ATHLETICS: Julian Drew
FEW of the 1 500 or so crowd who actually showed up for last Sunday’s Pepsi All Africa International Athletics Meeting were still in the stadium when the highlight of the afternoon’s proceedings took place.
The 800m, which was the last track event of the meeting, had just finished and the spectators were already filing out of the Johannesburg Stadium as 17-year-old Hestrie Storbeck got ready for the next height in the women’s high jump competition. She had just cleared 1.90m on her third attempt and was now going for the Olympic qualifying height of 1.92m.
As her long, bounding strides brought her to the bar from the left she sprang upwards from her right foot and soared skywards, twisting her body as she moved ever higher towards the magical height and, in an instant, as she floated on her back facing the water tower on top of Yeoville Ridge, flipped her legs clear and landed on the soft mattress with an elated yelp.
She sat and waited as Denmark’s Pia Zinck tried in vain to clear the same height and then the bar moved up to 1.95m with only herself and world silver medallist, Alina Astafei of Germany, remaining in the competition. She came very close on her third attempt but Astafei also failed and the Lichtenburg schoolgirl claimed her biggest scalp to date.
Although Astafei was far from her best, having done no technical training so far this year, the psychological boost for Storbeck was immense. “I hope to jump 1.95m at the senior championships (Saturday) and then I will be sure of my place in the Olympic team. Both myself and Charmaine (Weavers) have cleared 1.92m this year and the selectors must choose between us. There are many more athletes who have qualified in other events so it won’t be easy to make the team,” said Storbeck.
This year provides a difficult task for the selectors in the case of talented juniors like Storbeck, Marcus la Grange, Llewellyn Herbert and even Riaan Dempers, who has been around for so long he seems like a senior. The Olympic Games begin on July l9 while the world junior championships in Sydney start on August 20.
An athlete like Herbert has been a revelation in the 400m hurdles this season, lowering the national junior record to a world class 48.76, but he appears to have been over-racing. He will find it difficult to reach a peak again by July, let alone hold it for five weeks.
The school of thought that suggests protecting young athletes for as long as possible would dictate that they go only to the world junior championships where they have a very good chance of returning with a gold medal.
But equally persuasive is the argument that such youngsters, who are obviously destined for greater things in the future, can only benefit by being thrown into the deep end of Olympic competition and will gain invaluable experience for the years to come. That can be true but the reverse can also apply where a young and fragile ego is completely shattered by the devastation of defeat at the hands of more developed and experienced athletes.
Certainly in an event like Herbert’s it would be foolish to attempt both championships at such a young age, although for Storbeck such a programme may not be as stressful on her young body.
Given the choice, however, Storbeck would choose the Olympics. “I will go to both of them if I can but you know, I could break my leg or something next year and my career would be finished. Then I would never get the chance to jump for my country at the Olympic Games. That means a lot more to me than a gold medal at the world junior championships,” said Storbeck.
Whatever the outcome of this dilemma for Storbeck there is no doubting that she is a rare and exciting talent. Last year when she was just 16 she was the top ranked junior in the world in an age group that includes athletes of 19 and under. Her mark of 1.91m was achieved at the Engen meeting in Nairobi last May and, although she received scant recognition for it at the time, it was honoured with South Africa’s female prospect of the year award earlier this year after its significance had sunk in.
Astafei, who herself jumped 2.00m as a junior, was impressed with Storbeck on Sunday. “She has a lot of talent but she needs to work on her technique. She is gliding too far along the bar but that is something she can easily alter,” said Astafei, referring to the fact that Storbeck jumps from too far away from the bar and thus exposes too much of her body to the bar, increasing the risk of dislodging it.
Gunter Eisinger, who coaches Olympic champion Heike Henkel and manages most of Europe’s top high jumpers including Astafei, came to South Africa last April for a coaching clinic and was amazed by Storbeck’s raw talent. “Eisinger gives coaching clinics all over the world and he said he had never seen such a naturally talented jumper before,” said top high jump coach and former South African champion Christo Vrey who has been helping Storbeck’s school coach, Martin Marx, for the past two years. “There are certain technical modifications which are needed but she has the natural power and ability to compete which will make her the third South African to go over 2.00m,” said Vrey.
Storbeck first came to prominence in 1994 when she won the national under-17 title with a personal best of 1.79m but last year she made real progress and upped her height nearly every time she jumped at the end of the season. In September she won the All Africa Games title in Harare although by then she was past her peak. “Being the top junior in the world in 1995 meant a lot to me and it made me focus. Now I want to be the best in the world and continue improving until I break the world record,” said Storbeck.
Those days are still far away if they ever materialise but further progress this year, starting on Saturday, cannot be ruled out if her record last year is anything to go by. At school Storbeck does every event in the book and has very respectable times in the 800m (2.10), 400m hurdles (65) as well as a long jump mark of 5.95m. As a one woman athletics team she only gets the chance to concentrate on the high jump once the South African junior championships are behind her.
It is this which explains her rather rapid improvement at the end of the season rather than a specially tailored periodisation programme. “I don’t work on a peaking programme. I just jump and work very hard,” said the towering 1.84m matriculant.
Although she makes high jumping look simple her latest triumph didn’t come easily. “I thought the 1.92m would have come sooner but when it didn’t I just worked harder and then it happened. After the senior championships I must go back onto a winter programme and start building again but I’m sure I will jump my best in Atlanta if I’m selected,” claims Storbeck. Next year she wants to go to an American University on an athletics scholarship and says she is awaiting news from several applications. “I must choose what is best for me because if I stay in South Africa I will only hear the same things. I want to find out what other people can teach me about the high jump. I need to know what I’m doing right and what I must change,” she said. Going to America is something she must think carefully about, however, for although the American collegiate system produces many good athletes, it can also destroy promising youngsters as well. On an athletics scholarship the recipient is obliged to turn out as and when required in whichever events the coach decides you are needed for. Somebody with Storbeck’s expansive repertoire could be called upon to do more than just high jumping and soon end up burnt out. Exciting high jump prospect Fiona Daly, who jumped 1.83m as a junior in 1994, has not been heard of since going to America on a sports scholarship last year. With the National Olympic Committee of South Africa promising more support for talented athletes in the build up to Sydney in 2000, Storbeck may find a better future at home. For now though she must concentrate on this weekend’s national championships like the rest of South Africa’s Olympic hopefuls and pray that she has done enough to book a place in Atlanta when the team is announced on Saturday night.