The Hörlkofenerin pulverized her personal best in the fastest round of the stadium in 19 years at a German championship.
Braunschweig / Hörlkofen - seventh place at the German athletics championships over 400 meters - now Mona Mayer has also set an exclamation point for the adults. The 18-year-old again undercut her personal best in 53.43 seconds. Incidentally, four other runners also succeeded in this final in Braunschweig. It was the fastest lap in the stadium that has been run in a German championship since 2001.
“That really banged up on the track today,” Corinna Schwab also said to the Internet portal Leichtathletik.de. She is Mayer's teammate at LG Telis Regensburg and crossed the finish line in 51.72 seconds, the fastest time since Grit Breuer's triumph 19 years ago (49.78 seconds).
With a personal best of 53.98 seconds, which she set in Rehlingen in June 2019, Mona Mayer drove to Braunschweig with mixed feelings. She had just successfully completed her high school exams, which is why the sport was secondary. “I fell into a hole a bit,” she says. Then there was also a strain.
Before the DM in Braunschweig, she only contested two 400-meter races, says the Hörlkofenerin. At a meeting in Wetzlar and the Sparkasse Gala in Regensburg, she had good times straight away (54.01 and 54.04), “but the last few meters were very hard,” she says.
She revised her goal a little. “Of course I wanted to get to the finals, but a good time was more important to me. I was very pleased that I managed to do both. "
In the semi-finals, Mayer had already increased her previous best time by half a second to 53.45 seconds. But then she was a little unlucky before the finals.
She got the inside lane drawn. “That is unfavorable. The mail goes off outside. But on lane one you can only orientate yourself to the one runner in front of you. ”And since this was also the slowest,“ I was relatively unsure whether my starting pace was right ”, says the German U20 indoor champion.
And then it was also a ghost run. “It's weird without a spectator, because they push you forward a bit. Except for the coaches, nobody was allowed to be in the stadium - not even other athletes. "
So Mona Mayer and the other seven runners went on the lap - and that at 37 degrees. “Temperatures like this may not be a problem on short journeys, but it's hard over 400 meters,” admits Mayer. “Dying in the last few meters”, as she has already called it, was not as bad as in the two preparatory races this year.
Seventh place and a 53.43 - Mona Mayer is back. That is also a message for the competition in their age group. The national youth championships take place in Heilbronn in September. The Hörlkofenerin is registered over 200 and 400 meters. The goal: "a medal." After that, she wants to start the short distances in Dachau.
And in October a completely new chapter in her life begins: studying at the LMU Munich. Chemistry and biochemistry - there was a clear intention to do something outside of sport. But her future place of residence sounds sporty. The athlete has found an apartment in the Olympic Village.