Okkert Brits is the only serious contender for Sergei=20 Bubka’s pole-vaulting crown at the World Athletics=20 Championships in Sweden tonight
ATHLETICS: Julian Drew
THEY call Sergei Bubka the czar of pole-vaulting. He has=20 dominated the event for the past 13 years and set 35=20 world records, 18 of them indoors. His current world=20 record stands at 6,14m outdoors and 6,15m indoors. Since=20 the inaugural world championship in 1983 he has won all=20 four polevault world titles. This evening he will be=20 going for an unprecedented fifth consecutive world=20 championship gold medal. in a single event.
Perhaps the only man who seems even remotely capable of=20 stopping him is South Africa’s new kid on the block,=20 Okkert Brits. The 21-year-old Stellenbosch athlete=20 became only the third person in history to jump 6m in=20 Sestriere, Italy, two weeks ago. It is a height Bubka=20 himself also first cleared when he was a sprightly 21- year-old back in 1985.
Bubka rose to prominence at the 1983 world championships=20 in Helsinki. He was a raw but talented 19-year- old who=20 was only ranked third in the Soviet Union’s team behind=20 Olympic silver medallist Konstantin Volkov and former=20 world record holder Vladimir Poliakov. On the final day=20 of the championships the fresh-faced and eager youngster=20 with knee-high red and white-striped socks surprised=20 everyone with a personal best of 5,70m to take gold.
Few observers realised then that they were witnessing=20 the start of a dynasty whose impact would seem just as=20 overpowering and invincible to the other vaulters as=20 that imposed by the Soviet regime when the Bolsheviks=20 toppled the czar 66 years earlier and claimed Bubka’s=20 native Ukraine for their new empire.=20
Since the demise of that empire Bubka has competed for=20 the Ukraine, winning his first title for them at the=20 1993 world championships, and he now lives in Berlin. =20 He also has another home in Monte Carlo where he, along=20 with his wife and two sons, are expecting to relocate=20 permanently after these world championships. He seldom=20 spends time in Donetsk, the city where he grew up and=20 where his mother still lives.
At 31 Bubka has experienced everything his event can=20 throw at him. Success at the world championship included=20 a 1991 victory in Tokyo where he completed and won with=20 an injury, a nervous win at the Seoul Olympics but=20 disaster four years later in Barcelona where he failed=20 to register a height and suffered a rare defeat. More=20 importantly, he has been over 6m or higher on 40=20 separate occasions. It is this experience which could be=20 the deciding factor in today’s Final.=20
Brits has just the one fleeting experience at 6m but it=20 was a crucial milestone in his career which has seen him=20 come to Gothenburg with the pressure finally off him.=20 After clearing 5,91m and then 5,92m in South Africa in=20 March, he was expecting to clear 6m sooner rather than=20 later. When it hadn’t come by the time he returned from=20 his first trip to Europe in June the frustration began=20 to set in.
“I was so negative about coming back to Europe. I didn’t=20 even want to come here because I still hadn’t jumped 6m.=20 I was actually afraid of coming. Joep (his coach Joep=20 Loots) was worried about me and he didn’t think I should=20 come because I was so down. Then I realised when I came=20 over here (on July 2) that the main thing I needed was=20 the competitiveness, the guys that jump 5.80m and 5.90m=20 every meet, and in my first meeting everything changed=20 and I just started enjoying myself,” said Brits.=20
Brits and Loots had aimed to peak in Sestriere, an=20 Alpine ski resort where Bubka set his outdoor world=20 record of 6.14m last year, but when they got there the=20 conditions were far from ideal. The wind was blowing and=20 there was a thick mist. Brits went in at his lowest=20 starting height of the season, 5,50m, and cleared first=20 time as he did on his next height of 5,80m.Then he did=20 something extraordinary. He took one of his new poles,=20 stiffer than any he had used before, and went for an=20 African record height of 5,95m.
“It was the biggest pole I’d ever been on, the mother of=20 all poles. Not even Bubka is using it. I was so psyched=20 up and raring to go. I planted it for the first time in=20 my life and made 5,95m with my first jump. It was just=20 awesome. In pole-vaulting terms that was the most=20 perfect thing that could have happened. Then I made 6m=20 on my third attempt with the same pole,” said Brits.=20 Bubka also cleared 6m and beat him on the countback but=20 that didn’t matter because he had achieved the main goal=20 of his season.
