August 19, 2008
In the 1500m-semifinal German Carsten Schlangen just missed the final by a close margin. After a tactical clever race, in which he mostly ran on 5th position (first 5 runners+2fastest times were qualified for the final) he finished 7th in 3:37,94min. This was just 17 hundreds of a second too slow to advance to the final. Schlangen stated: “it was a tactical race that started quite slowly. I felt good. As the pace quickened I had to react and I regretted that on the last 80meters, when I could not increase the pace anymore.” Schlangen is now optimistic for the World Championships 2009 in Berlin: “I just started running 3 years ago and just wanted to get German Champion. Now I could run in the Olympics and I enjoyed it. It was not enough for the final but may be it will work out next year in Berlin”.
Race walker Andre Höhne announced that he will also compete in the olympic 50km race walk on Friday. After a rather disappointing 25th place (1:23:13) in the 20km he decided on Tuesday that he has recovered well and that he will have another try in the longest distance in the track&field competitions. Höhne is the last male German distance athlete that will compete in Beijing. On the women’s side Sabine Zimmer and Melanie Seeger will compete in the 20km race walk on Thursday.
August 17, 2008
In the Olympic women’s marathon in Beijing the two remaining (after the withdrawal of Irina Mikitenko) Germans both successfully finished the race, which was won by Romanian Constantina Tomescu in 2:26:44 ahead of the favourites Catherine Ndereba (KEN; 2:27:06h) and Zhou Chunxiu (CHN; 2:27:07h).
Melanie Kraus (left) and Susanne Hahn in August 2008 (picture provided from Frank Hahn)
Frankfurt marathon winner Melanie Kraus ran 2:35:17 to take 38rd place: “The conditions were not as difficult as in last year’s world championships in Osaka”. “I ran very defensive until kilometer 25 as it was the plan. If 37 others were better I have to accept that.” Kraus also stated that the atmosphere on the course was like in Osaka and the crowd cheered a lot.
The higher rated, currently reigning German marathon champion, Susanne Hahn led the field through the first kilometer alongside Paula Radcliffe but faded in the later stages of the race and had to be medicated after the finish because of severe stomach problems.
After 30 minutes both Germans were in the back of the field and followed the race plan of their coaches. After 15km both ran approx. 1:40min behind the leaders and this margin extended to approx. 4:45min after 25km. After 35km Melanie Kraus had a deficit of 7:17min with Susanne Hahn further 1:28min behind. The Germans finished the marathon 8:27min (Kraus) and 11:47 (Hahn) after lucky Gold medalist.
After all the performances are reasonable and pretty much as expected – Congratulations to both.
August 16, 2008
After the morning session of the 2nd day of the track&field events half of the German middle and long distance athletes already completed their events. The results were mostly better as expected since the distance women ran personal records. In particular the performances were as follows:
Carsten Schlangen (1.500m heat): 3:36,34
In the last heat of the first round, Carsten Schlangen placed 6th and qualified as the fastest lucky looser with a time of 3:36,34 minutes. “It was an amazing feeling to toe the line in front of a crowd of 90.000 spectators” Schlangen said afterwards. “There was pressure from the very beginning of the race and the pace was high immediately.” Schlangen achieved his minimum aim by qualifying for the semi-finals on Sunday. If he would make it to the final it would be a pretty big surprise. For sure he has the abilities, but against a top-class field with a lot of experience he obviously is not more than a black horse.
Antje Möldner (3.000m heat): 9:29,86
In the heat of the women’s 3.000m steeple 24-year old Antje Möldner ran an impressive race but missed to qualify for the final by only a small margin. Only 1,34 seconds were missing for a big surprise, i.e. the qualification for the final. However, the time of 9:29,86 represent a new German Record by almost 5 seconds (previous record: 9:34,21, also A. Möldner). With a bit more experience – it was only the 4th steeple race of the former 1.500m specialist – the final would have been possible. Also Möldner herself said: “I had a huge respect for this event. If I would have started my final sprint a little bit earlier, I might have done it.” It was her first international championship and in the future (maybe already in the Berlin World Championships 2009) we can expect some good progress from this young, talented athlete.
Sabrina Mockenhaupt (10.000m final): 31:14.21
With a new personal best of 31:14.21min Sabrina Mockenhaupt took 13rd place in an amazimg 10.000m race. Even if all the experts (also the wanna-be experts) expected rather slow times in the distance events the race saw an Olympic Record , European Record, American Record and World U20-Record.
