Meeting Director Gerhard Janetzky and Sebastian Bayer at the DKB ISTAF press conference (© DKB-ISTAF)
Berlin, GermanyThe new athletics star of Germany Sebastian Bayer will compete at the DKB-ISTAF in Berlin’s Olympic Stadium on 14 June.
It was at the European Indoor Championships in Turin in March, when the 22-year-old caused a sensation by winning the Long Jump with a European indoor record of 8.71m, which puts him in second position in the all-time indoor list behind Carl Lewis (USA).
Bayer’s signing was announced at a press conference of the meeting in Berlin’s DKB headquaters today (26).
The DKB-ISTAF will be the opening meeting of the ÅF Golden League 2009, which will then continue in Oslo (3 July), Rome (10 July), Paris (17 July), Zurich (28 August) and Brussels (4 September).
Since the Long Jump is not one of the ten ÅF Golden League Jackpot events this season the discipline with Bayer as its star is one of six additional events staged at the DKB-ISTAF, which will be a dress rehearsal for the 12th IAAF World Championships in Athletics, Berlin Germany (15 to 23 August).
“It will be the second time that I will compete in the Olympic Stadium. The first time was in 2006 after the European Championships. The atmosphere was so stunning that I found it difficult to concentrate,” said Bayer, who only managed to jump 7.60 m for the 11th and last place. Surely he will do much better on 14th June.
“My training indicates that I am in better shape than a year ago,” said Bayer, who so far has a personal outdoor best of 8.15m. This is exactly the German qualifying standard for the Berlin World Championships. And it will be his target when he opens his season. At present it is not sure if Bayer will be able to compete in Hengelo next Monday (1 June) due to what is likely an inflammation of the middle ear.
But he has no doubts regarding the DKB-ISTAF on 14 June. Asked about the meeting record of 8.57m (Mike Powell in 1992) Bayer calmed down expectations. “I think I will save this for the World Championships in August. If I can start the season with 8.15 metres and then add 5 centimetres at each of my competitions I would be very happy with that.”
Asked about his tremendous jump in Turin Sebastian Bayer said: “Of course this jump is still in my head, but I don’t think too much about it. Actually I don’t even have a specific video sequence of it. Right after the European Championships I started preparing for the summer and the focus is on the World Championships.”
Sanya Richards (USA), who took the Olympic gold with the 4x400 m relay after missing out in the individual event, is confirmed to run the 400m at the DKB ISTAF, and in the High Jump Germany’s European Indoor Champion Ariane Friedrich is also signed.
“There will be more prominent signings to be announced soon. And I expect two surprises to be among them,” said Meeting Director Gerhard Janetzky, who was happy to present Bayer to the media in Berlin. “We are very happy to have signed two German athletes – Ariane Friedrich and Sebastian Bayer – who are successful on international level. I think we will see one of the best fields we ever had at this meeting,” added Janetzky.
Jörg Wenig for the IAAF
