PoleVaultPower.com

Hi everyone,

I'm a senior at MIT, and am applying to five graduate schools in Europe. It might make a difference in my decision where to go if I know which school has the closest decent coaching for the vault. I'm a girl and have jumped 4.06 this season (an improvement from 3.76 last year) and am possibly aiming for the olympic trials if I can find a good facility to practice at (or at least hitting the B standard). I've been having a difficult time finding this information on my own, since some of it is not in English. Even if it's in reasonable travel distance, I'd be interested to hear about it (like Bern to Zurich), but obviously the closer the better.

Here are the 5 schools I've applied to:

ETH Zurich
EPFL (Lausanne)
Imperial College London
University of Groningen
University of Copenhagen.

Thanks a bunch!

-Karin

Clubs in Bern:
STBern (contact: a.robue@bluewin.ch)
GGBern (http://www.ggbern.ch/index.php?option=c ... 1&Itemid=3)

Bern is an hour away from Zurich and Lausanne by train. Lausanne doesn't really have pole vaulters. In Zurich there is a club too LCZ (http://www.lcz.ch/htm/kontakt.htm). Mitch Greeley (5.56m.) from the states trains in Bern (STBern).

I will vote for Copenhagen !

They have several serious teams there. I don´t know any of them personally but the team called Sparta DK (www.http://sparta.dk/atletik) actually have both the best Norwegian vaulter, Cathrine Larsåsen (PR and NR: 4.35) and the best Danish vaulter Caroline Bonde Holm (PR and NR:4.40). I have read in newspapers that Cathrine (the Norwegian) is very happy with the team.

They also have at least three very good male jumpers (three male vaulter above five meter (one cleared 5.50) last summer).

I suggest that you contact Cathrine Larsåsen directly for instance through facebook (search up Cathrine Larsåsen Stavhopper (stavhopper means pole vaulter)) and ask her about the opportunities. All their webpages are in Danish so I guess you will have some problem reading it, but Google translate works relatively well with danish. All dane speaks and reads english very well.

The head coach is according to the webpage: Henrik Paulsen, E-mail: hpa@sparta.dk

Danish people are extremely friendly (I am from Norway), so just send an informal E-mail and ask about the possibilities.

In addition: Copenhagen is a very beautiful city, it is close to Gothenburg in Sweden (with a lot of other good vaulters).

Good Luck !