News08 Dec 2008


Raúl Spank aiming at Berlin glory on the road to London 2012

FacebookTwitterEmail

Raul Spank celebrates his fifth place at the Beijing Olympic Games (© IAAF.org)

The men’s and women’s High Jump competitions provided major surprises at the Olympic Games in Beijing. Not only did Tia Hellebaut beat Blanca Vlasic but would have thought of Britain’s Germaine Mason taking silver? And who had heard of Raúl Spank, the German who took fifth place, before the Beijing Games? This was the best placing in an Olympic High Jump final for Germany since Dietmar Mögenburg’s gold 24 years ago! Back in 1984 Raúl Spank wasn’t even born.

And to make it more dramatic the 20-year-old youngster had not jumped higher than 2.24m before this year and only cleared a personal best of 2.12m three years ago. Suddenly he was up there in Beijing almost snatching a medal with a personal best of 2.32m.

His was the biggest and the only real surprise the German team produced just one year before the World Championships will be held in Berlin. The National Athletics magazine ‘Leichtathletik’ only awarded a top score of ‘1’ – the best mark one can get in Germany’s school system – when judging the performances of the national athletes at the Olympics. It went to Raúl Spank who fully deserved it.

From football to track

As a child Spank hoped to become a football player. He enterd his hometown club TSV Cossebaude, near Dresden. But already in primary school it became obvious that he was a real track and field talent. His school’s director suggested he joined an Athletics Club. So up to the age of 14 to 15 he practiced both athletics and football.

“My favourite role in football was forward, but I also played in defence and midfield,” says Spank. As a 14 year-old he switched football clubs and joined the well-known Dynamo Dresden. But it did not work for various reasons.

“One was that I was not willing to run too much in midfield. At a heart rate of 160 I was unable to control the ball.”

But there was something else which made him turn away from football at this stage.

“I liked it when I was winning in athletics because in contrast to football I did not need to share this triumph with others,” explains Spank. He liked High Jump in particular and when he achieved 1.88m at the age of 15 he thought: “This is it, though I was doing well at other events as well.”

And he still sometimes competes in other events. After Beijing he achieved a personal best of 7.08m in the Long Jump. “I think I could jump 7.30m but somehow I feel that the Long Jump is not my event. I would much more like to try the Triple Jump one day,” explains Spank, who sometimes steps up when his club mates need him for a relay competition.

When he was competing at the German Championships in 2006 he jumped 2.20m for third place and then ran the 4x200m junior final just 15 minutes later, winning this one for the Dresdner SC.

“But one week later I underperformed at the German Youth Championships with 2.13m. Since then I am more careful with relays.”

Nontheless in 2007 he was part of his club’s 4x200m relay team that broke the national indoor club record for under-20 with 1:26.34. In the 4x400m he achieved a lap time of 48.9 seconds in 2006. “I try to take on any all the joys athletics can offer.”

There's nothing better than High Jump

But nothing will put him off the High Jump. When he once decided to do this event he had particular reasons.

“You are always attempting a specific height so one can instantly see your performance. Additionally it is good that one is able to watch the opponents. And you get your individual support when you are standing at the run-up,” explains Spank. “For me the High Jump has something to do with the dream of flying and doing it without a pole or any other help.”

When he started the High Jump Sweden’s Stefan Holm and the current World record holder Javier Sotomayor became his idols. “At the age of 16 I started finding out about the German records. That was when I read about Carlo Thränhardt and Dietmar Mögenburg.”

Coached by Jörg Elbe and Erika Falz, who had already worked with him when he was 15, Spank does most of his training in Dresden. “I usually do seven or eight training sessions per week and I do a maximum of two training camps per year. I really do more or less all my training here.”

This has also to do with his studies. After finishing school last year he started studying economy science in Dresden. “I am interested in the connections of the economy. Before deciding to go for this I had thought of taking up geography or medcine. But with geography the job chances are not too good and studying medcine would have been very time consuming.”

Berlin World champs is main target 

Planning an indoor season Spank says that his first aim will be to feel comfortable at around 2.30m. Outdoors he then would like to be able to jump that comfortably in competition. “If I can do that it might be possible as well to achieve something like 2.35 or 2.36 if everything fits together,” he says. “Obviously it is unrealistic to once more manage an improvement by eight centimetres in the coming year. And I think it would be better for me to improve constantly bit by bit than jumping a huge personal best and then being unable to get back to that mark in the future.”

Next year’s World Championships in Berlin obviously are a special occasion for Spank. “I want to improve on my placing from Beijing. And obviously a fourth place is not really the one you are going for,” says the fifth placer from the 2006 World Junior Championships in Beijing. He had achieved that despite a broken wrist, which had not been diagnosed by doctors after he had fallen off his bike shortly before these championships. “It was only when I came back from Beijing and was unable to steer my car that the extend of the injury was discovered.”

So a medal in front of the home crowd in Berlin is his dream for 2009. Apart from that in the future he hopes to break the German outdoor record of 2.37m from Carlo Thränhardt. “I always want to measure myself with the very best athletes. I want to become number one and one day win the Olympic gold – this is my aim and my dream. And that is what I work for.”

When Raúl Spank was signing autographs at a meeting in Eberstadt Stefan Holm had a look at his cards. “I asked him if he wanted to have one. Then he said yes and added: in case you win in London 2012 it’s good to have it!”

Jörg Wenig for the IAAF


 

Pages related to this article
DisciplinesCompetitions
Loading...