 |
| Kafétien Gomis hopes for a good showing at the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Paris, 4-6 March 2011. |
French long jumper Kafétien Gomis showed that he can raise his game on the big occasion by leaping out to a personal best of 8.24m at the European Athletics Championships in Barcelona to get the silver medal behind German sensation Christian Reif.
In an interview with the French athletics federation website www.athle.com, Gomis talks about the season that has just finished and his ambitions for the future.
You must be tired now at the end of the season?
Yes, I was getting tired. I had the Continental Cup and then the DécaNation (in September) to finish off the season but the two or three competitions after Barcelona were really difficult. However, now I’m relaxed and just want to get stuck in again. The DécaNation (in Annecy, his final competition on 11 September) was a nice competition with a great audience, good weather and competitive opponents, although some media thought it would be just an easy outing.
What is your assessment of this great 2010 season, highlighted with your first major championship medal?
It is quite positive. I've actually climbed for the first time onto a podium at international level. I beat my two personal records, both indoors (8.21m) and outdoors (8.24m). I had made a lot of changes, including working with a new coach, Renaud Longuèvre, but despite all that, there were not any great upheavals. I also changed my training framework and training partners. I needed these new features although it was me that took the initiative in these matters, I was not forced to do anything.
How have your preparations evolved?
There were no secret exercises invented by Renaud (Longuèvre)! I do the same things as before but not necessarily at the same time and in a slightly different way. We worked a lot. Before, I tended to be too bouncy during my run-up, with very large strides. I am now a little sprinter. I have worked also with Robert Emmiyan (the European record holder and now Armenian federation president) after the indoor season on some purely technical aspects. My approach to competition has changed a bit as well. I now look for a big jump earlier in the contest.
How has been your first year at Insep (the French National Institute of Sport and Physical Education)?
When you train with a world champion (Ladji Doucouré) and World Championships medallist (Muriel Hurtis-Houairi), you learn a lot, as much through talking to them as actually training with them. I now am part of a group where everyone shares the same ambitions. For example, with Bano (Bano Traoré, 2003 European Athletics Junior Championships 110m hurdles gold medallist), I do the same work as him in weight training. When someone is better than me at something in training, the next time we do that exercise I try to to reduce the gap.
I have no regrets; when one gets his first medal, you can not be choosy. I beat my personal record with my last jump. The only thing I’ve said is that if I had jumped earlier in the contest at 8.20m, then I would have approached my sixth jump in another way. I felt good physically, but 8.24m, I can do better than that. Nevertheless, even though I’ve been jumping at this level for a few years to go three centimetres better than my old record is also impressive.
Why, at 30 years of age, did everything come right for you in 2010?
I've been a daddy (of a little boy, Macéo) for a few months now. Everything is going well for me. Where the head goes, the body follows. This season, I felt free. I had no physical problems. In 2004, when I went to the Olympics, I was strong then but six years have passed and every season I seemed to get sick or injured. In 2010, everything just fell into place and was better established. I was able to train properly and with a a professional group.
What’s next?
The big goal for 2011 is the World Championships. We should not kid ourselves, it will be the most important competition of the year but then there will also be the European indoors at Bercy (Paris, 4-6 March 2011). I don’t want to miss it as it is vital for the summer preparations and especially as it will be at home. I must confirm my standing within Europe and then punch my ticket to assert myself globally. I have never participated in a World Championships final, that alone would be a nice thing to do but my ambition has to be to get on the podium.