European Athletics (EAA) – News – Norway’s Vukicevic aiming for more record runs

Hurdler Christina Vukicevic, one of Norway’s two medallists at last month’s European Athletics Indoor Championships, takes off from Oslo and flies to the United States for several weeks’ warm weather training on Sunday.

However, before she starts packing her bags, the 2010 European Athletics Indoor Championships 60m hurdles bronze medallist took a bit of time to look into her crystal ball and look ahead at what the coming months hold for her.

“I’ve got several weeks of tough training sessions awaiting me over there,” she told Norwegian broadcaster NRK earlier this week.

“But this is where the important work for the season ahead is being done. It will be hard work, with a lot of hurdle work, longer and faster sprinting. Going from running 60m indoor to 100m is quite a transition as five more hurdles are in your way.”

Vukicevic set a Norwegian national record of 7.83 when finishing third in Paris last month, the climax of a fantastic month of indoor running in which the 2009 European Athletics U23 Championships 100m hurdles gold medallist reduced her national record at three of her five competitions.

Now she plans to reduce her outdoor record of 12.74, set in 2009, by a big margin.

“I need to improve over the last five hurdles, the ones that come after 60 metres,” joked Vukicevic.

“In the 100m hurdles, I have to learn to keep my speed all the way to the finish. It is going to be difficult, I must practice and I’ve got eight weeks of hard training ahead of me if I am to perform well this summer,” she added.

“However, I have a great starting point from running 7.83 for the 60m hurdles, which suggests that you should run pretty fast in the 100m hurdles as well.

“I think I can run very, very quickly this summer. I cannot say what time I will run, but I think it’ll be faster than 12.74. I don’t think I’m dreaming when I say I’m looking at 12.50s or 12.60s, the sort of times that will get you in major championships finals. I feel I'm so close and now that’s a realistic goal.

“August and September, that’s when I'm going to start running very fast,” analysed Vukicevic, looking ahead to this summer’s World Championships in Daegu, South Korea, which will be held from 27 August to 4 September.
 

European Athletics (EAA) – News