Grabarz shakes off injuries as he aims to better his brilliant 2012

There are times in an athlete’s career when everything just clicks — 2012 was one of those times for Robbie Grabarz, writes Matt Majendie.

Even when sailing over a high jump bar nearly a foot-and-a-half taller than him, he barely put a foot wrong, winning the Diamond League competition and a bronze medal at the Olympic Games.

This season has been somewhat different. A knee injury has curtailed his early-season progress and adapting to being stronger, quicker and fitter has affected his jumping in that he has struggled to find the consistency of last year.

He calls it “less of an injury, more a frustrating pain” but it’s been troubling him in training and competition. He believes it is now in the past and, having been crowned British champion two weekends ago, is confident going into both the Sainsbury’s Anniversary Games and next month’s World Championships.

“I feel more like myself than I have for a while,” he said. “I’m happy and looking forward to jumping. This year’s been slightly disappointing after last season when I was jumping well virtually every time.”

Grabarz does not do troubled so laid-back a character is he but part of that is because he is confident of turning around his dip in form.

“I’ve got all the tools to jump high, it’s just about getting it right at the right time,” he said. “And the way I see it is that I can do it again.”

His high jump peers have raised the bar — quite literally — this season with Mutaz Essa Barshim and Bohdan Bondarenko jumping 2.40 and 2.41 respectively, while Grabarz’s personal best is 2.37.

His goal is quite simple “just to jump higher than everyone else”.

His approach will be to be as relaxed as possible. “In high jumping, if you go for heights, you usually overstretch yourself and don’t jump so well,” he said. Looking back on the Olympics, he describes it as “pretty damn scary” but relished the good jumping surface he believes should produce another pulsating competition.

But regardless of what happens in London, he is looking ahead. “These guys have jumped higher than me this year but I just want to get in the mix and beat them. If I only do that in Moscow that’s fine.”

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