athletics
Lea Meyer: From the water jump at the World Championships to silver at the European Championships
After a breakdown at the World Championships in Eugene, Lea Meyer is now enthusiastic at the European Championships in Munich. photo
© Sven Hoppe/dpa
Lea Meyer’s fall into the water jump at the World Championships in Athletics was one of the many mishaps suffered by the German team in the USA. At the European Championships in Munich, the steeplechase runner is now enthusiastic.
For Lea Meyer, the way to the unexpected EM silver over 3000 meters obstacle began in principle at the moat of Eugene.
Five weeks ago, the 24-year-old runner from ASV Köln got stuck on the obstacle at the World Athletics Championships and then fell headlong into the water. Now she celebrated the biggest success of her career on Saturday evening in Munich, and the mishap at the World Cup no longer played a role.
Meyer: “Eugene was angry”
“The most important step, to digest, I took in Eugene by simply getting up,” Meyer reported in retrospect. She then finished the race in the USA and also mastered the water ditch in order not to cause any trauma in her head, as she explained.
“Eugene was annoying, it was stupid, you do that once in a lifetime, it was a lack of concentration. I showed that I can do all that without unpacking any great stunts at the moat,” said Meyer, wrapped in a German flag – maybe also to warm up on a cool evening. While she raved about the perfect race, in which she also set a personal best of 9:15.35 minutes, Sweden’s recently victorious pole vault star Armand Duplantis scurried past behind her.
Part of the European elite
Lea Meyer has at least arrived in the European elite. With her brilliant performance, she replaced the defending champion Gesa Krause, who was suffering from health problems and was missing in Munich. In the meantime, Meyer had stopped running altogether because the sport took more from her than gave her.
In the ARD interview, tears even ran down her cheeks. Because the German champion also had to overcome a corona infection. “I always come back strongest when I’ve fallen three times, then I get up again the fourth time and come back even stronger than before,” Meyer said.