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| Former European 800m champion Bram Som is aiming for a medal at the 2011 European Athletics Indoor Championships in Paris. |
Som, now 30, has not raced indoors since 2007 and said he is chasing a place on the podium in Paris as partial compensation for being unable to defend his European title in Barcelona due to illness after getting food poisoning.
The 2011 European Athletics Indoor Championships will be held at the Palais Omnisport Paris-Bercy in the French capital between 4-6 March.
“In recent years, I’ve skipped the indoor season as my coach and I thought there was a risk of injury as I changed from endurance work to faster speed work. This year I’ve changed my training around,” explained Som, a 2009 World Championships finalist.
“I’ve had it in my head for a while that I was going to return to indoor competitions and missing Barcelona made the decision easier,” he added.
He has only competed in once in the European Athletics Indoor Championships, back in 2002 when he went out in the 800m heats.
Som showed that he was in good shape earlier this month when he made his duathlon debut at the Run-ATB-Run offroad event in Groesbeek, and ended up winning the competition by 35 seconds.
He managed to complete the 3.25km run, 3.25km mountain bike route and then a 7km run over tough, muddy terrain, in 45:36. “Why would an 800m specialist like myself do something like this? It’s easy to explain, in summary, fun and new challenge,” said Som.