Yesterday we woke to rain but warmer temperatures. With our future meet an uncertainty, we traveled down the hill to Loomis to check on the facilities weather conditions. The rain paused as if it knew what time we were competing, and with a light breeze in our faces we had much better conditions for jumping than the weather man predicted. Unfortunately Sam is still finding his rhythm after returning from an injury and was unable to clear a bar. I started at 5.31m (17'5") and made it with ease. But at 5.51m (18'1") to focused on a the light breeze in face (which was not detrimental at all to my approach) I created unnecessary timing and technical problems and failed to clear an easy height. After reviewing film from Saturday and Wednesday I'm confident I will not make the same mistake in the future and am excited for the outstanding performance I am going to lay down at Stanford this coming Sunday.
Robbert stole the show yesterday by flying over 5.31m, and 5.51m with ease. He had three beautiful attempts at 5.61m (18'5") all very close and heartbreaking to watch as the bar was barely brushed off on the way up or the way down. With a performance like this in mediocre conditions, the future is looking very positive for my good friend.
I didn't mention it before, but Team Tuxedo suffered a sad event this Saturday in Long Beach, Ca. During the Mount Sac Relays, Long Beach always puts on a parallel competition so athletes who travel from a far have the opportunity to compete twice while they visit the fair conditions provided by sunny Southern California. Our friend and current training partner Bobby Biskupiak went to Cerritos on Saturday to take advantage of this after running into a strong headwind all day at Mount Sac in the friday competition. With new confidence and pride Bobby was charging down the runway blowing through poles that he used to think were massive. During his third attempt at a new PR height of 5.27m, while swinging upside, mid bend, his 5 meter carbon fiber pole exploded and a shock wave of force and vibration was directed into his left hand, filleting his entire palm around the back of his thumb like a gutted fish. After 10 hours of being bounced around an inner city hospitals ER, OR, and recovery room, Bobby was released with the positive news of no nerve or tendon damage. A mass of sutures and stitches pulling the muscles and flesh of his non dominant hand back together. Bobby will be down and out for awhile, but he will bounce back. Having huge breakthroughs in the vault, his hunger for success will have him back on the runway and better than ever. Our best goes out to him. You can follow Bobby on his blog at http://mtvaulter.tumblr.com/
Now, we've got a bunch of t-shirts waiting to go out, but we have only sold 4. I've got a lot of travel coming up and could use your support. All the money that comes in from donations and apparel goes directly into travel and training funding. These shirts were designed and printed here in my home in an effort to save on costs. It has become a major undertaking full of failure and finally success, but extremely challenging and time consuming. We've put a lot of ourselves into them and I think they are pretty special. We also have shoe bags now (courtesy of X-Press by Smartcup) They are pretty cool and only $10. Tell your friends, spread the word, and be part of Team Tuxedo. Defying the odds, we're gonna make dreams a reality together.
No comments:
Post a Comment