IAAF Ambassadors Kajsa Bergqvist and Andreas Thorkildsen visited the Hvidovre Stadion in the Copenhagen suburbs on Friday (28) to run a Kids’ Clinic for 24 teenage athletes from around the Danish capital.Along with two local javelin coaches, Norway’s double Olympic champion Thorkildsen put four girls and eleven boys through their paces, and offered one-on-one coaching advice for the young throwers.<iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="464" scrolling="no" src="//instagram.com/p/mGC-7QFVDu/embed/" width="400"></iframe>“It was really good,” said Thorkildsen afterwards. “The kids were enthusiastic and had a really good base knowledge. There were some talents there.“It was rewarding for me to try to help, and see the effect of some of the advice I’d given in their next throw.”Thorkildsen even gave his jacket to one of the young javelin throwers as a souvenir.“It was very nice,” said the thrilled recipient: 17-year-old Mikkel Bach Garbecht, who has a PB of 58.34m. “He [Andreas Thorkildsen] is a great man. I watched him at the 2009 World Championships, and now I’m standing here with him. It is amazing for me. Now I know what I should do when I start training again.”Over in the indoor training area, ten young Danish high jumpers had a two-hour session with the now-retired world indoor record-holder Kajsa Bergqvist.“It was really fun,” said Laura Poulsen, 14, and a 1.59m high jumper. “I learned that if it doesn’t go well, you just have to keep going to reach your goals. Kajsa is really cool, and very good at high jump!”Remarkably, as a 12-year-old, Bergqvist had travelled from her hometown of Sollentuna, Sweden, to Copenhagen’s Hvidovre Stadion, which is on Sollentuna Alle, to compete in an inter-schools competition in 1989.“It was a quarter of a century since I was last here,” said Bergqvist, who won the high jump that day, but remembers it more for the fact it was her first trip abroad without her parents.“I remember the family I stayed with in Copenhagen,” she says. “They took me to Tivoli Gardens.”Having just made the last-minute decision to run in the IAAF World Half Marathon Championships mass-race on Saturday (29 March), she’ll see the Tivoli Gardens again at the 20km mark.“I got so inspired at the press conference, I decided to run!” said Bergqvist. Apart from the requisite training and preparation, the only other thing she’s missing is a pair of sports sunglasses, although she joked that her designer pair may have to do.Back at the Kids Clinic, IAAF Vice President Sergey Bubka was also on hand to deliver a pep talk and some gifts to athletes young and old.Thorkildsen and Bergqvist were given t-shirts adorned with the image of a young Bubka mid-vault, to which Bergqvist retorted: “You were so good looking! Hey Sergey, I’m going to wear this for the race tomorrow.”So when you watch the race tomorrow, keep your eyes peeled for a former world high jump champion in designer shades and a Sergey Bubka t-shirt.James Charlton for the IAAF

IAAF Ambassadors Kajsa Bergqvist and Andreas Thorkildsen visited the Hvidovre Stadion in the Copenhagen suburbs on Friday (28) to run a Kids’ Clinic for 24 teenage athletes from around the Danish capital.

Bergqvist and Thorkildsen lead IAAF Ambassador Kids’ Clinic in Copenhagen

23 November 2012 – Barcelona, Spain – The IAAF Centenary weekend will be seeing some of the world’s biggest stars of the present and past grace the celebrations. We put Kajsa Bergqvist (SWE), the 2005 World High Jump champion, under the spotlight and asked her 10 quick-fire questions, a few serious, a few fun, on Friday (23).Who is your favourite athlete of the past 100 years?My childhood idol was Carl Lewis. For me, that’s the guy I was watching when I was little that made me think, ‘I want to get into athletics.’What’s your favourite athletics moment of the past 100 years?Personally, it must be my own win at the 2005 World Championships following my injury in 2004. That was the biggest moment for me personally, bigger than my world indoor record.If you could change one thing in world athletics, what would it be?I would like to see more of it on television and more people taking part. In Sweden when we were so successful a few years ago, we had so many more people take up athletics, I think we’re going to benefit from it in the near future.Why should people choose athletics as a sport?Athletics is a unique sport, wherever you are in the world and whoever you are, you can do it to some level at least. It doesn’t require any expensive equipment. It’s the mother of all sports and it should stay on top. It’s so competitive compared to a lot of other sports on television.Where do you see athletics 100 years from now?Hopefully the women’s world record will be higher than 2.09m! I think the future is bright.Of all the venues you competed at, which is your favourite?Sydney Olympic Stadium.If a film star had to play you in a movie about your career, who would it be?Wow, that’s a tough question. I can’t really think of an actress who looks like me. I have no idea, sorry!Which athlete are you most looking forward to watching at next year’s IAAF World Championships in Moscow?I’m really excited to see what I hope will be a great year for the women’s high jump. There’s not one particular athlete, but I’d like to see some great duels with Blanka (Vlasic) on her way back, with Anna (Chicherova) challenging her and Chaunte Howard as well. I think it’s going to be very, very good.If you could pick three athletes from the past 100 years to have a dinner party with, who would it be?Carl Lewis because he was my idol when I was little. It would be very interesting to hear more about Tommie Smith’s moment in 1968. And someone from today – Usain Bolt.If you had to bake a cake for the IAAF Centenary celebrations, what would it be?The IAAF started in 1912 after the Olympic Games in Stockholm, so I would probably make a Swedish cake with a lot of blueberries, served with ice cream.Jon Mulkeen for the IAAF

Ten questions for the Legends - Kajsa Bergqvist

23 November 2012 – Barcelona, Spain – The IAAF Centenary weekend will be seeing some of the world’s biggest stars of the present and past grace the celebrations. We put Kajsa Bergqvist (SWE), the 2005 World High Jump champion, under the spotlight and asked her 10 quick-fire questions, a few serious, a few fun, on Friday (23).

Kajsa Bergqvist set a world indoor record of 2.08m* in the high jump today (4) at the International High Jump meeting in Arnstadt, Germay.The 29-year-old Swede, the reigning world champion and two-time world indoor champion, added one centimetre to the previous mark set by Heike Henkel on 8 February 1992, nearly 14 years ago."It was a fantastic jump, I am overwhelmed with joy," Bergqvist said. "I had a feeling that something special could happen today. I felt great and I'd been training very well."Bergqvist cleared the record height on her first attempt with Henkel watching from the stands."I am happy for Kajsa, she really deserves it," Henkel said.Bergqvist will be now looking to add another indoor title to the title she won last August in Helsinki. Bergvist, also the reigning European champion, missed the 2004 Olympic Games when she tore her achilles tendon just a month before the Athens Games, but came back strongly last year, winning each of her 13 competitions.Yaroslav Rybakov of Russia won the men's competition at the meeting by clearing a world-leading 2.37m.Agencies / IAAF*Subject to the usual ratification procedures

Kajsa Bergqvist set a world indoor record of 2.08m* in the high jump today (4) at the International High Jump meeting in Arnstadt, Germay.

Bergqvist and Thorkildsen lead IAAF Ambassador Kids’ Clinic in Copenhagen

Ten questions for the Legends - Kajsa Bergqvist

2.08 world indoor high jump record for Bergqvist in Arnstadt