“Heat training in front of the sauna door”
Medal misery? Geher Linke complains about “amateur means”
08/24/2023 3:33 p.m
Again no precious metal: The German track and field team is still without a medal at the World Cup for the last three days. After his fifth place, co-captain Christopher Linke put himself in front of his colleagues – and criticized the training conditions in Germany.
In view of the lack of German medals at the World Championships in Athletics, walker Christopher Linke has campaigned for a realistic classification of previous performances. One should get away from the pressure of a medal as a goal, said the two-time World Cup fifth after the 35-kilometer race, in which he had set a German record over 20 kilometers as before.
The 34-year-old is also co-captain of the German team, which is hoping for the decathletes Leo Neugebauer and Niklas Kaul and javelin thrower Julian Weber in Budapest over the last three days. A year ago in Eugene there was gold for long jumper Malaika Mihambo and bronze for the women’s sprint relay.
“You should set yourself goals that are realistic. If you go to a world championship and you say you have to finish in the top three – that’s such a blatant goal,” said Linke. “The people who should have potentially won medals did a great job and others were better. Maybe you should look at how good the others were and not how bad we are,” added the EM runner-up. Everyone who is there is doing their best. Good athletes are coming up in the junior division, there simply isn’t a thrower like discus Olympic champion and world champion Robert Harting at the moment.
You also have to look at how the world has developed towards Germany. “And we missed something there,” admitted Linke. This is something for training scientists. Discus thrower Kristin Pudenz pointed out after her sixth place that she had never seen the first two throw more than 69 meters.
It’s not because of the funding, emphasized Linke, even when he asked whether 400 euros from Sporthilfe was an incentive to subordinate one’s entire life to sport. He himself does not have the same professional training conditions as other nations when it comes to walking. “I work partly with amateurish means. I did my heat training in front of the open sauna door,” he said after the race in Budapest in great heat and high humidity.