Schultz's
44.97 is eclipsed by Becker's 4.77 women’s European pole vault record at German
Championships
Ed Gordon for the IAAF
7 July 2002 - Annika Becker defended her women's pole vault title in fine
fashion by jumping a European-record (and world-leading) 4.77, and Ingo Schultz
ran a Europe-leading 44.97 to highlight the three-day German championships this
weekend in Bochum.
It could be argued that this year's championships at the Lohrheide Stadion were the most crucial ones since 1986, the last year that the European Championships were contested on German soil, since the weekend also served as the selection competition. A large and strong team is, after all, obligatory for the home audience.
(The German roster for the IAAF World Cup competition in September will also be based on the results from this weekend.)
Pole vaulting is one event in which Germany has excelled in recent years, on both the men's and women's sides.
In the women's event, last year's champion Annika Becker shocked the crowd by breaking the national record three times--at 4.65, 4.72, and finally at 4.77, the last two on first attempts--to defeat European indoor silver medallist and former national record holder Yvonne Buschbaum, who finished second at 4.50. Caroline Hingst also jumped the same height for third place.
Becker's jump was the second-best performance in athletics history, bettered only by Stacy Dragila's current world record of 4.81 last year.
She ended the competition with three unsuccessful attempts at a would-be world record of 4.82.
"It's a super feeling I can't describe, simply bombastic," the enthused 20-year-old said. "But at 4.82, the air was gone. Still, it was a good birthday present for my mother!"
Tim Lobinger leads all European vaulters this year with 5.90, and after his win in Annecy at the European Cup, the DLV advanced his name to the Munich team list. So, there were actually only two team places to be decided in Saturday's final.
It was not the expected Lobinger, but instead Lars Börgeling, who captured the title--his initial one--with a first-attempt clearance of 5.80, matching the outdoor personal best he has achieved numerous times dating back to 1999. Three attempts at 5.91 by last year's European U23 champion were for naught.
Lobinger and Börgeling might have pushed each other even higher, had the former's final attempt at 5.80 not been ruled a failure. Appearing to clear the bar, Lobinger had the jump taken away when it was discovered that the crossbar had bounced up and landed on a part of the standard other than the horizontal pegs.
Danny Ecker squeaked by in a Munich-qualifying third at 5.50, ending the week with a personal triumph of sorts after his outdoor season had been interrupted for the entire month of June by a chronic shoulder injury. Last Tuesday in Lausanne, he jumped a season-best 5.70.
The defending champion, Richard Spiegelburg, finished out of the Munich picture when he tied for fourth with Björn Otto at 5.40.
To the surprise of no one, the most highly anticipated event of the entire three days was the men's 400, and Ingo Schultz gave the spectators everything they wanted.
The Edmonton silver medallist blasted away from the start and had made up the stagger against all but one of the entire field by the 200m mark.
Ahead by at least 15 metres coming out of the final curve, Schultz coasted home in 44.97, only 0.10 off his personal best from the World Championships, and in so doing claimed the European yearly best time from the man expected to be his primary competition in Munich, Britain's Daniel Caines (45.14).
Schultz appeared to ease up at the end--whether it was from fatigue or relief was unclear--and this relaxation may have kept him from dipping under his top time.
Never one to boast, when asked about his incredibly fast start over the first half of the race, Schultz acknowledged that he wanted to power the first 200, but that it appeared much faster than it really was because "the others didn't really run hard during the first half."
"Since Edmonton, my life has quite naturally changed," he continued. "There are now more pressures from outside, but also my own demands of myself have increased. Otherwise, I haven't changed much. I still have the same trainer [Jürgen Krempin] and the same manager."
Of Munich, Schultz matter-of-factly stated that, "I know that I'm one of the favorites in Munich, but I'm not the only one who can win."
Jens Dautzenberg (46.19) caught 19-year-old Bastian Swillims (46.33), the bronze medallist in last year's European junior championships, just before the finish, as that pair rounded out the top three in the 400.
Reigning Olympic and European 800-metre chanmpion Nils Schumann left the stadium on Sunday still looking for his first win of the season in his specialty event, as he was out-kicked today by the still-19-year-old Rene Herms, 1:45.85 to 1:46.08.
It was the year's best for both (and a personal best for the defending champion Herms), but for the struggling Schumann, it was not enough to reclaim supremacy in the event in which he has been so highly decorated.
Said Herms, "The tactic was to make the race fast. I led the first lap, but then Nils took over."
Last year's European junior champion continued his analysis, "On the home stretch, I thought, 'In Dortmund you ran past me. This time we will change roles'. I have extreme respect for the Olympic champion, but I don't fear him."
A disappointed Schumann simply said, "I lacked a little at the end, and I couldn't see this problem in advance." He now will go to the hills of Thuringia near his home in Erfurt to prepare for Munich.
Both javelin events produced unexpected winners. The Budapest bronze medallist Raymond Hecht, whose season best stood at a mediocre 80.90 before this weekend, launched a 87.23 throw on his first attempt to give Boris Henry--the prior German leader with 86.67--something to aim for.
After Henry opened with a relatively feeble 81.73, he improved with each of his four remaining legal throws, but his final 85.43 still was almost two metres short of the winning fling by the 33-year-old Hecht, who was fourth in Sydney.
On her final attempt, Dörthe Friedrich narrowly upset last year's women's javelin winner, Steffi Nerius, 64.46 to 64.43, as both set season bests and moved into tight company with the European leader, Tatyana Shikolenko, at 64.61.
Heike Drechsler will be returning to Munich to attempt an unprecedented fifth gold medal in a single event at the European Championships. But she certainly provided drama in gaining her long jump selection to the German team.
With three other competitors already possessing the required 6.60 norm, the two-time Olympic champion waited until her final jump before leaping a season-best 6.64 to win the competition and earn her ticket to the Bavarian capital.
The Seville world champion in the men's hammer, Karsten Kobs, successfully retained his national title, but at 76.05, it was five and one-half metres off his season best.
The German fortunes in the men's discus will be led by Michael Möllenbeck after his 65.83 win in the absence of the defending European champion Lars Riedel, who is injured.
The women's hammer was won by Susanne Keil with 66.33, almost four metres ahead of Simone Mathes (62.38).
Reigning world high jump champion Martin Buss won his fifth German title but with minimal effort, needing only 2.25 for the victory, the lowest winning height since 1996.
Late-race surges brought titles to Birgit Rockmeier (52.03) in the women's 400 and Claudia Gesell in the women's 800 (2:00.97), the latter in an upset of Ivonne Teichmann (2:01.36).
Other notable winners included Kathleen Friedrich in the women's 1500 metres (4:10.99) and Astrid Kumbernuss in the women's shot put (19.45).
All seven individual German winners from the 1998 European Championships are still in active competition, but only three will be defending their titles because of a spate of injuries.
