Tobias Potye didn’t fly high enough, the discus sailed too short for the German women – the German quartet missed the first medal at the World Championships in Athletics and the hoped-for boost for the second half of the World Championships. Potye finished fifth in the high jump on Tuesday in Budapest despite a strong performance with 2.33 meters, as did Kristin Pudenz in sixth place in the discus throw.
The Olympic silver medalist from Potsdam jumped 65.96 meters, Shanice Craft was seventh with 65.47 meters and Claudine Vita tenth with 63.19 meters. Surprisingly, Lalauuga Tausaga from the USA secured the title with 69.49 meters ahead of Olympic champion and teammate Valarie Allman (69.23) and last year’s winner Feng Bin from China (68.20).
In the high jump, the Italian Gianmarco Tamberi was crowned world champion for the first time with a world record of 2.36 meters ahead of the American JuVaughn Harrison who was the same height. Olympic champion Mutaz Essa Barshim of Qatar was third at 2.33 meters – the same height as Potye.
Although he struggled a bit with himself, he also stated on ZDF after the second best jump of his career: “I’m proud that I managed to jump 33 and show good jumps. I’ve definitely gained some competitive experience. I brought what I’ve got.”
“A little looseness and length was missing today”
The discus ladies didn’t quite make it. “Today I wasn’t as relaxed as you need in a competition,” said Pudenz. “I would have liked to show more. At first it’s annoying because I came to fight for the medals and I couldn’t do that today.” Given the distances of the best, she said: “Two times 69 meters in front, I can’t remember that it was ever like that There was a level.” Craft couldn’t have done otherwise: “A bit of looseness and length was missing today,” she added on ZDF.
The DLV team, which started in Budapest with a weak replacement, still has further chances until Sunday, for example through the decathletes Niklas Kaul and Leo Neugebauer and javelin thrower Julian Weber. A year ago there was the worst German World Cup performance so far in Eugene, in the USA there were only gold for long jumper Malaika Mihambo and bronze for the sprint relay.
Only a few meters apart, the discus trio and Potye gave their all for the precious metal they were hoping for. The runner-up at the European Championship made a failed attempt at 2.25 meters, the 28-year-old then safely took the 2.29 meters and was thus at the front of the competition. When he crossed 2.33 meters on the second attempt, he brought back memories of July, when he had improved his personal best by a whopping four centimeters to 2.34 meters in Chorzow. 2.36 meters was then too high, because of the previous failed attempt he was denied the jump onto the podium.
Exciting showdown at the discus throw
While Potye had already started the high jump competition next door, the German discus trio saw a brilliant first attempt by favorite Allman. Defending champion Feng and the experienced Croatian Sandra Perkovic also put pressure on with large distances early in the competition.
On another warm, muggy evening of over 30 degrees with almost no draft in the new World Cup stadium near the Danube, the discus initially did not fly as desired when the German hopefuls were throwing. Pudenz was the first to surpass the 65-meter mark in the third round, Craft followed suit, while Vita, third at the European Championships, missed three more attempts in tenth.
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Allman already looked like the winner, but Tausaga passed by a personal best. Since the competitors also improved, Pudenz was more than two meters short of bronze after two eleventh places at the World Championships despite a better placement. The EM runners-up and Craft hugged after the competition and looked anxiously at Potye, for whom it wasn’t enough to win a medal in the end either.
On Wednesday evening (9.50 p.m. / ZDF / Eurosport) Joshua Abuaku will be the first German runner since the legendary Harald Schmid in 1987 to compete in a World Cup final over 400 meters hurdles, which alone is a great success for the Frankfurter. Carolina Krafzik, on the other hand, was eliminated in the semifinals over this distance on Tuesday.
