From Berlin to the Olympic summer
Mihambo shines at the largest indoor meeting in the world
February 24, 2024, 9:22 a.m
In Europe she is number 1 again, and the attack on the world’s best should succeed in the summer: At the ISTAF Indoor in Berlin, long jump Olympic champion Malaika Mihambo gains fresh self-confidence. Other German track and field athletes are also convincing.
Malaika Mihambo performed a little dance of joy cheered on by 12,150 spectators in the Berlin Arena and was beaming from ear to ear. With a new European annual best of 6.95 meters, the long jump Olympic champion celebrated a successful end to her indoor season at the ISTAF Indoor and can tackle the Olympics with a tailwind. “I’m very satisfied and have achieved my goal,” said Mihambo: “I wanted to jump the season’s best and I succeeded. The consistency is there now, I’ll take that with me into the summer.” The 30-year-old will not be taking part in the World Indoor Championships in Glasgow next weekend.
The Swiss Annik Kälin and the fifth-placed World Cup winner Larissa Iapichino from Italy managed 6.75 meters each in second and third place. The German Championship runner-up Mikaelle Assani from Baden-Baden, who is part of the only seven-strong German World Cup squad, came fourth this time with 6.69 meters after 6.91 meters in Leipzig. The DM third Laura Raquel Müller from Öhringen came fifth at the largest indoor meeting in the world with 6.64 meters.
Mikaelle Assani is going to the World Indoor Championships, while Malaika Mihambo is skipping it.
(Photo: IMAGO/Beautiful Sports)
Mihambo had already taken the lead after her first attempt with 6.78 meters and had also jumped to 6.45 meters. After three unsuccessful attempts, she improved again in the last jump. “I have understood what I have to do right,” emphasized the 30-year-old, who now has two training camps coming up: “Now it’s about continuing to build up my speed and then I’m excited to see what the first competitions will be like May bring.”
Haase and Zernikel argue, Meier runs the best time
Because the Olympic Games in Paris are already casting their shadows, the indoor season was for Mihambo a “way station for the summer,” as she recently said. At the end of January, the Heidelberg native celebrated her comeback at the indoor meeting in Dortmund with 6.65 meters after a month-long injury break. After the “Salto nullo” without a valid attempt at the ISTAF Indoor in Düsseldorf at the beginning of February, she jumped 6.93 meters to her eleventh national indoor title in a row just two weeks later. In Berlin it went another two centimeters further.
The European relay champions Alexandra Burghardt (Burghausen/7.26 seconds) and Rebekka Haase (Wetzlar/7.32 seconds), however, had to come fifth in the 60-meter final with the victory of the Italian Zaynab Dosso (7.09 seconds). sixth place. “The performance is not what I can do,” said Haase, who secured the title at the German championships last week: “But I really wanted to run here to enjoy this incredible atmosphere and the momentum for to take the summer with you.”
The German indoor champion Oleg Zernikel (Landau) was also not satisfied. The 28-year-old failed in the pole vault at his starting height of 5.45 meters. His foot is currently causing problems, explained Zernikel, who now wants to take a break and see a doctor: “I sprained my ankle in December and apparently it was a gradual process.” Subconsciously this slowed him down in Berlin and at the German championships in Leipzig, where he won with 5.45 meters: “I know there is more to it.” Torben Blech, second behind Zernikel in Leipzig, came fourth with a season’s best of 5.66 meters. Vice world champion Ernest John Obiena from the Philippines secured the victory (5.93 meters).
In the women’s 60 meter hurdles, Marlene Meier from Leverkusen impressed in fourth place with a personal best time of 8.09 seconds. Directly behind, returnee Ricarda Lobe (Mannheim) ran a season’s best time of 8.10 seconds – she was disqualified after a false start at the German Indoor Championships last weekend in Leipzig. The 29-year-old returned to competition this indoor season after a long injury break. The victory went to the Hungarian Greta Kerekes in 8.01 seconds.