Mark Butler for IAAF
An unknown Austrian club runner has played a key role in the success of a woman who has a strong claim to be the female indoor athlete of 2000. Klaus Mödritscher is the training partner of Stephanie Graf. Like the Russian teenage sensation Yuriy Borzakovskiy, Graf completed an unbeaten season in Glasgow last weekend with a brilliant win at 800m followed by a scintillating relay run.
If anything, Graf (26) was even more impressive than Borzakovskiy at the CGU International. She scored an easy win at 800m over tough rival Natalya Tsyganova, then returned an hour or so later to give world junior 400m champion Natalya Nazarova a fright on the anchor of the 4x400m relay. The Austrian's split of 50.99 was far and away the quickest 400m run by a woman indoors this year, matching nicely with her world-leading 800m of 1:57.80 set in Birmingham last month. Her fastest outdoors is 1:57.07 from last year. Seven days before Glasgow, the Austrian - like Borzakovskiy - was an easy winner of the European Indoor 800m title in Ghent. That victory replaces her 1998 European outdoor bronze as the biggest achievement in her 16 years as a runner.
Graf is quick to attribute her indoor success to telecom worker Mödritscher, but he was not present at any of Graf's big races. His job had been done alongside Graf in training sessions throughout the winter. It is not unknown for women and men to train together, but in Graf's case it was a result of a unusual plan to step up her training for Olympic year.
"I advertised in a newspaper that I was looking for a young guy who is able to run the 800m in 1:55, and who would want to train with me," she explained. "I would pay all his expenses. A guy from my own club was reading this and we got in contact and so it started." Graf had received "five or six" replies. She picked Mödritscher, whose 800m personal best is 1:55.72, on the recommendation of some mutual friends at their club, Klagenfurter LC.
The two started training together last September, and the plan has worked perfectly. "I am training more," explained Stephanie. "Last year, for example, I did 15 times 300m and I would think 'that's enough', I didn't want to do any more. This year, I have done 20 times 300m together with Klaus."
Who is the quicker of the two ? "I can beat him," she laughed, "but I shouldn't because he's shy and he has to learn to fight."
All around the world athletes are knuckling down to new levels of training with Sydney in mind, and Graf is no exception. Besides the intesified running schedule with Mödritscher, she is now lifting weights three times a week. Last year it was just twice.
Graf is happy to be called Steffi and did once meet her tennis legend namesake. Steffi Graf the runner is a mathematics student and fluent in German, Italian, English and Latin. She plans to become a teacher after retiring from the sport. Her coach of the past seven years is Hubert Stechemesser, who was also coach to the 1996 Olympic 1500m bronze medallist Thersia Kiesl (now retired and happily on the mend from an horrific riding accident last August).
There are two further members of the Graf training team: Austrian 400m record holder Karoline Käfer and Graf's own mother Rita. Both are also training partners to Graf. As Rita Merva, Mrs Graf was herself an Austrian Champion, 17 times at various distances in the 1970s. Stephanie thinks her mother, now 47, can still run 800m quicker than 2:10. Not surprising when one considers the sessions mother and daughter currently undertake. "When I'm doing 20 times 400m," reveals Graf, "she will do 20 times 200m." Can any other world class athlete claim to have such a fit parent ? It was because her mother was a runner that Stephanie took up running from the age of 10, having already had some success as a slalom skier at a very young age. Like her mother, Graf has been Austrian Champion at 1500m. In fact she won her first national title at this distance in 1991, but she's only run the event a handful of times since then. "I hate running 1500m because it's too long," she said. "I tried several times but I always stop after 700m because I think 'oh sugar', another 800m."
She is happier running 400m and must now be regarded as the world's best 400/800m type after Jearl Miles-Clark. Graf lists Miles-Clark as one of her chief rivals for Sydney, where she states her target is to reach the final. "I know it will be very difficult," she reflected. "I will have to run 1:56 because Miles-Clark can run very fast. Formanová, Tsyganova, Masterkova, Mutola, Benhasi, and maybe Kelly Holmes will all be there. Only eight can reach the final ... it will be very tough."
© Mark Butler 2000
Mark Butler is a Consultant to the IAAF and Athletics Statistician for BBC
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