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Belly landing for Johannes Vetter while throwing a javelin
Photo:
David J. Phillip / AP
He was the safest medal contender from a German point of view in athletics, but the javelin throwing competition was a huge disappointment for Johannes Vetter.
So there was only one German medal on the penultimate Olympic day of the Tokyo Summer Games, but it was made of gold.
The men's kayak foursome lived up to its role as a favorite.
In addition to Vetter, other German athletes had high goals in the judo hall and on the cycling track.
They were not achieved, for Karateka Jonathan Horne the gold dream even ended in the hospital.
In the Madison race on the track, a fall thwarted all German hopes, and the show jumpers had expected a lot more in the team.
Rough last big appearance
Ronald Rauhe has already won everything in canoeing, he is 39 years old now, and in fact he could have ended his career long ago.
But one more time he took up the challenge.
He went into the water with Max Rendschmidt, Tom Liebscher and Max Lemke as the big gold contender, but the end in a four-person kayak was closer than expected.
The German quartet dueled the Spaniards up to the finish line, then gold was perfect.
And Rauhe was then able to take part in his son's schooling party, at least virtually.
Devastated cousin
What the kayak foursome was in the water, that was Johannes Vetter in athletics - a German gold bank.
He hadn't lost a competition in two years, he dominated the scene with his 90-meter throws, but nothing went at all during the Olympic appearance.
Vetter couldn't handle the surface at all during the run-up, slipped away when it was thrown and didn't even make it into the top eight.
The cousin found it understandable that it was "puke", at home in Offenburg the javelin community suffered in front of the television.
A disaster that Julian Weber, in fourth place, was unable to compensate for.
Instead, the Indian Neeraj Chopra was surprisingly happy about gold.
Dreamed of gold, then came the injury
It was supposed to be a big day for Jonathan Horne.
The karate world heavyweight champion had the gold medal in his sights.
But five seconds before the end of a preliminary round match against Georgian Gogita Arkania, the 32-year-old seriously injured his right arm.
Then he remained lying on the mat with his face contorted with pain and screaming and had to be treated for minutes.
The diagnosis: "Jonny sustained a severe elbow injury, probably dislocated the elbow joint," said the sports director of the German Karate Association (DKV), Christian Grüner.
From the dream.
One can only wish a good and speedy recovery.
Klosterhalfen at the end of their strength
She is perhaps Germany's greatest running talent.
But Konstanze Klosterhalfen was only able to prove this to a limited extent at her only appearance in Tokyo over the 10,000 meters.
In the end she was close to setting the German record, but it had cost her all her strength.
In eighth place, she was also completely without a chance in the success of the Dutchwoman Sifan Hassan.
Klosterhalfen had a difficult preparation and, due to back problems, decided not to go on their parade route, the 5000 meters.
After the race, she burst into tears and could barely stand.
Pentathlon debate continues
The events surrounding the scandalous ride in Friday's modern women's pentathlon continued to preoccupy the public.
DOSB boss Alfons Hörmann has demanded rule changes, it cannot be that the riders are only given 20 minutes to adjust to a strange horse and then go on the course.
The German Annika Schleu had completely lost control of her horse Saint Boy on Friday while on the gold course.
National coach Kim Raisner, who then asked Schleu to beat the horse with a whip and who had hit the horse with her fist, was therefore excluded from the games by the world association.
Gold for the teams
In the ball sports, the most important decisions were made on Saturday: The top favorites from the USA around superstar Kevin Durant could not take the gold in basketball and defeated France 87:82.
The French reciprocated in handball.
In a game that was dramatic in the end, Nikola Karabatic and Co. beat world champions Denmark 25:23.
And then there is also football: The DFB team is back home a long time ago and was able to watch the Brazilians' final win from a distance.
The South Americans won 2-1 after extra time against Spain, so the 2016 title remains in Brazil.
aha / dpa / sid
