German Athletics Championships
9.99 seconds: “Not the end yet” for the Carl Lewis type
Owen Ansah can be proud of himself. Photo
© Swen Pförtner/dpa
Owen Ansah is the first German sprinter to break the 10-second barrier. The coach shows the way forward. Gina Lückenkemper does not rule out a “big number”.
After his 100-meter coup, the new German record holder Owen Ansah looks back Olympic Games with great enthusiasm. “I just want to soak it all up. I was able to show that I’m in good shape – and I want to show that in Paris,” said the new champion, who was the first German sprinter to break the special ten-second mark.
“He looks like Carl Lewis, he’s so graceful. It was just a matter of time before he pulled one off,” said ARD expert Frank Busemann about the 23-year-old.
Will it become a trend?
The sprinter from Hamburger SV improved the eight-year-old German record of Julian Reus from Wattenscheid by two hundredths of a second. The world record of Jamaica’s exceptional sprinter Usain Bolt, which he set in Berlin in 2009, is in a different dimension and is 9.58 seconds. In the 2021 Olympic final in Tokyo, all of the final times counted were under 10 seconds.
“9.99 is no big deal internationally,” said coach Sebastian Bayer. “But I also believe that 9.99 is not the end. I hope that it is a bit of a small trend.” The coach, who looks after Ansah in Mannheim, recalled times when he and Christian Reif achieved important marks in the long jump. “Perhaps it will be the same for the German sprint now, that two or three guys will manage to run under ten seconds,” said the former European champion.
Coach warns: Don’t dream
The trend in German sprinting has been positive for years. There is a strong group of men, and the women around Gina Lückenkemper even finished third at the 2022 World Championships and shortly afterwards became European champions in the 4×100 meter relay.
The chances of a good final placing are higher in the relay than in the individual competition, said Bayer. “We just have to concentrate and keep working well and not start dreaming or anything like that.”
Lückenkemper: Other house number
This also applies to the women, where Gina Lückenkemper won her fifth championship title over 100 meters in 11.04 seconds. “I think today was another very good preparation,” said the double European champion from Munich 2022.
The German women’s record is a long way off. GDR sprinter Marlies Göhr ran her 10.81 seconds in 1983. “The German women’s record is a bit different to the men’s,” said the 27-year-old. Will she ever reach it? “Well, let me put it this way: I don’t think it’s completely out of the question in the next few years.”