G. Martin Bingisser » Competitions

Swiss Championships Three-Peat

Martin — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 09:32:59 +0000

The Swiss Championships in Basel yesterday were my last chance to set a personal best this season. All went according to plan and I improved my best to 67.90 meters and won my third straight Swiss national title in the process.

The Setting
When I heard that the Swiss Championships were in Basel, I had mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, Basel has a great ring. It is probably the second best in Switzerland after Locarno. But on the other hand, I have never thrown well there before. The cage is outside the stadium and tucked into some trees. It is not spectator friendly and not athlete friendly since the opening is so narrow that it is possible to throw in the middle of the sector and still have your wire hit the cage (as happened to me once during the meet). Together, it feels like you are throwing out of a cave. Plus, my last two meets at Basel have been poorly planned and had the competitors waiting nearly 30 minutes between attempts.

Show Your Support at the Swiss Championships

Martin — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 14:22:49 +0000

Today Swiss Athletics posted a preview (in German) of this weekend's Swiss Championships. The hammer throw was easy for them to predict:

The Swiss title has practically already been awarded. Martin Bingisser is throwing much farther than anyone else in Switzerland.

While this prognosis may sound good, it has its downsides. Last year I was in the same position. I entered the meet as the clear favorite by ten meters. With an injury to the last year's silver medalist, I am the only Swiss thrower to break 50 meters in 2010. I have always found it difficult to motivate myself in these situations. While I typically throw farther in competitions than in training, that requires a little adrenaline.

To motivate myself last year, I set a goal to finish with the largest margin of victory. I ended the competition with my best throw of the year and win by 14 meters. This year I have set a new goal: win by more than 20 meters. To reach that goal I need your support in Basel. If you are nearby, come and watch the action on Friday night.

Karlstad Introduces Water Hazards to Hammer Throwing

Martin — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 11:00:56 +0000

As I wrote last year, the throwing events need to be imaginative and think outside of the box in order to gain in popularity. This is easier with the shot put since it can be hosted anywhere there is a small slab of concrete. The hammer throw can be more difficult since it requires a big cage and ample landing area. Simply put, while they can host the shot put inside Zürich's main train station, that would never work with the hammer or discus throws.

World discus throw champion Robert Harting is always one to grab headlines and this April he announced that he would love to have a discus throw competition over the Spree river in Berlin. That never materialized, but the Swedes did one better yesterday. As a prelude to today's Karlstad Grand Prix, the city hosted a hammer throw competition on the banks of the Klarälven river. And by banks, I mean the opposite banks. They installed a hammer throw ring on one side of the river and attempted to throw to the other side. Fans surrounded the cage and lined up on the bridge to watch.

Spitzen Leichtathletik Luzern Recap

Martin — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 21:29:12 +0000

Thanks to the generosity of meet director and friend Terry McHugh, the hammer throw was added to this year's Spitzen Leichtathletik Luzern meet on Thursday. This meet is one of my favorites in Switzerland. While its budget is dwarfed in comparison to Switzerland's two Diamond League meets, it still manages to bring in Olympic champions and world record holders every year. This edition was no exception as I headlined the meet along with Andreas Thorkildsen and Yelena Isinbayeva. Well maybe I was more of a footnote, but I still got to throw at another top meet.

The Setting
The reason I love the Luzern meet is because of the environment. I visited for the first time in 2003 and was struck by the beauty. The stadium sits at the base of Pilatus and the mountain is so close you feel like you can hit it on a good throw. While the stadium is small, it is always packed with fans excited to be close to the stars. In 2003 I happened to find a great shot put competition with John Godina, Resse Hoffa, and a young Christian Cantwell. Watching these stars from just feet away made quite an impression on me as a teenager, especially when Godina invited me to join them for dinner afterwards.

A Case Study in Ideal Meet Preparation

Martin — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 16:05:51 +0000

I have tried several different pre-meet training plans with Bondarchuk, but I think I finally found the right one this week:

T minus 4 Days - Train twice (lifting and throwing each session), work a few hours, and then spend six hours sitting on the train.
T minus 3 Days - Train twice (lifting and throwing each session)
T minus 2 Days - Train twice (lifting and throwing each session)
T minus 1 Day - Train twice (lifting and throwing each session), work seven hours, and get a few lingering aches and pains looked at by Mr. Fix-it.
Day of competition - Train in the morning at 6:30 am so that you are able to get to an 8:00 am meeting. After training, work six hours.

This was my preperation for Tuesday night's competition in Olten. If you can't sense my sarcasm, it was far from the ideal meet preperation. I think it gives a new meaning to the phrase "training through" a competition. The reason I took this approach was because I didn't decide to compete until four hours before the competition. Despite needing to check to see if the sun would be up early enough for me to train on Tuesday morning, I still hit 65 meters. As the day progressed, I found that I felt surprisingly fresh when I returned to work after lunch. My afternoon training called for throwing the 7.26kg hammer, so I figured I might as well do my training at a competition...at least then I can get an official mark if training goes even better.