Weißhaidinger & Diessl

European Championship opener: The veteran and the great talent

Lukas Weißhaidinger (l.) and Enzo Diessl (r.)

(Bild: Thomas Windestam, Olaf Brockmann)

Right at the start of the European Athletics Championships in Rome, a big day of competition for red-white-red! Six of the 21 ÖLV athletes are already at the start on Friday. The focus will not only be on the 32-year-old veteran Lukas Weißhaidinger, who will be competing for a discus medal in the late evening, but above all on the 19-year-old up-and-comer Enzo Diessl in the hurdles sprint.

The "Krone" reports from Rome

Before the precious metal is up for grabs at 21:00, Austria's athletics star first has to get through the qualification in the morning. He has been drawn into Group A (9.35 a.m.), which means he also opens the European Championships for Austria. In recent years, qualifying has sometimes been a nail-biter for the Olympic bronze medallist. However, he now has enough experience to overcome this hurdle with ease. It would be ideal if he could throw the required qualifying distance for the final of 66.00 m on his first attempt. Then he would have peace of mind for the time being. He has completed two Olympic Games (bronze and 6th place), five World Championships (including one bronze) and two European Championships (bronze and 9th place) in the discus ring. No wonder he says: "I can go to the start in Rome with a broad chest!" Experience pays off.

Established straight away
The ÖLV youngster Enzo Diessl is totally lacking in the general class. The Styrian, who celebrates his 20th birthday this Thursday, will be competing in the men's hurdles at a European Championships for the first time. It will be extremely exciting to see what the 2023 European U20 champion brings to the track. He is undoubtedly one of the greatest talents ever in Austrian athletics. But slowly! Step by step. He doesn't allow himself to be put under pressure from outside. He is ambitious enough himself.

In his first race over the men's hurdles, however, his time of 13.40 seconds took him straight to third place in the "eternal" ÖLV best list over 110 m hurdles. Only Mark McKoy (13.14) and Elmar Lichtenegger (13.33) are ahead of him. He even ranks twelfth in the entry list for the European Championships. "The semi-final is a realistic goal," says Enzo Diessl, whose goal is also to improve his personal best, "maybe I can improve towards 13.35."

A trip around the world
Enzo Diessl, who - like Lukas Weißhaidinger now - is likely to become the number 1 in the red-white-red team in the long term, has an interesting CV: he was born on June 6, 2004 in Villa Ocampo in Argentina. He lived there for five years. His parents then moved to Shanghai with their children for ten months. The journey around the world continued. The Diessls lived in Germany for a short time before returning to Buenos Aires for nine months. In May 2011, the family finally moved to Leibnitz.

About his parents: his father is German, while his great-grandmother's maternal line goes back to Italy. This is why he had an Italian passport for a short time at the age of 18, but gave it up and then renounced his German citizenship in order to be able to compete for Austria. Now he is competing for red-white-red in Rome!

Even the final is possible
In addition to Enzo Diessl, Karin Strametz will also be competing in the women's hurdles sprint on Friday morning in the preliminary heat. Like Diessl, she is good for the semi-finals, as she has had a series of great sprints over 100 m hurdles this year. With times between 12.92 and 13.04, she ran her eight fastest races of her career this year. Even Beate Schrott's ÖLV record (12.82) is now within the Styrian's sights.

Karin Strametz

(Bild: ÖLV / Giancarlo Colombo)

Heptathlon and steeplechase
Finally, the first day of the European Championships will also see the start of the women's heptathlon, in which Verena Mayr (already seventh and eighth at the European Championships) and student world champion Isabel Posch will compete. In addition, the women's 3000 m steeplechase preliminaries will take place at midday. Lena Millonig will be competing in her second European Championships after Munich 2022. She proved that she is in form this year when she broke Andrea Mayr's ÖLV record with a time of 9:46.17. The 26-year-old will be coached by her father Dietmar Millonig, who now has plenty of European Championship experience, having been European Indoor Champion in the 3000m in 1986 and a great fifth in the 5000m at the 1982 European Outdoor Championships in Athens ...