Ryan raising the bar as London looms

High jumper Deirdre Ryan has been a regular at major championships ever since competing in the World Youths in 1999.

The European Indoors followed three years later and when she came back from an injury-plagued year in 2005 to reach the final at the European Outdoors the following season, she seemed destined for big things.

Consistency was a problem though and 2007 was poor. And yet, it was taking part in a small meeting in Leverkusen that year that has brought her to where she is now, a genuine Olympic contender.

“I knew I needed to make some changes” said Ryan during the week. “Things hadn’t worked out and I was here, there and everywhere. I wanted to move somewhere I could train in a really good facility, live there, be settled there and work there as well.

“The opportunity arose when I did a competition in Germany and met the coaches. You know when you come across these opportunities and they really, really excite you? I knew it was the right thing to do.”

So she gave up her job at the former UniCredito Italiano Bank and moved over, taking on some part-time work to help pay the bills.

The 29-year-old Dubliner achieved her best ever major championshipfinish in her “breakthrough year” when reaching the final of the World Championships last year. She set a new personal best of 1.95m in the qualification round to qualify forLondon and finished sixth in the decider. So there is no doubt the move has paid off.

There are many reasons for this, but the most obvious is the expertise of venerable coach, Gert Osenberg. The man who coached Olympic champions Ulrike Meyfarth and Heike Henkel, Osenberg is agrandfatherly figure for Ryan.

“I won’t say his age; he’ll kill me” she jokes and the affection she has for Osenberg is very evident when she talks about him.

“He’s a great man with a wealth of knowledge. We just get on great. I was really lucky to meet him. I’ve been training with him now for two years. He was mentoring me for the first two years, coming down once a week. I slowly clawed my way in, dragged him down a little bit more as the years went on and now he’s taken over and I work with him every day.”

Ryan finally became a full-time athlete last year and that should make her even better prepared. Gone is the stress of work deadlines and having to use your holidays to compete. Now the DSD athlete can relax after training and do fun things like filming a commercial for Electrical Ireland, which is why she was back homeduring the week.

All this is aimed at having her in peak condition for the Olympics, where her championship experience should be beneficial.

“I hope it will stand to me. This is my first Olympics so while I have a lot of international experience, I have no experience of the Olympics so it will be a bit different.

“But I’ve prepared for that. I’ll be really excited to arrive in the village. I love the full stadium, I love walking around in my Irish tracksuit. The extra atmosphere brings more out in me. You’re standing in a full stadium... It’s just the buzz of the place, the noise.”

She is also comfortable with the increased media interest that has come with that performance in Daegu but knows that she will have to be better than ever before to meet expectations — hers and everybody else’s.

“I’ll need to jump a PB to make the final. The automatic to the final would be 1.95/96, it is every year. First thing’s first is get a PB and make it to the final. Then compete the best I can… anything can happen on the day.”