Nearly 200 participants from 26 countries attended the eighth edition of the European Pole Vault and High Jump Symposium at the German Sport University in Cologne from 9-11 November.
The European Pole Vault and High Jump Symposium was held as part of the European Athletics Coaching Summit Series which came into fruition in 2008 and forms a key component of European Athletics’ coaching strategy.
The robust three day programme features career reports from prominent athletes, theoretical presentations, practical demonstrations as well as talks and Q+A sessions with some of the leading protagonists.
One of the highlights was a career report from retired German high jumper Carlo Thranhardt who gave a detailed insight into the successes and challenges of his career. Thranhardt won the European indoor high jump title in 1983 and still jointly holds the European indoor record at 2.42m with Ivan Ukhov.
Another highlight on the first day was a career report from German gymnastics great Fabian Hambuchen, the reigning Olympic horizontal bar champion.
The second day focused on the periodisation of training and the planning and preparation for elite athletes ahead of 2019 and 2020 against the backdrop of the prospective new qualifying process and the late staging of the IAAF World Championships in Doha next year. Martin Bingisser and Herbert Czingon were two of the speakers on this topic.
This was followed by practical demonstrations from Roman Jahoda (CompexCore), Tamas Kiss and Giulio Ciotti who all gave a good insight into special training approaches.
The third day was dedicated to the biomechanical analysis of the last IAAF World Championships in London. Brian Hanley and Gareth Nicholson summarised the results of the IAAF report and pointed out further perspectives and discussion needs.
The next two events on the Coaching Summit Series take place over the next few days: the 5th World Javelin Conference in Kuortane, Finland on 15-16 November and the Discus and Hammer Conference in Vaxjo, Sweden on 16-18 November.