“Kim (Skinner) was just one of the many kids in my group at the time,” recalls Fitzgerald, the Scottish National jumps coach, “and I quickly realised she was a little girl with an enormous athletic talent. She had a lot of explosive ability and great co-ordination.”
After their first meeting at Grangemouth athletics stadium, Fitzgerald decided to give Skinner, who was already a competent 100m sprinter, a pole vault lesson. She made an immediate impression. “In those days, there were not many girls doing the pole vault but Kim just took to it like a duck to water,” he says. “You never really know how a young child will turn out or what will influence their lives but with Kim there are lots of reasons why it worked: we both put the effort in and the personal chemistry between us worked.”
Years of training and coaching under Fitzgerald, who is also the head coach of the Central Scotland Institute of Sport, have started to pay off.
Skinner is the number one ranked under-20 pole vaulter in Scotland – she is second on the senior list – and has been Scottish under-17 pole vault champion for the past three years.
She also holds the national junior records for both indoors and outdoors. At the Glasgow Invitational event in March, she set a new Scottish indoor record of 3.71m, while two weeks ago she equalled her outdoor record of 3.70m, as she claimed victory in the Celtic Games. Last weekend she added the AAA under-17 British championship title to her growing CV. “I had never watched or seen pole vaulting on television before I tried it,” says Skinner, whose personal best for the 100m is
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12.14 seconds. “I really did not know what was involved.”
Inevitably, injuries and illness have played their role in her development. This season she suffered shin splints, which she attributes to all the work she put in as a gymnast before taking up athletics.
Also, in April 2002, she fell extremely ill when she contracted glandular fever. “I was really tired and could not eat anything. My parents were very worried,” Skinner remembers.
Her training was disrupted for more than a year and, as a result, she has to take three iron tablets every day because the iron levels in her blood are extremely low.
Illness or not, as far as Fitzgerald is concerned, Skinner is set to fulfil the potential he spotted in her all those years ago. “She certainly has the ability to achieve in the future,” he says, “but she is still only 16 years old and has to keep a balance in her life. If she enjoys her athletics, which is the critical thing, she will keep improving.”