Never happened before:

Austrian sprint trio fights for the finals!

On Saturday evening at the European Championships in Rome there will be a sprinters' summit that Austria's athletics has never experienced before! Within an hour, the hurdles sprinters Karin Strametz (20:12), Enzo Diessl (20:38) and 100m record holder Markus Fuchs (21:10) will be battling it out in the semi-finals for a place in the final ...

It was the hurdlers who made sure of that on Friday! First of all, Strametz advanced from the preliminary round in her heat to the semifinals of the top 24 as the winner in 12.99 seconds. "I made sure I was awake at the start," said the Styrian. This worked perfectly on her second attempt at the start. "Up to the fifth and sixth hurdle, the race went very well for me. But it's still a bit more active at the back."

That means Strametz still has room for improvement in the semifinals. Her current best time is 12.92. She thinks 12.90 is possible. "But we'll have to wait and see if that's good enough for the final." Her form in 2024 is certainly tremendous. Her nine best career races between 12.92 and 13.04 are all from this year!

Enzo Diessl(Bild: Olaf Brockmann)

"Leave the church in the village"
The 20-year-old Diessl also ran confidently into the next round. Before his first European Championships in the men's category, he was, as he admits, a little nervous. No wonder. It's a world of its own. "My start was very good, but after that I didn't attack properly on the first five hurdles. "It went well in the back, that's my strength anyway," said the Styrian. "I'm glad that I'm through." He can now go into the semi-finals "confident". And the chance of reaching the final? "To a certain extent, you have to leave the church in the village. I can now run much more freely and attack more." But his personal best of 13.40 is certainly in danger ...

Will Fuchs achieve something historic?
Fuchs, on the other hand, was spared the preliminary round of the 100m. Thanks to his fantastic record of 10.08 seconds and other top results, he was seeded for the semi-finals. His dream is of course to reach the European Championship final. That would be a first for Austrian athletics. In 2010 in Barcelona, Ryan Mosely finished ninth in 10.29, missing out on the final by just two hundredths ...