When Malaika Mihambo had long since taken off her spikes after the start of the outdoor season and was signing autographs surrounded by fans, her trainer Uli Knapp stood a little apart and beamed. “I’m going home absolutely happy,” revealed the Palatinate in an interview with SWR Sport. In an athletics year with the World Championships in Eugene (USA) in July and the subsequent European Championships in Munich in August, athletics fans should be happy to hear that!
Mihambo trainer Uli Knapp: “That makes me very confident”
“I’m absolutely satisfied,” said Knapp, who had just returned from a twelve-day, intensive training camp in Turkey with Mihambo. “You usually expect it to be a bit down, but it’s actually at its best in the last two years!”
Incidentally, Mihambo in Pliezhausen improved the eleven-year-old stadium record in the 80-meter sprint by Marion Wagner (USC Mainz) by eight hundredths of a second to 9.35 seconds. The ease of her runs impressed. Also the national coach, because the looseness was also part of the training: “That makes me very confident because we have worked a lot on the elements that she has now shown: on the knee lift, on the arm guidance and on the looseness, but also on special sprinting power”, Knapp lists and once again underlines his satisfaction: “She did everything with flying colors!”
Malaika Mihambo: “The pressure is off!”
The ease in running is also reflected in the conversation afterwards. The Olympic champion speaks to SWR Sport in a relaxed manner about the season full of highlights. She starts as the defending champion at the World and European Championships: “There’s actually no pressure because I’ve already won everything.” But that doesn’t stop the 28-year-old from Often from formulating clear goals: “I also see this as an opportunity to defend the title. I’m looking forward to it.” Fun, ambition and passion are definitely still there.
Concentration on the long jump – no sprint experiments
The crooked stretches of Pliezhausen (80 and 150m) were good to start with. To see that the speed is back: “I’ve missed that a bit in the last year and a half. I’m glad that it’s going up again now!”. But not to start in parallel in the sprint, Mihambo makes that clear.
It’s that other ease that Malaika Mihambo exudes. In addition to the sporting successes, this is also a result of working with Uli Knapp. The man from the Palatinate is again on the road with the Olympic champion this year. As a national coach, as a mentor and also as a friend. “I’m glad to have such a sensitive person by my side in Uli,” Mihambo summed it up in the SWR interview.
Hard training in Turkey instead of backpacking through India
Cross-country skiing and snowshoeing in the Allgäu and then a training camp in Belek, Turkey: this is how Mihambo laid the foundations for the preparation. Belek was her first training camp in five years. A few years ago she was out and about in India with a backpack and running shoes to prepare for the season. Because Uli Knapp flew to Turkey as national coach with the German Athletics Association (DLV) at the end of April, Mihambo jetted along. “It doesn’t have much to do with the trips I like, but it’s nice to be in the sun,” she says. “But a training camp is like working, in a new office!” Twelve days with 17 units. Hard work that should pay off.
“Everything that comes now is an encore, I’m just trying to do my best,” says Mihambo and grins aggressively at Uli Knapp. Pliezhausen was almost certainly not the last competition after which he went home “absolutely happy”!
Source: SWR