Kluge die Kugel World Junior Shot Put
Champion
Ursula Kaiser for IAAF
18 October 2000 - Santiago - Before her last attempt in the shot put, Kathleen Kluge (whose surname is also an anagram of the German Kugel or "shot") was already a happy woman and threw her arms in the air. The 18-year old girl from Halle knew that she had won the competition.
Second was Meiju Li from China (16.57 m), and the bronze medal was won by Natalia Kharaneka from Belarus (16.40). But Kluge wasn’t finished and with the last effort of the event she put 17.37 m for a new personal best.
"After the attempt from Meiju Li I felt very free and I didn’t think, I just threw," the German girl commented happily after the competition.
"I always watched the Chinese girl when she threw. And after the third attempt I was throwing after her, so I had the better position," Kluge said. She hadn’t felt very nervous before the competition. "My goal was to win a medal." That it was the gold was a little surprising though.
"I expected that the girls would have done better," she added. But nevertheless, after twelve years she was the first German athlete to win a gold medal in the shot put. At the 1988 World Juniors in Sudbury, Canada, Ines Wittich won with 18.54 m.
Kluge is a very quiet girl. At first she couldn’t believe what had happened, though she would have won the competition with any of her three best attempts. She needed a few hours to realise what she had done. The gold in Santiago was the biggest success she had ever achieved, in 1998 in Annecy she was fifth.
It is not easy for Kluge to find competition in Germany: at the moment she is two metres ahead of the next-best girl of her age in shot put. "In this situation it’s not easy to motivate myself", the 1.70 m tall athlete said. She only wants to improve herself and go her own way.
When she has free time, she likes to go shopping. "I could do this the whole day, I like to spend money", she said and laughed. And she loves to go to the cinema. "I prefer comedies and romantic films". But she spends a lot of time on her sport. "I like shot put first of all because I am successful. But you never are so much in the spotlight like the sprinters."
Seven years ago, when she was eleven, Kluge started with the shot put. She is trained by Gerhard Böttcher in Halle, the coach of the former Olympic Champion Ilke Wyludda. Her father Helmut used to be a hammer thrower, but just for fun, not at a very high level. The teenager had plenty of preparation before coming to Chile. "I finished school in June and I didn’t have anything else beside sport for the last four months."
In November the gold medal winner will start to work with the police in Cottbus and Halle. They have a support program for high level athletes. "I am looking forward to this job, because I will be able to manage my sport very well beside the work."
"I want to become like Astrid Kumbernuss, she did a lot for the shot put nationally and internationally and not only because she is three time World Champion and she was Olympic Champion; beside all this she looks good and that helps to make an event very attractive."
The girl from Halle must improve her speed and her technique if she is to reach regularly the 17m mark. "Maybe I will change my technique next year", she said. But first she will celebrate her gold medal and enjoy the rest of the World Junior Championship in Chile.
