The German women’s 4x100m relay can now have a say in the medal decisions at the World Championships in Athletics in Budapest.
Actually, the German women’s quartet with Louise Wieland (Hamburg), Sina Mayer (Zweibrücken), Gina Lückenkemper (Berlin) and Rebekka Haase (Wetzlar) was eliminated on Friday in ninth place, the time of 42.78 seconds was not enough to progress.
However, since starting runner Wieland was handicapped at the first change and thus lost valuable time, the DSV then lodged a protest. The German season can now start as the ninth team in the final.
The men’s relay with Kevin Kranz (Wetzlar), Lucas Ansah-Peprah (Hamburg), Joshua Hartmann (Cologne) and Yannick Wolf (Munich) had previously lost the baton during the second change from Ansah-Peprah to Hartmann and did not finish. Most recently, a German men’s relay was in a World Cup final in 2015.
“I made the mistake and started way too late. I’ll be solely responsible. Yes… That happens,” said Hartmann. Hartmann had already made an unfortunate appearance over the 200 m when he slowed down too early on the course for the semi-finals and was therefore eliminated in the preliminary heat.
The women’s DLV relay surprisingly won the bronze medal at the World Championships in Eugene last year, and a few weeks later there was even gold at the home European Championships in Munich. In Hungary, the chances of precious metals were already low in advance. Among other things, the former top performers Alexandra Burghardt (Burghausen), Lisa Mayer (Wetzlar) and Tatjana Pinto (Wattenscheid) are missing due to injury.
The favorites USA and Jamaica made it through for both men and women.