European Athletics (EAA) – News – Tim Lobinger waltzes his way into the next round

Germany’s pole vault record holder Tim Lobinger has become the latest athletics star to show his prowess on a televised dance show and the two-time European Athletics Indoor Championships gold medallist successfully passed his first test on Wednesday.

Performing on Let’s Dance, the German version of the celebrity dance programmes that have become popular across Europe in recent years, Lobinger and his professional dancing partner Isabel Edvardsson finished sixth out of 10 couples after the waltz on Wednesday.

He is hoping to emulate Polish pole vault star Monika Pyrek, who won the Polish version of the programme last November.

Lobinger has been practising hard at polishing up his skills on the dance floor since the end of the indoor season.

The evergreen 38-year-old finished eighth at this year’s European Athletics Indoor Championships, his eighth appearance at the event which he won in 1998 and 2002.

He won the 2003 World Indoor Championships title and has two silver medals from the European Athletics Championships and is the German record holder outdoors with 6.00m, a height he cleared in both 1997 and 1999.

His experience at being able to produce his best on the big occasion helped him go clear through to the next round despite a few initial technical problems in adjusting to his new discipline on Wednesday.

"This was much better than in the rehearsal,” said one judge, when assessing Lobinger’s performance. “Give me the Rumba,” was the ever-effervescent Lobinger’s response.

European athletes have a history of performing well in this type of show.

Denmark’s 2004 Olympic Games shot put bronze medallist and two-time European Athletics Championships medallist Joachim Olsen showed he was a slick mover outside the throwing circle when he won the Danish edition of the show in 2008.

Former world long jump champion Fiona May triumphed on home soil in Italy in 2006 while retired athletics stars Colin Jackson and Denise Lewis have been runners up in the British series ‘Strictly Come Dancing’.
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European Athletics (EAA) – News