Grit Breuer - Waiting to go all goose-pimply
Olympic Stadium Munich, August 8th, 2002, 9 p.m. – women´s 400 meter final: Grit Breuer is working towards this very moment hard and ambitiously and thinking of it, she anticipates the big goose-pimples. They always appear when she sits in the blocks at big championships and feels that all the spectators in the stadium are behind her and cheer loudly. They inspire her and make her feel full of beans. And isn´t it someting similar that Grit Breuer intends to do? She wants to defend her titles in the 400 meter and 4x400 meter relay that she won at the last European Championships in 1998 in Budapest – and by the way already in 1990 in Split.
German 400-metres-star Grit Breuer (Foto: Kiefner)
The 30-year-old evaluates: "Winning a gold medal in Munich is more important to me than becoming World Champion abroad. It would be really great to run under 50 seconds in Munich." Thus Grit Breuer is absolutely concentrated on the European Championships in her own country.She is well on the way having had an indoor season as planned: Some indoor meetings to "warm up" before winning the German title in Sindelfingen as expected in excellent 51,49 seconds. Running such a time is "nothing special for Breuer because "my training times show that I can attain a 50 second time indoors. She did not show up at the European Indoor Championships in Vienna – in the first place because she wanted to finally get rid of shingles which disturbed her in February. Besides becoming European Indoor Champion does not thrill her anymore since she won the title already twice: in 1996 in Stockholm and in 1998 in Valencia. Breuer also found the three rounds too exhausting and the endowment of the indoor title too uninteresting. So Grit Breuer relaxed during her holidays on the island of Rügen while, in Vienna, the German colours were represented by Claudia Marx.
Training Camp in Zinnowitz
Since March 11th she is back practicing and at the beginning of April the athlete from New Brandenburg was drawn to the Baltic Sea again: She went to a two week training camp in Zinnowitz on the island of Usedum with the group of her boyfriend and coach Thomas Springstein. During one week the pros were joined by the 20 or so girls from the sprint and running class that she founded. Breuer says it is "really hard work" to find people who sponsor sneakers, gear or training camps – so additional supporters for her sprint and running class are more than welcome.
Originally she had wanted to start the outdoor season at the Jena meeting at the end of May. This meeting being cancelled, the time planner of the athlete from SC Magdeburg has only one fixed date so far – the DLV (German Athletic Association) meeting in Dortmund at the beginning of June. Like in 1998, which was a "great and unbelievably successfull year" for Breuer, the women´s 400 meter are a Golden League event this year. At these competitions – each of them as tiring as an EC-final according to Grit Breuer – she wants to get herself in form for the gold medal. Thus for the next 15 months she hopes to be able to train well and to stay healthy. And if ever her preparation should not go smoothly she will react to this according to her motto Never ever give up. Because there are big goose-pimples to be got out of 2002.
Ulrike Philipp
