Tom Lobinger salutes the crowd at the German Indoors in Karlsruhe (© Bongarts/Getty Images)
At the beginning of this week the officials of the German athletics federation had a hard decision to make. While there was no question about selecting pole vaulters Björn Otto and Danny Ecker for the national team for next weekend's European indoor Championships in Birmingham, it was much more difficult to name the third athlete in a discipline that gives Germany the best medal prospects. Finally the experienced Tim Lobinger got the ticket to England at the expense of young Fabian Schulze, who had jumped higher this season. At the meeting in Chemnitz on Friday night (23) Lobinger showed that it may have been the right decision to select him after the 34-year-old won the competition with a 5.70m leap.
As in the German championships, Schulze had cleared the same height as Lobinger, but this was only good enough for fourth place. Lobinger had jumped all his heights - 5.50, 5.60 and 5.70 - on his first attempt before failing at 5.80. “That was a good result for me since I have had a hard week of training,” Lobinger said. He had narrowly beaten Schulze at the nationals last week as well, taking third place.
While Otto, Germany’s number one, is in Athens for Saturday's (24) 'Athina 2007' Meeting, Richard Spiegelburg took second with a 5.70 clearance. He also cleared that height on his first attempt, but had one miss at 5.60. Lars Börgeling was third with that height, followed by Schulze. Both cleared 5.70 on their second attempts. Danny Ecker failed at that height and had to settle for sixth with 5.50.
Double dash victory for Nagel
South African sprinter Morne Nagel took both the 60m and 200m dashes. In the short dash he clocked 6.60 to narrowly beat Jamaican Clement Campbell (Jamaica), who was given the same time. It was a much more comfortable in the 200. Nagel won in 20.76, well ahead of Germany’s Sebastian Ernst (20.94) from a different section.
The women’s 60m winner was Virgen Benavides (Cuba) with 7.17. German champion Sina Schielke took second, improving her season’s best to 7.22.
In his last indoor race this season Thomas Blaschek (Germany) also improved slightly, winning the 60m Hurdles in 7.60. Kirsten Bolm of Germany defeated Cuban Yenima Arencibia (8.09) in the women's race, clocking 8.00 seconds. She will hope to dip under eight seconds in Birmingham next weekend.
Kombich upsets Bungei
There was a surprise defeat for World Indoor champion Wilfred Bungei in the 800m. The Kenyan clocked 1:46.74 minutes behind his countryman Ismael Kombich (1:46.59). In the 3,000m Kenyan Mark Bett set a meeting record of 7:52.65 minutes. Germany's European 10,000m champion Jan Fitschen was second in 7:55.91.
There were prominent names in the Long Jump in Chemnitz. But Marcin Starzak of Poland remained the only one to achieve an eight metre result. He won with an 8.01 leap, just beating Jamiacan James Beckford (7.99). Cuban Ivan Pedroso took third with a 7.83 effort. There was another Polish win in the Shot Put: Tomasz Majewski took that with a 19.86 throw.
Jörg Wenig for the IAAF
