5 medals on Saturday – Switzerland can look forward to a historic athletics evening – Sport

A Swiss quintet will be aiming for medals at the European Athletics Championships in Rome on Saturday evening. An overview of the five trump cards:

• In pole position is Ditaji Kambundji. The hurdler is Europe’s number 1 this season. She started at the level where she left off last autumn. The Bernese runs more technically stable than before. A medal is almost a must for the third-place finisher at the European Championships in Munich 2022.
• Also Jason Josephwho has been resting in recent weeks due to muscular problems, should be able to shoot out of the blocks on Saturday evening in the 110 m hurdles. His potential is undisputed, and based on his personal best he is number 2. However, top and flop are very close together for the Basel athlete. It can go in all directions.
• Dominic Lobalu will be chasing medals for Switzerland for the first time after receiving clearance from World Athletics. This has a liberating effect and may give an additional boost. But the 5000 m race will be a hotly contested affair. Norway alone has two exceptional athletes in Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Narve Gilje Nordas.
• Multi-talented Simon Ehammer won a medal as a long jumper at the World Championships in Eugene in 2022. Then he could also win at the European Championships. But luck is also needed. He didn’t have any luck at the World Championships in Budapest in 2023, he only exceeded a great jump by seven millimeters. At the World Championships in 2022, however, one centimeter was the deciding factor in the Appenzell native’s favor compared to the fourth-placed athlete.
• Annik Kaelin has dispelled doubts about her form with second place in the heptathlon in Götzis. For the second time in her career, the 24-year-old has exceeded the 6500 point mark. This performance can definitely be enough for a medal – as was the case at the 2022 European Championships in Munich. The Graubünden native’s strength lies in her consistency in all disciplines – making her the opposite of decathlete Ehammer.

Three medals or more are historic

The “Super Saturday” can go down in the history of Swiss Athletics as both a historic success and a disappointment. The limit is the number of two medals. On the one hand, this would not be disappointing because the Swiss association would then be on target for the six or more podium places it is aiming for. On the other hand, two medals are not a historic success either. That already happened in 2022 at the European Championships in Munich.