Hengelo

Well I ended up only jumping 540m/17'9" and finishing 4th but it's hard to describe how hard it can be to jump high here in Europe.  With a lot of Mets here there in stadiums, and if there's any wind at all it can really swirl and blow in any direction, which was the case today.  During warm- ups I might have a decent tailwind in the back and then half way through my run it would turn to a headwind.  This was happening to everyone and no-one looked very good in warm-ups.  So I decided to come in at 520 to make sure i made a bar.  I came down my second attempt and halfway down the runway I hit that headwind, i tried to keep my run the same and just make sure i was ready at take- off and made it easy even with a bad jump.  Then the bar went to 540, the wind was getting a little better, still not good but not as strong.  I came down with the same thought as before, just keep the run the same, but with those big poles a lot of times that's easier said than done.  I was able to make the bar with a little scrape and was feeling pretty good.  Only 5 guys had made the height and I was sitting in first when we went up to 550m/18'.  I came down on my first jump with a decent wind, had a bunch of height over the bar and just clipped it coming down.  I moved the standards up 5cm came down 2nd attempt with a good wind and had a good jump but this time I hit the bar on the way up.  So i moved the standards back 10cm thinking I could get the same wind and have the same jump.  Still no-one had made the bar.  I started my third jump and got hit with that stupid headwind and got stood up, meet over.  Then I had to watch as tim lobinger, Derek miles, and Rafael holdzeppe made it on their 3rd attempt.  That's just the way it goes sometimes.  Now I just have to make sure Im ready to go for the next one, try to learn from what happened today, how I overcame some obstacles and didn't some others.

Always Pursuing,
Mark

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