|
Pole vaulting became
one of the most high profile disciplines for South American
athletics in 2006. To the well known talent of 19-year-old
Argentinean talent Germán Chiaraviglio, the World Youth and
Junior champion, was added the emergence of a female figure,
25-year-old Fabiana Murer of Brazil, who finished second in
the World Cup in Athletics, Athens, Greece.
4.66m and Grand Prix success
2005 had been a very promising
year for Murer who comes from Campinas, a city in the
interior of the São Paulo state, bringing her a personal
best and national record to 4.40m, and she was unlucky to
miss progressing to the World Championships Final in
Helsinki by just 2 places.
But disappointment was not long lived as Murer’s career
erupted with a remarkable improvement in 2006. At the end of
January she set an Area indoor record of 4.41m (27 Jan), and
outdoors ended the year after many improvements by holding
the outdoor record at 4.66m. In the process she won most
notably at the Super Grand Prix in Monaco and the Belem GP,
and finished second in the Brussels Golden League meeting.
“Our approach to 2006 was
very similar to other years, in terms of the physical and
technical preparation,” said Murer after another hard
session of base-training ahead of the upcoming indoor
season.
Belém Breakthrough
“To be totally honest, before
the season started I had 4.60m as my “goal-mark” for the
year, but things started “clicking” perfectly, right
after the Belém GP. That day (21 May) I improved the
national and South American record 3 times from 4.40m, to
leave it at 4.55m. It was a great breakthrough, a great
boost of confidence.” The past holder of the Area record
had been Argentinean Alejandra García whose previous mark
was 4.43m (2004).
A week after the Brazilian
Grand Prix, Murer won the Ibero-American Championships in
Ponce (Puerto Rico), on 26 May. There, she added 1cm to her
personal best to earn her first international title at a
senior level.
After that came a couple of
meets in Europe in June-July with mixed results, but the
months of August-September brought the very best of 2006.
Monaco high
On 13 August, Murer jumped 4.50 in
São Paulo, and a week later in Monaco the Brazilian raised
once again her national and South American record to 4.66m,
to also capture the victory at the Herculis Grand Prix,
where she also beat one of the world’s best vaulters,
Poland’s Monika Pyrek.
At Monaco’s Louis II
Stadium, Murer had a wonderful meet, equalling her best of
4.56m, and then jumping 4.61 and 4.66m successfully, both
times with dramatic third-attempt clearances.
“The year has been
incredibly great, but for some reason, if I have to pick a
moment in the whole season, I would choose the victory in
Monaco. I kept on going higher and higher. I beat Pyrek,
among other girls, and I also showed that I was a good
vaulter.”
Fifth at the World Athletics
Final (4.50m), Murer was second to Russia’s World record
holder Yelena Isinbayeva in Brussels (another 4.66m jump)
and at the World Cup in Athens (4.55m).
Later, Murer closed out her
season with victories at the “Troféu Brasil” (4.57m),
the South American Championships (4.47m), and a South
American indoor contest in Santa Fe, Argentina (4.22m).
“The year has been intense,
with several trips across the Atlantic to compete and train
in Europe, but I wouldn’t mind repeating it in 2007. I
have to admit that my life has changed with the recognition
that came after this successful 2006, and now I have even
higher goals for the future.”
Gymnastics was the
beginning
“I started getting
involved with sports at the age of 7, practicing gymnastics
in Campinas, but once I began growing, I realized that my
height would not help me for that sport. That’s when
athletics came across. I went for a trial with my coach, Élson
Miranda de Souza (former 5.02m vaulter himself and Brazilian
champion in 1989), and that’s how I began… Later I was
forced to move to São Paulo, for practical reasons, and I
have been in the city for the past 8 years.”
“As a coach, Élson was
closer to the American school of vaulting and had links with
Earl Bell (former World record holder and 1984 Olympic
bronze medallist). So, that’s how I ended up going to
train with Bell in Jonesboro, Arkansas in the winters of
1999 and 2000. By then my results weren’t great, though I
was already the best in Brazil in a discipline, the pole
vault, which was just growing.”
Petrov brought change of
direction
“In 2001 Élson met
coach Vitaly Petrov, the master of Sergey Bubka, and that
made him change his mind about his coaching philosophy. We
switched everything from the American school to the Russian
school, something that created a certain struggle at the
beginning”.
“But everything worked out
perfectly later, and the results started to appear in 2003,
when I first jumped over 4m. Since then the progression has
been incredible, also helped by the programmes implemented
by the Brazilian Confederation, and the numerous camps we
had with Petrov in Italy, Brazil and Argentina.”
“Also the experiences I had
in 2005, especially at the Helsinki IAAF World
Championships, told me that I was very close to the best.
That the people I once admired had similar physical
conditions to mine. All those things made me believe that I
could belong to the elite.”
“Isinbayeva is in a class
of her own. She is a remarkable athlete, who I admire a lot,
especially because of the way she approaches each
competition from the mental aspect.”
“Many people have asked me
about the sunglasses I have used in the last meets… They
are necessary because, as a vaulter, you always need to be
looking up to the sky, and the sun could blind you for a
second, and that could be crucial. But now, because of the
results I have obtained wearing them, they have become an
important part of my gear, almost like a talisman.”
Working for 2007
“We are all
training very hard because next year will be a very
important one for Brazilian athletics, due to the
Pan-American Games that Rio de Janeiro will host in July. My
goal is to win the gold medal there. But later we will have
the Osaka World Championships, so we won’t be done after
Rio at all… My primary objective for Japan is to reach the
final, but I feel I’m also capable of getting to the
podium. We will see… It should be a great season that will
begin in the winter at the European Indoor circuit.”
Eduardo Biscayart for the
IAAF
Fabiana de Almeida Murer
Campinas, São Paulo, 16 March 1981. 1.72m, 64Kg.
Club: BM&F de Atletismo.
Coach: Élson Miranda de Souza.
Progress at PV:1998-
3.66; 1999- 3.81; 2000- 3.90; 2001- 3.91; 2002- 3.70; 2003-
4.06; 2004- 4.25; 2005- 4.40; 2006- 4.66. Indoor pb: 4.41
(’06).
At major meets:WCh:
’05- 15q; WI: ‘06- 15q; WCp: ‘06- 2; WJ: ‘98- =14q,
‘01- 10; PAm: ’99- 9; SAm: ’99- 3, ’01- 6, ’05- 2,
’06- 1; PAm-J: ’99- 2; Won IbAm 2006 and SAm-J 1998,
’99, ’00.
|
