Missed Opportunities: A Look Back at the European Championships from Cottbus’s Perspective

The highlight of the season, the European Championships in Birmingham, has been history for a few days now. For the athletes who are also well known in Cottbus, it provided little reason to celebrate.

The only exception was Christina Honsel, last year’s winner in Cottbus, who was proud after finishing fourth in the high jump that she had fought her way through such a difficult season all the way to the European Championships. Still, the fact that a medal had been within reach annoyed her a little. Imke Onnen, who calls the Jump-Meeting one of her favorite competitions, failed to achieve the qualifying standard for the European Championships after an inconsistent season and muscular problems.

Once again, the title went to Ukraine’s Yaroslava Mahuchikh, who holds the meeting record of 2.04m at the Lausitz-Arena. The organizing team will do everything it can to ensure that she returns to Cottbus as a guest in January. In the men’s pole vault, the two Germans Bo Kanda Lita Baehre and Gilian Ladwig competed – both have already competed in Cottbus several times. With clearances of 5.70m and 5.55m, respectively, they fell short of their potential – especially since Bo Kanda had cleared 5.90m in Madrid just four weeks earlier. One of this year’s two winners of the Jump-Meeting, Dutchman Menno Vloon, did not even make it to the final at the European Championships.

And so the cards will be reshuffled completely in Cottbus in January – this time also with athletes from the USA and the Philippines, who of course do not compete at a European Championship. The final meetings are now taking place before the athletes enter their training break and negotiations with the athletes begin.