When Gesa Krause received the good news on the ARD microphone in the mixed zone of Hayward Field Stadium, she burst into tears. The two-time European champion entered the World Championships final over 3,000 m obstacle in 15th place and was overwhelmed.
“It was enough,” said ARD reporter Tim Tonder – and with Krause, who was ready for the interview, all the dams broke. The 29-year-old put her hands in front of her face and tears flowed immediately. She managed to utter an “Ach Gesa”, then the otherwise controlled World Cup third from Doha 2019 had to collect herself for a moment.
“I can’t even put it into words,” said Krause with a tear-choked voice. “It was a very difficult year for me in terms of sport.” In 2022 she had only contested one race before. Two weeks before the World Cup, she started at the Diamond League meeting in Stockholm and was only eighth in a weak 9:44.44 minutes. A cold had once again slowed Krause down, just like at the German championships. There she had to pass.
She started in Eugene with a training deficit, ran 9:21.02 minutes in the lead-up and finally got the 15th and last starting place for the medal fight on Thursday (04:45 a.m./CEST, live on sportschau.de) with an advantage of only eight hundredths of a second ).
Krause once again with a fighting spirit
“If the Ethiopian hadn’t given up at the back then I wouldn’t have been in the final,” said Krause, who once again showed her fighting spirit at Hayward Field Stadium. “In round four I thought: It won’t be that good today. But it’s a World Cup and I thought: Now fight to the end and trust in your strengths.”
Now she is in her sixth World Cup final. She has already won two bronze medals, in Beijing in 2019 as well as in 2015. This time, getting into the finals was a great triumph for the athlete from the Trier Silvesterlauf club.
Sport thrives on ups and downs. Don’t lose faith in yourself. And sometimes getting into the final is also a win.
“Of course I’m not in the state I’d like to be in. But I still wanted to be here and assert myself. And I did. That makes me very proud,” said the German record holder (9:03.30 minutes). and emphasized: “Unfortunately, the mentality is often such that you always only look at medals, always looking at who won. But in athletics it’s also the preliminary round and progression.”
The Olympic fifth place in Tokyo now has three days to gather strength for the World Cup final. “I hope that I can add a bit more, of course I don’t want to be 15th,” said Krause, for whom the final in Eugene is another race in preparation for the home European Championships in Munich.
“I just want to run faster. We’ll see what that’s enough for in the end. But for me it’s very, very special today,” she said, quite composed again, but still with tears in her eyes.