LA European Championships in Rome

Strametz great European Championship 10th ++ Scandal in the Fuchs race!

Karin Strametz

(Bild: Thomas Windestam)

Karin Strametz only narrowly missed out on the 100 m hurdles final at the European Athletics Championships in Rome! She ran a great best time of 12.87 seconds and missed the final by just four hundredths. Overall, she finished in a great tenth place. Meanwhile, Markus Fuchs missed out on a place in the 100 m final due to a scandal ...

Austria's fastest man had an excellent start in his semi-final, apparently narrowly missing a false start. Then he was perfectly on track. Only at about 50 m (!) was the run shot back. Fuchs, like other sprinters, ran at full speed because they had not heard the shot. The Lower Austrian even thought he was second in the semifinals and was jubilant about his supposed place in the final. When he realized that the run would be restarted, he threw his hands over his head.

Fantastic Fuchs performance after 200 meters
Fortunately, Fuchs only received a warning for "interfering with the start" in accordance with rule TR7.1 (16.5.3.). So after he had already sprinted 100 meters, he had to start again. To be fair, the organizers brought the other two semifinals forward so that Fuchs and his colleagues had a little more time to recover. But the second attempt was also shot back. Nerves were on edge.

Then finally the race! Fuchs, who had already lost a lot of energy, nevertheless held his own until around 75 m, when he dropped back to fourth place with a time of 10.29 seconds and finished twelfth overall. A terrific performance after 200 meters ...

Strametz: "You can't complain about that!"
In her semi-final, Strametz conjured up a great run on the track in 12.87 seconds. She improved her personal best of 12.92 seconds by five hundredths and moved a little closer to Beate Schrott's ÖLV record (12.82). With this brilliant performance, she just missed out on the hurdles final as a great tenth place at the European Championships - she was just four hundredths short of eighth place! Strametz commented: "Of course I'm over the moon with the time, and tenth place is already great. You can't complain about that. My form is good. I hope that I will now get a starting place for a few more big meetings."

Diessl: "Sad and frustrating!"
While Strametz ran a great race, 20-year-old Enzo Diessl fell well short of expectations. In his semi-final, he came eighth and last in 13.71 seconds. "That was simply bad. That was frustrating and sad." Both together - time and placement. Enzo Diessl: "The quality was zero percent!" Overall, he finished 18th in his European Championship debut.

The results:

Men:
100 m: Semifinals: 1st semifinal (+0.7): 4th Fuchs 10.29; overall: 12th Fuchs 10.29
110 m hurdles: 2nd semi-final (0.0): 8th Diessl 13.71; overall: 1st Martinez (ESP) 13.29, 2nd Obasuyi (BEL) 13.31, 3rd Joseph (SUI) 13.35, 18th Diessl 13.71

Women:
100 m hurdles: 2nd semifinal (+0.4): 4th Strametz 12.87; overall: 1st Samba Mayela (FRA) 12.43, 2nd Skrzyszowska (POL) 12.62, 3rd Sember (GBR) 12.64, 10th Strametz 12.87