It may have been the biggest surprise of the Prague 2015 European Athletics Indoor Championships but it was also one of the most astute performances. When Selina Büchel crossed the line first in the 800m last Sunday, she made it look as though she had been doing it for years.
It was only a few months ago that the 23-year-old Swiss had failed to make the final of her home European Athletics Championships in Zurich but now she’s a European indoor champion.
It was an amazing moment, but the truth is I would also have been happy with silver.
So where she had failed in front of thousands of her home fans last summer, Büchel celebrated with her brother, sister and three friends who had made the seven hour journey from her home village of Toggenburg to Prague, arriving just 90 minutes before the semis to cheer her on.
So what had changed in the intervening months to turn Büchel into a winner? Last summer she had tasted disappointment and it hurt: “I just wasn’t good enough,” she confessed. So she set about a radical restructuring of training with more speed work and more strength training. “My running style is now more controlled and more economic, I had the feeling after the semis that I had hardly run at all. My legs felt great.”
This is without doubt an important medal for Swiss athletics. It is 13 years since the last indoor medal, a silver, was won by André Bucher in Vienna, also over 800m. But it is 28 years since the last Swiss gold was celebrated when Sandra Gasser lifted the 1500m title in Liévin 1987. It was Gasser who persuaded Büchel that if she wanted to succeed in the long term then she was doing too little and had to increase her training.
Selina Buchel took GOLD for @SwissAthletics in the 800m! Congratulations! pic.twitter.com/qav3LpmHZI
— Praha 2015 (@Euro_Indoors) March 8, 2015
A small indicator of what the future might hold came first two years ago when Büchel travelled to Tampere and came away with an under-23 European bronze medal. Last winter she ended up fourth in the world indoors in Sopot.
But gold in Prague has given her wings: “The goal now is to dip under two minutes. I want to mix it at a higher level,” she said.