Athletics-Woodcock establishes, improves Seychelles’ high jump indoor mark |16 January 2007

Training in Germany, precisely in Cologne at one of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) accredited training centres, until 2008 when he is to participate in the Olympic Games in Beijing, China, 19-year-old Woodcock cleared the bar at 2.10 metres in his first competition in Münster to take the top spot.

The height went down as a new Seychelles indoor record and on Sunday (January 14), he hit a really good jump and had plenty of height as he soared 2.16 metres.

According to a reliable source, after Sunday’s 2.16m performance Woodcock said that “the season has just started and there is a very long way to go.”

Woodcock, whose junior record and personal best was 2.11 metres, told Sports Nation before leaving for Cologne in early October 2006 that “I will be on a mission in Cologne. I will be training hard because I want to better my junior record and the Seychelles senior mark of 2.20 metres.”

Judging from his performance achieved on Sunday, it could be quite safe to say that the lanky athlete is slowly encroaching on the 2.20m best outdoor property belonging to La Digue-born Eugëne Ernesta.

It is to note that Woodcock impressed his German trainer, Dr Wolfgang Ritzdorf, who recommended that his scholarship be extended.

Woodcock, who only started concentrating on the high jump in mid-2004, received an initial six-month scholarship and trained in Cologne, Germany, prior to the African Athletics Championship in Mauritius in August. He finished 10th after only clearing the bar at a height of 2.05 metres.

Dr Ritzdorf, who studied biomechanics, psychology and sport sciences, has produced many top class high jumpers among them Ulrike Meyfarth, a two-time Olympic Games high jump gold medallist in 1972 in Munich, Germany, and in 1984 in Los Angeles, USA, and Heike Henkel, high jump gold medallist at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona. 

G. G.