In a tactical clever race Mockenhaupt found her own pace early in the race and caught a lot of runners in the later stage of the race. With Eyegayehu Dibaba (ETH, former olympic silver medalist), Hilda Kibet (NED), etc. she left several well-known runners behind and could improve her 15th place from the Athens Olympics 2004. Mockenhaupt was happy after the race: “I am really lucky. I never thought to take 13rd place in such a quality-field of 32 athletes.” … ” Finally it was a race after my fancy – my nicest so far.” The 27-year old also said that it was the right decision to go back to her old coach and her familiar environment only 2 months before the Olympics. This way she “prepared for this event like for no one ever before”.
Andre Höhne (20km race walk): 1:23:13h
German hope Andre Höhne could not fulfil the medal hopes and took 25th place in 1:23:13h. In a race where all the top-walkers were faster on the second 10K, Höhne could only follow the pace until halfway. The 30-year old was quite frustrated after the race: “I am not satisfied with my place. The competition was pretty ok for this conditions. I was as fast as in the World Championships last year but this year I finished the race” (last year Höhne dramatically collapsed in 4th place with only 400m to go) “What the guys on the front did is normally impossible, but they did it.”
Höhne wants to decide later if he also wants to compete in the 50km race walk.
August 13, 2008
On Friday, 15th of August the track&field events are starting at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. The first medals will be given in the women’s 10.000m and Germany will be represented by Sabrina Mockenhaupt. Mockenhaupt arrived in Beijing on Monday (13.08) after a stay at the Team Germany training camp in Shibetsu (JAP). Her last test run – a 4.000m time trial – turned out to be excellent and she ran a personal best for this test. Altogether she ran 120km last week and after the successful test she is confident about delivering a good performance in the 10.000m.
If Mockenhaupt runs a perfect race it should not be impossible to place in the TOP 10.
marathonscene is wishing Sabrina all the Best
August 3, 2008
The women’s 10K-race of the 17th edition of the Berliner City night was won by Susanne Hahn (33:11) ahead of Melanie Kraus (33:56). Both will represent Germany in the Olympic marathon in Beijing and used the competition in the German capital as a last speed-test before going to Asia next Wednesday. After some tough weeks of training the test can be seen as positive and during the training sessions in Hokkaido/JPN (the final preparation training camp of the German squad) only some fine tuning remains to be done.
In the men’s 10K Dutchman Martin Lauret was the fastest man, clocking a 29:07min and leaving the German hopes Falk Cierpinski (29:16) and Stefan Koch (29:21) behind. Falk Cierpinski – son of former two-time olympic marathon gold medalist Waldemar Cierpinski – improved his Personal Best the second time within one week after he ran 29:17min in Cardiff last weekend. Both Cierpinski and Koch are most probably going to run this year’s Berlin marathon.
TOP-15 results
Women 10K
1 Hahn, Susanne DEU W30 SV Schlau.com Saar 05 Saarbrüc 00:33:11
2 Kraus, Melanie DEU W30 TSV Bayer 04 Leverkusen 00:33:55
3 Zutt, Barbara NLD WH 00:35:45
4 Schipper, Esther DEU WH 00:36:38
5 Wiesmair, Stefanie DEU WH PSV Grün-Weiß Kassel 00:36:47
6 de Jong, Inger NLD W30 00:37:24
7 Boitz, Sandra DEU W30 SC DHfK Leipzig 00:37:31
8 Tutsch, Claudia DEU WH OSC Berlin 00:37:33
9 Krecklow, Beate DEU W35 Greifswalder SV 04 00:37:38
10 Buchhauser, Mares-Elaine DEU WH Berliner SV 1892 00:37:46
11 Haas, Elisabeth Maria DEU WH Union Salzburg LA 00:38:11
12 Penning de Vries, Marloes NLD WH Spiridon Frankfurt 00:38:24
13 Parsiegla, Karsta DEU W45 SCC Berlin 00:38:28
14 Schipp, Carina DEU WH SC DHFK Leipzig.e.V. 00:38:58
15 Opt-Eynde, Laura DEU WH jk running 00:39:17
Men 10K
1 Lauret, Martin NLD M35 00:29:07
2 Cierpinski, Falk DEU M30 SG Spergau 00:29:16
3 Koch, Stefan DEU MH TV Wattenscheid 00:29:22
4 Lubina, Alexander DEU MH TV Wattenscheid 00:30:02
5 Seiler, Christian DEU MH LC Erfurt 00:30:14
6 Sponar, Lennart DEU MH Brooks Running Team 00:30:19
7 Schröer, Ronald DEU MH 00:30:20
8 Ton, Robert NLD MH Niederlande 00:30:43
9 Biele, Christian DEU MH LC Erfurt 00:30:47
10 Lindner, Benjamin DEU MH SG Spergau 00:30:48
11 Krebs, Robert DEU MJA LG Nike Berlin 00:30:53
12 Hedrit, Embaye DEU M30 LG Braunschweig 00:31:08
13 Weyer, Sven DEU MH SC DHfK Leipzig 00:31:10
14 Schulze, Marc DEU MH TSV Dresden 00:31:11
15 Lindner, Sören DEU MH SG TSV Kronshagen/Kieler TB 00:31:15
full results of the race scc-events.com
August 2, 2008
On Friday night Irina Mikitenko, this years London marathon winner announced that she will not be able to run in the Beijing-marathon. The medal candidate is still in St.Moritz (SUI) but persistent back and pelvis problems that emanate into the feet make a run in this years Olympic Games impossible.
