Around three weeks after the World Cup, the DLV starters want to have an athletics party at the European Championships in Munich and forget the debacle in Eugene. The anticipation of the home game at the European Championships is huge.
Fans are queuing up for climbing on Königsplatz, the track cycling competitions are sold out and the grandstands in the Olympic Park are closed due to overcrowding: the metropolis on the Isar, currently hosting the European Championships, is riding a wave of enthusiasm for sports.
It should now also spill over to the Olympic Stadium and give wings to the German athletes, who will take part in the European Championships from Monday (08/15/2022). “It’s something very special for us athletes to compete in our own country. The audience is 100 percent behind you and you can absorb that energy.”describes Malaika Mihambo.
Breathe easy: Mihambo can start after Corona
The long jump world star, in Munich not only the face of German athletics, but of the entire event, can use this energy: After winning the world championship title around three weeks ago in Eugene, Mihambo put a corona infection out of action. Only at short notice did the defending champion announce her start at the European Championship.
What remains is one “slight feeling of insecurity about what performance one is capable of”. Despite everything, the path to gold probably only leads via the woman from Heidelberg, who is looking forward to the competition at the historic site where Heide Rosendahl became Olympic champion 50 years ago: “This is where history and the present meet, and that’s nice.”
Lückenkemper defends athletes
Mihambo, for whom qualification is due on Tuesday (9.50 a.m.), had stood out in Eugene from an overall desolate team. Only two medals and seven top eight finishes – the World Cup was historically bad for the DLV team.
Gina Lückenkemper, who had sprinted spectacularly to bronze with the DLV relay and provided the second precious metal, nevertheless renewed her criticism of the athletes’ critics on the Isar. “Many athletes on the team have done well, but they just can’t keep up with the incredible current world level. We’re actually lagging behind at the moment, but there’s a reason.”
The athletes all worked hard for it and worked their ass off to be there.
Insufficient funding and support, the Vice European Champion over 100 meters recently initiated a discussion that she will continue with the DLV managers after the season.
“Fancy this EM”
So now Munich. Soak up the euphoria, turn it into energy, deliver it. “Here are only athletes in the team who are up for this European Championship. They are happy and want to show a great performance. I believe that great performances are brought to the track.”Lückenkemper is convinced.
In any case, many athletes, such as former decathlon world champion Niklas Kaul, had already described the European Championships as an actual, “emotional” highlight. “I think for most of them the focus was anyway on the home EM”also states Lückenkemper’s relay colleague Alexandra Burghardt, who will also start over 200 m. “I hope that everyone has stayed true to themselves and is concentrating on the big, unique experience in Munich. You don’t have a home European Championship that often in your career. It’s a privilege to be able to experience that.”
Perhaps the results in Eugene would have been better if the Worlds had been the only highlight.
Discus veteran Martin Wierig, in Eugene DLV team captain, gets straight to the point in an interview with Sportschau.de: “Anyone who screwed up in Eugene wants to do better at home.”
DLV President hopes for “double-digit medal result”
DLV President Jürgen Kessing hopes for his own fans “a double-digit medal result”. This should not least be possible in the absence of the excluded athletes from Russia and Belarus, provided the German starters can withstand the pressure in front of their home crowd – or don’t even let them get close.
“If you’re not at peace with yourself, it overwhelms you. You have to be able to deal with it.”, knows sprinter Rebekka Haase. In 2018 at the European Championships in Berlin, Germany had won 19 precious metals.
Vita: “Have to catch up a bit in the next few years”
Eugene was said to have been just a slip. In Munich, too, the 112-strong DLV squad is missing top performers such as Johannes Vetter and Christin Hussong (both Speer) or the two-time European obstacle champion Gesa Felicitas Krause. But there are also some hopes. The pole vaulters Bo Kanda Lita Baehre and Oleg Zernikel, the sprint relays, the discus throwers around the Olympic silver medalist Kristin Pudenz, javelin thrower Julian Weber and decathlete Kaul belong to Mihambo, among others.
“I hope we can do better as a team in Munich”says Claudine Vita, who was one of the few positive surprises at the World Championships with fifth place in the discus throw. “But that definitely shows that we as a team have to catch up a bit over the next few years.”