athletics
Para-WM: Gold for “Tante Irmie” and “Blade Runner” Floors
Irmgard Bensusan won gold over 200 meters at the Para World Championships in Paris. photo
© Karl-Josef Hildenbrand/dpa/archive image
At the end of the Para World Championships for track and field athletes, Germany won two particularly emotional and special gold medals.
“Aunt Irmie” uttered a hearty cheering curse, “Blade runner” Johannes Floors fought back tears several times: A sprinter duo from Leverkusen ensured a golden finish at the Para World Championships for track and field athletes in Paris and improved Germany’s overall record with two highlights a year before the Paralympics.
With five titles as well as two silver and five bronze medals, Germany finished 13th in the medal table. At the previous World Championships in Dubai in 2019, the DBS team had finished ninth, had twice more gold but won one medal less overall.
There were also two disappointments on the final day. Léon Schäfer was denied double gold after his long jump victory with a world record. After an extremely exciting finish with five athletes, the 26-year-old finished third within 17 hundredths of a second in the 100 meters of the below-knee amputee, despite his personal best time. Wattenscheider Katrin Müller-Rottgardt was disqualified after second place in the class for the visually impaired because the tape with accompanying runner Noel Fiener was broken before the finish line.
Floors narrowly misses a world record
Floors, on the other hand, underlined his status as the dominator in the “Blade Runner” class over 400 meters, once made famous by Oscar Pistorius. In 45.81 seconds, he distanced himself from the competition by more than two seconds and was only three hundredths above his new world record. The South African Pistorius, who also competed in the 2012 Olympics, was convicted of manslaughter in 2014 and has been in prison ever since.
Floors was extremely emotional after his winning run. “I had to suppress the first tear when I saw my family in the spectator stands. The second when I saw my colleague Irmgard on the winner’s podium,” he said. “In the end, these were two pushing moments.”
Bensusan: ‘Didn’t even dream of gold’
Bensusan goes by the name “Aunt Irmie” because she takes care of younger athletes a lot. She cheered them on during the World Cup, made suggestions for improvement and even braided her colleagues’ hair before the competitions. The 32-year-old hadn’t counted on medals, even as the double title defender, because she now works 30 hours a week for an auditor. “What the fuck” was her first reaction at the finish, she admitted with a laugh: “I never dreamed of gold. I was hoping for fourth place to get a slot for the Paralympics.”
Schäfer seemed disappointed, but said he was “definitely proud to have won the last medal”. After all, he could be happy for his training colleagues. “Johannes’ time is a real house number. And with Irmgard it was surprising, that’s why it’s all the more awesome,” he said.