At some point you’ll run out of strength. Then it’s important to find other ways to maximize your own potential. Marius Karges felt this last year. The Frankfurter Eintracht discus specialist noticed that it had become too heavy. That the muscle mass he had trained no longer helped him and he was tired during the competition.
“It was fine at the beginning of the season,” says the 21-year-old. But even though he won silver at the European Championships in this, his first in the U-23 class, a change seemed in order. The men’s throwing device, for which Karges added additional weights when he moved from the junior level, only weighs two kilos. Now the almost 1.90 meter tall Hessian is increasingly trying to use his speed to let the disc fly far.
“A solid start”
At the season opener last Saturday in Wiesbaden, she landed 62.78 meters in her best attempt. That meant third place behind Clemens Schecker from Potsdam (66.02 meters) and Daniel Jasinski from Wattenscheid (64.46 meters). The ailing Olympic champion Christoph Harting came sixth with 60.24 meters. “A solid start,” commented Karges. This Thursday (3:30 p.m.) in Magdeburg will be his next attempt to exceed the standard of 65.20 meters for the European Championships in Rome in June.
Karges believes in the big hit. It is “not unrealistic” that he can improve his best from last year, which was 63.74 meters, so significantly that the discus even exceeds the standard for the Olympic Games in Paris, which is 67.20 meters. “If you think it won’t work, it won’t,” emphasizes Karges. His long-term rival of the same age has shown the way: Mika Sosna from Hamburg was the only German to date to reach the required distance of 68.96 meters for the annual highlight in Paris. A handful of other competitors are lurking to book a starting place in France, if not via the direct standard, then via the world rankings.
Karges speaks of a tough fight. His international successes, such as the U-20 World Cup title in 2022, where he narrowly left Sosna behind, give him self-confidence. He sometimes gets in his own way during training “because I put too much pressure on myself.” He has been able to stay more relaxed for a few weeks now. “I have to be patient and just do my work,” then the big goals will work out at some point.
The wind was less favorable
After graduating from the Carl von Weinberg School, Frankfurt’s elite student of the year moved from the sports boarding school to his own apartment in Niederrad and is now concentrating 100 percent on his career as a sports soldier. With trainer Bastian Otto, he is working on technical details at the nearby facility on Hahnstrasse, most recently on a more dynamic introduction to the rotation of the body, from which the discus is thrown into the air.
Three competitions remain for the third place in the German Winter Throwing Championships for European Championship qualification. The Bad Wildunger had expected more from the previous event in Wiesbaden. In the past, when the throwers’ meeting in the Helmut-Schön-Sportpark regularly attracted greats like Olympic champion Lars Riedel, the wind ensured the best distances. This time it was not very favorable for Marius Karges.
