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News31 Jan 2001


Heike Drechsler starts the year with punch

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By Ursula Kaiser

31 January 2001 - She started the season in the same way she ended last year - successfully. Heike Drechsler was once again the best jumper and won her event at the Indoor Meeting in Karlsruhe last weekend - on her doorstep - with 6.69 m. Even when Ludmila Galkina, the 1997 world champion was leading with 6.62m until the fifth attempt, she kept her calm and didn’t get nervous.

The Karlsruhe spectators didn’t notice that the 36-year-old Olympic champion had a cold. Only three days before Heike Drechsler had been in bed suffering from a fever, a red nose and swollen eyes. But the tall blond is a fighter. Relaxing, "sweating it all out" and taking medicine enabled her to participate at her first competition in 2001. "I didn’t expect a result like this in these circumstances", she said after the meeting.

But it was not only her illness that has left her exhausted. The months which have followed her stunning gold medal victory in Sydney have been difficult for her. She has become a highly sought after celebrity. Named Germany’s sportswoman of the year, she has received many prizes, running from one gala and party to another.

The mother of an 11-year-old boy had a lot of duties. But the celebrations are over now. The season has just begun and Heike Drechsler is not the type to rest on her laurels. She is still ambitious. And hungry.

Hungry for the long jump. And hungry for success. "I am happy that the season is beginning again", said Heike Drechsler, who lives with her partner, the former European Decathlon Champion, Alain Blondel in Karlsruhe.

Friday she will jump at the meeting in Erfurt, before going on to Stuttgart on Sunday. "I hope the following weeks will go well and I have a good chance of winning the title at the World Indoor Championships in Lisbon at the beginning of March."

The German has made some changes this year and is now coached by Romanian Dan Vladescu, who helped high jumper Alina Astafei win a silver medal at the Oympic Games in Barcelona 1992.

"At the moment we are doing a lot of speed work and I have already noticed the difference it has made", says Drechsler. She plans to compete until the European Championships 2002 in Munich. After that, she hopes to get a contract from her club in Karlsruhe to care for young talented children. Maybe one day she will find a talent like herself. But those plans are still in the future, and for now her priority remains winning.

This year’s indoor season is a stepping stone to the World Championships in Edmonton in August, because she still wants to fight for gold, even though some of her competitors could be almost her daughters. But Heike Drechsler doesn’t want to give up. And when she’s out there, the public is always guaranteed big jumps.

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