Athletics: Emma on her way to Merry heaven

"Commonwealth heartache for Merry," the headlines screamed last week. "Commonwealth heartache for one of the Merrys," would have been more accurate.

For Emma Merry, the Commonwealth dream remains very much alive. She has thrown the discus 54.01m this summer, 2.01m beyond the qualifying standard for England's Commonwealth Games team. A place in the top two in the Aqua-Pura trials meeting in Manchester today would guarantee her selection for the Games next month.

It would be ironic indeed if she were to make it as the sole representative of the Merry family, having spent so much of her track-and-field life in the shadow of her cousin. But then Emma is as distraught as the rest of the Merrys about the Achilles tendon injury that has ruled Katharine out of the trials and out of the Games.

"I really do feel for Katharine," she said. "Right from a young age she had injuries. Then she did so well to win a bronze medal in Sydney. And now she's injured again. I hope that when she comes back she's running as well as she was last year.

"It's just a shame she won't be at the Commonwealth Games. It would have been brilliant if I'd been there – hopefully I will be – and Katharine had been running against Cathy Freeman. We've got posters all over college of Katharine from the Sydney Olympics – of her running against Cathy Freeman."

While her cousin has become an Olympic medallist and pin-up, Emma has come to fit her own sporting life around her work as a lecturer in sports science at Loughborough College. There was a time, though, when they were both track-and-field prodigies – in their teenage days growing up in Warwickshire. Indeed, Emma still holds the UK Under-17 discus record she set in 1990, 51.60m. She also competed with Katharine in two world junior championships and two European junior championships.

In the senior ranks, however, the pride of Rugby and Northampton Athletics Club has not made quite such a prominent mark. At 27, Emma has made just one major championship appearance: in the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur. She finished seventh.

"I've concentrated more on the academic side of things and gone for a career," she reflected. "I've also done a few other sports as well. I've played rugby to quite a high standard, on the wing and as a No 8. I've played for England Students and I've played on the hallowed turf. I was in the Loughborough team that won the British Universities' final at Twickenham in 1996. That was a great, great feeling. I've also bobsleighed for Great Britain. I was in the team that finished seventh in the world championships in 2000.

"So I've gone down those paths and Katharine's hit the big time in athletics. She's done fantastically well. She's an amazing athlete. I know my own limitations as an athlete. I'm 5ft 7in and 11st. The best discus throwers in the world are 6ft tall and weigh 15st. I'm realistic about what I can achieve. For me, to make it to these Commonwealth Games, having competed in 1998, would be a fantastic honour."

It might not be the last sporting honour, either, for the multi-talented Merry. Beyond this season, she has her sights set on another change of sporting direction –weight-lifting. "Being a sports scientist, I've looked at all the options and I think that's the best one," she said. "I'll be doing it with Athens 2004 in mind. To get to the Olympics as a competitor would be the ultimate for me."

The other Merry, of course, has got herself to the Olympics and got a bronze medal too. But, then, she has never played at Twickenham, or bobsleighed for Britain – or taken part in a Commonwealth Games.