At first the dream had burst, then it still came true: Robert Farken (Leipzig) afterwards reached the final over 1500 m on Wednesday (3:20 p.m. MESZ/ARD and Eurosport).
The German record holder got into a scramble on the home straight, fell back and ended up in tenth in his semi-finals after 37.52 minutes-but after a disqualification against the US Olympic champion Cole Hocker, he was put into the final by jury.
Farken had previously said that the little Rempler from Hocker on the home straight “didn’t make anything”: “Maybe I would have been eighth or seventh. Yes, great,” he said in the “ARD”: “There were many situations that were at the border from everyone involved. I am still stunned by my home stretch. I thought, I have everything under control. I have no explanation for. “
Farken put a very strong season this year, but on day X he lacked a bit the last power. Nevertheless, after Homiyu Tesfaye he is now the first German to reach a World Cup final over 1500 m. In 2013 Tesfaye became fifth in Moscow.
Hauke Fuhlbrügge with bronze in Tokyo in 1991 won the only World Cup medal over this route. Norway’s superstar Jakob Ingigtsen was eliminated in the lead of Tokyo.