Even though this is a big shock for the German marathonscene, we wish Irina the best of luck for a fast and complete recovery.
July 30, 2008
Germany’s biggest hope for the distance events in the Olympic Games – Irina Mikitenko (this years London-Marathon winner; PB: 2:24:14h) is forced out of the “Berliner City-Night” (10K) on next weekend due to health problems. Pain in the back and pelvis, that also emanate into the feet made her dropping out of the race, which was planned as a last test before the Olympic Games. The problems appeared 6 weeks ago but vanished after injections into the pain region. However, in the altitude training camp in St. Moritz the problems reappeared and after 20 minutes of running Mikitenko feels a pain in the feet. She has still hopes to compete in Beijing, but the time is running and all the faster sessions had to be cancelled.
In the meantime another marathon-Olympian – Susanne Hahn (PB: 2:29:33h) – has a good preparation and will compete as planned in the “Berliner City-Night”. Hahn decided to make her training camp in Kienbaum/GER and is happy that the weather in Germany is currently hot and humid (around 30°C). This will prepare her for the conditions in Beijing, that are likely to be somewhat challenging.
German marathon-hopeful Irina Mikitenko
also on the German marathon team: Susanne Hahn
original enclosure (in German) leichtathletik.de and 2
July 22, 2008
Ethiopia’s “running machine” Haile Gebrselassie is going to run the 36th real,-Berlin Marathon on September, 28th. After shattering the world record last year he is now trying again to complete the 42,195km faster than any human before. In an interview he stated that training sessions (especially the long runs) are going well. Berlin is a special place for him because organisation, course, weather and spectators always make him happy.
Well, there is still an Olympic 10.000m-race before the marathon in the German capital but it’s quite sure that Haile will once again make a big show!
original enclosure (in German) leichtathletik.de
July 15, 2008
European 10.000m Champion Jan Fitschen announced that he will not take the last opportunity of qualifying for the Olympic Games. Fitschen was given a last chance to qualify over 5.000m in Heusden/BEL but now he can’t use this chance because of an injury in his right plantar tendon.
The summer season – in which he set a new 10.000m personal record (28:02,55 in Stanford/USA) – is over for him and he could not hide his disappointment: “That’s it. It’s super annoying, I would have liked to participate.” However, he is optimistic to reach the 10.000m final in the world championships 2009, that are going to be held in his home country Germany (Berlin). Furthermore his dreams of the Olympics continue – 2012 in London he wants to strike again.
original enclosure (in German) leichtathletik.de
July 14, 2008
The 8th version of the “8. Zugspitz Extremberglauf” in the German Alps turned out to be a sad event. Two people died in the event during a cold snap. The 41 and 45-year old Germans died because of a combination of exhaustion and hypothermia. Especially tragic is the fact, that the two had only about 10 minutes to the finish. One runner was found at an altitude of 2700m and the second one at 2800m – both were attended by medicals from the mountain rescue service, but the reanimations were in vain.
A sudden change in weather with snow falls, freezing temperatures and wind gusts surprised most of the 550 runners that went on the 14,7km long journey including 2100 meters altitude difference. Several more runners were hospitalised.
Even if the race organisers warned the runners about the conditions and that there might be snowfalls on the Zugspitze, the race was not cancelled.
original enclosure (in German) Spiegel.de
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