Annika Becker of Germany, pole vault silver medallist (© Getty Images)
Germany’s Annika Becker did not make it to the European Indoor Championships that took place in Madrid last weekend. But the recent career of one of the women’s Pole Vault’s greatest talents is one of the epic stories of this indoor season.
After a shocking accident in training a year ago the 23 year-old switched from the Pole Vault to the Long Jump in this indoor season. And she has not yet decided when it will be time for her to return to her former specialty.
World Championships silver
Little more than one and a half years ago she had set the highlight of the season for German athletics. At the IAAF World Championships in Paris Annika Becker won a silver medal by jumping 4.70 m. And she placed herself in between the Russians Swetlana Feofanowa and Yelena Isinbajewa, beating the later one who meanwhile dominates the event.
Becker’s success in Paris had come as some relief for German athletics who had been desperately waiting for such a show of form. And the young pole vaulter’s personality was exactly what athletics in Germany needed so badly. She is open-minded, has a naturalness and shows no strange star like behaviours. In Paris she had been asked is she sometimes is afraid of taking a jump. “I am not afraid but I have respect – you can not be afraid if you do pole vaulting”, she replied and added: “But I don’t like climbing up ladders.”
Crash landing
In the following winter she seemed to step up on her career’s ladder. On 4th February 2004 Annika Becker improved the German indoor record to 4.68 m. But a couple of days later disaster struck. During a training jump her pole broke. Head first she crashed down on the Pole Vault mat. “Luckily...I landed on the mat first before sliding into the pole box”, Annika Becker recalls.
And she had been very lucky indeed. A tendon in her neck had been partly torn. After a couple of days in hospital and a three week break from training she started again. “But at first it was just some low key training to keep the body fit.” After a training camp in April she started pole vaulting again. In her first competition of the Olympic season she jumped 4.04 metres, but after two more meetings and a slight improvement to 4.20 she decided to end the season.
“I was fit, but having lost so much training in the months before technically I was not ready. That was the reason not to continue.” Instead of going to Athens as a medal candidate she went on holiday. “I did not see much of the Olympics but that was okay for me.”
Not yet getting that edgy feeling
Since June 2004 Annika Becker, who studies in Erfurt and wants to become a teacher at a primary school, has not jumped with a pole. Asked if she has mentally overcome the accident she says: “When I jumped in June 2004 I had a lot of respect. But the mental problem cannot be that big since I did come back and did jump.” What is lacking at present is a certain attitude needed for pole vaulting. “I have to feel that I am really ready, you have to be edgy – that feeling has not returned yet.” She had not consulted a psychologist after the accident. “Every couple of days I hear people saying that I should have gone to a psychologist. They think they have to give me some clever advice. But that is my decision. If I think I need to do this then I will do – otherwise I don’t do it.”
Missed European Indoor Long Jump selection by 10cm
”I feel fine now – and I am training as much as usual. But for now I am doing long jump. I have always liked doing this – especially when I was a youth athlete.” Her development in the Long Jump has been quite good. Already two years ago she had a jump of 6.15m. In her first proper Long Jump season she has now progressed to 6.45 m, missing the German qualifying standard for the European Indoors by ten centimetres. At the national indoor championships she won a bronze medal with 6.40m. “I would have liked going to Madrid as a long jumper but I did not really expect to qualify.”
A comeback?
Becker does not know how long it would take to get back into top form at the Pole Vault. Having vaulted 4.77 metres back in 2002 as a 20-year-old she still holds fifth place in the all-time list. But of course she watches the development in the event, especially Yelena Isinbajewa. But Becker does not seem to be afraid of falling back to far in these times. “The development of the women’s Pole Vault does not come as a surprise to me. You had to expect this.”
Asked about headlines in the German press like ‘Annika Becker – never any Pole Vault again?’ she says: “I have never said this.” And when does she think she will return? “I can not say yet. But I will announce it if time comes.“ The way she says it you can get the impression that the comeback is not that far away.
Jörg Wenig for the IAAF
