Is pole vaulter Maksym Mazuryk's time about to arrive?

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Is pole vaulter Maksym Mazuryk's time about to arrive?

Unread postby rainbowgirl28 » Wed Sep 16, 2009 10:38 am

http://www.european-athletics.org/index ... 8&Itemid=2

Is pole vaulter Maksym Mazuryk's time about to arrive?

16.09.2009
Ukrainian pole vaulter Maksym Mazuryk partially made up for missing out on a medal at the IAAF World Championships with a victory at the World Athletics Final last weekend.

The 2002 world junior champion has now set his sights on getting on the podium at next summer's European Athletics Championships in Barcelona.

"It's been a good season and I'm glad it came to an end in such a way. Finishing fourth at the World Championships left a bitter feeling but it was really the only disappointing moment of the summer. The World Athletics Final was revenge for me, to show that I was still capable of a very good result," said the 26-year-old who is now based in the pole vaulting Mecca of Donetsk.

"If I had vaulted a personal best in Greece than that would have been the perfect end to the season but I can say that I'm satisfied, it was a victory in a strong competition. I was fighting to get my personal best (which is 5.82m from last year) and had the bar raised to 5.85. I was on my stiffest poles, which I've only used twice this season, and I felt good, but it was not to be," added Mazuryk, whose best this year was the 5.80m he vaulted in Monaco eight weeks ago.

Mazuryk finished the season on a high note by winning three of his last four competitions, the exception being the World Championships.

"I left Berlin with a feeling of emptiness, frustration and unfinished business. In Berlin, I was in great physical shape. With the naked eye it was evident that I could jump much higher," he reflected.

Watching Mazuryk in Thessaloniki last weekend was the Ukrainian pole vault legend Sergey Bubka, the 1986 European champion, who is now an IAAF Vice-President and still the world record holder.

"At the World Championships he (Mazuryk) finally showed his potential even if, in my opinion, he didn't reveal it all. However, fourth place was still good and perhaps his time has now come. For him to improve further though, he needs to look at his lack of speed. Moreover, it seems to me that Maxim is a few kilos overweight," said Bubka, giving a few pointers to where Mazuryk can improve and make further progress towards scaling the six-metre barrier.

Ukrainian athletics as a whole will be looking for redemption in Barcelona, not just Mazuryk alone, after a modest display at the World Championships.

They left Berlin without a single medal, although a quartet of athletes - Mazuryk, decathlete Oleksiy Kasyanov, 800m runner Yuliya Krevsun and reigning Olympic heptathlon champion Natalya Dobrynska - all finished fourth.

The result compared starkly with the five medals, including Dobrynska's gold, won by the country just 12 months ago at the Olympics Games in Beijing.

In the wake of the relatively poor results in Berlin, the Ukrainian federation president Valery Borzov has promised to look closely at how his country's top athletes prepare for major championships, with a view to also improving on the three medals won at the last European Athletics Championships in Gothenburg three years ago.

"Our training system in the past has been based on personal trust with coaches. Now I think is the time to introduce a centralised training programme," the famous former sprinter, who won the 100m and 200m gold medals at the 1972 Olympics, told local media recently.

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