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July 5, 2009

Seven Bayer wins at athletics championship

Steffi Nerius bows out with another gold

Seven titles for TSV Bayer 04 Leverkusen and a golden farewell for Steffi Nerius – The athletes with the Bayer cross on their chest impressed at the German athletics championships in Ulm. “A new era seems to be dawning in German athletics and Leverkusen are right at the centre with seven titles,” said a delighted Joachim Strauss, head of the athletics department. In addition, Bayer athletes added four second and two second place finishes.

Steffi Nerius’ triumph was one of the most enjoyable for the Bayer team. The Grand Dame of German javelin secured her sixth national title with an attempt of 62.47 metres. Christina Obergföll, the big favourite for the event, could not counter and had to settle for second place with an attempt of 62.09 metres. “My attempt was not great but that doesn’t count at championships. I am delighted that I managed to win the title at my last German championships,” said Nerius.

Behind the two leading athletes two further Bayer athletes battled for the last ticket for the World championships in Berlin. In the end, Katharina Molitor (59.64m) came out on top once again by finishing third, whereas Linda Stahl (58.78m) had to settle for fifth place. Stahl has the better personal best this season of 62.67m but Molitor could make the squad based on her performance in Ulm.

Elsewhere, Sorina Nwachukwu, Robin Schembera and Silke Spiegelburg all showed that they can cope with the role of being favourites. Nwachukwu impressed by setting a new personal best of 51.53 seconds in the heat before going on to secure the title with 52.33 seconds in the final. Unfortunately, she once again failed to meet the World championship norm of 51.50 seconds. Nwachukwu went on to win her second gold just before the end of the championships when she helped the 4x400m relay team win in 3:35,35 minutes.

Schembera went into the 800 metres as the runner with the fastest time this season and outclassed his opponents in the sprint, finishing in 1:46,53 minutes. Now the Bayer athletes has set his set on meeting the World championship norm at the U23 European championships and the Bayer-Meeting (31 July). After winning the pole vault by clearing 4.65 metres, Silke Spiegelburg immediately attempted setting a new German record of 4.78 metres but did not succeed. “The last attempt was really close,” said the national record holder.

Cathleen Tschirch slowly edged her way into her championships by finishing fourth over 100m in 11.42 seconds before going on to win the silver medal over 4X100m with Anne-Kathrin Elbe, Mareike Peters und Katrin Krause Silber and finally taking the gold medal over 200m in 23.36 seconds. A few minutes later Aleixo-Platini Menga added a bronze medal in the men’s 200m. Earlier, he, Daniel Brischke, Stefan Wieser and Florian Sürth had secured helped the gold medal in the 4X100m in 39.68 seconds.

Markus Esser, an athlete used to winning, was slightly disappointed with his performance in UIm. The 76.38 metres he threw in his third attempt left him six centimetres behind winn Sergej Litvinov (SG Eintracht Frankfurt). Tobias Scherbarth also won a silver medal in the pole vault. Scherbarth mastered 5.70 metres with is first attempt and met the norm for Berlin but missed out on the German title which went to Alexander Straub (LG Filstal). Björn Otto secured the only medal for LAV Bayer Uerdingen/Dormagen by finishing third.

Annett Horna only just missed out on an upset victory over 800m. The German indoor champion was in the lead going into the last 100 metres when she was overtaken by Janina Goldfuß and had to settle for second place in 2:04.53 minutes.