World Indoor Championships in Glasgow

Lindner no chance in the preliminaries, Walli in the final

Leni Lindner was eliminated over 60 m.

(Bild: Thomas Windestam)

Leni Lindner was eliminated without a chance in the 60 meters at the World Indoor Championships in Glasgow. In her preliminary heat, she finished fifth in 7.46 seconds and naturally had no chance of advancing to the semifinals. However, the Lower Austrian was unfortunately beaten: "I know that I can run much faster ..." For Susanne Gogl-Walli, however, things are going according to plan.

This year Lindner improved her 60 m best time to 7.32. She was a long way off that in Glasgow. Her problem: "I run so well in training, but I can't do it in competition. Even in the warm-up, I ran faster today than in my heat." With a poor reaction time and a weak start, she immediately missed out on a good time and a better placing. Overall, she finished 41st.

Fifth starter for Austria
After Sabine Tröger-Fuchs (1989, 1993, 1995), Dagmar Hölbl (1995), Karin Mayr-Krifka (1997, 2001, 2003) and Bettina Müller-Weissina (2003, 2004, 2008), Leni Lindner was the fifth Austrian to compete in the 60m at a World Indoor Championships. Karin Mayr-Krifka's best placing was fourth in Birmingham 2003. She missed out on bronze by just three hundredths.

Gogl-Walli on lane 1
Austria will be represented on Saturday evening by Susanne Gogl-Walli. The Upper Austrian had sensationally finished third in her semi-final on Friday in 52.47 to advance to the 400m final. This final will take place at 10 p.m. CEST. Gogl-Walli will run in lane 1, with world record holder Femke Bol in lane 5 and her Dutch colleague Lieke Klaver next to her on the outside.

Susanne Gogl-Walli

(Bild: Thomas Windestam)

However, Gogl-Walli had to endure some anxious minutes after her semi-final. Ireland's Sharlene Mawdsley was originally one place ahead of her, but was disqualified after a successful protest by the ÖLV. She had clearly obstructed the athlete trained by Wolfi Adler after 300 meters. Gogl-Walli commented on the disqualification: "In my opinion, what the Irishwoman did was not entirely fair. She cut me too much. It just felt wrong what happened and was certainly more than is normal in a race. I'm very happy to have made it to the final, it's really brilliant. Today was physically and mentally very exhausting, but I will try to recover well and give it my all again tomorrow." Gogl-Walli is the first athlete to compete for Austria in the 400m at a World Indoor Championships.

Mayr: Continuing the tradition
In addition to Susanne Gogl-Walli, Verena Mayr in fifth place in the pentathlon and Markus Fuchs in tenth place in the 60 m also caused a stir on Friday. So the World Championships opener brought a great result for Austria.

Verena Mayr

(Bild: zVg)

The red-white-red record in the pentathlon at the World Indoor Championships is sensational! Ivona Dadic won silver in Birmingham in 2018 and now Verena Mayr has taken fifth place. Sarah Lagger also finished eighth in Belgrade two years ago.

Fuchs faster than Berger
The statistics for the men's 60 m are also extremely interesting! With a time of 6.58 seconds, Markus Fuchs improved his personal best by one hundredth of a second and ran the fastest time ever achieved by an Austrian over 60 m at a World Indoor Championships. He overtook Andreas Berger, who had run 6.62 in Budapest in 1989. Fuchs and Berger had both finished fourth in the World Championship semifinals.

Austria's greatest successes at World Indoor Championships:

Silver:
Ivona Dadic (pentathlon) Birmingham 2018
Steffi Graf (800 m) Birmingham 2003
Steffi Graf (800 m) Lisbon 2001
Klaus Bodenmüller (shot put) Seville 1991

Bronze:
Karin Mayr-Krifka (200 m) Budapest 2004

4th place:
Karin Mayr-Krifka (60 m) Birmingham 2003
Mark McKoy (60 m hurdles) Barcelona 1995

5th place:
Verena Mayr (pentathlon) Glasgow 2024
Austria's men's relay team (4 x 400 m) Paris 1997
Hermann Fehringer (pole vault) Seville 1991