33 years ago, Andreas Berger was 27 years old and just recently crowned European indoor champion over 60 meters. In the final of the title fights in The Hague, the sprinter from the Salzkammergut left the competition behind in 6.56 seconds. In the meantime, Berger has gotten older and slower. But not much. At an athletics meeting in Linz a week ago, he ran the 60 meters in 7.87 seconds. With this time, he is a medal candidate in his age group at the Masters European Championships in Braga, Portugal, which begin today with the first heat.
“Somehow I didn’t end the athletics chapter the way I had imagined. So I decided to prepare for a comeback at the age of 60,” says the former world-class sprinter, who stumbled over a doping affair in the summer of 1993. His international career was over. The long shadow of the doping scandal was anything but a help to get on your feet in professional life. Berger managed it anyway and finally established itself as a sports event organizer. Professionally, the 60-year-old young grandpa has also slowed down a bit due to Corona, but on a sporting level he has been all the more ambitious since August 2020. In the summer of 2021, the ex-European champion ran a 60-meter race outdoors – at 8.05 seconds, the time was quite passable. After that, Berger became Austrian champion in the 100 and 200 meters in his age group. The European Indoor Championships in Braga is now the first showdown at international level. Incidentally, the Olympic motto does not apply to him. Berger: “I’m definitely not going to Portugal just to be there.” The highlight of the season is the outdoor world championships in summer in Tampere, Finland. There is currently no end in sight to his second career as a sprinter.
Source: Nachrichten
