“Almost straight away we had the election, then Purim, and we were just about to get going properly when we went into lockdown,” said ex-JFS pupil and Magen Avot synagogue member Taylor, 19, who is on a five-month programme at Sde Eliyahu, near Bet Shean in northern Israel. “We aren’t allowed out of the kibbutz now. But here is the best place to be isolated really because we’re in the middle of nowhere, there’s plenty of food growing in the fields and we have our own fresh water spring.”

Taylor manages to find time for her fitness training outside a busy weekly schedule combining ulpan with cleaning the study and accommodation blocks and weeding the organic pumpkins (“It’s quite a lot of work actually – the weeds keep growing…”). Fortunately, there is a well-equipped multigym on site, not to mention the areas around the fields for general running and jogging.

But making time is one thing; self-motivation is quite another. Before Taylor left for Israel, she was training three times a week with her coach, Neville Thompson, who also coaches the UK’s top discus thrower, son Greg Thompson. So probably her main adjustment as an athlete has been to take charge of her own sessions, an issue many struggle with once they leave the structure of school and club. “I discussed it with Neville before I came here and he told me to keep up with everything as much as possible,” said Taylor.

“But it’s a lot harder this way. I’ve been going to Shaftesbury Harriers in north London since I was in Year Eight, so that’s six years now, and in all that time I’ve never had to do training on my own.” She said: “I was always disciplined at school and I’m quite good at organising, but balancing study, work, training and socialising on Sde Eliyahu is an ongoing exercise in itself.”

That said, Taylor is nothing if not resourceful. “In our three-hour sessions with Neville we cover strength, endurance, plyometrics, stretching and much more,” she explained. “Here, I include as much as I can but I’m adapting a few things. For example, I don’t have a (throwing) net so I can’t throw a ball or a weight, but I’ve been passing tennis balls to people and throwing stones into a lake. I’m currently searching for a resistance band for those drills to give them more of a javelin feel.”

At the end of her gap year, Taylor is due to start a course in paramedic science at the University of Hertfordshire, current situation permitting. Once back in full-time education, she intends to return to Shaftesbury to train as often as her timetable will allow. “Sport is very important for me,“ she said. “I love javelin anyway, but I think it also helps me to be my normal bubbly, happy and calm self as well as to stay focused in class.”

For now, Taylor is continuing to work on power and fitness in between her kibbutz commitments, but she admits that she has yet to incorporate Thompson’s rigorous training on a regular basis. “I have only forced myself to do a proper Neville session once so far – and it hurt!”