PARIS 2011 – European Athletics Indoor Championships – With or without snow

With less than three months to go till the European Athletics Indoor Championships (4 to 6 March 2011), the French capital has been covered in a blanket of snow for the past two days. This cold snap, which is dishing up some very wintery conditions, is also affecting a large part of Europe.

With such climatic constraints, it’s not easy for the athletes to thoroughly prepare for the next European  Indoors in Paris-Bercy. How are they going about it? Are they all suffering its effects? We get the answers from the respective coaches of four of the most eagerly awaited athletes due to perform at the European Indoors: Russian Yelena Isinbayeva (pole vault), English athlete Jessica Ennis (pentathlon) and Frenchmen Romain Barras (heptathlon) and Christophe Lemaitre (60m).

 
Vitaliy Petrov, how’s it going for… Yelena Isinbayeva?

“I must admit that, for us, preparation for the European Athletics Indoor Championships is going as best it can. Yelena is spending most of the time in Italy, with a few regular return trips to Monaco. The outdoor training conditions aren’t currently ideal in Italy, as it’s cold and often rainy. As such Yelena is training indoors in Florence. She’s doing a lot of jumps, as we’d planned. In practice, she’s making do with just going outdoors for interval training, nothing more. However Yelena has always worked like that: she trains inside for indoor competitions, then outside for outdoor events.”

 
Toni Minichiello, how’s it going for… Jessica Ennis?

“Conditions are difficult up in Sheffield, where Jessica trains. It’s very cold. Snow is covering the athletics track and the turf in the stadium. However, we are lucky in this town to have an absolutely perfect indoor sports venue, which is often used for our national championships. We have a 200m track and a 60m straight in it. As such we’re naturally doing all our sessions there at the moment. Frankly, I have to say that Jessica’s preparations for the European Indoors in Paris Bercy are going extremely well. Indeed she won’t be moving from Sheffield between now and the event itself. We’ll try and incorporate a few good outdoor sessions as soon as the snow is no longer covering the track.”

Jean-Yves Cochand, how’s it going for… Romain Barras?

“We just got back from a week’s training session on Réunion Island at the start of the week and here in Montpellier (southern France), we don’t really feel disoriented! It was 13°C first thing on Wednesday. The temperature even rose to 20°C in the afternoon. It was glorious. Romain did a short session of muscle development on Tuesday and he’s now resting until the end of the week. He needs to recuperate after two weeks of intensive training. During fifteen years in Montpellier only three or four sessions have been cancelled due to bad weather. If we so wish we can train on a 200m indoor track. However, it’s so nice outside that we really only use it in the winter, when some of the big competitions are looming.”

 
Pierre Carraz, how’s it going for… Christophe Lemaitre?

“On Thursday a 50cm layer of snow was covering all the lanes in the Aix-les-Bains stadium and the racecourse was no longer negotiable. We had to adapt and I suggested that the group do a session on the road, as it had been cleared by the municipal services. These conditions really are exceptional as we’ve only once before experienced anything like this. The closest indoor venue is Aix-les-Bains, situated in Chambéry, which we only use for honing our starts.

At this time of year though, we’re focusing on endurance training. As such the guys are covering up well; they’re real hardy types. Christophe is used to outdoor sessions, as are the rest of the group. We have four a week. All of a sudden the return of the warmth is helping them to make progress. It’s a relief for them!”