Frenkel aims to put Israeli athletics back on the map

Israel's Danielle Frenkel finished a very creditable fourth at the  European Athletics Indoor Championships in Paris earlier this month.

Danielle Frenkel may have just missed out on becoming her country’s first woman to win a medal at the European Athletics Indoor Championships, after she finished fourth in the women’s high jump two weeks ago, but two Israeli records in the qualifying rounds have marked her out as someone to watch in the future.

Going to Paris with a personal best of 1.92m, an Israeli outdoor record, which she set last summer in the qualifying rounds of the European Athletics Championships, the 23-year-old firstly equalled that height and then improved to 1.94m in the French capital

In the final, she went over 1.92m at the first time of asking, to demonstrate her consistency at major events, before just coming up short at 1.96m.

“I’m very pleased with Danielle’s achievement and performance. Her excellent jumps at 1.96m proved to me that she is capable of much more,” said Frenkel’s coach Anatoliy Shafran, in an interview with the Israeli newspaper The Jerusalem Post.

“She has incredible strength and she needs to use this in her jumping. At her current rate of progression and with the power she has in her body I have no doubt that she can clear 2.00m. She just needs to polish her technique and the mental side of jumping,” he added.

Frenkel’s developing career as a high jumper has been at the expense of one as a dancer, which was her dream as a teenager.

Four years ago, at the age of 19, she was on the verge of becoming a professional dancer, having spent several years training with the highly reputed Bat Dor Dance Company.

However, a few months into her army service - in which she was working as a guide at Yad Vashem, the memorial to Jewish victims of the Holocaust - Shafran finally persuaded her to enter the Israel national championships.

Shafran had seen her jump in a school competition when she was 14 and had kept in touch with her, despite his initial failure to get her to give up dancing, but this time he succeeded in getting her to give athletics another chance.

She cleared a relatively modest 1.69m in 2007 but then improved to 1.75m the following year and went over 1.81m in 2009 before her big breakthrough last summer.

Frankel admitted that she froze in the Barcelona final after her feats in the qualifying rounds last summer but, after her performance in Paris, she revealed that she took had taken stock after the experience.

“I learned from the pressure I felt last year and I was much better prepared for this final.  I decided that I wouldn’t allow what unfolded in Barcelona to happen again.

“My next target is this summer’s World Championships (in South Korea). I know I still have a lot to improve and that spurs me on. I know I have yet to reach my peak. I’m not thinking of the 2012 Olympics just yet.

“I’m entering the summer season left with a taste for more. My coach and I are always looking for ways to improve and my progress over the past year is extraordinary. I’ve improved my technique and strength and it shows in competition.

“I need to jump 1.95m to meet the Olympic criteria and I know I am capable of more than I have achieved so far and that gives me the confidence that I will reach London,” added Frenkel, speaking to The Jerusalem Post.