European Athletics Championships
Athletics gala thanks to Klosterhalfen, Mihambo and Potye
Malaika Mihambo is happy about silver after the competition. photo
© Sven Hoppe/dpa
The audience drives the German stars to strong performances. The title series of long jump star Malaika Mihambo breaks, but Konstanze Klosterhalfen and a local hero experience great moments.
All eyes were on Malaika Mihambo, Konstanze Klosterhalfen was celebrated as the European Champion in the rain. Again German athletics experienced a great evening with three medals in Munich. Driven by 31,000 frenetic fans, Klosterhalfen stormed to the title over 5,000 meters at the European Championships on Thursday, which was also completely unexpected for them.
Mihambo earns silver with a good competition, the German high jump champion Tobias Potye also surprises with silver at his home game. Five times gold and five times silver, plus one bronze – with this German result after four days of competition was not necessarily to be expected in view of the messed up world championships.
title premiere
Trainer Pete Julian didn’t want to let her run more than 5000 meters, but Konstanze Klosterhalfen prevailed – luckily for her. Completely unexpectedly, she ran to the finish line as the winner in 14:50.47 minutes, overtaking the 10,000 meter winner Yasemin Can on the last lap. “It’s a dream,” she stammered overjoyed after the surprise coup. At the World Cup three weeks earlier, she had missed the final over the five kilometers exhausted as a result of a corona disease. Fourth place was enough over the ten kilometers at the European Championships.
“It wasn’t just my work, I also heard the sound of the audience,” said the 25-year-old from Leverkusen to the great support of the spectators. After the goal, coach Pete Julian also congratulated her. After Klosterhalfen got the start, he boarded a plane in the USA and landed in Munich a few hours before take-off.
silver instead of gold
After a corona infection and the following training break, all-time winner Malaika Mihambo could also be satisfied with silver. “Perhaps we were a little bit unlucky,” said the 28-year-old and did a lap of honor with the German flag in the Olympic Stadium. Even if there was no further victory this time after the European Championship title in 2018, World Cup gold in 2019 and 2022 and the Olympic victory last year, she was beaming.
After the brief assessment on the stadium microphone, she was initially unable to give any further interviews because her circulation was not playing along. Fortunately, the all-clear was given on Friday night. Mihambo is recovering from her circulatory collapse and is scheduled to attend a press conference on Friday alongside Thursday’s other medalists and head coach Annett Stein.
surprise silver
What Tobias Potye can do, he showed at the end of June in Berlin. There the man from Munich and the now dethroned European champion Mateusz Przybylko won the German championship title by jumping 2.30 meters. In Munich, 2.27 meters in difficult conditions meant silver at the European Championships behind Olympic champion Gianmarco Tamberi, who managed 2.30 meters. “I jumped against Gianmarco a couple of times this year and thought it was time to beat him,” said the local hero. “Now I have to postpone it again, but that will come.”
Potye surprised on the way out of the stadium by saying that he hadn’t done a technique session in two years due to physical reasons. The 27-year-old said he was struggling too much with his tendons. “I only trained for my knees and jumped in competitions, that was the mission.” What is possible if he can train even better in the future? “I want to show that in 2024.” Then the Olympic Games will take place in Paris.