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By DANIEL LANE The Sun-Herald October 15, 2006 TWO of Australian sport's toughest taskmasters have combined to ensure high jumper Claire Mallett lives and breathes the Olympic motto citius, altius, fortius. Through the efforts of Paul Watson and Jock Campbell, "faster, higher, stronger" has become the young Olympic aspirant's creed every time she hits the training track and gymnasium in Sydney's south. Watson, who has spent 13 years conditioning NRL teams Penrith and Cronulla, and Jock Campbell, who worked with Australia's Test cricketers, are putting the 21-year-old through the weight sessions, sprint programs and sandhill runs that have tested the mettle of the country's hardest men. Mallett represented Australia at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne this year and finished a credible sixth. She described the experience as a "reality check". "It was a real eye-opener," she says. "The Commonwealth Games made me appreciate the importance of not only training hard, but of the need to put everything into training. "I'm definitely training a lot harder than I was this time last year. "I've had things like a couple of extra weight sessions a week included in my program and it feels as if it is really helping." Watson and Campbell, who run a personal training company at Cronulla, say Mallett is as tough as any of the elite athletes with whom they've worked. This is a huge call because their collective honour roll includes Steve Waugh, Glenn McGrath, Brett Lee, Adam Gilchrist, Andrew Ettingshausen, Jason Stevens, Scott Sattler and Mat Rogers. "Claire is extremely dedicated," Watson says. "And she is very strong. Claire can complete 60-kilo power lifts, which is close to lifting her own body weight, and that is an enormous feat. "I've helped train her since she was in year 10 and she's always impressed me with her dedication and enthusiasm. She definitely has what it takes to make it." Campbell says helping to prepare Mallett for the Beijing Olympics could easily be considered by some as a delicate balancing act. "We can improve Claire's strength by 100 per cent, but we have to do it in such a way that she won't put on extra weight," he says. "That's vital because the very nature of her sport means whatever weight Claire might put on, she has to then carry it over the bar." Mallett's high jump coach Ian Garrett says her training regimen will develop a toughness that could give her an X-factor in a competitive event. Apart from preparing to compete with Petrina Price and Ellen Pettitt for a place on the 2008 Olympic team, there are many quality young jumpers such as Sophie Begg leaping into prominence. "Technically, she still has plenty to learn and she does need to develop more strength," says Garrett, who was a 1990 Commonwealth Games representative. "But Claire definitely has great talent and she's doing everything to fulfil it. "I think she'll need to jump at least 1.93 metres to get to Beijing . . . though I'm certain 1.95m would ensure she gets on that plane." Mallett's personal best is 1.86m, though for a few heart-stopping seconds she and her supporters thought she'd jumped higher than that to win the Commonwealth Games silver medal. "On my first attempt at 1.88m I cleared the bar and it looked good, really good," she says. "But I turned around and the bar rolled off onto the mat. It was so close. "What I gained from that was the knowledge I do have that kind of jump in me. I can clear 1.88 - I just have to complete it." Mallett will find out just how far she has progressed since those Games when the inter-club championships season start in two weeks. Garrett wants Mallett to equal her personal best with her first jump because he insists that would be an important step in gaining the extra centimetres needed to qualify for Beijing. Watson likes her chances. "We've set an extremely high bench mark for Claire," he says. "And while she is being pushed - and hard - it's simply a result of her being an athlete who is reaching for the stars." |