Olympic hopeful Kurtis Marschall motivated by pole vault mentor

POLE vaulter Kurtis Marschall has leapt into contention for the Rio Olympics on the back of a career-best year, inspired by the death of his mentor.

POLE vaulter Kurtis Marschall has leapt into contention for the Rio Olympics on the back of a career-best year, inspired by the death of his mentor.

Marschall, 18, has recorded the second-highest clearance (5.42m) among Australian vaulters in the past 12 months to emerge as one of the country’s top hopes to fill the void left by the retirement of Beijing gold medallist Steve Hooker in 2014.

The Happy Valley resident needs to clear 5.7m before June to qualify for next year’s Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Providing extra motivation is the memory of pole vault guru Alan Launder, who was part of Marschall’s coaching team for two years and a key figure in the sport in SA.

Launder died from a heart attack in the UK in August last year, aged 80.

“Alan was a mastermind of pole vault ... and I worked with him quite closely,” Marschall says.

“He got me inspired to start working hard and start believing in what I could achieve.

“I was absolutely distraught when he died.

“I think about him every single training.

“Making an Olympic team would mean the world to me.”

Marschall, who first tried pole vault at age 12, was juggling athletics and football until four years ago.

He was a member of West Adelaide Football Club’s junior development squad and did not consider himself an Australian pole vault prospect.

But a 30cm growth spurt two years ago, hard work and the guidance of Launder, coach Kym Simons, former world pole vault champion Dmitri Markov and SASI mentors has led to some major improvement.

Marschall won the under-17 national title in 2013 and then competed at the junior world championships in the US last year.

At the time, his personal-best jump was 5.05m.

“The (junior world titles) kicked some sense into me where I thought -you are supposed to be at these major championships because you are good at what you do’.

“I did not think Rio was really on the cards.

“But because I have improved an extra 30cm, it makes it less than 30cm (to qualify) and it’s definitely achievable.”

Marschall, who stands 193cm, expects that finetuning his technique, getting stronger and a bigger pole will help him realise his Olympic dream.

“The Olympics have been a goal ever since I started athletics – I’m an all or nothing person.

“When you jump and clear a bar, it’s a weight getting lifted off your shoulders.

“You can use that time falling in the air to the bag as a sigh of relief.”