At the latest shortly after ten o’clock in the evening, the weather in Munich’s Olympic Stadium was quite early autumn, the pole vaulter Armand “Mondo” Duplantis was at full thrust. “If I were a car,” he said after qualifying with 5.65 meters, “I would probably have driven in low gear today.” Now, after jumping 5.95 meters, with which the 22-year-old had secured his second European title, he had immediately jumped 6.06 meters, a championship record. And Duplantis flew over this height in the same way as a world record holder (6.21) crosses such a barrier: comfortably. But the Swede was really happy, he tensed his muscles and shouted a little into the Munich night. Then he decided it was enough for this evening, putting the next sparkling star in his career mosaic.
The penultimate day of these European Athletics Championships also had uplifting news for the German Athletics Association (DLV), after Saskia Feige’s bronze medal over 20 kilometers on Saturday morning. Pole vaulter Bo Kanda Lita Baehre flew 5.85 meters in second behind Duplantis, it was his first international medal among the active – and it shimmered a bit golden, in the light of Duplantis’ garish dominance. And then steeplechase runner Lea Meyer performed one of these races that many athletes imagine, but which by no means always mature to completion: The 24-year-old reduced her best time by around ten seconds to 9:15.35 minutes – only the Albanian Luiza Gega was stronger that night. It was the 14th medal for the DLV in these title fights.
So far, the German athletes have rarely been able to do without this final surprise in Munich – keywords: Gina Lückenkemper, Konstanze Klosterhalfen, Niklas Kaul. This time it was Meyer, most recently German champion in Berlin, who unintentionally made it to international fame in Eugene: When she fell headlong into the moat, she still only missed her best time by a few seconds.
A Covid infection on the return journey had briefly called her participation in the EM into question, her run in Munich dispelled any remaining doubts. In the final, everything that Meyer had worked on in the past few years came together, via many detours, interrupted visits to sports boarding schools, years abroad in the USA, various changes of coach. She was immediately present at the front, like one who is determined to parry any attack from the competition. And that’s how it happened, shortly before the end only Gega, the British Elizabeth Bird and Meyer were in the lead. For a moment it looked as if the hurricane of enthusiasm could blow the 24-year-old all the way to the front, but second place made her at least as happy. There was also a dash of fame. For the right reasons this time.
In general, there are nicer Saturday activities when it’s raining, wet and windy than an evening of athletics – especially pole vaulting. A French reporter’s suggestion to simply move the competition to the Paulaner restaurant on Nockherberg – the ceiling height would easily allow six meter jumps – was not applied. Of course, Duplantis has shown his talent often enough in bad weather, and when he got to 5.90 on Saturday, he was alone with Lita Baehre. The German wriggled, clapped, widened his eyes before his first attempt – invalid. Duplantis twitched the corners of his mouth, then jumped over it, with barely a foot of storage space. That was enough because Lita Baehre couldn’t manage the 5.95 meters – a huge hurdle for him that evening.
Bo Kanda Lita Baehre also wins silver.
(Photo: Maja Hitij/Getty Images)
The competition had started stuttering for the 23-year-old and his DLV colleagues Oleg Zernikel and Torben Blech. Blech and Zernikel dropped out of the race at 5.65 meters, a heavy setback for Zernikel in particular: at the World Championships in Eugene he had finished fifth, with a personal best (5.87). Lita Baehre also made one failed attempt at 5.65 and 5.75 meters, but because the competition did not initially present over 5.85 meters, the door to the medals was suddenly open: In the event of a tie, it is first of all which athlete decides the height at which attempt masters.
Lita Baehre’s first attempt: just torn with the hip. But the competitors, including Renaud Lavillenie, the former Olympic champion and world record holder from France, also failed in the second round. And this time, the German took his chance with a monolithic jump, his best in the competition. The others first had to master 5.85 in order to keep their chance of overtaking the German again at the next height – and failed at this task. Duplantis was still far too strong, but Lita Baehre emphasized that he not only reached a new level in terms of show performances, but also in terms of sport. When the presenter at the stadium microphone asked him whether silver felt like a gold medal against this outrageously good winner, Lita Baehre said, seriously and dryly: “No! I’ll definitely try to beat him one day!” murmuring all around.