“The fastest German of all time”
Sprinter breaks German record again
June 7, 2026 – 11:49 a.mReading time: 2 minutes
In Regensburg, Owen Ansah improved his own record over the 100 meters. However, the German still doesn’t have enough.
After his record run with the handbrake on, Owen Ansah grinned broadly and shrugged his shoulders. “I really wanted to get it on the track,” he said after his 9.98 seconds over 100 meters and added with satisfaction: “I wanted to show that I’m not a one-hit wonder.”
The Hamburger managed this impressively. Almost two years after he was the first German to stay under the magic 10 seconds on the royal sprint course in 9.99 at the 2024 German Championships in Braunschweig, he pushed the national record down by another hundredth on Saturday at the meeting in the tranquil Regensburg University Stadium.
First attempt failed
The 25-year-old asserted mischievously that “the fastest German of all time,” as the striking title of a ZDF documentary about Ansah said, had not taken the full risk in good tailwind conditions of 0.8 meters per second: “I wanted to show it in Dresden, but I was a little too quick out of the starting blocks, so I took a little time today.”
At the Golden Oval on May 31st in the Saxon capital, his ambition was his undoing, and after a false start it was over. The professional risk of being a time hunter. But Ansah knew that the form was already there a good two months before the European Athletics Championships in Birmingham (August 10th to 16th). In Regensburg, the feeling turned into certainty.
The big goal EM
When he crossed the finish line – the clock initially showed 9.99 – he hit his chest with his fist, then posed casually lying down for the cameras in front of the time monitor with the downwardly corrected 9.98 with his thumb raised.
Next week Ansah will be competing in Mannheim over 100 meters and also over twice the distance. Afterwards, an intensive training phase awaits the Hamburger SV athlete in order to go one better at the European Championships in Great Britain (“the big goal”). On the one hand, with the sprint relay with which he improved the German 4×100 m record at the World Relays in Botswana at the beginning of May. But also individually: Ansah’s 9.98 seconds is the best time by a European this year. Tokyo Olympic champion Marcell Jacobs from Italy was a hundredth slower in Rome last Thursday.