from T&F News
Not too many experts will have reckoned with a German challenge for the European 100m sprint title in just over a week’s time, but at the German championships last weekend a serious contender emerged.
In the heats an explosive Julian Reus hurtled down the track to break the beam in 10.05 to erase a 29-year-old record set in 1985 by Frank Emmelmann.
But there were more fireworks to come because in the final Reus and rival Lucas Jakubczyk could only be separated by thousandths of a second as they both clocked 10.01 with the wind agonisingly just over the legal limit at 2.2mps.
That record run places the man from Wattenscheid fifth on this season’s continental lists.
It is 32 years since Emmelmann lifted the European 100m title. Is it possible that the time has finally arrived for a German to once again stand on the top step of the podium?
Secretly Reus may be harbouring thoughts of a medal, but he is not about to betray any sense of euphoria as the championships approach.
“I wasn’t even thinking of the record beforehand,†admitted a stunned Reus to leichtathletik.com after his feat in Ulm. “I’m quite flabbergasted. But in Zurich today’s time will count for nothing.â€
It is now two years since Reus began to make serious inroads towards the 10-second barrier. From 10.42 in 2011, he hacked three tenths of a second off that mark with a more than respectable 10.09 the following year.
Another 0.01 was shaved off last year and now a further 0.03 has been peeled away.
That marks a significant reduction from three years ago but it has been brought about by a serious restructuring of how the sprints are organised in Germany.
One of the most significant steps appears to be taking the sprint squad for winter training in Florida.
“It is clear that the climatic conditions are simply much better there than in Germany,†explains Reus.
The fruits of that decision can be seen in the current rankings with Jakubczyk, Alex-Platini Menga, Martin Keller and Christian Blum all under 10.20 this summer.
Reus for one is not resting on his laurels and has already identified where he could find those extra hundredths of a second to dip under the magic mark.
He points to a weakness in his stride pattern over the final metres of a race: “I lose a little bit there in comparison with international competitors,†he says.
But his main concern for the immediate future is to reproduce the sort of performance in Zurich that gave him the German title.
But if hopes in the individual event are high, given the level that German sprinting is on at the moment there are even higher hopes in the relay.
“First and foremost the objective is to reach the final of the individual then it is all to play for. For me personally, I will only start thinking about what I will do once the semis are out of the way.
“But in the relay we are in with a shout for gold.â€