Rehm flies to victory on the golden day of the Germans
Stand: 01.09.2021
Gold flight: Markus Rehm jumps and lands after 8.18 meters
Source: AFP / CHARLY TRIBALLEAU
The German athletes cheered for gold four times that day in Tokyo. Paralympics star Markus Rehm jumps away from everyone, a German youngster puts on the biggest show, a Berliner has reached the goal of her dreams. And a shooter ends the dry spell.
Ve gold once, two world records, seven medals – the German athletes ensured a party atmosphere in the team at the Paralympics in Tokyo on Wednesday. The flight show by Para-Star Markus Rehm was ultimately less spectacular than hoped, but above all swimmer Taliso Engel astonished. And Rehm? Although he was a little annoyed, he still put a long jump world between himself and the competition. With 8.18 meters, the man from Leverkusen won with 79 centimeters in the rain and thus secured his third gold in a row.
And not only that: Rehm continued an impressive series of victories with the 15th gold medal in his 15th major international competition. But he had missed the encores he had hoped for. With his distance on that day, he had not been able to seriously attack his two-month-old world record (8.62), nor did he jump further than the Greek Miltiadis Tentoglou in his Olympic victory (8.41). Rehm’s width would not have been enough to achieve bronze at the Olympics.
“That itches and annoys me,” he said. “I have to let that sink a bit and then analyze it.” His successes have made him known worldwide – Rehm was in demand in the stadium’s catacombs after his victory. Two dozen Japanese waited patiently at the end of the journalist line for an hour after the end of the competition.
Markus Rehm has been the dominant long jumper in Paralympic sport for years
What: REUTERS
“I’m really happy about the gold medal. Especially since it is really beautiful, ”said Rehm. But there is no excuse for the missing centimeters. Not the weather – “the conditions were good”. And also not the ultimately futile fight for participation in the Olympics. “That cost a lot of grains, but that didn’t matter,” says Rehm. “Today it was completely me.”
Para swimmers with double gold
Before Rehm, other German starters had already climbed the top podium this Wednesday in Tokyo: the German swimmers had to wait nine years for a Paralympic victory, now Taliso Engel and Elena Krawzow won two gold medals within a few minutes. The visually impaired angel won the world record time of 1: 02.97 minutes confidently over 100 meters chest, while Krawzow struck first over the same distance in 1: 13.46 minutes. “Now we can celebrate together”, Engel cheered.
For the man from Leverkusen it was a day of superlatives. First he improved the eight-year-old world record of the Ukrainian Oleksii Fedina in 1: 03.52 minutes in the morning. In the final he undercut this time again by 55 hundredths and crowned his performance with the first German swimming gold since Daniela Schulte on September 7, 2012 in London. “I felt great,” enthused Engel and said: “I would never have expected this time. I am glad that everything is over like this. “
The 19-year-old Taliso Engel clearly distanced the competition and swam two world records
Quelle: Getty Images/Adam Pretty
World champion, European champion and now at the age of 19 also Paralympics winner. But angel does not feel satiety. “I’m looking forward to Paris,” he said, already looking at the 2024 Paralympics in the French capital with gold drapes. “Awesome,” he cheered. “It feels really good.”
“I’ve always been a little different”
For the Berliner Krawzow, gold over the 100 meter chest was the fulfillment of a long dream. “I’ve been working towards it for ten years,” said the visually impaired athlete. She already took silver in London in 2012, and four years later she was fifth in Rio. After a race to catch up, the coronation followed in the Japanese capital. “It was the only thing I was missing. I have a very, very great satisfaction in me, “emphasized the 27-year-old.
Finally the longed-for gold: Elena Krawzow celebrates her first Paralympics victory
Source: dpa / Marcus Brandt
Because of the corona-related postponement of the Paralympics by a year, she had to struggle with motivation problems, and her eyesight also decreased. She caused a stir as a Playboy model last fall, which was also associated with family problems for the native Kazakh.
“I’ve always been a little different and strange in the family. It is clear that my father is not celebrating me like that now, but they are all behind me anyway, ”said the gold medal winner. “I still have a family.”
First gold for the shooters since 2004
Sports shooter Natascha Hiltrop started the golden day of the Germans in Tokyo in the ten-meter competition with the air rifle. The 29-year-old won an exciting final with a total value of 253.1 rings with a wafer-thin lead of 0.1 rings over the South Korean Jino Park.
“I am very happy that I was able to implement what I set out to do,” said Hiltrop. “It takes a huge load off your heart.” For the German sport shooters it is the first gold medal since the 2004 Athens Games. Hiltrop won silver in Rio 2016.
One day after her victory in the time trial, Annika Zeyen took silver in the road bike race. Thomas Schmidberger and Thomas Brüchle have secured silver in the table tennis team competition and will try their hand at reaching for gold for the third time on Thursday against China after defeats in the final in 2012 and 2016. Her teammates Björn Schnake and Thomas Rau received bronze in their class after they beat China 2-0 in the semi-finals because third place was not played out.
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