95% Bergqvist is looking for that ‘something’

London, UKIt was a happy, smiling Kajsa Bergqvist who came bubbling through the hot and sticky mixed zone area at London’s Crystal Palace stadium at about 8.45pm on Friday evening (28). And why not?

The Swedish star had just produced her best outdoor performance for three years to win the Norwich Union London Grand Prix – IAAF World Athletics Tour – meet and she’d comprehensively beaten a handful of her rivals for the European Championships title in Gothenburg, Sweden (7 – 13 Aug).

Not only had she cleared 2.05m, the best in the world this year and the second highest she’s ever leapt outdoors (PB 2.06m), but she’d taken three serious, and close, attempts to claim Stefka Kostadinova’s 19-year-old outdoor World record of 2.09m. What’s more, she’d done it all while not feeling in tip-top shape.

“I’m only 95 per cent today and I still jumped 2.05m!” she beamed. “I was a little heavy in my legs after a good competition recently but jumping 2.05m is a good jump anytime.”

Indeed, it is. In fact, only five women, including herself, have ever jumped higher. What’s more, Bergqvist’s victory was her fourth on the IAAF World Athletics Tour and came only three days after leaping 2.02m to win the DN-Galan in her home town of Stockholm.

Given the ease with which she flopped over 2.05m on her first attempt, 11 centimetres higher than her nearest rival, few among the watching thousands at Crystal Palace can have doubted that the record is hers for the taking. She certainly seems to believe it, and with the European Championships next on her list, Gothenburg would surely be the fitting place to do it.

“I went for the World record because the way my training is going I’m in that sort of condition,” she said. “The consistency is there now and I hope it continues to the championships.

“The main priority in Göteborg will be to win the competition. But I will try to be in my absolute best shape and hope to have a chance to break the World record at some point during the season.”

For Bergqvist, it would cap a remarkable comeback that already hit the heights when she won the World title on a gloomy night in Helsinki last summer. After missing out on the Olympic Games in Athens the previous year with a crippling Achilles injury that left her in plaster for eight weeks, and unable to jump for six months, it was the crowning moment of her sporting life. Indeed, Bergqvist herself described it as “the best day of my whole life”.

But if she can retain her European title in front of an adoring Swedish public next month, even that ‘amazing’ day in the life of this cheerful 29-year-old could be surpassed. “We’ll have to see,” she says. “To win a major championship on home soil would definitely be something.

“It is very important for me. I try to win every competition I participate in, but this one is particularly important because it is in Sweden and probably my only chance to win a major championship on home soil. I will gather all my strength and pick my form, and hopefully win a gold medal.”

Bergqvist had been such a consistent fixture at the top of world high jumping since she finished fifth at the World Championships in Athens in 1997 that it was hard to believe that Helsinki victory was her first global outdoor triumph.

Naturally gifted, she grew up competing in all the usual array of track and field events. “High Jump was just one of them,” says Bergqvist. “Gradually my performance in High Jump got better and better, but I still competed in Heptathlon until the age of 18.“

By then she had already finished eighth at the European Junior championships in 1993 and went on to take silver at the World Juniors the following year. A European junior silver followed in 1995 and, after studying at Southern Methodist University in the United States, a promising senior career beckoned.

Bergqvist was clearly world class but she had to wait a few years before claiming the major honours she seemed destined for. She finished fourth at the World Championships in 1999 then had to be satisfied with a string of bronze medals, first at the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000, and then at the Worlds in Edmonton in 2001 and Paris in 2003.

Indoors, however, Bergqvist had her first major success when she won the European Indoor title in 2000, leaping 2.00m for the first time. In 2001 she won the World Indoors, again clearing 2.00m, and in Birmingham in 2003 she retained her title with a clearance of 2.01m.

That was a good year. She broke the Swedish record indoors, with a clearance of 2.03m in Stockholm, and outdoors, when she cleared 2.06m in Eberstadt, a performance which ranks her as the third best high jumper of all time.

