Fortune is excited at the prospect of what lies ahead between now and September. The shot-putter is one of seven Welsh athletes who are part of British Athletics’ 41-strong Paralympic World Class Programme preparing for the global challenges ahead.
“It’s going be one hell of a year,” said Fortune, the excitement evident in her voice.
“The British Championships in February, the Worlds in May, and the Paralympics in September. It’s going to be go, go, go all the way!
“I want to be throwing 14.05 by May and by September we want to be getting towards 15m, but that depends on how it all goes. It’s still early and anything can happen in that time.”
Sabrina Fortune competing at the British Athletics Championships. Pic: Owen Morgan
Fortune says she has never thrown better at this time of year – an indication she is in the form to achieve her aim of taking gold in both Kobe and Paris, with a world record along the way.
With her personal best currently standing at 14.05m, Fortune believes the world record is in her sights.
“This year is going better than any of the other years. Indoors is hard, because it’s a slippy circle. It’s really hard because you’re indoors, you’re closer to people, whereas outside is so much better.
“For the last four years, I’ve thrown about 12 metres here. I’ve never got to anything like 13.88 metres at the start of the season.
“For me, that is an incredible achievement and I’m really proud of it because I haven’t done that before.
“I’m really happy and I want to improve on this and get further in each competition from now on. Now I have a baseline, I can work on my speed up until British Champs and from that we can work ahead and see how far we can go.
“The world record is, I think, 14.39, and my PB is 14.05, so I would very much like around 14.20. That would be a lovely one to sneak in before the worlds
.
“I want both golds. But I really want a world record at the Paralympics. That’s what my aim is. I’ve been aiming for that for the last two years.
“Worlds are big, but because there’s two championships this year, the Paralympics is the main focus. So, September is where it’s all at. That’s where it has to be. May is just basically a warm-up.”
Sabrina Fortune at last weekend’s Welsh Indoor Athletics Championships. Pic: Owen Morgan
Fortune is excited about the atmosphere which will be created at a Paralympic Games relatively close to home across the Channel in France.
“I’ve got friends and my family who want to go,” she said. “So hopefully, I’ll have quite a few people in the crowd to cheer me on this time.
“Because in Kobe, I’m not going to have anyone. So, it’s going to be a very quiet competition really!
“Paris is going to be amazing. And I can’t wait for it. It’s going to go really quick this year.”
Success at the World Championships and the Paralympics would also boost the profile of her artistic creations, which she shares on social media.
One of Sabrina Fortune’s art works.
Her artistic ambition is to turn her hobby into an apprenticeship in art and animation.
“I do animation and art on Blender 3D software, and I’ve learnt coding for website design,” said Fortune.
“I also do cake design with sugar craft which is modelling sugar onto a cake. I’ve done a few cakes here and there for people, doing custom orders.
“But art, that’s the career I want to follow after sport. I’d love to be able to go into a job in animation, to do TV shows, movies, game design. That’s what I want to do.
“I wanted to go to university, but with my sport, how long it takes – it’s quite hard to be able to get all those things together.
“I’d love to find an apprenticeship in animation.”
“At the moment, I’m trying to focus on social media, getting my art out there because this is the year it’s going to be found, it’s a really big year.
“It’s just a case of getting everything figured out and out there – making sure that people can see it, enjoy it, and build up my followers.”
Go to @sabbeyart on Instagram to see some of Fortune’s creations.