Giuseppe Gibilisco at the national indoor championships (© Lorenzo Sampaolo)
Italy’s 2003 World outdoor Pole Vault champion Giuseppe Gibilisco intends to capture the indoor title to match next weekend at the 10th IAAF World Indoor Championships in Athletics, Budapest, Hungary (5 – 7 March 2004).
His 2004 indoor season campaign of four meetings has competitively gone very well but his predicted start in Leipzig on Sunday (29 Feb) was cancelled due a bout of flu.
However, if he is fully recovered from the illness in time for Budapest, there will be no more potent threat to the hopes of Germany’s defending World champion Tim Lobinger, than the 25 year-old Italian.
"I owe my World title to Petrov and Bubka"
Until recently (22 Feb) when USA's Jeff Hartwig jumped 5.88m, Gibilisco had been the long-time world season’s leader having vaulted 5.82m in Donetsk on 15 February, the meeting which is organised by the legendary vaulter Sergey Bubka, now an IAAF Council Member who though retired remains the event's World record holder.
In Donetsk, Gibilisco who is coached by Bubka’s former adviser Vitaliy Petrov, was in real trouble after two failures at the opening height of 5.52, which he vaulted only on his third and final attempt.
"I had a difficult approach and I really struggled at the beginning. I arrived in Donetsk on Saturday in the middle of the night after a very long and tiring flight from Rome to the Ukraine. It was a very cold day on Sunday afternoon with an outdoor temperature of about -18°. Fortunately everything went in the right direction when I turned to a stiffer pole after the two failures at 5.52," said Gibilisco.
After passing 5.62, the Italian needed three attempts to clear 5.72, which was his first Italian indoor record of the day. Then, after passing 5.77, he gambled and moved up to 5.82 to vault his second national indoor record on his first attempt, eight centimetres off the Italian outdoor mark which earned the World gold medal last summer in Paris.
In Donetsk’s packed indoor arena the atmosphere was thrilling.
"This meeting is a very popular event in Donetsk. It is not just a Pole Vault meeting, but also a celebration of this discipline and it is a must to go there and compete for all the top pole vaulters in the world. I have always much to learn when I go to compete in Donetsk. I owe my World title in Paris to Vitaliy Petrov and Sergey Bubka, who have played a very important role in my career.”
”Going to Donetsk once a year is a way to thank Bubka for the support he has always given me. Even during the competition Sergey gave me the useful advice to slow down the first six-seven steps in my run-up when he saw I was in trouble and this really paid off at the end."
Equalled record first in Dortmund
So far Gibilisco has enjoyed a successful indoor season which kicked off in Stuttgart on 31 January with a second place (5.70m)behind Holland's Rens Blom (World Indoor bronze medallist last year in Birmingham). Four days later he won in Dortmund with 5.71 which prior to his achievements in Donetsk equalled the national record he had set in 2003.
"This is not a vintage indoor season for men's Pole Vault because every athlete's focus is directed towards the summer season and the Olympic Games. Last year Tim Lobinger clinched the World Indoor title in Birmingham with 5.80. I think that also in Budapest a vault in the region between 5.80 - 5.85 may be enough to go the podium, so a medal is within my reach", said a confident Gibilisco.
Budapest will represent an important step in the career of "Beppe" Gibilisco, although his main goal for this season is this summer's Olympic Games in Athens.
"This year I did not change my preparation, although I worked more on technique. I added something new in my training. During the winter I worked with a gymnastics teacher to improve the lift. Moreover I worked on the run-up and added some training sessions in the gym to improve my strength."
National hero but life has not changed
The gold medal in Paris contributed in making Gibilisco one of the most popular Italian sportsmen of 2003 in many end-of the year athletes polls of the best-selling italian sports newspapers. Beppe has also appeared as a special guest on many Italian television programmes.
The man from Siracusa even finished a surprising third in the end of the year European athlete internet poll behind big stars of modern athletics like Christian Olsson and Robert Korzeniowski.
A couple of days before flying to Donetsk he received a special award from the President of the Italian Repubblic Carlo Azeglio Ciampi during a special ceremony in Rome.
However, he admitted that nothing has changed in his life since his gold medal in Paris.
"I am proud of these honours. In the past very few people, just athletics pundits, were interested in my competitions. Now many recognize me on the street and ask me for autographs, journalists make requests to make interviews.”
”However, I must admit that it was difficult to keep training hard in the months after my World title in Paris and I have to thank my club Fiamme Gialle and Petrov who have helped me to remain focused. For this reason I had to move to Spala in Poland for my winter training, where there are no distractions. However this helped me to prepare for this season better than in my country where the expectations on me after Paris are very high."
"I am still a normal man. I am a World champion but I don't feel as such. I showed that every athlete's dream to win medals can come true with hard training and application. I have much room for improvement and other goals to pursue."
