Arne Gabius and Sabrina Mockenhaupt take 5.000m titles in German Track and Field Championships

July 6, 2009

The race favourites took the National titles in a hot and sunny German Championship in Ulm. With 5.000m being the longest distance of the meet, qualifying times for the IAAF World Championships in Berlin 2009 were – as expected – out of reach.

In the womens race Sabrina Mockenhaupt dominated the race from the beginning, even the pace of 3:15min/km was rather slow. Mockenhaupt just wanted to defend her title without spending too much energy. She will need the energy in the next weeks, when she is preparing for the World Championships where she is probably running the 10.000m and the marathon. Mockenhaupts winning time was 16:15,65min. Second place went to Birte Bultmann (16:27,82) ahead of marathon runner Ulrike Maisch (16:28,23).

In the mens race Arne Gabius went to the front after the passing the early leader Sebastian Hallmann at around halfway. With two round to go he went clear of his closest competitors and won with a time of 13:50,48 min ahead of Musa Roba-Kinkal (13:59,11). Christian Glatting, who ran for Germany in the European Team Championships in Leiria got third in 14:01,37min. Gabius now wants to break the required 13:25min mark to qualify for the World Championships at a race in Heusden/NED in two weeks.