Vice European Champion Tobias Potye just missed out on a medal as fifth at the World Championships. His 2.33 m was almost enough for bronze.
Tobias Potye cried out his frustration, he quarreled and tore his hair. Because the Vice European Champion knew that his good 2.33 m at the World Athletics Championships could have been enough for high jump bronze. Would have. But in the end the Munich player was “only” fifth.
Potye only crossed the 2.33 m on his second attempt, had he crossed the bar in the first round the 28-year-old would have taken home the bronze. 2.36 m was still too high for him. And so one of the few great medal hopes of the German team in Hungary was dashed. And for Potye his very personal dream.
2.36 m are “already a house number. But after the 33 it was clear to me that I could jump that,” Potye said on ARD, but it wasn’t quite enough. Still: “I’m proud that I did it today. In my eyes, I won.”
World Championship gold went to European champion and Olympic champion Gianmarco Tamberi (2.36/Italy) for the first time, silver was secured by US American JuVaughn Harrison. Instead of Potye, defending champion Mutaz Essa Barshim (2.33 / Qatar) took bronze.
Potye had jumped 2.34 m in the run-up to the World Championships and flew to Budapest as number three in the world, the computer science student’s goal: a coup similar to that at the home European Championships last year. But when the bar was set at 2.36m, Potye couldn’t keep up – it would have been an inch better than his personal best.
Potye tried to push himself again and again, patting his cheeks, his thighs, like: wake up, boy. He had easily mastered his entry height of 2.20 m, then the 2.25 m only in the second, the 2.29 m again in the first. Unfortunately, the 2.33 m again only in the second. In the blazing furnace of Budapest, Potye ran out of breath at 2.36 m.
Perhaps also because Potye has always struggled with injuries in the past, as well as colds and other illnesses. Recently, muscular problems again affected his preparation for the World Cup. Curious: the high jumper Potye rarely jumps high during training.
“High jump is one of the most intense disciplines. If you have to or can do without technical training in order to be able to jump in competition, then you do it,” Potye said recently. The competitor’s jaw drops. If he had crossed the 2.36 m, that would probably have happened in Budapest as well.