Athletics: First German sprinter runs the 100 meters in 9.99 seconds

Owen Ansah is the first German sprinter to break the ten-second mark in the 100-meter race. The 23-year-old athlete from Hamburger SV improved the eight-year-old German record set by Julian Reus from Wattenscheid by two hundredths of a second when he won the national championships in Braunschweig on Saturday in 9.99 seconds. Ansah relegated the favorite Joshua Hartmann from ASV Cologne to second place, who also ran a personal best of 10.06 seconds. Yannik Wolf from Munich came third in 10.16 seconds.

Ansah won his second German championship title over the prestigious 100-meter distance after 2022 and also cracked the standard for the Olympic Games in Paris (July 26 to August 11). In the women’s event, Gina Lückenkemper confidently secured her third title in a row. With his record run, Ansah set the highlight on the first day of the championships, otherwise there was still a lot of room for improvement in the DLV ensemble.

Discus thrower Kristin Pudenz secured her sixth title with a new season best of 65.93 m, which earned her a ticket to Paris. High jump hopeful Tobias Potye did not clear more than 2.18 m in his victory. The fifth-place finisher at the World Championships and second-place finisher at the European Championships in 2022 recently had to undergo surgery on his patellar tendon and therefore missed the European Championships in Rome. The Munich native had already cracked the Olympic standard last year.

For the German record javelin thrower Johannes Vetter, however, the Olympic dream has been shattered. The 2017 world champion was suffering from pain in his throwing shoulder and was unable to throw more than 73.16 m when Julian Weber won the next title (86.63 m). His throwing arm was in “terrible shape,” said Vetter, who was in tears after the competition: “It’s been clear since March that I definitely need an operation on my elbow. But I tried it today anyway.”