OLYMPICS Bath high jumper Gale targets Paris podium
- Details
- Created on Monday, 02 August 2021 06:26
- Last Updated on Tuesday, 03 August 2021 06:34
- Published on Monday, 02 August 2021 06:26
- Written by NEIL ROSE
Team Bath AC high jumper Tom Gale says his first experience of an Olympics final at Tokyo 2020 has fired his ambition to challenge for medals at future Games.Gale, who is coached by Denis Doyle at the Team Bath Sports Training Village, cleared his first three attempts in Sunday’s final but went out of the competition at 2.27m and had to settle for 11th place overall.
It proved to be an Olympic high jump final for the ages with Mutaz Essa Barshim of Qatar and Italy’s Gianmarco Tamberi choosing to share the gold medal after there was no separating them.
“I’m going to go to the next Olympics and I don’t want to sit there and watch a competition like that ever again and not be part of it,” said 22-year-old Gale, who has trained with his hometown club for the past eight years. “Hopefully I can come out next time and be one of the ones on the podium.
“I did everything I could to get in shape but I just couldn’t do enough. I had a knee operation last year, my knee is in agony, I can’t go up and down stairs right now, and I rolled my ankle on my second jump. It’s just frustrating, it is what it is.”
Gale’s training partner at Bath's STV, Saint Lucia’s Levern Spencer, will begin her fourth Olympic high jump competition on Thursday.
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
