Fuchs misses final

World Indoor Championships: Fuchs finishes tenth with a personal record

Gogl-Walli, Markus Fuchs and Verena Mayr

(Bild: GEPA, krone.at-mrgrafik)

Great first day for Austria at the World Indoor Championships in Glasgow! Three ÖLV athletes competed - all three brought home top ten results! In the pentathlon, Verena Mayr finished a great fifth in her comeback on the world stage. Susanne Gogl-Walli, who had set a dream record in the 400 m preliminaries, made it to the final after a successful protest. Markus Fuchs finished tenth in the 60 m and missed the final by just two hundredths!

The "Krone" reports from Glasgow

Verena Mayr naturally achieved a top placing. With 4466 points, she achieved a great fifth place in this classy field. The winner was defending champion Noor Vidts (Bel) with 4773 points. Mayr had started the morning with 8.47 in the 60 m hurdles, 1.76 m in the high jump and 13.83 in the shot put.

In the evening she followed this up with 5.93 m in the long jump before finishing the 800 m run in 2:14.31! She thus continued the great tradition of the ÖLV women's multi-discipline athletes and scored many points for the Olympic qualification!

Mayr: "I never expected a fifth place at these World Championships! I'm back for good!"

Verena Mayr

(Bild: Thomas Windestam)

Final on Saturday
After a successful protest, Susanne Gogl-Walli made it to the 400 m final on Saturday! She had initially finished fourth in her semi-final and was out. The athlete from Linz, who had set a sensational ÖLV record of 51.43 in the preliminary heat, was cut extremely unfairly by Ireland's Sharlene Mawdsley (52.16) in the semi-final. After 300 m, the Irishwoman brutally obstructed Susanne Gogl-Walli.

"She cut me completely, I almost fell. That must have cost me half a second!" said the athlete trained by Wolfi Adler. The ÖLV lodged a protest, which was upheld. As a result, Gogl-Walli moved up to third place, which entitled her to reach the final run with six participants.

Susanne Gogl-Walli

(Bild: Thomas Windestam)

Gogl-Walli: "I never expected to finish in the top ten!" This also gives her great motivation for the summer - she has already qualified for the Olympics in Paris.

Sensation in the sprint
Markus caused the first sensation at the start of the evening session! In fourth place in his first 60 m semi-final, he narrowly missed the final in a new personal best time of 6.58 seconds! He finished in a fantastic tenth place overall, just two hundredths off the top eight in the final. He was officially timed at 6.571 - so he was only eleven thousandths short of the 6.56 that was enough for the final.

(Bild: GEPA pictures)

No wonder he was raving! "I'm tenth in the world! That's wonderful! And I can do even better," said "Fast-Fox", who had advanced from the preliminary heat to the semi-final with a time of 6.66 seconds. He commented on the semi-final: "I only missed the final in the last five meters." However, he was not complaining, just beaming about his sensational performance. What's more, he was the third-best European at this World Indoor Championships.

The Lower Austrian improved his one year old 60 m best time by one hundredth of a second and thus came one step closer to Andreas Berger's age-old record (6.56/1988). His goal for the summer is as clear as day: "I want to run under ten seconds. 9.99 - that's my goal!" He already holds the ÖLV record outdoors with 10.08.