Tobias Unger of Germany wins the 200m - Madrid (© Getty Images)
German Athletics doesn’t have a lot of stars at the moment. But Tobias Unger is certainly one of the elite.
The sprinter from Salamander Kornwestheim, a club around 20km from Stuttgart, was at the Olympic Games in Athens last year, and finished as the best European born 200m runner. The 26-years-old came seventh in the final.
This year Unger has improved his best marks. At the German Championships at the begin of July in Wattenscheid, Unger ran the German national record, topping the 20-years-old time of Frank Emmelmann from Magdeburg (20.23), reducing it to 20.20 seconds.
Also that this was not a one off show, Unger demonstrated his talent again at the meeting in Leverkusen, where this student ran 20.24 seconds, without any real opposition, in quite cool temperatures and with almost no wind.
It seems that the European Indoor champion from Madrid will show the sprinters from the United States and the Caribbean nations that he is also there at the top, and wants to upset the hopes and ambitions of the faster men in Helsinki.
The development of Tobias Unger has been quite unbelievable. Sometimes he must think that he is dreaming.
In 1993 when he saw Frank Fredericks at the World Championships in Stuttgart winning the 200m, the young boy was fascinated and decided: “I want to become a sprinter.” And so he started his career.
But the journey to the top was long and he was injured very often, until he created his own back-up team, with his parents, his girlfriend Katja, his coach Micky Corucle, who is a doctor, an adviser in nutrition-details, and a psychologist.
“I have my optimum surroundings”, he said.
And now Unger is “somebody” in the international sprint-scene. Even the USA boys are showing an interest in Germany’s fastest sprinter.
“Since Athens the Americans say hello to me”, Unger laughs.
After the Olympic Games everybody started to want something from Tobias Unger. Overnight he became a big hope for Germany. Everybody expected a lot from the young man. Interviews, radio, television – suddenly there was a big demand for the young sprinter. If he would have taken every offer, he couldn’t have trained regularly anymore. His coach helped him and kept everything going in the right and normal way.
Unger is the fastest man in Germany. At the National Championships he also won the 100m title (10.16). “That’s really cool. Because Germany is not so small”, the European Indoor-champion smiled as he contemplated the title, “fastest man”.
In Helsinki he will not run the 100m, but will run the relay as well as the individual 200m. The German squad has run 38.61 seconds for the 4x100m.
“It would be too much to also run the 100m. I want to concentrate on the two events”, he explained. And he has the 200m final on his mind.
The German champion dreams of the perfect race. “But I know that it won’t be practicable to get it, because there is always something which can be improved”, he said.
Ursula Kaiser for the IAAF
