| Meet international contestants
Two meeting records – one for ‘the Eternal’ -, Germany’s U-18 best time, World Cup U-20 qualification of sprint relay and two superb over 300m and 2,000m hurdles: The 31st International Meeting of Runners on Sunday did not skimp on the highlights. About 1,500 spectators at the Schönbuch Arena and many more live on saw a promising start to the intense athletics season.
Malaika Mihambos is right three times: Olympic long jump champion LG Kurpfalz improved the 11-year-old stadium record in the 80m by Marion Wagner (USC Mainz) by eight hundredths of a second to 9.35 on Sunday at the international meeting Runners in seconds Pliezhausen.
Secondly, Malaika Mihambo made the double win perfect: she clearly beat Holly Okuku (GSV Eintracht Baunatal, 17.55sec) and Alica Schmidt (SCC Berlin, 17.69sec) over the 150m in 17.28sec.
Thirdly, it was still “extra time”: for three-quarters of an hour she patiently responded to the numerous requests for signature of many ardent fans of athletics.
Record the 1000m meet – 6th in the Olympics with a great time
Hope for a record at the meeting was fulfilled once again: the Olympic 6th place finisher from Tokyo at 800m Habitam Alemu (Ethiopia) clocked a time of 2:34.11 minutes on the Schönbuch stadium track and the 13-year-old improved Czech Lenka Masna’s record by nearly four seconds.
But the winning time wasn’t just one of the fastest in the history of the International Runners’ Meeting. Because: Following the 24-year-old Ethiopian, Katharina Trost (LG Stadtwerke München) – one year after missing the meeting record by 15 milliseconds – ran in 2:39.02 and Majtie Kolberg (LG Kreis Ahrweiler) ), 2:39.42 minutes) and the Swiss 800m champion and fifth place at the European Championships in Torun 2021 Laure Hoffmann (2:39.77 minutes) in the four to six of the top six places in the meeting.
Jalabis over formidable obstacles
Jolanda Kallabis (FT 1844 Freiburg) contributed to the German U-18’s best performance – in 6:23.82 minutes she ran alone to claim victory over supremacy on the 2,000m obstacle course, beating her own record by almost five seconds.
She then stated, “It was such a pity to run it all by myself there and I was hoping someone would run with me because it’s mentally tough when you set your own pace all the time. Of course, I’m very happy with the time.”
“I will now run all the middle distances and get as many European qualifications as possible,” adds the 17-year-old. What is meant is the highlight of the season, the European Under-18 Championship in Jerusalem (Israel): “Maybe I will run the 2000m hurdles there, depending on how the other roads go. Then the Germans and then we’ll see…” the 17-year-old looks forward straight ahead.
France, Spain and Portugal are in the top six in the contestants’ meeting
The French Mehdi Belhadj also entered the record list for the runners’ meeting in the 2000-meter hurdles. At 5:30.82 minutes, the 26-year-old set the fourth-fastest time ever at Schönbuch. He was followed by Niklas Buchholz (LSC Höchstadt/Aisch; 5:34.11 min), Felten Schneider (VfL Sindelfingen; 5:36.83 min) and Jens Mergenthaler (SV Winnenden; 5:37.81 min).
Spain also had reason to celebrate a little later: Samuel Garcia won over 300 meters in 32.65 seconds, ahead of Portugal’s Joao Coelho (32.66 seconds) and this time entered the fourth place in the Blisehausen best. In the end he said, “I’ll be back next year and then I’ll get the record.” Joshua Awaco (LG Eintracht Frankfurt, 33.01sec) and Constantin Preis (VfL Sindelfingen, 33.15sec) finished third and fourth.
For multiple winner Bilshausen, Christina Hering (LG Stadtwerke Munich) stayed behind
European U20 champion Audrey Werro (Switzerland) took only second place this time. 27-year-old Hering was beaten by Wero, who was nine years younger than him, by five hundred. Their winning time was 1:26.70 minutes.
3000 metres: a difficult “journey” for Christoph Kessler
“Unfortunately, I still had some problems after Corona and my family had not yet arrived, I decided to go for the next longer distance,” said Christoph Kessler, middle-distance specialist (LG Karlsruhe region), the German indoor champion over 800. meters, after his success in the 3000-meter “flight”. The 27-year-old continues: “It was a tough race for sure, but it was also fun, at least at the end again and I’m glad I was able to celebrate the start of the season here in Bleeshausen again.”
In the victory of Simas Bertasius (8: 03.29 minutes) – the Lithuanian record holder over 1500 meters and the mile – 8: 09.80 minutes Karlsruher means fifth place for Kessler behind Niels Laos (Netherlands, 8: 04.17 minutes), Muhammedamin El Buagaji (France, 8:). 05.14 minutes) and Kevin Kamencak – 18-year-old Austrian, turned the base for the U-20 World Cup in Santiago de Cali (Colombia) in 8: 07.31 minutes.
The two U20 national teams also qualified for this, by clearly beating the required benchmark of 46.70 seconds in 44.34 (DLV 1) and 45.22 (DLV 2) respectively.
You can find the full results in our results section…