A week before the German championships, European champion Gina Lückenkemper sprinted to third place at the sixth Diamond League meeting.
The top athlete of the German Athletics Association (DLV) needed 11.17 seconds over 100 m against a headwind on Friday evening. The fastest woman was once again the Ivorian world best of the year Marie-Josee Ta Lou (10.88) ahead of Brit Daryll Neita (11.07).
“There was a good headwind, you could clearly feel that. I didn’t get the start right,” said Lückenkemper: “I can be very satisfied with third place, but overall it was a mixed race.”
European javelin champion Julian Weber (Mainz) also made it onto the podium. In second place, the 28-year-old was only beaten by Indian Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra (87.66 m) with a throw of 87.03 m. “I really wanted to win today, so it annoys me a bit,” said Weber: “I felt good and had the 90 meters in it. Nevertheless, I’m happy with second place.”
However, Lea Meyer (Leverkusen) missed a top place. In her debut of the season over 3000 m obstacle, the Vice European Champion had to settle for eighth place despite a strong time of 9:20.36 minutes. World record holder Beatrice Chepkoech (Kenya) stormed to victory with a new meeting record (9:05.98).
Meeting record over the 5000 meters
Berihu Aregawi (Ethiopia) also secured a meeting record over 5000 m, with 12:40.45 minutes the 22-year-old set a world record for the year – as did the American Katie Moon with 4.82 m in the pole vault.
In the men’s shot put, two-time Olympic champion Ryan Crouser (USA) was once again unbeatable. With 22.29 m, the world champion clearly missed his world record (23.56 m), which he improved almost a month ago.
Meanwhile, in the preliminary program over 200 m, Alexandra Burghardt (Burghausen) showed improving form. With 23.43 seconds, the DLV sprinter was only beaten by Tasa Jiya from the Netherlands (23.16). Burghardt was recently slowed down by back problems in training and fell short of expectations at the European Team Championships last weekend.