Without two out of four runners from the quartet of European champions, the World Cup test for the German sprint relay goes wrong due to injury. Things are going better for the men in London.
The weakened German sprint relay around double European champion Gina Lückenkemper has experienced a failed dress rehearsal for the World Athletics Championships in Budapest.
The quartet was eliminated early at the Diamond League meeting on Sunday (07/23/2023) in London. Jennifer Montag, Sina Mayer, Lückenkemper and Rebekka Haase actually wanted to test themselves against strong competition after Lisa Mayer and Alexandra Burghardt were out due to injury.
However, the first change from Monday to Kaden did not materialize. “Jenny got hurt really badly. We were able to bring her up to a wheelchair. We hope that it’s not too bad and that she will recover quickly,” said Lückenkemper on the Sky TV channel.
At the European Championships last year, the German quartet won gold with the best line-up, after having surprisingly won bronze at the World Championships a month earlier. The upcoming World Championships in Budapest will take place from August 19th to 27th.
“Did quite well today”
Things went better for the German men with fourth place. Kevin Kranz, Lucas Ansah-Peprah, Joshua Hartmann and Yannick Wolf finished in 38.21 seconds. The new 200-meter record holder Hartmann then said on the Sky TV channel: “We did quite well today. Everyone is more or less out of training. We can all be satisfied that we didn’t change so well.”
High jumper Tobias Potye from Munich experienced a disappointment. The European Championship runner-up managed a week after raising his personal best to 2.34 meters at the Diamond League meeting in Chorzow, this time only 2.20 meters.
Femke Bol from the Netherlands set a European record over 400 meters hurdles. The European champion improved the continental record to 51.45 seconds.