2024-08-07 23:19:41
2023 European champion Valters Kreiss won 4th place in the European U23 Championship, but in June of this year, the man from Riga took part in the Continental Championship for adults for the first time, remaining close to the finalists in 14th place. The progress of the results shown this season and the achievement of the Latvian U23 record (5.72m) allowed Kreiš to qualify for the Olympic Games, where the student of Marek Árents from “Arkadija” achieved what he did not achieve at the European Championship in Rome, namely reaching the final, so the debut can definitely be called great .
Valters Kreiš was the first of the three from the Riga sports school “Arkadija” who went to the start in Paris. For men, 30 pole vaulters took part in the qualification, who had a certain qualification norm – 5.80m. Taking into account the previous experience in such a high-level competition, it was clear that it might not be necessary to overcome such a height to reach the final twelve. However, in order to maintain hope, every height had to be overcome on the first attempt.
The Arkadian, who was the fourth representative of Latvia at the Olympic Games in pole vaulting, also managed to cope with the difficult task and overcome all the first three heights – 5.40m, 5.60m and 5.70m – in the first attempt, which was a serious application for the final, although still not a hundred percent, but with high hopes. 5.75m, which exceeded the personal record by 3cm, Kreiš failed with three attempts. This height of 5.75m was cleared by 10 pole vaulters, but Walters and Australian Curtis Marshall joined the finalists due to successful first jumps (at a height of 5.70m), as two others had also cleared 5.70m, but not for the first time.
Thus, with a shared 11th and 12th place in a very equal competition, the athlete from “Arkadija” entered the top 12 pole vaulters, becoming the second Latvian to reach the pole vault final of the Olympic Games. In 2016, at the Rio Games, Pauls Pujāts reached the final with 5.60m achieved in the qualification. Marek Arents and Aleksandr Obizhaevs each competed twice in the Olympic Games, without making it to the finalists.
Claudio Stekki from Italy, the vice-champion of the world juniors and eighth-place finisher in the adult championship, who also overcame 5.70, but with more unsuccessful attempts, remained behind the final line. Several titled pole vaulters remained behind the Arcadian. Ben Broder, the European U23 champion from Belgium who finished eighth in the World Championship, whose personal record is 5.85m, Pole Piotr Lisek, who has exceeded 6m a couple of times during his career. The titular Pole stuck at 5.70 and did not clear that height. Lisek has won three medals at the world championships – silver in 2017 and bronze in 2015 and 2019, as well as twice climbed the podium at the world indoor championships and won the European indoor championship in 2017, but in Paris he was behind the Arkadian and did not qualify for the final with 5 ,60 m. Another strong pole remained behind Walter – the 2016 European champion and last World Championship finalist Robert Sobera.
World fifth-place finisher Thibaut Collet, who remained unbeaten at 5.75 and behind Kreis due to more attempts, did not qualify for the final, as did host Antoni Amirati, the 2022 world and 2021 European junior champion, who jumped 5, 81m.
For 20-year-old Walter Kreis, competing in the finals together with the world’s great pole vaulters was already a big event, reaching the finals of such a high ranking competition for the first time. The starting height was set at a height of 5.50 meters, which the Arkadian overcame with the second attempt, becoming the first Latvian pole vaulter to achieve a result in the Olympic final, since eight years ago Pujāt failed to do so.
The height of the next competition increased significantly – by 20cm – and was very serious – 5.70m, which was only two centimeters lower than Kreis’ own personal record. In three attempts this time, he failed to overcome this height, but the 12th place he obtained is still a great success for the young Arkadian.
“In the final, I wasn’t happy about the 5.50m I passed, because it wasn’t my day, because the temperature was a little higher and my throat was sore. We did everything we could with the team. I was given medicine, we warmed up a little differently – less and more actively, but still the body “refused”. At a height of 5.70m, you could see that the card did not move through the vertical, and therefore it was not possible to reach the jump, so I fell back. There was no speed, I did what I did, but it just didn’t work. With each run, I had the feeling that the speed was getting lower and lower, so I couldn’t run the run at the required speed to get that good jump,” explains Walter Kreis.
“I had a soft card at 5.50m, so I had to take another one at 5.70m, but as I said, I couldn’t “pull” today. Maybe it would even have been better to leave the previous round, but nothing,” adds Kreiš.
“I fell back on the third try and didn’t touch the mattresses. I thought I didn’t have enough time, but in that noise you couldn’t hear coach Marek Arends calling for me to run and try again in the few seconds left. I found out about it afterwards, so I got angry, but it just wasn’t my day,” concludes the Arkadian, who competed in the finals at the Olympic Games.
“Overall, I’m happy with my debut. 12th place is not a bad result. I didn’t plan to qualify for the final, so I surprised myself and others. Therefore, I cannot say that I am angry or dissatisfied. I partially fulfilled the goal, but I wanted to repeat or improve the Latvian record (5.80m), it did not work out this time, but there is still a lot of time to do it,” Kreiš is optimistic.
“It’s a dream come true to be here and compete with all the best. It inspires to train and prepare for the next competition for all one hundred. I want to increase my growth and results and strive for higher goals,” says the “Arkadija” track and field athlete.
2024-08-07 23:19:41