News10 Mar 2006


A new lease of life for Thörnblad - World Indoor Championships

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Linus Thörnblad of Sweden clears the bar in Moscow (© Getty Images)

Moscow, RussiaA change of attitude and a change of direction coupled with harder training have given Sweden’s Linus Thörnblad a new lease of life that sees him as the future of Swedish high jumping.

The 21-year-old from IFK Lund progressed to the final of the World Indoor Championships in Moscow today with a clean card and is looking forward to the final: “It was especially good that I went over everything at the first try,” he said. “I struggled a bit with 2.24 but everything clicked for 2.27. I shall be trying to reproduce that form in the final. It’s going to be great,” said the youngster, clearly relishing the prospect.

It should not be too surprising that Thörnblad is so up for tomorrow’s competition. So far this year, he has been in the form of his life, going over 2.34 on Valentine’s Day for a lifetime best indoors or out and outstripping his more famous compatriot, Stefan Holm, so far this year, though he had to give best to the triple World Indoor champion in the Swedish championships.

Former European Junior bronze, Thörnblad had hit a ceiling in his career and was stagnating around 2.30, finding it hard to progress beyond that until his indoor best of 2.31 last winter overtook that.

But a talking to by his new coach, Pole Stanislaw Szczyrba, and the stagnation seems to have passed. Szczyrba, a former pole vaulter, has been a regular on the Swedish athletics scene since he moved there 20 years ago. He started coaching Thörnblad in the autumn of 2004. Amongst others he has coached is the Icelandic pole vault champion Vala Flosadottir who lived in Lund from the age of 14 and went on to take World Indoor silver and Olympic bronze. Szczyrba also took Malmö’s Philip Nossmy to the European junior 110m hurdles title.

The new coach’s input started to really kick in this year. In Malmö Thörnblad broke through to 2.33 and improved on that by one centimetre in Banska Bystrica where he finished second to the Ukraine’s Andriy Sokolovskiy.

One talked-about failing in the past was his dislike of jumping abroad.  But there was no sign of that old aversion in the Moscow qualifiers as he bounded over the heights without any inhibitions.

As a sign of the new Thörnblad, he practised for the early morning start by getting up at 04.30 every day back home in Sweden so that his body would be ready for the shock of an AM start that can catch even the most experienced out.

“I feel as though I am starting anew,” Thörnblad told the Swedish federation website earlier this year. “I am now more secure in my whole approach, my life works, my team works well, and it all seems more in harmony than before.

“Of course it was very difficult to change course and try something different when I knew I could go over 2.30 in my usual way. But without Stanley, there would not have been any change,” he added, pointing to the catalyst for his metamorphosis from journeyman to the elite.

“But I’ve still got a lot to learn, there’s still a long way to go, technically it can be much better and I can also train harder than I do now.”

Michael Butcher for the IAAF

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