Gina Lückenkemper missed it for a long time. That feeling of flying over the track. After four tough years, the German sprinter has broken the 11-second mark again. But what’s in it at the World Championships in Eugene?
“It’s going to be fast. It’s going to be really fast,” predicted the 25-year-old, with a view to the meeting of the world’s best sprinters in Eugene. In 10.99 seconds, Lückenkemper won the title at the German Championships around three weeks ago and came back impressively. He was only faster at the European Championships four years ago in the semi-finals and in the final in 10.98 seconds each and in 10.95 seconds at the 2017 World Cup in London.
“The jaw dropped”
Lückenkemper does not dispute the fact that she only occupies 32nd place in the world annual best list with this time. Even if, given the times of the US sprinters at the trials, “your jaw dropped at first”.
“I feel really good and I had really great training sessions here again, with a best training performance,” she said before her first World Cup appearance on Sunday (2:10 a.m. CEST, in the live ticker at sportschau.de) about the 100 m. “It’s going and it’s really fun. It’s going to be pretty awesome.”
The 2018 European Championship runner-up is in top form again. “Finally my body, my head and I are in agreement again,” Lückenkemper wrote on Instagram in mid-June when she ran 11.04 seconds in Wetzlar. In Berlin, the 11 mark fell again. “It felt like flying,” she said. Everything was in the “flow”. What is so heavy felt very light. “Then you realize: Awesome,” said Lückenkemper enthusiastically.
There was a good deal of relief – after some injuries, hostility and insults on social media in recent years. That was already “crass”.
Since 2019 in Florida – “Every training hurts”
The start back to the expanded world class was long and led Lückenkemper to the USA. She has been training with Lance Braumann in Florida since November 2019 and has experienced a different dimension of training intensity and variety alongside stars such as 200m world champion Noah Lyles and 400m Olympic champion Shauna Miller-Uibo. “Every training session hurts. Lactate pain sends its regards,” said Lückenkemper. “You don’t want to show yourself that you’re right in the group.”
The drudgery in Florida is now paying off. In Eugene, the German sprint hope wants to show that it can still improve. Her best time of 10.95 seconds would still be enough for 19th place in the world best list for the year.
Maybe something’s up with the season
In any case, a race under eleven seconds is “still something special,” she assured. Even if the world elite around Jamaica’s permanent winner and gold favorite Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, who is the measure of all things with 10.67 seconds, sprints in other spheres. Qualifying for the World Cup final would be a small miracle.
But maybe there’s something going on with the squadron. With fifth place at the Olympic Games last year and at the 2019 World Cup in Doha, the DLV quartet played a good role in the recent major events. That could also be the case this time. Especially when Lückenkemper flies over the track again.