European Athletics (EAA) – News – Nytra tells her own fortune

If Germany's Carolin Nytra ever considers a change of profession she might consider being a fortune teller. After winning her morning qualification heat she foretold with precision exactly what was to transpire later that evening in the Paris Bercy indoor track when she lifted her first major international gold medal with a personal best 7.80.

"I was positive about the race," she said talking after clocking 7.96 from lane seven to set herself up with some confidence for the afternoon semis. "My preparation was not of the best and so I told myself just to have fun and see what comes out of it. That's why I was not afraid, which is what happened to me in Barcelona."

It will be recalled that Nytra was one of the hot favourites for gold at the European Athletics outdoor championships last summer, but she tightened up in the final and only came away with bronze when so much more was expected of her.

It is what she said next that has an element of the crystal ball about it: "Apart from everything else, four is my lucky number and today is the 4th March. Maybe that is a good omen. To win it will be necessary to run a personal best and there is almost certain to be a runner in the race that no one has taken into account."

Later in the day, Britain's Tiffany Ofili emerged as that unknown threat when she propelled herself into a different league this season with a national record of 7.89 to upstage pre-race favourite Christina Vukicevic of Norway. It was not so much the time that Ofili clocked as the relaxed manner she accomplished it. With the final later in the evening, it looked ominous for everyone, not only the Norwegian.

In the final, Nytra got a dream start and led the field with impeccable hurdling. Until, that is, she reached the last flight when the slightest of brushes seemed to unbalance her for the final rush for the line. The Norwegian was clearly beaten but the unknown runner – Ofili – was far from spent. Though the Briton looked beaten as she rose to the final hurdle she somehow gathered herself for a final lunge and for a few uncomfortable moments it looked as though she pulled off what would have seemed the unlikeliest of victories before the day began.

"I couldn't believe my luck," said Nytra later. "But the other girls said 'You've got it'. Understandably, Nytra was overwhelmed by the turn of events: "It's crazy. The time is really fabulous. I can't fathom it at all. It hasn't sunk in yet. Normally, the final is slightly slower than the semis. But this was a really hard race and it needed a personal best to lift gold. That way it is even better."

But it was not all down to her lucky number. In Barcelona, Nytra noticed how Ireland's Derval O'Rourke (fourth in Bercy) leant on the run-in for the line. "I thought I must learn from the fast runners, especially those who beat me. I leant with my whole body forwards as I went for the line and it worked."

For so long the women from Mannheim has promised much and now at the age of 26 she has finally stepped out of the shadow of Kirsten Bolm who accumulated three European Indoor bronzes, but never gold even though she lifted outdoor silver in 2006. The odd fact is that the day of Nytra's triumph, 4th March, is Bolm's birthday and it is on that day that her successor was finally fated to eclipse her.
 
European Athletics (EAA) – News