At the finals, 200-meter sprinter Joshua Hartmann smashed Tobias Unger’s 18-year-old record. His next goal is to be the first German to stay under 20 seconds.
In an international comparison, German athletics has had a difficult time in the recent past. The historically poor performance at the World Championships in Eugene (USA) 2022 with two meager medals is still difficult for the association, even if the subsequent European Championships in Munich with 16 medals (seven of gold) by his own admission “was very successful”.
Time under 20 seconds possible for Hartmann
At least that’s how Jörg Bügner, who has been sports director at DLV since this year and who is supposed to lead Germany back into the top 5 of the national ranking, sees it that way. On this way back, national title fights such as the finals held last weekend also provide important insights. One of the more important for Bügner is that Germany has a 200-meter sprinter who has what it takes to run under 20 seconds.
“If I hadn’t put my arm out, that might have been it,” said Joshua Hartmann (ASV Köln) after he was crowned German champion for the first time in the German record time of 20.02 seconds at the finals in Kassel on Sunday. The jubilant gesture just before the finish could have cost him a better time. The fact that he wasn’t the first German to stay under 20 seconds didn’t annoy the 24-year-old.
The Cologne native moves into the top 20 in the world
In the ARD interview, he was “definitely satisfied” and left the impression that cracking this 20-second mark was probably just a postponed project. The fact that the potential is there should be undisputed at the latest after his superior victory in the finals.
With 20.02 seconds, Hartmann has moved into the top 20 in the year’s best list, although he is still 35 hundredths of a second from the leading American Noah Lyles in 18th place.
Cologne sprint ace is looking forward to a break
Although Hartmann pulverized the 18-year-old record of German sprint ace Tobias Unger (20.20 seconds) and won his first DM title, he could only think of one thing after his triumph: “In fact, just about my next weekend, what finally free.”
This is understandable given that the 24-year-old has had to do a lot of running work over the past few weeks. For example, Hartmann was third in the 100 meters (10.23 seconds) at the Diamond League meeting in Stockholm (Sweden) at the beginning of July and in June in Oslo (Norway) he finished sixth in a world-class field in the 200 meters (20, 39 seconds).
Ticket for World Cup and Olympics solved
Joshua Hartmann will not be short of new goals after his short break. With his record at the German Championships, he qualified for the World Championships in Budapest in August and for the Olympic Games in Paris next year.
In addition, the 20-second mark will remain for the time being. He is just as convinced that he has even faster times in his legs as he is of the German record, which he announced last year.
