Two golds on the day of graduation | light athletics.com

04.03.2022

| Masters Indoor Championship

David Deister

On the 8th and at the same time final day of competition at the European Indoor Championships in Braga, Jennifer Gartmann (W 45; LG Westerwald) collected in the pentathlon and the 4 x 200 meter relay of the M 75 in the line-up of Friedhelm Adorf (LG Rhein-Wied), Ulrich Becker (ESV Lok Potsdam), Hans Kuhn (ABC Ludwigshafen) and anchor Hartmut Krämer (DJK Käfertal-Waldhof) for Germany the gold medals number 60 and 61.

After winning the titles in the long jump and high jump (5.12 m and 1.52 m) and in the 60 meter hurdle sprint (9.04 seconds), Jennifer Gartmann left her fourth gold medal after scoring 4,099 points in the pentathlon follow.

Heike Hesse (VfV Spandau) provided the second exclamation point in the all-around, who again increased her points account enormously in a spirited 800-meter run and finally worked her way up to silver with 4,499 points.

Four vice European champions in the javelin throw

No gold, but four times silver – that is the record of the German javelin throwers. With the 600 gram javelin, Mareike Metz (W 40; Post-Sportverein Trier) managed an acceptable 37.24 meters, while Birte Rotkehl (W 45; SC Melle 03) was able to claim 32.25 meters. Andrea Doreen Zahn (W 50; VfV Spandau) reached 36.57 meters with the 500 gram device, while Gerhild Monika Schwartz (W 75; LG Ortenau Nord) was able to settle for 13.18 meters (400 grams).

In addition to the strong running time of the M75 European champions, the relay formation of the M 65s (Detlef Döpping, Laszlo Müller, Günter Rausch and Reinhard Michelchen) also attracted attention. In the final sprint and extremely tight (1:54.45 min), the four Germans only had to give way to the Spaniards (1:54.37 min).

The German relay quartet was also strong in the W 55. Angelika Mader, Katja Knospe, Christiane Contag and 60m and 200m European Champion Iris Opitz completed the four indoor laps in 2:04.38 minutes, again behind a Spanish rider Team. And the W 65 can now also call itself European Vice Champion. For Marion Ertl, Renate Richter, Dagmar Kleinemeyer and Karin Grummert, the clock finally stopped at 2:38.40 minutes.

2nd place in the medal table

After all, the German athletes made it onto the podium 146 times – equivalent to second place in the medal table behind Spain and ahead of host Portugal.

Measured by the number of registered participants, Team D was comparatively effective: few athletes (188 registered) collected a relatively large number of medals (146). For comparison, 631 Spaniards – more than three times as many athletes – brought home 256 medals, while Portugal brought 352 athletes to the start, leaving 116 medals with the hosts.

After the EM is before the World Cup

“Finally championships again!” – in the end, Braga 2022 was also a glimmer of hope and an amplifier – for sport, for fair play and specifically for the Masters movement, both internationally and nationally.

Many will see each other again at the upcoming highlights, hopefully healthy and safe, and hold the flag high – for example on 25./26. March to the DM winter throwing in Erfurt and from June 29th to July 10th on the occasion of the World Championships in Tampere, Finland.

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