Czech pole vaulter Jiřina Ptáčníková is one of the rising stars of her event after improving her personal best to 4.60m during the winter and finishing fifth at the World Indoor Championships in Doha last month. She now feels that a major championship medal is within her grasp and the European Athletics Championships Barcelona 2010.
Ptáčníková had been close to having a medal hung around her neck on several occasions during her career in the junior ranks but, apart from winning at the World University Games last year, she has had to settle for a series of pats on her back. She was fifth at the 2003 World Youth Championships and went one place better at the 2005 European Athletics Junior Championships.
"If I can duplicate my fifth place from Doha at the European Athletics Championships in Barcelona this summer then I would be happy. The Championships will almost be as strong as the World Indoor Championships because, apart from one Brazilian, all the other top women pole vaulters are European," said Ptáčníková, in an interview with the Czech athletics federation web site http://www.atletika.cz.
"A medal would be great but there will also be three good Russians in Barcelona, not just two like in Doha," added the 23-year-old, who also has ambitions of beating Katerina Badurova's Czech record of 4.75m during the summer.
"I was just a few millimetres away from going over a bar at 4.65m on several occasions during the winter, which would have equalled the Czech indoor record (held by Badurova since 2007). I believe I can get her record outdoors but I'm not the type of competitor that will just suddenly improve by 20 centimetres, I will creep up on it inch by inch," added Ptáčníková.
Ptáčníková has also bounced back mentally in the last 18 months. After doing well as a teenager, but she admits that she struggled to motivate herself after crashing out of the qualifying competition at the last European Athletics Championships four years ago, when she could only clear a modest 3.80m and finished in 27th and last place.
"After that I suffered for two years, from the European Athletics Championships in Göteborg until the end of the 2008 season. It does not encourage you when you are 21 and people keep telling you that you are unpromising and you will succeed at nothing, which is what happened. My parents helped me a lot as they had both been athletes. I then began to devote myself to training. I discovered my desire to do well," reflected Ptáčníková.
She will start her outdoor campaign at the IAAF Diamond League meeting in Doha on 14 May but will only compete sparingly during the next two months ahead of Barcelona.
"I'm definitely thinking about the Czech championships but possibly I will do just one other meeting before Barcelona. Last year, I made a mistake. I had several competitions in a short space of time and by the World Championships I was tired and struggling with some minor injuries," added Ptáčníková.
http://www.bcn2010.org/paginasFront/Not ... WQFwMK-0Eg