Ljubljana, Slovenia - Reigning Olympic 800m bronze medallist Jolanda Ceplak of Slovenia underwent surgery earlier this week to correct what was finally diagnosed as the underlying cause of an Achilles tendon injury that frustrated her throughout the 2005 season.

An examination on Monday (24 October) by Austrian physician, Dr. Christian Schenk, found that a bone was aggravating her tendon, a condition, he determined, that required immediate attention.

“When Jolanda visited Dr. Schenk,” said Ceplak’s manager, Robert Wagner, “he diagnosed a protruding bone on the back of her heal which slowly, but constantly was rubbing off the Achilles tendon from the inside. The surgery was so urgent that they operated on her the same evening.”

The surgery was done at Schenk’s clinic in Schrums, Austria. Schenk was the sixth physician to examine Ceplak since late last spring. A leading specialist in the field, Schenk regularly treats the world’s top skiers and is among the team doctors for the Austrian ski team.

No indoor season in 2006

Scheduled to leave the clinic on Wednesday (26 October), the 29-year-old Ceplak, the reigning European outdoor 800m champion and World Indoor record holder in the event, will not be able to run for at least six weeks. She can resume full training, Wagner said, in about 10 weeks.

The surgery won’t dramatically, if at all, impact her plans for 2006. Ceplak decided last summer that she wouldn’t be competing indoors in 2006, and was planning a later start to her outdoor season with the European Championships in Gothenburg as her primary objective. Four years ago in Munich, Ceplak won the 800m title with a dominating 1:57.65 performance. Earlier that winter, she set the World indoor mark in the event, 1:55:82, at the European Indoor Championships in Vienna. Wagner said that she’ll be competing at both the 800 and 1500m next season.

Frustrating 2005 season

Bothered by the nagging injury throughout the year, Ceplak competed just seven times outdoors in 2005.

After a disappointing appearance at the European Indoor Championships in March, in which she failed to reach the final, Ceplak opened her outdoor season in late May with a 2:01.00 runner-up finish at the Qatar Super Grand Prix in Doha.

Three weeks later, in her only appearance in the 1500, she was part of the seven-woman pile up caused by an inexperienced pacesetter at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon, on the same track where she set her 4:02.44 national record in the event in 2003.

She followed up with a convincing win in Ulm, Germany on 12 June, clocking 2:00.85, before finishing a badly beaten 10th at the Tsiklitiria Grand Prix in Athens’ Olympic stadium on 14 June, reaching the finish in 2:01.43.

“Because of the Achilles problem, I was never able to get into my racing rhythm in Athens,” she said after the race.

A 1:59.98 solo run in Velenje, Slovenia, on 23 June briefly boosted her morale before difficulties returned just 10 days later in Lausanne, where she finished a distant seventh (2:02.17) at the Athletissima Super Grand Prix. After a low-key 1000m win in Zagreb’s Grand Prix, the problems continued, forcing her to miss the World Championships, and putting an end to her season.

Coaching change

Ceplak has also moved on from long time trainer Tomo Popetru, and will now work with German coach, Dr. Helmut Stechemesser. Stechemesser, who is based in Ried, Austria, near Linz, is the former coach of Austrians Theresia Kiesl, the 1996 Olympic bronze medallist in the 1500, and Stefanie Graf, the 800m silver medallist from Sydney in 2000.

Bob Ramsak for the IAAF