Tim Lobinger (GER) celebrates in Donetsk (© Sergey Vaganov)
Germany’s Tim Lobinger, the reigning European Indoor Pole Vault champion has suffered from a bad bout of influenza in the last few weeks, but that didn’t stop the 30-year-old becoming German Indoor champion, three weeks before the World Indoor Championships in Birmingham.
At those championships in Leipzig (22-23 February), Lobinger suffered, shivering with fever and a cold which prevented him from jumping more than 5.80m.
”If this had been a meeting and not the German Championships, I never would have jumped today”, Lobinger confirmed, and then with a grin he told a ‘secret’, “I promised my son Lex Tyger that I would give my best, even though I was ill, because it was his birthday."
This is the real Tim Lobinger. He always has something to tell besides the competition itself.
This winter nobody has jumped better in the world. He has changed clubs a lot in the last few years and now he belongs to the ASV Köln again.
Originally he wanted to start in the Sindelfingen meeting the weekend before last, but he didn’t feel well, so he cancelled his plans. He prefers to win a medal in Birmingham. “After my influenza I wasn’t fit enough to show what I am really able of doing,” said the bronze medal winner from last summer’s European outdoor Championships in Munich.
Lobinger always is interesting for the media, as he was the first German athlete ever to clear the dream six metres. Also, Lobinger loves the show, has the colourful image of a ‘bird of paradise’ and an eccentric personality to go with it, and one which lives in extremes.
He starts about 50 competitions each year and loves that. “I need the competitions, the atmosphere and the experience, as it increases the chance to have a prefect jump.”
However, he has had his problems like the rest of us. He has had a very hard time, since splitting up with his wife Petra, a former triple jumper. “The situation is hard, especially as we have our two children Kendra Fee and Lex Tyger.“ But he has totally changed his life in the last few month. Even though he feels there are inner conflicts in his life, he is happy. He retains a lot of joy of life and energy, which has a positive effect of his competitions.
Even if his private life is not easy, his sport, which means his job, seems to work how it should, and he remains a popular athlete outside the stadium too. He was the first athlete, to give a big interview with the German people magazine "Bunte", which usually writes about actors and popstars. And the highlight in the report: they called him ‘Adonis’. A big compliment for a newspaper, which is not interested in athletics. But Tim Lobinger, the successful athlete, the self-willed showman, did it!
At the beginning of February, he confirmed that he had fallen in love again, with Alina, a 22-year-old woman, who works for a local television in Munich. They met each other at the European Championships, when Alina wanted to get an interview with him, which was not easy at that moment, because Tim Lobinger wasn’t in the best mood after ‘only’ getting a bronze….
At the beginning of January he was in a training camp for two weeks in South Africa. “This was a great time. South Africa is my favourite country in the world anyway. I had good results and I lost weight, now I have 85 Kilos, and that is five less than last year.” And he had very good results, until he suffered his influenza.
Lobinger is one of the favourites for Birmingham. Last year, together with the USA jumper Jeff Hartwig he was for the first time the number one in the world. This gave him still more self confidence. He loves Pole Vault, his sport is his life - not only because he is a professional jumper and he earns his money by winning, but because his sport is his passion.
But even though he has been jumping for 15 years he has never won a medal at the World indoors. Having cleared six metres in both 1997 and 1999, he has a lot of unfulfilled potential. “I have a lot to catch up on,” he says. It is a situation Lobinger wants to change in Birmingham. And finally it seems to be the right moment. If not now, then when…?
Ursula Kaiser for the IAAF
