The German sprint relays confidently completed the heats at the European Athletics Championships in Munich. The men’s quartet even set a German record.
Kevin Kranz, Joshua Hartmann, Owen Ansah and Lucas Ansah-Peprah ran 37.97 meters – no German quartet has ever been faster. Kranz presented brilliantly, the changes worked, and so anchor Ansah-Peprah was able to set the record perfectly. “Really cool, it was great fun, that was mega,” said Kranz immediately afterwards in the Olympic Stadium. The previous record of 37.99 seconds was only set by the squadron with the same line-up on June 3rd in Regensburg. It was the fastest time of all EM semi-finalists. At the World Cup, the season was eliminated in the lead.
The women’s relay finished second behind France in their semifinals. Alexandra Burghardt, Lisa Mayer, Jessica-Bianca Wessolly and Rebekka Haase reached the finish after 43.33 seconds, for France it was 43.24 seconds. Overall, the German women, who still competed without European champion Gina Lückenkemper, finished fifth in the semi-finals.
Lückenkemper participation will only be decided on Saturday
Lückenkemper was out due to a wound on her left knee, which required stitches after her victory on Tuesday evening. She had injured herself in a fall with her spikes. According to her, the decision about her participation in the season finale should not be made until Saturday. Alexandra Burghardt initially left her participation in the heat open after she entered the 200 meter final on Friday evening on Thursday evening. At the World Cup in July, the German relay surprisingly won bronze.
Men’s relay on stadium round as eyelash batting final
The finals for the men’s relay over 400 meters was a nail-biter. The German quartet was in sixth place for a while, then apparently worked its way up to third place thanks to Patrick Schneider, before Belgium’s final sprint got Manuel Sanders into trouble. In the end, the target photo decided with 0.01 seconds for the DLV relay.
Javelin Olympic champion and defending champion Röhler already out
Rio Olympic champion and defending champion Thomas Röhler (Jena) failed after a poor performance in qualifying for the javelin throw. The 30-year-old did not get past 71.31 m and ended up in last place in the first group. Röhler, who has recently been struggling with injuries, last surpassed the 80-meter mark in 2019. The Thuringian’s best performance of the season is 72.51 m. As the 2018 European champion, he had a wild card for the European Championships in the Olympic Stadium. The German record holder Johannes Vetter (Offenburg) had to cancel his start at the European Championships due to injury.