Balian Buschbaum looks forward to the new challenge as a coach.

Former European Indoor Championship silver medallist Balian Buschbaum is tipped to take over as the pole vault coach at USC Mainz. Balian will succeed Herbert Czingon, who has been named as the head coach for technical events by the German Athletics Federation (DLV).

Balian Buschbaum, formerly known as Yvonne Buschbaum, won the Pole Vault silver at the 2002 European Indoor Championships in Vienna. Besides that she won two bronze medals at the European Athletics Championships in 1998 and 2002. She registered a personal best of 4.70m. She bid adieu to competitive sport in 2007 and started the hormone treatment for a gender reassignment.

"I wanted to leave my sport behind but I am more addicted to this drug pole vault than I thought," said Balian, who is currently recovering from the surgery.

The use of testosterone has also given him a unique outlook to the issue relating to doping.

"I am living these changes through the use of the forbidden steroid. I felt like an over-bred pit bull," Buschbaum recently told the Frankfurter Allgemeinen Sonntagszeitung.

He said after undergoing the surgery he was far more aggressive in training and could jump with poles as Yvonne Buschbaum could have only dreamt of using.