Joshua Hartmann was the first German since 1986 to qualify for an EM final over 200 m at the European Championships. In his semi-final, the man from Cologne took second place and also set a personal best of 20.33 seconds. Only three runners were faster.
“I have to see that I can get to bed quickly,” said Hartmann exhausted on ARD, it was “not easy to run” on the rain-soaked track in the Olympic Stadium, but in the final “everything was possible.” Alexandra Burghardt reached the final on Friday (10:22 p.m.) as one of the two fastest women with a time of 23.05.
Hartmann finished second behind Zharnel Hughes (Great Britain), the European runner-up over 100 m ran the best time of the three semi-finals with 20.19. Owan Ansah, fourth in his run (20.48), missed out on qualifying for the final. Robin Erewa (21.12) had already been eliminated in the preliminary heat.
Most recently, 36 years ago, German sprinters were in a European Championship final over half a stadium lap. Back then, Jürgen Evers won silver for the Federal Republic in Stuttgart, Thomas Schröder, Olaf Prenzler and Frank Emmelmann were there for the GDR.
Jessica-Bianca Wessolly, on the other hand, was eliminated from the women’s race, as was Corinna Schwab, who was considered a medal contender and who disappointed in fifth place in her semifinals with a weak 23.44. “I don’t know why, everything went well in training,” she said.