Cork, Ireland

Hey all,

Sorry about the last post. I was in the airport and European keyboards can be quite tricky when you don't have a lot of time! On Friday, Nedzad (my Croatian friend) and I went to Ireland. It was a long day of traveling - moreso than usual. We had to leave the hotel at 8am to catch a ride to Graz, Austria (2 hrs). We had to wait 4 hours in Graz before our flight left for London. In London we had another 3 hour layover before we left for Cork, Ireland. It ended up being 14 hours of travel which isn't great for the body. Especially, when you have a meet the next day! I try not to let things like that bother me though.

The meet Ireland was o.k. I felt like I could have thrown much much farther. It was weird today. My body felt pretty good but I felt very uncoordinated in the ring. I opened up with a throw of 18.05m (59') which is pretty bad for me. I ended up muscling a throw out to 18.94m (62'2") but not one throw felt even average. I lost half the throws off of my hand and didn't feel connected with any of them. My throw ended up being good enough for 5th. I took 2nd last year and my throw from last year (64'9") would have been good enough for 2nd again. That's a bit disappointing. But, oh well! I didn't have a great outdoor season this year so it is hard to expect myself to have great meets everytime. Usually, when my technique is not on, the bad meets are really bad. But I can still have great days and who knows how I feel when I am fresh.

I should be pretty fresh for my meet in Zagreb, Croatia on Wednesday. I'm leaving for Zagreb with Ned tomorrow and will have 2 solid days of rest with no travel. I'm very excited to go to Croatia because my Croatian is getting much better. It will be fun to use it and get the best practice available for learning a language. The meet in Croatia is a big one. It is a Grand Prix meeting which means lots of competition and big points for my World Ranking. I'm happy that I won't have to travel at all before the meet. So, cross your fingers!

After the Zagreb Grand Prix, I will head back to the States for 2 days. My sister is getting married on July 7th and I can't miss that! Although I haven't been gone long, I'm excited to see my family and my girlfriend (Miss you!). I should have a computer available in Zagreb, so I will be able to post after the meet before I head home for 48 hours.

Oh, here are the results from the meet. You can also go to www.corkcitysports.ie for pictures or results from the meet.

Cork City Sports Meeting Results 7/1/07:
1. Reese Hoffa USA 21.47m (70'5")
2. Ivan Yushov RUS 19.53m (64'1")
3. Jamie Beyer USA 19.13m (62'9")
4. Nedzad Mulabegovic CRO 19.09m (62'7")
5. Steve Manz USA 18.94m (62'2")
6. Rhuben Williams USA 18.53 (60'9")

Talk to you soon!

Slovenia Meet

Hez all. Sorrz about y and z and tzpos. dont have enough timxe to trz to do this grammaticallz. Iim in the Graz airport. Iim leaving for Cork, ireland in about 1 hr. Tthe meet in slovenia went ok. I threw 19.22m (63 ft 1 in). Technique felt good but mz bodz is a little tired. Hhad no problem fouling or balancing so Iim verz optimistic about saturdaz in irleand and wednesdaz in croatia. Mz throw was good for 4th place. Mz friend Nedzad took 2nd with 65ft 6in. We are traveling together to Cork todaz. Slovenia is reallz beautiful. Mountains everzwhere and a lot of countrz side.

Iim excited to compete in ireland. It was definitelz mz favorite meet from last summer and this zears competition is going to be verz tough! Tthe number one thrower in the world, reese hoffa, will be there along with a lot of other verz good throwers. i will write more if i can find an internet cafe in ireland. i hope this was not too pain staking to read!

Steve

In Europe

Hi all!

Im in Europe! I arrived in Germany yesterday morning at 113ö am. Forgive me for spelling errors. The y and z are backwards along with some other keys. It was a long day. I arrived in Dusseldorf on Tuesday and traveled by plane to Zurich and then Vienna. In Vienna, I had to take a bus to the train station. Well, my agent accidentally told me to go to the wrong station. So, I hopped on a street car towards the other train station. It was stressful and exciting at the same time. I was not totallz sure if I was on the correct street car or if I would make it in time. I ended up making it to the Sudbahnhof Station 1ö minutes early and made the train. The train then took me to Gyor (pronounced Dior). Andras picked me up there and we had a 2 hr drive back to Szombathely, Hungary. I got in at about 1am and crashed soon after.

