Vice European Champion Bo Kanda Lita Baehre clearly missed repeating his victory from last year at his home game in Düsseldorf and left a lot of room for improvement in the pole vault.
At the ISTAF Indoor in his home town, the 23-year-old failed at 5.60 m and was eliminated early in front of family and friends. The day’s victory was secured by the American KC Lightfoot with 5.76 m.
Lita Baehre, who finished second behind the Swedish world record holder Armand Duplantis at the European Championships in August, had big plans in his home country in front of 6,100 fans. But the athlete from TSV Bayer 04 Leverkusen broke the first attempt at 5.30 m. After a flawless 5.45 m, the third climb of the day was the end.
Things went better for the other German starters. Lita Baehre’s teammate Torben Blech (Leverkusen) finished fourth, Gillian Ladwig (Schwerin) jumped to fifth. Both failed at 5.70 m.