Gogl-Walli thanks to disqualification in the 400 m final

Austria’s track and field athletes put on a strong performance at the World Indoor Championships in Glasgow on Saturday. After a competitor was disqualified in the semi-finals, Susanne Gogl-Walli surprisingly even made it into the 400 m final; she had set an ÖLV record in the preliminary round. All-rounder Verena Mayr narrowly missed out on the medals in fifth place with 4,466 points. Sprinter Markus Fuchs came tenth over 60 m with a new personal best of 6.58 seconds.

Gogl-Walli finished fourth in her semifinal heat in 52.47 seconds after fiercely battling with Sharlene Mawdsley of Ireland for third position during the run and losing her rhythm. She was 31 hundredths short of a top three place in her run, which entitles her to the final. Mawdsley’s disqualification lifted them into Saturday’s six-man final (10pm CET).

GEPA/Radoslav Jozwiak

In the preliminary run, the 27-year-old improved her own ÖLV record from the previous year by a whopping three tenths of a second in 51.43 seconds. 400m world record holder Femke Bol from the Netherlands was the fastest in the semifinals in 50.66 seconds.

Strong performance from Mayr

In the pentathlon, Mayr was very happy with fifth place in the field of twelve. The 2019 outdoor World Championships third-place finisher in the heptathlon competed in international title competitions for the first time since the 2021 Olympics after difficult years due to injury and achieved season best performances in the 60 m hurdles (8.47 seconds) and in the high jump (1.76 m).

The 29-year-old Upper Austrian reached 13.83 m in the shot put and 5.93 m in the long jump. In the final 800 m run, Mayr secured important points for Olympic qualification in fourth place in 2:14.31 minutes. Belgian Noor Vidts won gold (4,773 points).

GEPA/Radoslav Jozwiak

Fuchs remained one hundredth of a second below his own record in the semifinals, but two hundredths behind the final ticket and the Austrian record set by Andreas Berger from 1988. The title went to the American Christian Coleman in the world’s best time of 6.41 seconds.