RYAN CROUSER

On his feeling after long trip:

I’m feeling very good. The travel was long but I’ve been sleeping well so I got here and had a good training session yesterday and light training today. My body’s moving well. Considering 23 hours of travel I’m happy with how I feel.

On how he feels competing first time after breaking world record in Los Angeles:

I’m very excited, I did a bit of an unusual schedule this year, with the series of meets. I stopped to travel after breaking the world record instead of competing a lot, so a lot of time in the waiting room. Training has been going very well, still have a ton of speedwork to do, but the body is strong. I’m just excited to compete and use it as a good checkpoint to see where I’m at. LA was a checkpoint and it was a very pleasant surprise of a checkpoint. Hopefully we can get out here in Ostrava and at least throw a meeting record.

On tough summer schedule full of long trips: 

Now I have two competitions in Europe and then I’ll come back to US for national championships. After that we’ll come back again to Europe for some final weeks. That’s the main reason why I did the big training blocks. It has been very exciting to taper down and then to start focusing on speed in the ring because that’s what made me successful to be able to throw the light shots especially well. So, I’ve been working on my weak points and as I get closer to the world championships it's time to work on my strong points.

On his strong training marks:

Unfortunately or fortunately, I’ve gotten older. I don’t throw as far in training as I used to when I was younger. Even up until 3 or 4 years ago I used to throw further in training and be frustrated when I threw less in a meet. As I’ve gotten older, I don’t throw hard as often and I don’t throw quite as far but it’s a pleasant feeling because the meets tend to be a positive surprise. I haven’t thrown especially far in training, but I’ve been throwing relatively far so that’s always good. I haven’t thrown anything over 23.56 but I’m throwing further now during the training then I was before LA so I take that as a very good sign.

On his motivation to change technique being the number one in the world:

I started to change my technique in December. I always try to do experiments with different techniques, but trying something new and promising is always the challenge to stay in the ring. The meeting in Los Angeles was the first one where I felt I could add with the new technique and it was a new world record what is very promising. But I will always be trying new ways in my technique and my trainings as there is always a desire to see how I can be better. My motivation in having changes even being the world record holder is that I am always competitive with myself. I want to be as good as I can to be, personally. If I go out and get 3rd or 2nd in competitions, it doesn’t matter as long as I feel that I threw well, I can’t control what other athletes do, just how I respond to their performances and how far I throw personally. That is why I’m always trying to innovate if I can.

On his passion in fishing. Is it a kind of relax or the kind of competition trying to catch the biggest fish:

A little bit of both. I do go out and enjoy it, but also do a little of tournament bass fishing as well. I’m sure that track & field is always getting into the way of my professional bass fishing career. There’re definitely two kinds of it. There’s the feeling for me that starts in the morning you have a blast off at bass tournaments I have as much adrenaline as I do at the Olympics. That is definitely not relax fishing for me but I enjoy both sides of it. I enjoy the competitive nature of the tournament style fishing, but the 95% of fishing that I do is just relaxing. I have a puppy that’s small and I think the only being who can love fishing more than me is probably the puppy. When she sees a fishing rod, she starts jumping in circles. As soon as I put the boat on the water, she jumps on. It’s great to have a fishing partner now.

 LAMECHA GIRMA

Last year in Ostrava I had my first real success in the steeplechase, so it’s my big pleasure to come back here if even doing different events. 

I broke two world records this year. First time it happened during indoor season over 3000m and then 3000m steeplechase outdoors. At the moment I don’t think about possibility to improve steeplechase record. My nearest major goal is the gold medal at the Budapest World Championships. Maybe, after that I’ll try to attack records at 5000m and 10,000m.

This time in Ostrava I’ll try to do something special over 1500m. My target is to go under the Ethiopian record.