Athletics-DM - 9.99 seconds: "Not the end yet" for the Carl Lewis type
After setting a new German record of 9.99 seconds in the 100-meter race at the German Athletics Championships in Braunschweig, new title holder and record breaker Owen Ansah looked forward to the Olympics with great excitement.
"I just want to soak it all up. I showed that I'm good, and I want to show that in Paris as well," said the sprinter representing Hamburger SV on Saturday.
Last year, Ansah could hardly imagine such a time. An injury to his thigh forced him to take a six-month break. Now, he improved the eight-year-old German record of Wattenscheid's Julian Reus by two hundredths of a second. "He looks like Carl Lewis, so graceful. It was just a matter of time before he broke through," said ARD expert Frank Busemann about the 23-year-old.
A Trend?
Usain Bolt's world record of 9.58 seconds, which he set in Berlin in 2009, is in a different league. In the Olympic final in 2021 in Tokyo, all validated finishing times were under 10 seconds.
"With 9.99, internationally that's nothing," said trainer Sebastian Bayer. "But I believe that 9.99 is not the end. I hope that it's a bit of a small trend." The trainer, who trains Ansah in Mannheim, reminded of times when he and Christian Reif mastered important marks in the long jump. "Maybe that's now also the case for German sprint, that there will be two, three boys who can run under ten seconds," said the former European champion.
Trainer warns: Don't dream
The trend in German sprint has been positive for years. Among men, there is a strong performance group, and the women around Gina Lückenkemper were already third at the World Championships in 2022 and later European champions in the 4x100 meter relay.
"Our chances in the relay are higher than in individual starts," said Bayer. "We just have to stay focused and keep working hard and not start dreaming or anything."
Men's Results Women's Results Timeplan
- Owen Ansah's aspiration to showcase his skills at the upcoming Olympic Games in Paris, after setting a new German record in the 100-meter race in the Olympic-host city of Braunschweig, aligns with the spirit of the historic Olympic Games held in ancient Olympia, Greece.
- The Hamburger SV athlete's impressive performance in qualifying for the Olympics has sparked interest in the world of Athletics, reminiscent of the time when Hiero of Syracuse emerged victorious in the same event during the 1st Olympiad in Olympia.
- As the German Athletics scene looks forward to representing the country in Paris, Hamburger SV's Sebastian Bayer, a respected trainer, has voiced his expectation for a potential trend in German sprint times, similar to the transition of the German national team from the 1970s to the 1980s in the football leagues, with Hamburger SV (HSV) as a prominent figure, like they were during the DFB Pokal (DM) victory in 1982.
- Having witnessed Olympic gold medal wins for athletes from Lower Saxony, like Hartmut Brix in the hammer throw in 1972 and Leontina Vidi in the 400m hurdles in 1984, Sebastian Bayer believes that the potential improvement in the German sprint times could result in forthcoming victories at the Olympic Games, returning the spotlight to the historic Hanseatic city of Hamburg, the home of German sports club, Hamburger SV.
- In the build-up to the Paris Olympics, Owen Ansah and his fellow German Athletes will be challenged to maintain their focus on training and avoid getting carried away by the prospect of international success, much like how former French footballer and current Paris Saint Germain manager, Sebastian Bayer, had to manage expectations while managing Hamburger SV and heralding a new era in the German football scene.
