Danny Ecker after his German Championship win (© Bongarts / Getty)
Stuttgart, GermanyAt the very end of his best ever season Danny Ecker will stage some sort of a comeback at the IAAF / VTB Bank World Athletics Final, Stuttgart, Germany, 22/ 23 September 2007.
It was eight years ago that the German pole vaulter had last qualified for the IAAF World Athletics Final (WAF) or its predecessor the IAAF Grand Prix Final. It is a coincidence that the venues from 1999 and 2007 are both in Germany and little more than an hour’s drive apart. While this weekend’s final will be held in Stuttgart’s Daimler Stadium, eight years ago the Grand Prix Final was held in Munich’s Olympic Stadium. But Ecker will hope that there will not be any more parallels to 1999 this weekend, since he had finished last in that competition with a clearance of 5.50m.
“I am happy that I have qualified for the World Athletics Final since it is a long time ago that I did manage to do so,” said Ecker, who showed good form after Osaka, where he had taken the bronze medal. In last Sunday’s final IAAF Golden League Meeting in Berlin he won the pole vault with a 5.86m leap, which was just one centimetre short of his season’s best.
“Stuttgart’s World Athletics Final has a very big significance for me,” said Ecker, who has a baby daughter with his wife Katrin. “Having qualified for that confirms that I have had a very strong season with stable results. And obviously there is quite a financial incentive as well.”
In Osaka, first German men’s Pole Vault medal
Although German pole vaulting has been world class for many years it was down to Ecker this year to break a deadlock. Never before has a German pole vaulter won a medal at a World championship. Now the 30-year-old Ecker took the bronze in Osaka. “This was a very strong competition. I am proud of having won this first world championships’ medal for the German pole vault.” added Ecker, the son of Heide Rosendahl, the Olympic Long Jump champion and winner in the 4x100m Relay in Munich in 1972.
Ten years ago it had looked as if Ecker could become Germany’s Sergey Bubka in the event. At the age of 20 he took a bronze medal at the European Indoor Championships in 1998. Three years later he cleared 6.00m indoors, which still stands as the German indoor record. But another two years later he was plagued by injuries, the shoulder being the main problem. Due to this he missed more than a year-and-a-half of competition. “There were times when I asked myself if it would make sense to continue with the sport,” Ecker recalls.
He did not stop, mainly for two reasons. One was that he realised that there was no development in men’s Pole Vault regarding the best heights. So he knew that if he would come back reaching the same form as before the shoulder injury he would still be among the world’s best. The second reason was that he wanted to qualify for the Olympics again. He made it to Athens, where he finished fifth. He was eighth in Sydney 2000.
But it is this year which is his best ever. Indoors he took the gold at the European Championships in Birmingham in March. In the summer he jumped 5.87m, which is his best after his return from injury. Then he took the bronze in Osaka. And now Ecker heads for Stuttgart looking for more success. Regarding the next two years he looks ahead optimistically: “I am looking very forward to the Olympic Games next year. And in 2009 we will have the World Championships in Berlin – there is nothing better that can happen to an athlete than having such a championship in your own country.”
Jörg Wenig for the IAAF
