The German track and field athletes have to cope with the next well-known loss shortly before the start of the World Cup due to the cancellation of Konstanze Klosterhalfen. Recurring foot problems stopped the 5000 meter European champion on the way to the title fights in Budapest, which begin on Saturday. “Until the very end we had hoped that starting at the World Cup would work out. We wish her that she can start fit again for the Olympic season,” said head coach Annett Stein after the next weakening for the team.
The failure of Klosterhalfen, who had to do without the national championships last month, reduced the squad of the German Athletics Association to 72 athletes. In Hungary’s capital, the DLV had to plan without a number of prominent athletes even before the cancellation of the 2019 World Cup third place.
Klosterhalten is not getting going
Long jump Olympic champion Malaika Mihambo, who would have been a candidate for the third world title in a row in Budapest, is missing, as are the sprinters Alexandra Burghardt and Lisa Mayer. Both belonged to the season last year, which surprisingly won bronze at the World Championships and won the title at the European Championships.
Former world champion Johannes Vetter and Thomas Röhler, 2016 Olympic champion in the javelin throw, will also not start, as they did in 2022. Germany’s best pole vaulter, Bo Kanda Lita Baehre, who came second at the European Championships, also had to pull out after his fall at the Diamond League meeting in Monaco. This also applies to the EM second over 3000 meters obstacle, Lea Meyer. The Leverkusen woman is plagued with back problems.
“Of course, the fact that we cannot send our strongest athletes to the start in all competitions reduces our chances of success. We have to be realistic about that,” said Stein before the end of Klosterhalfen.
The hopes of doing better than in the disappointing world title fights a year ago in the USA, when the DLV won fewer medals than ever before, are reduced by the cancellations. “We cannot compensate for the loss of an exceptional athlete like Malaika Mihambo, important pillars are also breaking away in the women’s relay,” said sports director Jörg Bügner last week.
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The greatest German medal hopes in the new national athletics center in Budapest rest on the decathletes around the German record holder Leo Neugebauer and European champion Niklas Kaul as well as javelin European champion Julian Weber. The third European champion from Munich is sprinter Gina Lückenkemper.
At the European Indoor Championships, Klosterhalfen, who trains in the USA and holds several German records between 1500 and 10,000 meters, took second place over 3000 meters. In the outdoor season, she was handicapped by foot problems after her supplier change and did not get going as she had hoped.
