12.06.2009

Lapierre leaps into action in Berlin

With eight meets lined up across Europe in the next seven weeks, Fabrice Lapierre is fast building a reputation as one of Australia’s hardest-working athletes.

The 25-year-old long jump star will today depart his US training base ahead of the Berlin Golden League meet this weekend, where he will join New South Wales middle distance runner Jeremy Roff (1500m) as one of only two Australians in action.

Lapierre’s hit-out in the German capital comes just a week after his third placing in Oregon’s Prefontaine Classic Grand Prix, where he finished behind former Olympic champions Dwight Phillips of the USA (Athens 2004) and Panama’s Irving Saladino (Beijing 2008) with a leap of 8.02m (-0.1).  

“I hadn’t jumped for a while so I was just trying to get a decent jump out at Prefontaine and get a good placing and I did that, I got third and jumped well so I was happy with that,” Lapierre said.

With Olympic, Commonwealth and world junior representation already under his belt, Lapierre will again head to Berlin in August to launch his first world championships campaign.

And for the reigning national long jump title-holder, ambition is at an all-time high.

“I’m a lot more confident this weekend than I was in Prefontaine because I’ve jumped now, I have a jump under my belt and I’m expecting a better jump this weekend,” he said.

“I’m doing two meets in a week in Europe, in Berlin this weekend and then on June 17 at the Ostrava Grand Prix, so it’s two meets back-to-back and then I come back to America for 12 days for some more training and then I’ll head back to Europe.

“I have six meets lined up in July at the Madrid Grand Prix, Lausanne Super Grand Prix, Golden League meet in Rome, Athens Grand Prix, London Super Grand Prix and Monaco Super Grand Prix and then it’s into team camp in Cologne to get ready for the world champs.

“I have a lot of meets coming up which is good, normally the more meets I do the better I perform and the better shape I’ll be in come August.

“I don’t want to peak too much but I think that’s a reasonable amount, back when I was in college I jumped a lot so I’m used to that and it helped me to get better at the peak part of the season so I think it will help me towards Berlin.”

Lapierre, a former student at Texas A&M University and 2005 NCAA long jump champion, returned to the southern US state last month to boost preparations for his world championships debut.

”I left Sydney in early May just as it started to get cold and came over here for some better weather,” he said.

“I’m staying in Texas where it’s 30-35 degrees every day and I have the chance to compete and then go over to Europe – it’s a quick trip from here, not like the 24 hours from home so it’s easy to head across.”

If the travel is easy, the challenge awaiting Lapierre in Berlin this August is not.

“I think the long jump is going to be a really good competition this year, compared to last year I think the standard has gone up and Phillips and Saladino are trying to jump against each other and see who gets better and I think they’re going to be the main favourites but anything can happen on the day,” he said.

“My goal is to finish in the top three, if it’s bronze that’s fine but to make the final is the first step and after that I’ll be trying to get a medal.”

After just edging out the long jump championship in Brisbane earlier this year, Lapierre will leave nothing to chance at the Berlin titles.   

“I really can’t do what I did in Brisbane because at the world championships you only have three chances, you can’t make the final with a 7.40m jump or whatever it was, you have to get your first three jumps on target so I won’t be doing that again,” he said.

What he will be doing is anyone’s guess – when it comes to Fabrice Lapierre, anything is possible.

In other action this weekend:

Saturday, June 14 - Namur, Belgium
Brendan Cole (400m hurdles) and Lauren Boden (400m hurdles)

Sunday, June 14 - Gold Coast, Queensland
Sally McLellan (100m, 200m), Mitchell Watt (long jump), Joel Milburn (400m), Sean Wroe (400m), Tristan Thomas (400m hurdles), Melissa Breen (100m), Alana Boyd (pole vault), Madeleine Pape (400m), Patrick Johnson (200m)