After yesterday's successful come back at the international meeting in Trieste, Italy, Brigita came out with her final decision today. After having discussed and reconsidered her situation with her coach Jure Kastelic, Brigita decided to go to Sydney Olympics.

Her decision has been well thought over over the night and today's morning and doesn't mean that she is definitely going to compete at the Olympics. One should be aware that Brigita is very responsible person and she said a few hours ago she will only compete if by the end of August she feels confident enough to run at least 12.80 seconds.

Her coach however, is already confident enough in Brigita and has no doubt whatsoever that she'll soon be capable of reconfirming her Olympic entry standard (which is 13.10 seconds), if not earlier than by August 21. 

Brigita started her intensive training session today at Ljubljana stadium and will continue to work in Ljubljana for another 3 days. After that, on Monday she travels to Koper, where she and her good friend, our fastest female athlete, national champion and record holder at 100 m and 200 m, Alenka Bikar (also coached by Jure Kastelic) will remain for some10 days.

Finally: Brigita's very successful come back

It was yesterday late in the afternoon when I met Brigita Bukovec and her coach Jure Kastelic at Ljubljana Athletic stadium and both were quite relaxed and confident about today's Brigita's come back to the track. They didn't seem to be completely sure in a successful come back after two years absence, but brigita told me (while those snapshots were taken): "If I do it, OK, if not this wouldn't mean the end of the world has come!" That kind of approach to her today's return to the track and competitions after so many injuries and an operation she had in April this year, must have been the main reason for success today in Trieste. Brigita's attendance at Sydney Olympics now all of a sudden becomes a reality. Her coach Kastelic seemed to be as optimistic as she was - he told me he expects Brigita to be capable of running some 12.80 in about a month and a half (exactly the time at her disposal in case she decides to go to Sydney).

Brigita Bukovec's last appearance to the track was "ages ago" - her last attendance to any track competition happened in Moscow two years ago - after that an era of injuries had come and caused Brigita's absence even from the normal training routine. Finally in April this year she had to undergo an operation and many had cut Brigita out of our National Team for Sydney, and there were many who thought her career has ended forever! While celebrating her 30.th birthday on May 21. This year she was not confident in her come-back herself.

This was an awful era when nobody seemed to be able to help her, but Brigita most certainly knows how important it was for her to have her friends and her coach at her side.

And finally today it had happened what we were all eagerly expecting - she made a very successful come-back as her coach has just told me during our phone conversation after the race. "Her result (she ran 13.49) is nothing worth mentioning", he said, but she ran technically an excellent race! the most important fact however, is that she felt no pain - nor during the race neither after it. "She failed to be enough aggressive between hurdles but this is normal to me due to her lack of strength", added Kastelic.

Both Brigita and her coach seemed to be satisfied with the race itself and seemed to be confident enough to make a positive decision regarding Brigita's attendance in Sydney.

Brigita's final decision where to continue her training process and to compete at Sydney Olympics is expected tonight or early tomorrow morning and we will inform you as soon as we hear from Brigita and her coach.