Phoenix, Arizona –November has seen an outstanding month of growth for the World Athletics Center, with team staff travelling globally to deliver Coach Education courses in Europe and Asia. However, the Center has also been thriving with athletes from around the globe basing themselves there for winter preparations. Most recently, the WAC have been delighted to welcome a group from the Swiss Athletics Federation to Phoenix for a three week period. The group, headed by Herbert Czingon – former German Athletics Federation Head Field Events Coach, are based at the WAC as part of their preparations for an important upcoming year in European Athletics. Coach Czingon is masterminding the preparation of Swiss pole vault record holder Nicole Büchler (4.61m) and the 2007 European Athletics Junior Championships Pole Vault bronze medalist Anna Katharina Schmid (4.45m) in readiness for their home appearance at the European Championships in Zurich this summer. Also on camp is a promising Swiss newcomer, Olivia Fischer (3.80m) making the most of the excellent training conditions in Arizona. The renowned international coaching authority, who now works for the Swiss Federation, explained the rationale for choosing to base themselves in Phoenix: “I was eager to learn the integrated approach of training and on-site-therapy under the lead of Dan Pfaff who is known not only known as a successful coach, but also to be a coach with a feeling for sustained training loads and effective regeneration measures. The presence of high performance athletes like Steve Lewis and Steve Hooker brings great inspiration too! Meeting and discussing with top coaches from different countries creates a creative atmosphere. All in all it’s a professionally designed environment which can be seen as a model for future European high performance Centers.” more
