Triple-jump sensation Laura Samuel clutches her World Junior Games silver medal, alongside the woman who she says made it all possible. The 19-year-old Leicester athlete calls coach Glenys Morton "her second mum", the woman who inspired her to shake the rafters of the event in this country with her performance in Moncton, Canada.

Back home in Braunstone Frith this week, Samuel admitted: "I wouldn't have been able to have done this if she hadn't been there. She's like my second mum, really.

"It was a struggle to get funding for her to come to Canada but we had help from local vet Ian Matthews who used to come down to the track."

Samuel – whose own mum, Janine, was a promising gymnast as a youngster – has also revealed it was Morton's powers of persuasion that led her to take up the sport in the first place.

Samuel, who will start A-level courses in the city in a month's time, was a sprinter and long-jumper at Leicester Coritanian, but Morton spotted an opportunity for her to excel at the triple jump.

"I really didn't want to do it," said Samuel. "It looked painful and it looked very hard but, if you keep practising, you get it in the end."

Her progress in the event, a relatively new one for women, has been astonishing.

Last year, she had a personal best of 12.98 metres which ranked her as only the 49th best junior in the world. In June, she posted a massive improvement to win the UK senior title with 13.55m in Birmingham.

Her fourth-round jump of 13.75m in Moncton not only clinched the silver but took her to fifth on the UK women's all-time rankings.

Samuel's final-round jump in Canada was called as a foul – but it was around the 13.90m mark.

The world title went to Cuba's Dailenys Alcantara with a jump of 14.09m and Samuel said: "I would love to get to 14m before the end of the season and it is a possibility."

She has two more domestic events – the Jumps Fest and the Bedford International Games – before the focus of attention will switch to the Commonwealth Games in Delhi in October.

Samuel said: "I really want to go there and I am top of the senior rankings so, if they are going to take a triple-jumper, it will be me but I have to wait and see."

She also returned from Canada in the week when the full media spotlight was on the 2012 London Olympics which starts two years from now.

"That's my ambition, to compete in the Olympics, it would be great to be there and have so many people watching me," added Samuel.

Coach Morton – not known for her use of superlatives – has described Samuel as "a superstar in the making."

She said: "It was a big thing to go to a world championship and this was her first major. She performed brilliantly.

"Her target was 13.50m this year and she has well and truly surpassed it.

"We're not setting any more targets this year so anything else will be a bonus."

Morton has also explained the thinking behind the decision to push Samuel into the triple jump.

She said: "I didn't believe that Laura would have made an international sprinter but I told her two years ago that I was going to make her an international triple jumper. She is naturally a very strong girl and she has speed and spring and we have put it all together.

"She is not the finished article and even last year we had to take her right back to basics and break down every angle of the discipline. There have been the odd dozen times when I have had to shout at her and she must be mad because she keeps coming back.

"But Laura is getting to the stage where she does it right and it is so natural. It was absolutely perfect in Canada – but it remains a work in progress."