One day after her 100-meter triumph, Germany’s sprint superstar Gina Lückenkemer surprisingly led the Berlin relay to gold at the national championships on Sunday (July 9th, 2023). TV Wattenscheid won the men’s competition.
In 43.91 seconds, Berlin set a best performance of the year for relays at the finals in Kassel’s Auestadion, mainly thanks to the outstanding performance of anchor runner Lückenkemper.
“Just a great team effort”
Although there was another time-end with the favorites from Sindelfingen and Munich after their performance, the four Berliners cheered as if they had secured the title. Your feeling was not deceptive: Sindelfingen (44.37) then remained wafer-thin ahead of Munich (44.44) above the Berlin mark – Lückenkemper together with Nadine Reetz, Michelle Janiak and Leonie Kluwig had won the championship title.
In the Sportschau interview, Lückenkemper then said: “My plan was to go all the way, so if you do, then do it. My girls know the job, I know my job, that was just a great team effort.”
Wattenscheid WINS the men
TV Wattenscheid secured gold for men. Michael Bryan, Kevin Ugo, Robin Erewa and Joshua Koßmann sprinted to gold in 39.39, silver was secured by Hamburger SV (39.49) just ahead of MTG Mannheim (39.74).
Hammer throwing – Klose takes gold
Hammer throwing talent seems to be hereditary – Sören Klose from Frankfurt then proved this.
The son of the 1998 European Championship bronze medalist, Kirsten Münchow, and the successful hammer thrower Holger Klose won the gold medal in 73.90 meters ahead of Konstantion Steinfurth (Eppstein, 68.33) and his training partner and club colleague Christoph Gleixner (67.65 ).
There was a scandal in the hammer throw competition for last year’s winner and co-favorite Merlin Hummel from Kulmbach. Because the 4th of the European Games on June 24 in Poland (there he had thrown 73.99 meters) submitted his pitch card too late shortly before the competition in Kassel, he was disqualified and was only allowed to throw out of competition. He threw the hammer at the second best distance – but he was not allowed to receive silver because of the reporting error.