Ariane Friedrich joins the 2m club in Glasgow (© Getty Images)
High jumper Ariane Friedrich believes a return to training in the great outdoors has brought about the dramatic improvement which has seen the German emerge as a genuine challenger for a medal at the 12th IAAF World Indoor Championships, Valencia, Spain (7-9 March).
Friedrich has advanced her personal best by a massive 0.08 during the indoor season and four-times clearing the magic 2.00m barrier in competition with a personal best of 2.02m at the German meet in Weinheim.
Yet the 2003 European Junior champion, who up until this year had struggled to realise her talent shown as a teenager, has a simple explanation for why she is currently enjoying the best form of her career.
“We changed the basics in training and I went back to my roots,” Friedrich said. “In the past we didn’t have the great facilities that we currently have in Frankfurt and maybe last year I went inside to train when it was cold, but this was a big mistake.
“This winter I have gone back outside to train in the rain and the cold. I did many, many exercises like climbing up the stairs and the steps in the stadium and jumping outside.”
As a consequence Friedrich, 24, has rediscovered a more hardened competitive edge, which has enabled her to break into the elite in world high jumping this season.
Grown up sportsperson
Her coach Gunter Eisinger supports Friedrich’s theory but believes the lifestyle changes implemented by the World University Games silver medallist have also brought about the improved form.
“She has grown up as a sportsperson, learned not to go to discos and work hard as a sportsperson,” Eisinger explained. “She lives much closer to her aims.”
Friedrich was born in Nordhausen in the old East of Germany but moved west with her parents when she was young to the village of Helsa in the central German province of Hessen.
An accomplished all round sportswoman and talented volleyball player, it was only when she discovered a flair for the high jump that she decided to seriously pursue athletics.
A talented teenager, Friedrich gave a clear indication of her bright future after taking the 2003 European Junior title in Tampere, but she found progress difficult to attain as a senior, a fact which Eisinger believes was down to discipline.
“If was difficult,” I had to show her the right way,” said Eisinger of her early years as a senior athlete. “She was a little wild and had so many other things going on her life. She seems now to have settled down.”
Friedrich also benefits from being on a special sports development programme for elite athletes, where she is training as a police officer as set up by the German Ministry for Sport. The course lasts some four-and-a-half years but she is allowed plenty of time from her studies to concentrate on her training and the combination appears to be paying off.
She began the year holding an overall personal best of 1.94m (outdoors) but in her first indoor competition of the season Friedrich jumped 1.97m in Stadtallendorf and in her following competition cleared 1.99m in Hustopece in the Czech Republic.
But, arguably, her big breakthrough came at the Norwich Union International match in Glasgow when for the first time in her career she negotiated the 2.00m barrier and proved it was no fluke by clearing the same height to win the European Indoor Cup competition in Moscow (16), claiming the scalp of 2006 World Indoor bronze medallist Ruth Beitia of Spain and Italy’s outdoor World Championships silver medallist Antionetta di Martino.
And such has been her impact it had not gone unnoticed by the world’s top jumpers, as even before her 2.01m PB in the German champs Friedrich received a congratulatory text message from Russia’s Olympic champion Yelena Slesarenko in the wake of her European Cup win in Moscow.
The German champion went one step higher when clearing 2.02m midweek, in a competition where she had three fair attempts at 2.05m just one month after her first 2m clearance.
Coach believes she can jump higher
But while Friedrich has expressed surprise at her achievements this year, Eisinger admits she showed the potential to jump much higher last summer.
“Last year Ariane jumped 1.94m in Eberstadt and 1.93m in Weinheim but she had the height in both competitions to jump 1.97-1.98m, so I knew it was only a question of the right time. I don’t want to say what height she can jump in the future, because it would put her under so much pressure, but I know she can jump higher.”
Friedrich’s next big test will come at the World Indoor Championships, which will prove an important benchmark for the progress she has made so far this season. In Valencia she will face a world-class field and is realistic about what she hopes to accomplish.
“I want to reach the final and aim for a medal, but it will be tough because it will be two competitions (with qualifying) in two days,” she explained.
For the summer her primary goal is to qualify for the Olympic Games in Beijing but she was wary about looking too far ahead.
“I just want to take the season step by step and see what happens for the rest of the indoor season,” she added.
Steve Landells for the IAAF
