Robson up, up... and away to Pan Am Games (Canada)

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Robson up, up... and away to Pan Am Games
Former gymnast pole-vaults her way to Mexico
By: Allan Besson
Posted: 09/19/2011 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)
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john woods / winnipeg free press Vicky Robson practises her vaults at the University of Manitoba. She is the lone Manitoban on Canada�s Pan Am track and field team.
As if bouncing off uneven bars, flying off vault boxes and balancing on beams weren't enough, Vicky Robson now soars 4.20 metres and higher thanks to her coach and newlywed husband Scot Dressler.
The 4.20 mark was a personal best this summer for the gymnast turned pole vaulter and it garnered her top Canadian and second overall at the Victoria International Track Classic.
Last week, the member of the Winnipeg Optimists Athletic Club got a call from Athletics Canada, inviting her to participate in the Pan American Games Oct. 23-29 in Guadalajara, Mexico. She'll be the lone Manitoban out of 17 track and field athletes at the Games.
Actually, her husband can't take all the credit for her success. Her coaches at Panthers Gym Club, Robert Persechino and Helene Desmarais, actually pointed her toward the pole vault about five years ago.
"They suggested I try it because I was one of the more powerful gymnasts," said Robson, taking a break from practice at the University of Manitoba. "I had a lot of power, a lot of pop, so they thought I would do well, being explosive and able to generate a lot of speed and power."
Having competed at nationals in gymnastics twice, Robson still has a fondness for the various apparatus. She hasn't given up the gym entirely and says what she learned at Panthers helps her in pole vault. "I love gym. I still coach there, so I am still involved in it," she said.
In the few seconds it takes to plant the pole until you hit the pit on the other side of the bar, Robson says there are a multitude of things that need to happen -- and that's where her gymnastic training comes in handy. "A lot of the bar work, the swinging, the pulling yourself upside down, all translates very well here. We still actually go back to the gym and practice those things, just to keep them fresh in my mind," she said.
With the outdoor season finished in North America, many of Canada's elite athletes have opted to use this down time as a rest period prior to the start of the indoor season, as well as beginning preparations for the 2010 Olympic Games in London next summer. So some athletes are bypassing the Games.
Robyn Woods, assistant communications and events representative for Athletics Canada, said, that younger athletes such as Robson will benefit as a result, filling the spots left empty by those who opted to stay home.
"This (Pan Am Games) has been a goal of mine," said Robson. "I took a little transition time (at the end of last season) so that I had a little bit of a break, and now we are coming back and gearing up for it. We've been working on a lot of stuff. We've been working on techniques and they are starting to show through. But then we ran out of competition, so we're hoping that they'll kind of pop out at this meet."
Scot will be at the Games, but strictly as a her fan, not her coach, since he is not on the Athletics Canada coaching staff. "With the 2012 London Olympics a year away, she's been jumping what we think will be the qualifying heights, so this is another opportunity to play on that real true international grounds," he said. "We really hope it will be enough to get her up another 10, 20, 30 centimetres."
Scot said that the Olympic standard has not been released yet, but says there will most likely be two -- an A and B. "We have kind of an idea of what they might be set at, but we are just speculating at this point," he said.
"We think the B standard might be set at 4.40 and the A standard could be almost at the Canadian record of 4.55. We've seen her jump 4.30 and 4.40 in other competitions and practices."
The 26-year-old teacher at Valley Gardens middle school hopes she'll be pulled to greater heights in Mexico. "I like facing those girls who are jumping a little bit higher than me, because then I have something to strive towards. To help pull me up," said Robson.
"I just want to make sure I take all the new technical stuff we have been working on and apply it into the competition. Things such as the timing of turning around the poll, making sure to keep pressure on the pole so it takes you a little higher. There are a lot of things to think about when you are up there."