It was nice being back in Hungary. I went to my favorite restaurant for lunch today and saw some of the city. Mz first meet is tomorrow in Velenje, Slovenia. We will be driving for about 3 hrs to get there to throw at around 8pm. Although I didnt get much sleep on the flights, my bodz still feels good. I am still readz to throw far.

Well, I will write back soon on how mz meet went. I wont come back to Hungarz until Sundaz. I will be stazing in Graz, Austria on Thursday night before flying to Ireland for the weekend. As soon as I get near a computer, I will update zou on how the trip is going.

Bye! (Or as they say in Hungary, Allo!)

USA's

Well, USA's didn't go so well. My body felt great. I warmed up great. On my first throw, I was a little hesitant and threw 18.16 (59'6"). On my second throw, I pulled it together and threw out over 65' but had a small foul. Then, the third throw fell off of my hand. I'm very disappointed with how I performed. I know that if I had gotten that 2nd throw in, that things would have been very different. It was raining off and on, and that seemed to bother most of the athletes. But rain has never bothered me and definitely wasn't on my mind during the meet. I guess I just got a little unlucky. I wasn't as prepared as I wanted to be, mostly due to a long collegiate season that burnt me out (coaching). But now I'm moving on. I will be ready next time and this upcoming year will be a big push towards my dreams and goals. But before that, I have a bunch of meets to do in Europe.

I'm very excited for Europe this year. Although the national meet didn't go well, my body is firing and ready to throw 20 meters again. I feel like I could PR at any time. I have a great schedule lined up so far, with meets in Slovenia, Ireland, and Croatia. I'm leaving on Monday for Dusseldorf, Germany. From there I will travel to Szombathely, Hungary, where I had spent all of last summer. My first meet is on Thursday in Velenje, Slovenia. There will be good competition there, with at least 2 other athletes over 20 meters (66'). Saturday, I will have a meet in Cork, Ireland. I was at this meet last year and it was, hands-down, my favorite meet. They brought in more big names for this year, making it a big challenge for me to better my 2nd place finish from last year. Then, on Wednesday, I will have the meet that I have been anticipating for a long time. It will be held in Zagreb, Croatia. If you know me well, you know that I have been learning Croatian for a couple of years now. This meet is a very very big meet. It is part of the Grand Prix Circuit. It will be very competitive and I'm excited to be throwing in a big meet in one of my favorite European cities. Following that, I will travel back home for 2 days for Susan's wedding. Then back to Europe or more!!!

So that's it for now. Any chance I get, I will update you on how the meets went along with links to results and pictures. Wish me luck!

Up North

Hi All!

Sorry, it has been so long since my last post. I'm preparing for a long summer of track meets. I moved up to Ashland, Ohio on Thursday. I have to be honest that this season has not gone has great as I had planned. I got a little burnt out from the collegiate season this year, but I am now fired up to finish strong. The atmosphere here is amazing. My last two weeks of practices in Louisiana went really good. I got a bit scared when I arrived at Ashland because my first practice went pretty bad. It was probably all the driving. Also, I have been having finger problems the past month. It has cut a lot of practices short. But I am working through it. I threw in a meet on Tuesday at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, MI. The meet at Indiana had initially canceled the shot put so my friend Norm Zylstra, the coach at Calvin, put together a meet for me. My mark wasn't amazing but my technique was good. I was much better balanced and didn't foul as much as earlier this season. I threw 19.07m (62'7") and had a foul at 19.72m. My timing still needs to get better, but the technique is there. This makes me very happy, because it only takes me 2-3 weeks to find the timing when I am balanced and confident. I will be ready for USA Outdoors and the European circuit. I will have one more meet before USA's at the University of Kentucky on Thursday, 6/14. This will be a good meet to see where I am at. There should be some good competition there and a 65' throw would show that I'm on pace for some big throws. I had a great practice on Thursday in Ashland. It was my first real practice with Jud Logan as my coach. He is the head coach at Ashland and a 4x Olympian in the hammer. Great coach. I threw the 15 lb shot and had some throws out near 21m (69'). This practice was easily my 2nd best practice of the year. We figured out some technical things early on in practice and then I was able to get after it. Things are still not perfect, but definitely very close.

I should also add that I'm very excited for next year. I don't want to get into it too much until the season is over, but I think this was the best choice I could have made for a push towards the Olympics in 2008.

I will get back to another post after Thursday. Posts will pick up from there as I use this web blog to update everyone on my European meets. Take care!