rough time at world juniors

[bma11]

Green has rough time at World Juniors
Former GICC standout suffers injury; poles don't arrive on time

By Bob Hamar
bob.hamar@theindependent.com

The World Junior Championships in Grosseto, Italy, didn't go well for Nebraska pole vaulter Jenny Green.
First, the former Grand Island Central Catholic standout's poles didn't arrive on time as scheduled. That forced her to borrow a pole from a teammate. Her father, JJ Green, said they checked with all the competitors and no one was using poles as big as hers.

Her poles finally showed up after she had qualified for the finals, but she didn't get a chance to practice on them until just before the finals began.

On her next to last warm-up jump, she cleared the bar by a couple of feet. Her coaches suggested she step back a couple of more steps and use her own pole.

"For the first time in her life she got stuck," JJ said. "She came down in the box. She laid there and they called a stretcher and brought out a neck brace. There were about five doctors out there."

Jenny landed on her back on a piece of concrete that was not covered. JJ said after 10 or 15 minutes, she got up and wanted to try to compete. She took her three attempts, but "at this point she could hardly run," JJ said.

JJ said the U.S. medical team there couldn't find anything broken or any small fractures.

The U.S. team left Italy Monday morning. Jenny will be back in Lincoln for a CAT scan today to determine of there are any injuries.

And, JJ said, it might have all been avoided if her poles had arrived on time.

"It's too bad they can send a man to the moon, but they can't get a 14-foot box over the ocean," he said.

Part of the problem was that Continental Airlines was to fly the poles over, but in the end they had to be shipped. JJ said the rumor was they were stuck in customs for three days, but because Jenny wasn't there to personally claim them, they weren't being released.

"It was kind of a rough trip," JJ said. "A coach came up to her and said, 'Jenny, this is bad for you but these things make you mentally tough. These are things that happen when you travel internationally and you have to deal with them.'"

[vaultmom]

that stinks. keep it up Jenny... it does make you tough and the tough girls are the ones who make it. there has got to be a better way to get poles to a meet !

[wacky274]

After having dealt with jenny, she is one of the toughest competitors i have met in the vault yet. She impressed me several times, outside of her poles, other things were at work, and I would just like to compliment her on what she did do with the situation she was given. With her toughness, talent, and coach, she's definitely on the right path, and I definitely think she will be one to watch out for.