Konstanze Klosterhalfen is “sad”. When her European title over 5000 meters is awarded again on Friday in the Olympic Stadium in Rome, the 27-year-old will be just a spectator. Slowed down by her own body. Again. Around 50 days before the season highlight in Paris, Klosterhalfen’s dream of participating in the Olympics for the third time is hanging by a thread.
“I will give my body the time it needs,” wrote Klosterhalfen, who cannot be in Rome due to an infection, on Instagram. But giving up is not an option for the 27-year-old, who can hardly “wait” to “come out of this healthy.”
But time is running out, because Klosterhalfen not only wanted to compete in the 5000 m at the European Championships, but also wanted to challenge the Olympic standard (30:40.00 minutes) over 10,000 m. The running ace had missed this in her three previous attempts, with her best time being 31:07 minutes in a road race in Spain. That was in mid-March – but after that, Klosterhalfen didn’t really get going. On the contrary. In her performances, the 2019 World Championship third-place finisher and 2022 European champion lacked the necessary power.
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It was “a relief to know what went wrong in the last few months,” wrote Klosterhalfen about the diagnosis: “Unfortunately, we have just discovered a viral infection that I probably caught in a training camp in Africa earlier this year and that lay dormant in my body for a while.”
For Klosterhalfen, it is the next setback after difficult months, recently she has been struggling with physical problems again and again. She missed the World Championships last year due to a foot injury, and now she has been eliminated from the European Championships – and qualifying for the Olympics could become an impossible mission. The German Championships in Braunschweig at the end of June are probably Klosterhalfen’s last chance.
But Klosterhalfen will fight. Of course. “We very much regret Konstanze Klosterhalfen’s cancellation due to illness and will accompany and support her regeneration process as much as possible in order to be able to realize her dream of participating in the Olympic Games in Paris for the third time,” said DLV Sports Director Jörg Bügner.
