Next DLV failure: Next failure: Athletics World Championships without Klosterhalfen

The German track and field athletes have to cope with the next well-known loss shortly before the start of the World Cup due to the cancellation of Konstanze Klosterhalfen.

Recurring foot problems stopped the 5000 meter European champion on the way to the title fights in Budapest, which begin on Saturday. “The decision was not easy,” said the 26-year-old on Monday evening. But you have to be able to do your best to keep up with the best.

Focus on the coming year

You worked hard, but your foot reacted to the intensive preparation. “Next year is a big year for sport, I have to be completely fit for that,” Klosterhalfen wrote on Instagram.

The absence of Klosterhalfen, who had to do without the national championships last month but had started preparations in St. Moritz anyway, reduced the squad of the German Athletics Association to 72 athletes.

Not the first cancellation

“Right to the end we had hoped that starting at the World Championships would work out. We wish her that she can start again fit for the Olympic season,” said head coach Annett Stein after the next weakening for the team. In Hungary’s capital, the DLV had to plan without a number of prominent athletes even before the cancellation of the 2019 World Cup third place.

Long jump Olympic champion Malaika Mihambo, who would have been a candidate for the third world title in a row in Budapest, is missing, as are the sprinters Alexandra Burghardt and Lisa Mayer. Both belonged to the season last year, which surprisingly won bronze at the World Championships and won the title at the European Championships.

Many different disciplines affected

Ex-world champion Johannes Vetter and Thomas Röhler, Olympic champion of 2016 in the javelin throw, will also not start, as they did in 2022. Germany’s best pole vaulter, Bo Kanda Lita Baehre, who came second at the European Championships, also had to pull out after his fall at the Diamond League meeting in Monaco. This also applies to the EM second over 3000 meters obstacle, Lea Meyer. The Leverkusen woman is plagued with back problems.

“The fact that we can’t send our strongest athletes to the start in all competitions naturally reduces our chances of success. We have to be realistic about that,” said Stein before the Klosterhalfen exit.

Hope for medals is fading

The hopes of doing better than in the disappointing world title fights a year ago in the USA, when the DLV won fewer medals than ever before, are reduced by the cancellations. “We cannot compensate for the loss of an exceptional athlete like Malaika Mihambo, important pillars are also breaking away in the women’s relay,” said sports director Jörg Bügner last week.

The greatest German medal hopes in the new national athletics center in Budapest rest on the decathletes around the German record holder Leo Neugebauer and European champion Niklas Kaul as well as javelin European champion Julian Weber. The third European champion from Munich is sprinter Gina Lückenkemper.

At the European Indoor Championships, Klosterhalfen, who trains in the USA and holds several German records between 1,500 and 10,000 meters, took second place over 3,000 meters. In the outdoor season, she was handicapped by foot problems after her outfitter change and did not gain momentum as hoped. After further investigation, she hopes to be able to tackle more races this year.