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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Can't fault her for becoming vaulter -- it's less painful

By: Staff Writer

27/01/2009 1:00 AM | Comments: 0

ADRIAN WYLD / THE CANADIAN PRESS ARCHIVES Pole vaulter Vicky Robson is jumping for joy now that she no longer tortures herself with gymnastics. (CP)

VICKY ROBSON is glad she is now vaulting over bars, rather than wrapping her body around them."I don't have to worry about all of my joints all of the time now," the former gymnast said Monday at a press conference heralding the Manitoba Indoor Games.

"It got to a point where my body just couldn't handle all the pounding any more. It was too much wear and tear on my body."

The Games, which begin Saturday at 9 a.m. at the Max Bell Fieldhouse, will feature university and peewee (age 9-10) events Saturday, with elementary relays on Feb. 6, and age-class events Feb. 13-14.

Included among the top Manitoba athletes competing on Saturday are Jared MacLeod, Canada's No. 1-ranked hurdler, who says he's recovered from a groin injury and is ready to make a run at the 2012 London Olympics; Chantal Grant, the world junior sprinter; Alyssa Johnson, a silver medallist in the 4x400-metre relay at the Commonwealth Youth Games; and Roseau Valley's Garth Suppes, Manitoba's No. 1 weight-thrower.

Then there is Robson, Manitoba's top pole vaulter.

The 23-year-old, who is also a coach for the Panthers Gym Club, said her coaches at the club told her she should try the pole vault.

She took to the sport right away and now has a personal best of 3.80 metres, a University of Manitoba record.

"It was just the feeling of how it was when I was a gymnast," she said. "Getting upside down, and kind of defying gravity."

The women's pole vault is a recent addition to the Olympic track and field schedule, and Robson says it's growing fast.

"In Canada, there are a group of us who are all the same," she said. "We are all around the 3.60 to four-metres mark. Then we have Kelsie Hendry of Saskatoon (4.55 metres) and Dana Ellis-Buller of Kitchener (4.52 metres), who went to the Olympics and are quite above that. So the group of us (3.60-4.0) are pushing up towards where they are right now."

Robson's major competition on Saturday should come from Teresa Logozar, the No. 2-ranked U of M pole vaulter with a 3.30-metre personal best, and Carrisa Gauthier of Winnipeg Optimist Athletics, who has vaulted 2.80 metres.

allan.besson@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition January 27, 2009 C4

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