By Elizabeth Hudson

Reid has enjoyed a successful season so far

Paralympic long jumper Stefanie Reid hopes her new world record can help her achieve global success.

Reid, who lost part of her right leg in a boating accident nine years ago, set a world best of 5.05m last weekend.

The 25-year-old competed for Canada in Beijing before switching allegiance to Great Britain in January.

"Now I've jumped past five metres, I really want to build on that and get to 5.50 and maybe even six metres so it is motivating me to keep going," she said.

"To me, five metres has been my benchmark. Part of it is that below five metres, people may think I am a great long jumper for an amputee but past five metres people may think I am a great long jumper full stop."

Reid qualifies for GB through her British parents but she was born in New Zealand before her family settled in Canada.

Now based in Lee Valley and working with renowned jumps coach Dan Pfaff, she hopes that the changes she has made will help her strike gold in January's World Championships in New Zealand and be a springboard to success in 2012.

"I had been jumping over five metres in training but I've struggled for consistency on the board so unfortunately a lot of my big jumps in competition have been fouls," she told BBC Sport.

"I knew I could do it but I wasn't really thinking about breaking the record going into last weekend's competition.

"We were focussing on some other technical things so for all that to come together and go and break the record is nice."

Reid switches her attention to the track this weekend to compete first in a 100m race at Saturday's Diamond League meeting in Crystal Palace before Sunday's UKA Disability Athletics Challenge at the same venue.

I tend to respond well to changes and I haven't regretted my switch, despite the sacrifices Paralympian Stefanie Reid

She currently has the B standard for both the 100m and the 200m, the event in which she won bronze in Beijing, in her T44 class and wants to transfer her form from the long jump pit to the track.

"This weekend I just want to run all of my races the way I've trained to and the way my coach has told me to and have the confidence to do that," added Reid.

"I really want to do justice to the work my coaching team has done with me and try to get each component right and if the time comes, it would be fantastic.

"It's a really competitive class and I still think I have improvements I can make."

Reid began working with Pfaff in early February and is splitting her time between Lee Valley and Texas where her husband, Canadian wheelchair racer Brett Lakatos is based.

"Dan is so different from any other coach I have worked with," she admits.

"He demands quality over quantity, which is different to other coaches, and is so precise and exact in what he wants.

"He has a reason for everything he says in training and I am so lucky to have a chance to work with him.

"After Beijing I had a chance to evaluate things and it was in the back of my mind that London would be the Games hosts in 2012.

"I saw what UK Athletics was doing in terms of recruiting top-class coaches like Paralympic head coach Peter Eriksson, whose work and philosophy I admire, so from a performance perspective, it was an easy decision to move.

"I knew I wanted to improve on what I achieved in Beijing but I tend to respond well to changes and I haven't regretted the switch, despite the sacrifices."

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