Gesa Felicitas Krause afterwards stood completely drowned in the shadow of the arena. The tears dried up quickly, but the sweat still ran down the face of the obstacle star, and Krause sadly looked for an explanation for her powerless appearance. “I’m only human too,” she said.
Krause of all people. Miss Reliable. The one who actually always delivers, the fighter who can always be relied on. The world championship third, the European champion – had to give up her race completely exhausted after about 2000 of 3000 meters at these strange ghost championships of the athletes without fans. “It is currently difficult for me to put what happened into words,” said the 28-year-old, speaking of a “great disappointment”. You have to “honestly admit, it was little from the beginning. We weren’t going fast, “said Krause after the race in the glowing furnace:” But even the pace was relatively difficult for me. “
What was the matter with Krause? The German record holder had fought massively and effectively in the media to ensure that the medium and long distances are still included in the championship program despite Corona, after the postponement of the Olympic Games into next year, the title fights should be a highlight for her this season. And as always, Krause prepared meticulously. She traveled to Braunschweig directly from an altitude training camp in Switzerland. But maybe that was exactly the problem.
“The days before we left, we had five, six degrees and rain. It was really really cold, ”said Krause. During their race, which was supposed to be a first highlight, it was over 35 degrees in the shade. “Climate change, hot temperatures, heavy legs from training. It all came together today, “said Krause, who actually wanted to win her sixth title in a row:” That was definitely not my day and the form that I expected from me and that everyone knows from me. “And so Elena chose herself Burkard to the German champion with 9: 50.31 minutes – a time that Krause usually unwinds easily in training.
It would have been Krause’s sixth title in a row for Gesa Krause. As it was, however, the way was clear for Burkard from LG Northern Black Forest, which celebrated a maiden victory: “Unbelievable! I had a difficult last year, now I’m all the more happy that it worked out today. ”Krause had already disappeared into the catacombs of the empty Eintracht stadium. Your coach Wolfgang Heinig hurried afterwards, he initially suspected an injury. Because his protégé had already bitten his way through on the international stage so often that even he could not make sense of the disaster.
At the 2016 Olympics, Gesa Krause had to recognize the international superiority, but fought her way to sixth place with a German record and cried bitter tears. At the 2017 World Championships in London, the Frankfurt rider, who started for the New Year’s Eve Trier club, fell through no fault of her own, bravely chased after the field and finished ninth. For her demeanor, she later received the honorary award “Role Models in Sport” and “Athlete with a Heart”. In an extremely tough race at the 2019 World Cup in Doha, Gesa Krause ran to bronze as in 2015 – in the German record time of 9: 03.30 minutes. And now: not even a German champion.
It is an honor to Krause that she refused to accept excuses. “I didn’t hurt myself, it’s more my thighs that didn’t want to be like me today,” she said: “I didn’t have any speed. The legs were pushed down by muscular problems, the heat, whatever. ”But for Krause, Miss Reliable, giving up does not apply:“ I actually trained very well and I hope that I can do that in other competitions that are still there come, can prove. “
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