Marschall: New PB gives Aussie pole vaulter confidence prior to World Indoors, Comm Games

It has been a little over a month since young Adelaide-native Kurtis Marschall vaulted to a new personal best of 5.80 metres at the Western Australian Athletics Championships in Perth, but the soon-to-be 21-year-old (April 25) is already keen to build off his “confidence booster” at the IAAF World Indoor Championships final in Birmingham, England on Sunday.

“Last month when I Jumped 5.80m it was very expected,” said Marschall, whose previous best was 5.73m set in Lausanne last year. “I had attempted 5.80 or close to it about five to 10 times in the last year and never managed to clear it despite having some really close attempts.

“I was very happy that after a solid bit of winter training that I was able to pull out a big height like that this early in the season,” the 2016 Olympian told Eurosport. “It’s a real confidence booster now knowing that I can jump that high and it now doesn’t daunt me that much when you’re coming up against guys who can jump 6m.

The reigning three-time Australian champion and 2016 Under-20 world championships silver medallist is targeting another new high and a top five finish this weekend.

“The goal for Birmingham is to try and learn from this experience of how to try and stay on the top of my game at a major world championship,” Marschall explained. “It’s very important in pole vaulting to be able to stay focused in a major competition so that you can execute all of the little technical things that allow you to jump high.

“The aim will be and is always to jump a new PB and that would put me in the mix for top five,” he admitted. “If I come top five in the world that would be an amazing achievement for me at this stage in my career.”

Despite a gruelling competition and travel schedule heading into the weekend’s finals, Marschall is feeling optimistic of his form and overall chances inside Arena Birmingham.

“I’m feeling very positive about heading into the World Indoors,” said last year’s seventh-place finisher (5.65m). “The body is in really good shape. I have started to taper my training for the lead up into the Commonwealth Games in April so we should start to see some results come from my body being fresh.

“My health is very good at this point, the long haul flight from Australia to the UK might knock me around a bit but I’ve jumped a few days off the plane in Europe in the past and jumped well.”

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