Prague, Chzech Republic

I made it to Prague after the meeting in Donetsk.  What a great time i had!  It was an amazing experience to be around such talent, past and present.  This truly was a World Championship final, maybe missing 1 or 2 great vaulters.  The trip as a whole was not too bad, not nearly as bad as I was thinking it would be.  The flights were fine, they are taking much bigger planes from Kiev to Donetsk than they were a short time ago.  I flew on a 737 rather than the old Soviet prop planes I have head so many stories about.

The competition itself was a lot of fun, its hard not to be disappointed with the height because of how close i was to making 5.70.  My last jump of the competition i decided to move up to my 5.10 #4 or 12.6, now this is the replacement for the pole i broke just a month ago.  I was feeling good, and knew this pole would put me over 5.70 easily.  Now of course i look back at it and wonder why i didnt have the standards closer than i did, 60.  But at the time, in my amped up mind I thought it was perfect.  I came down the runway hit the biggest pole of my life, went for a ride over the crossbar and barely scraped it on the way down.  AAAGGGGHHHHH Is really all that comes to mind when I watch that video.

I remember sitting in a Q&A with Toby Stevenson one time and said the only way to be a professional vaulter is to jump high enough to give yourself great opportunities, and once you get those opportunities you better capitalize on them.  I kind of feel like i could have capitalized on this opportunity a bit better.  But I must move on, I have a new plan for the meet today. This year I have been starting on the 5m poles and then once the comp starts i try to move up to the 5.10's.  Well in Donetsk i was second guessing every decision i was making about moving my grip, changing poles and where to put the standards.  So the game plan for today is just to start on the 5.10's holding down and hopefully that will help me to know what to do better.

I will tell you this trip has been a little dissapointing so far.  My results are fairly good, 5.55, 5.53, and 5.60, the best, most consistent indoor ive ever had, but I should have jumped 5.65, 5.63, and 5.70, you saw the videos, barely knocking down all three of those bars.  So today Im gonna show my poles whos boss.  Lately they have been in charge, not today, today Im in charge.  Today is my day, Today the bar stays up.  Im not promising anything because you never know what can happen in the vault, but I will promise you this, im going into this comp with a different attitude.  Something needs to change, Im not ok with being mediocre, and 5.55, 5.53 and 5.60 are just that.

Always Pursuing -Mark-