The discus women’s hopes of a big throw were dashed, walker Christopher Linke experienced a drama – but the sprinters came back: The German athletes missed out on their second medal at the European Championships in Rome, but the 100 m sprinters around Owen Ansah, who had been struggling for years, caused a positive surprise.
The Hamburg native finished fifth in 10.17 seconds as Italy’s Olympic champion Marcell Jacobs (10.02) triumphed. In addition to Ansah, Mannheim’s Robin Ganter also made it to the final, but was unable to compete due to muscle problems. Since Lucas Jakubczyk, who also finished fifth in Zurich in 2014, no DLV sprinter had reached the 100 m final of a European Championship.
German women’s discus defeat
It was not only because of Jacobs’ success that the approximately 30,000 spectators celebrated a great Italian athletics party in the giant bowl of the Stadio Olimpico, which was much better filled than on Friday but was by no means sold out. After two days, the host has already collected five titles and eleven medals – a clear lead in the national rankings.
The German team only has the bronze medal from shot putter Yemisi Ogunleye from the opening day to its name – the hoped-for discus podium did not materialize on Saturday. Claudine Vita (Neubrandenburg) was the best German in sixth place with 62.65 m in Croatian serial winner Sandra Elkasevic’s seventh European Championship triumph. Shanice Craft (Halle) came seventh (61.73). Marike Steinacker (Leverkusen) traveled to Italy as Europe’s best of the year with 67.31 m – and came last in the final with 59.72 m.
The highest-class men’s competition on Saturday was the long jump, which Greece’s Olympic champion Miltiadis Tendoglou won for the third time in a row at a European Championship – with a splendid championship record of 8.65 m. The women’s event was the 100 m hurdles, which Cyrena Samba-Mayela (France) won in 12.31 seconds – the last time a European woman ran faster was 32 years ago.
Bitter evening for left-wing walkers
The competition was very bitter for walker Linke, who overdid it, then over-reached himself and finally gave up. “I clearly wanted to win a medal, that is my goal and also my ability. I wanted to be there and I over-reached,” said Linke, 2022 European Championship runner-up in Munich, at the ZDF microphone.
While the Swede Perseus Karlström (1:19:13) won, the German walkers have been waiting for a men’s medal over 20 km for ages. In 1978, the GDR athlete Roland Wieser became European champion in Prague, and four years earlier the legendary Bernd Kannenberg (silver in Rome) won the only DLV medal to date.
Belgium’s Olympic champion Nafi Thiam became the first heptathlete to win the European Championship for the third time with 6848 points (championship record). After former vice world champion Carolin Schäfer’s elimination in the shot put on Friday, Sophie Weißenberg had to drop out on Saturday with foot problems. Vanessa Grimm was the only German to finish the competition in eleventh place.
