Highlights, titles and sayings: That happened on Wednesday night at the World Championships in Athletics in Eugene/Oregon.
Two Norwegian Olympic champions fell within 20 minutes. Superstar Karsten Warholm collapsed brutally in the final meters over 400 m hurdles and only finished seventh. However, the world record holder (45.94 seconds) dragged plenty of injury concerns through the summer.
“I fought with everything I had,” Warholm said. The spectacular Olympic revenge was won by Tokyo third-placed Alison dos Santos (46.29) ahead of second Rai Benjamin (USA/46.89).
Shortly before that, Jakob Ingebrigtsen had to settle for silver behind Brit Jake Wightman (3:29.23) in an incredibly fast race over 1500 m in 3:29.47 minutes.
Wightman continued the great British tradition over this route. World Association President Sebastian Coe, who applauded enthusiastically, had won Olympic gold over the “not quite mile” in 1980 and 1984 – and 39 years before Wightman Steve Cram became the first 1500m world champion in history in Helsinki.
It would have been a very, very wonderful story. Namely: If the only 20-year-old high jumper Yaroslava Mahuchikh had won the first gold for Ukraine. Ironically, in the domain of Russia, whose jumpers have been in front every time since 2011 – most recently under a neutral flag due to doping. Now absent from Russia’s unspeakable invasion of Ukraine, Mahuchikh was the top favorite to take silver in a heart-stopping 2.02m final, level with Australia’s Eleanor Patterson.
Still, Mahuchikh was a winner – after a mental feat in such difficult times. And that’s wonderful too.
The series of German disappointments in Eugene continued with Carolina Krafzik over 400 m hurdles. The Olympic semi-finalist failed in the preliminary heat, which also resulted from a lack of training.
In addition to Krafzik, only Jessica-Bianca Wessolly from the German team competed in the 200m semifinals on Tuesday, but lost out to the stars of the industry such as 100m winner Shelly-Ann Fraser Pryce. After all: Wessolly fulfilled the World Cup expectations – in contrast to many others in the team of the German Athletics Association (DLV).
A tenth place for pole vaulter Jacqueline Otchere as a top result – the German half-time record in Eugene is sobering. “We fell short of our expectations,” said head coach Annett Stein.
Worse still: For many athletes, the World Championships are obviously just an accessory in the run-up to the home European Championships in Munich. “Probably it was not possible to put this World Cup in the focus of most athletes,” said Stein.
The fact that around 80 athletes traveled to Eugene is probably mainly due to the promotion of sports. The DLV will also be evaluated according to how many World Cup participants it brings to the start, said Stein: “That’s why we try to take everyone to such a competition.” A point of view that caused increased incomprehension.
NO MORE KING OF THE RING:
Germany’s discus throwers were the market leaders for many years. At 13 world championships between 1987 and 2013, nine gold medals went to German throwers – Lars Riedel won five times, Robert Harting three times, and East German thrower Jürgen Schult once.
There was no sign of the old glory in Eugene: None of the three German starters had survived the qualification, the finals were determined by giants from other countries: Slovenian Kristjan Ceh won easily with 71.13 m in front of a Lithuanian named Alekna. Alekna? Yes: Mykolas, 19-year-old son of the Lithuanian discus legend Virgilijus Alekna. The one to close the circle twice was once Riedel’s adversary – and before Ceh the only 70-meter thrower in World Cup history.