Beginnings

I started doing TF at the age of 10 at the Elementary School Santrochova in Prague in a class with enriched physical education. That’s where I started to develop basic TF skills. At the age of 13  I was slowly introduced to pole-vault and specific gymnastic training in the training group of Boleslav Patera. Year afterwards coach Patera left to join the club Dukla at the stadium Juliska and me  and my training group moved under the guidance of Pavel Sluka, which at his time was a very  successful pole-vaulter( PB 540cm).  It was Sluka who managed to develop my abilities -so essential for pole-vault – like speed, gymnastic endurance, strength and technique. I trained with Pavel for six years and I managed to work up to 515cm (530cm in practice).  Under his guidance I made the limit for the Junior World Championship in Lisbon 1994, but since I was the third one to accomplish the limit only two to go) behind Urban 540 and Safar 520 I didn’t go to the World Championship.

Career

In the year 1995 I  entered the basic army service at Prague’s club Dukla and I joined the training group of my first coach Boleslav Patera again. During a less than a half year I improved my PB onto 540cm. After absolving the basic army service I changed to another coach once more and for all. My new coach is the recently most acknowledged Czech pole-vault coach (brought up: Netcher 574cm, Lubensky 573cm, Jansa 562cm) Pavel Beran. In his training group I made the first larger step into the world of  top-performance TF. During a year I improved my PB to 551 and that made me the #1 in Czech pole-vault (Netcher and Kysela were injured at that time) and I represented CR in the European Cup (2nd place). But first of all I managed to succeed at the most important task of the season – I qualified to the European Championship under 23yrs. in the Turk, Finland. I wasn’t expected to have too much success since in the starting list were listed competitors with experience from international meetings and personal bests above 570cm. But in the most significant competition of the season I accomplished to do my best even under very insufficient conditions-other competitors did not – and I won the bronze medal with 550cm.

After this successful year came injuries, detoriation of my long-term problems with shin splints and so I didn’t manage to improve nor approach my personal max. This year (still with my shin-splint problem) I improved my indoor –PR to 557cm and got 2nd place in the Indoor Championship of Czech Republic.

After successful spring preparation  and in relatively good shape I introduced in the 1st round of extraligue at the stadium Juliska, but at the height  520cm the pole slipped out of my hands and I hit my knee very hard. The injury kept me out of the competition for the main part of outdoor season. I first competed four weeks after on the Championship of CR. After five-day practice before this competition I won the 3rd place for the height 520cm. From that point I had only six competitions before the closure of nomination for the World Championship in Seville. I managed to make the limit on the fourth meet(4 days before the closure) in Jablonec.  Day after my nomination my friend and former training partner Martin Kysela also nominated and the number of nominees for pole-vault for Seville was three.

In Seville I was in the second qualification group and jumped 540cm on the first try (a very high minimum height for me and the other vaulters) and the 555cm on the third attempt. Subsequent height 565 – which was the admission to WC finals – was in the mind-killing heat above my abilities. I ended up 11th in the second qualification group and that meant the 19th spot for me out of 32 competing vaulters.

At the present time after three weeks of time-out I am proceeding along with my training partners (Pavel Beran jr. and Matej Urban, which is making a come-back after long time-out caused by  serious tendon injury) into the main part of the preparation period which should lead to( if everything ends-up according to my wishes) the European Indoor Championship in Gent and the Olympic Games in Australian Sydney in September.

My indoor season of 2000 was relatively successful (I cleared 560cm four-times) and right in the second meet of the season I improved my PB to 565cm, which was also the qualifying height for European Indoor Championship in Gent. I didn’t do very well. I couldn’t even clear the starting height of 520cm and like other Czech vaulter Adam Ptacek (cleared 520cm); I had to leave the competition early. After this set-back in an important meet I started preparation for the outdoor season, which was supposed to be topped with the Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia. In March, we trained for three weeks in Lanzarote, Canaries Islands together with the training group of Michal Pogany. Opening of the outdoor season wasn’t quite successful – medical problems with spasmic calves and my problems lasted till July. Only from that point on I was able to come near the qualifying standard of 570cm. On the end of July I actually managed to clear the height in Jockgrim, Germany, but it was only an exhibition at the town square and so my performance wasn’t considered eligible as the qualifying standard. During the rest of the outdoor season I had a couple opportunities of making the standards, but in the end I never cleared it. A couple days after the end of nomination Stepan Janacek managed to clear 572cm and was additionally nominated for the Olympic Games.