His feat was all the more impressive because about 90=20 percent of the time when a pole vaulter uses a stiffer=20 pole for the first time it springs back and smacks him=20 on the nose or, if he can manage to hold on, shoots him=20 back onto the runway or off the landing mat. Brits had=20 had the p ole for about two weeks before Sestriere but=20 didn’t use it in training, where he prefers to use=20 softer poles and jump many times at 5,50m and 5.60m to=20 perfect his technique.
“I can’t get the adrenalin to jump with a big pole in=20 training,” said Brits, whose whole life revolves around=20 getting his next adrenalin fix.
It was that desire to go into the unknown which provided=20 him with a minor setback in Sestriere. After making 6m=20 he decided to go for the world record height of 6,15m=20 and he chose an even bigger pole.
“Joep said I mustn’t attempt but I said, no way I’m=20 going for it. I had to know how it felt,” said Brits. He=20 made one attempt but hardly got off the ground. and with=20 the extra effort he pulled the adductor muscle in his=20
It is only a slight injury, however, and because he=20 wouldn’t have trained between Sestriere and the world=20 championships anyway it hasn’t affected his=20
“I think clearing 6m has taken a lot of pressure off me=20 because my main objective from February was to jump 6m.=20 Too many people expected me to do it and that pressure=20 if off me now so I can go into the world championships=20 and enjoy myself,” said Brits.
But Brits has not only been attracting the atttention of=20 Europe’s media because of his phenomenal vaulting=20 talents. He is also developing a reputation a bit of a=20 “mal ou”, a wild man from Africa. “I don’t know where=20 they get all these things from but the funny thing is=20 they’re all true,” declared Brits.
“I don’t have a problem with the wild image. I actually=20 quite enjoy it and in Europe they think it is the=20 coolest thing to come from Africa. The people love it.=20 I’ll have to start walking around in leopard skins or=20
While he has enjoyed surfing the breakers in False Bay=20 with the sharks and bungee jumping off some of the=20 Cape’s biggest bridges, it is an incident in Nice last=20 year which cemented his reputation. Recalls Loots: “We’d=20 just got to Nice and Okkert was very excited about our=20 hotel room up on the seventh floor with a big balcony. I=20 was in the room trying to get the television to work and=20 I heard Okkert shouting for me. He was hanging from the=20 balcony and he wanted me to film him. He was just doing=20 it for kicks. It was total madness”.=20
But then isn’t that what you would expect from a young=20 man whose occupation consists of hurtling down a runway=20 just a shade slower than Carl Lewis to propel himself=20 over a bar the height of your average two-storey house=20 on a slender fibreglass pole that can inflict some=20 serious damage if not handled with care?
What would he do if he wasn’t a polevaulter? “I think=20 I’d be a skydiver.”
Although Bubka has the experience, he also has the=20 pressure of being the favourite and of going for a fifth=20 consecutive title. To top that he knows that Brits is=20 breathing down his neck.=20
Brits can afford to relax but he also has another trump=20 card: the winds in this Swedish port have been swirling=20 all week, and the rougher the conditions tonight the=20 better for Brits.
“In good weather most of the guys can jump well, but=20 not many of them can handle bad conditions. I know I can=20 and I’m ready for anything,” said Brits.=20
His biggest win to date came in last year’s World Cup in=20 London where he jumped 5,90m in strong winds and pouring=20 rain. One gets the feeling he would like to jump in the=20 eye of the hurricane if he could.
So what does Bubka think of Brits? For now he is=20 dismissive,but maybe that’s just his way of coming to=20 terms with the man who now seems likely to usurp him in=20 the not- too-distant future. “Brits is just another copy=20 of Gataullin,” he said at a press conference this week.
Russia’s Rodion Gataullin is the only other vaulter to=20 have cleared 6m besides Bubka and Brits, and he was=20 tipped to oust Bubka in 1983 but his challenge has long=20 since fizzled out.
Scandinavia is a happy hunting ground for Bubka. He=20 catapulted onto the world stage with his 1983 victory in=20 Helsinki and broke the 20 foot barrier (6,10m) in Malmo=20 in 1991.=20
Could Gothenburg 1995 become the place where the=20 Stellenbolshevik storms the Winter Palace and finally=20 removes the Czar of the ‘vault from his throne?
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