(ats) In the running over 300m hurdles, the Vaudoise has set itself a specific objective: to cross the first obstacles in thirteen strides.
Never before has a woman managed to make only thirteen steps between each hurdle, said the press release issued Monday by the 2018 European champion in the 400m hurdles. “We started working on this scheme for the first time in training only three weeks ago,” said his coach Laurent Meuwly.
“But I am confident that she will be able to do it also in competition in Oslo. The goal will be to make thirteen strides to the third hurdle,” said in the same press release the Friborg technician, who was to join Oslo Wednesday by plane with his protege.
Lea Sprunger – who usually takes fourteen strides to the fifth hedge and then fifteen to the last – is aware that this (r) evolution will take some time: “It is possible that I will pay for this debauchery of energy in second part of the race, “she concedes in this press release.
“But when we try new things, we cannot expect 100% immediate success. I still have more than 400 days before me before the Olympic Games begin,” recalls the 4th of Doha World Championships 2019, who found his coach on May 17 in Papendal in the Netherlands.
Lea Sprunger, who will compete in Oslo against Sara Slott Petersen, 2016 Olympic vice-champion in the 400m hurdles, and Amalie Iuel, had to work her brakes for more than two months in Switzerland during the semi-containment. But, despite tendon pain that bothered her for two weeks, the shape is there.
“She is slightly behind in her preparation, but we are catching up with that”, explains Laurent Meuwly, according to whom this meeting in Oslo is above all an opportunity for Lea Sprunger to taste again the atmosphere of the competition . Even if this meeting will take place behind closed doors and in strict compliance with hygiene rules.
The Friborg technician is already planning two big blocks of competition from the end of June, with two peaks of form. Lea Sprunger is set to end its summer season in late September, before taking a break. To start winter preparation in mid-October.
As she reminds herself, she has more than a year to prepare for the Tokyo Olympics, the last big meeting of a career that she wants to conclude in 2021. But, when she celebrated her 30 years on March 5, time does not necessarily play in its favor. Even if his room for maneuver remains large in the discipline.
“Of course, we now have more time to work out some details. But objectively, she will be one year older. And other athletes now also have more time to become competitive,” concedes Laurent Meuwly, aware that Lea Sprunger will probably have to improve its Swiss record (54”06, made in Doha) to grab the podium in Tokyo.
–