With an Olympic year coming up, Bergqvist seemed set to challenge for the greatest prize of all. But that all changed at the beginning of the 2004 summer season when she ruptured her left Achilles tendon. The injury destroyed her Olympic hopes and, for a while, she feared it had destroyed her career too.

“Of course, I realised my career could be over but I refused to give in to negative feeling,” she says. “I was 100 per cent motivated to get back on the circuit as quickly as possible.”

Luckily the injury was not to her take-off leg, and not only did she get back to jumping but a year later she was back at the top.

After winning her first World outdoor gold last summer Bergqvist seemed all set to dominate one of the most highly competitive of all women’s events. She ended the season at the top of the world lists after clearing 2.03m in Sheffield, and at the top of the IAAF World Rankings, where she has been ever since.

She then stamped her mark on the indoor season by breaking Heike Henkel’s 14-year-old World record with a jump of 2.08m in Arnstadt, Germany. “It was a fantastic jump and I am overwhelmed with joy,” said Bergqvist afterwards. “I had a feeling that something special could happen today.”

Something special seemed to be on the cards for the IAAF World Indoor Championships in Moscow too, but injury struck again when Bergqvist twisted her ankle in February. “I don’t want to take any risks before the outdoor season,” she said, explaining her decision to skip Moscow. “My big goal this year is to win the European Athletics Championships on my home ground. Of course, I would like to challenge the World outdoor record of 2.09m too, something I feel I am very capable of.”

Her ankle healed, Bergqvist began the outdoor season where she’d left off, winning. She finished first at the IAAF Super Grand Prix meeting in Doha at the beginning of May, clearing 1.97m.

But the consistency of 2005 was missing and she could only clear 1.93m at the Prefontaine meeting in Eugene and the Golden League meeting in Oslo, finishing a disappointing fourth both times. She also had to withdraw from the British Grand Prix in Gateshead in early June with a stomach upset.

She recovered well, though, to win the European Cup in Malaga on 29 June, although again she wasn’t happy with her height, 1.97m, saying, “I know I will have to jump over two metres in Gothenburg.”

Four days later the required improvement duly arrived as she cleared 2.00m to win the Tsiklitiria meeting in Athens on 3 July. She cleared the same height again at the Golden League meeting in Paris five days later but was pushed down into second on count-back, and was disappointed to finish third at the Golden Gala in Rome the following week. For an athlete who went through 2005 unbeaten, this could have been cause for anxiety.

But Bergqvist is too sure of herself for that. The breakthrough came in her home stadium in Sollentuna on 16 July when she jumped a world leading 2.04m to win the Swedish championships, followed by victories in Stockholm and, on Friday, in London.

“The season started rather poorly,” she says. “But I have come in to good shape and my last competition puts me in a good position.”

Not that she’s complacent. Indeed, a glance at this year’s world list shows just how tough it will be for Bergqvist to retain her title. Apart from world silver medallist Chaunté Howard and her fellow American Amy Acuff, the top ten in the world and Europe are almost identical, with Bulgaria’s Venelina Veneva and Croatia’s Blanka Vlasic sitting just behind Bergqvist with bests of 2.03m.

Bergqvist herself names Vlasic, Russia’s Yelena Slesarenko and Belgium’s new record holder Tia Hellebaut as her strongest challengers. Russia’s Yekaterina Savchenko and Anna Chicherova, plus Spain’s Ruth Beitia, will also be tough competitors, not to mention Sweden’s Emma Green, the world bronze medallist.

“There are many strong gold medal contenders,” she says. It won’t be easy. But Bergqvist, her confidence boosted in the south London sunshine, is convinced home advantage will work in her favour.

“Of course there will be extra pressure on me but I don’t think that is a negative thing,” she says. “At least not for me. I think the Swedish crowd is going to help me jump even higher.”

And if she can clear 2.05m in London feeling 95 per cent, who knows what’s possible with a stadium full of passionate yellow? The women’s High Jump final is on Friday 11 August.

Matthew Brown for the IAAF