German pole vaulter Danny Ecker has put behind him any thoughts of retiring and has started training again with the aim of qualifying for the 2011 European Athletics Indoor Championships, which will be staged in Paris between March 4-6.
Ecker won the 2007 European indoor title but the 33-year-old lost the whole of the summer due to injuries.
For more than a decade, Ecker has been a tenacious performer at the highest level and qualified for most of the major international championships since 1998 after succeeding at the highly competitive German Championships.
A demonstration of the strength in depth of German vaulting can be seen by the fact that in 2010 they had five men over 5.70m or better outdoors even in the absence of the injured Ecker.
On the global stage, Ecker won bronze medals at the 1999 World Indoor Championships and 2007 World Championships and has made the last three Olympic finals, finishing eighth, fifth and sixth.
However, his only appearance at the European Athletics Championships was in 1998, when he finished fourth.
“I still want to know what I can achieve in the next indoor season even though I know my best years are behind me,” reflected Ecker last week, admitting that he had seriously considered hanging up his spikes.
He holds the German indoor record with 6.00m, which he jumped in 2001 and is one of only seven men ever to have gone over a bar set that high. His outdoor best is 5.93m, which he cleared in 1998.