31st July 2013 02:07
Not wanting to exert all of her energies into a heptathlon less than a month out from the World Championships in Moscow, but also not willing to miss her age group championships altogether, the 21-year-old used Tampere to sharpen herself up before contesting her main event in Moscow.
The 100m was being billed as one of the events of the championships, with Schippers going head-to- head with another of the world's most precocious young sprint talents: Great Britain's former world junior and European junior champion Jodie Williams. With Williams still returning to her best form having missed most of 2012 with injury and Schippers having already set a pb of 11.09 in Lausanne earlier in the season, Schippers started as favourite and did not disappoint. Having clocked the fastest times of all the competitors in the heats and semi-finals, Schippers saved her best for when it really mattered, clocking her second fastest ever time of 11.13 (-0.7) to take the title, leaving the opposition three tenths in arrears.
Williams finished second in 11.42, with Germany's Tatjana Pinto third in 11.50. 'I got a good start and I am pleased with how I ran. I was just disappointed that we had a headwind, as I was hoping the wind would be with me and I could run a faster time. I am a bit tired now, but I had three races, I felt good and I showed my strength into the wind,' reflected Schippers.
If Schippers was tired, nobody would ever have known. The next day she was out on the track again for the long jump and her pb of 6.59m was good enough for the bronze behind Germany's Lena Malkus (6.76m) and Ukraine's Krystyna Hryshutyna (6.61m). The Dutch athlete opened with a pb of 6.58m, before improving to 6.59m in round five. 'I am pleased to get a medal, jumping against the specialists,' explained Schippers. 'However, it was a shame as I had two very marginal no-jumps. But overall I am pleased, as I jumped two pbs today and I feel there is more there.'
Having won the European junior heptathlon title in Tallinn in 2011, the 2010 World Junior Champion is no stranger to age group success. However, boasting a pb of 6360 and having placed 12th in the Olympics last year, Schippers will now refocus as she prepares for her biggest test in Moscow next month.
The 2013 World Championships may come a bit early for Schippers to challenge for her first global senior medal, but she has finished her age group years on a high with another European gold. Schippers is certainly narrowing the gap on the world's best, with the 2016 Rio Olympics fixed firmly in her mind as the time when she hopes to be reaching her peak.
Despite the fact that she is the Dutch national 200m record holder with 22.69 and was part of the 4x100m relay team that broke the record in London last year, Schippers has no plans to steer away from heptathlon just yet. 'For now, I choose the heptathlon as my main event, so my training is focused on this. I will go on sprinting, but I only train for sprinting once a week. I need to work on my throws, especially the javelin, and also the high jump and to be more consistent in all seven events,' explained Schippers.