On the road to Bercy: Anouck Jaubert: "I have a revenge to take this year"

The French speed expert says it herself that she missed the two last World championships in Paris in 2012 and in Gijón (ESP) in 2014. Even though Anouck doesn’t focus only on the World championships this season, she will come to the AccorHotels Arena with big ambitions. Let’s meet with her.

2016, a big year for the French climbers: have you done some changes in your preparation, in your practice?

Yes, we’ve modified my method on the top of the route. With Sylvain (Sylvain Chapelle, the national speed coach, ed), we began to work on this section in December. Such adjustments always take a lot of time to be put in place. The French championships mid-April were for me an occasion to get reassured that it would work. I’ve done some mistakes in Voiron, but they had nothing to do with the sequence in question. I took the title, it was reassuring… well until what happened in China (laugh)!

Explain to us what were those changes?

It’s close to a major change. I permanently do little adjustments, shift a foot for example. But this time, it changes the whole movement. This is occurring at the end of the run, a part of the route where there is a lot of holds. There is a move where we find ourselves putting at the same time both our hands and feet to do a jump. I didn’t do this before; I didn’t take all the holds but performed a hook by using a single leg. It allowed me to save some time. But after that, I landed a little bit too low to start the final sequence: I actually lost efficiency on the last two moves.

My strong point is the start. I was often in front for more than half the route and would get beaten to it at the end. The old method wasn’t that bad. It allowed me to improve for 2 years. But with Sylvain we think that it reached its limits: to be able to compete with the others at the end of the run, it had to change.

Was it successful at the beginning of the international season?

It’s hard to say. During the first world cup in Chongqing (CHN), I wasn’t good. I can’t explain it, I had bad sensations. I finally reached the quarterfinals where I gave in really close to Aleksandra Rudzinska (POL) who did the run of the competition. Despite my bad sensations, I didn’t do bad during the final phases. I just woke up a little bit late.

A few adjustments later, a week after Chongquing, we were back in China, in Nanjing this time. The situation was completely different: I was feeling very good at the beginning of the competition. I finished first of the qualification rounds. I had the best possible draw for the finales. Unfortunately, I made a mistake in the fourth of finales; it was over for me. Too bad.

On which event have you focused your preparation this year?

I see where you are going: yes, the World championships in Paris is the big event of the year. But it’s not the only one, far from it! It’s also important for me to performed well on the World Cup circuit. I want to take my chance again in the overall standings, even if it’s not looking good. (Anouck finished 2nd in the 2015 overall speed ranking, ed)

The World Championships don’t have a specific flavor?

Of course they have. I missed out on all the World Championships I participated in, including in 2012 in Paris-Bercy. But also in Gijón in 2014. I have a revenge to take this year!