Nick Jäger unlucky: After the finish we went straight to the hospital
Created: 12/19/2021, 10:00 PM
From: Paul Hopp
An EM appearance that hurt: Nick Jäger (right) suffered a deep wound on his foot from the spikes of a competitor right after the start, which troubled him in the U23 race.
More than 48th place was not possible for the Penzberger in the end.
© Imago Images / Kai Peters
Nick Jäger was not able to achieve a top position at the European Cross Country Championship.
However, the Penzberger was unlucky in Dublin - it started right after the start.
Dublin / Penzberg - Despite everything, Nick Jäger had not lost his sense of humor after this pitch-black day at the European Cross Country Championship. The thing that hurt the most was "the Christmas songs in the waiting room", said the 22-year-old Penzberger via "Instagram". Shortly after his race, the U23 athlete had to seek medical treatment in a hospital.
Immediately after the start, in the fray of 75 starters, a competitor with his 15 millimeter long spikes stepped on his foot. As it turned out after the finish, Jäger had suffered a cut about five centimeters long. He himself did not want to use the serious injury as an excuse for his disappointing 48th place. But when he was in the hospital and saw how deep the wound was, "it dawned on him that the deep wound could very well explain the poor performance," said TSV Penzberg in a message.
"The wound was so deep that you could see the tendons on the top of the foot," reported trainer and mother Melanie Jäger, who was there in Dublin.
In the Irish capital, she had two athletes at the start: her son Nick and Florian Bremm (TV Leutershausen), who both train together in Erlangen.
"In advance, I thought both of them would be among the top 30," said Melanie Jäger.
However, all five German U23 athletes came under pressure right after the start and quickly found themselves in the back of the field.
DLV runners under pressure right after the start
The total of 8000 meters was completed in six rounds (2 x 1000 meters and 4 x 1500 meters).
At the end of the second lap, after around 1900 meters, Jäger was six seconds behind the leader in 56th place.
After almost five kilometers, the biology student was 38 seconds ahead, which meant 43rd place.
At the beginning of the last lap, Jäger had contact with his DLV colleagues Malte Propp (in the end with 25:38 minutes in 32nd place), Julius Held (25: 42/36.) And Maximilian Pingpank (25: 49/42. Place) lost.
"Somehow I never really got started today," said Jäger after the race.
With a time of 25:56 minutes, he crossed the finish line in 48th place.
Bremm (26:28) had to be content with 59th place.
In the team standings, the Germans landed in ninth place.
Right at the front, favorite Charles Hicks (Great Britain) on the meadow course, which had several badly muddy spots, determined the action for a long time.
Over the last 1600 meters, the battle for the medals in front of around 7000 spectators turned into a very exciting affair.
In the penultimate lap, Irishman Darragh McElhinney and later Ruben Querinjean from Luxembourg caught up with Hicks.
On the home stretch, however, the Brit prevailed and won in 24:29 minutes ahead of McElhinney (24:33) and Querinjean (24:36).
In 2019 in Lisbon, Hicks finished fifth in the U20 at the last event to date of the otherwise annual European Cross Country Championship.
Nick Jäger slowed down by a deep cut
Nick Jäger was 1:27 minutes behind the winner - under normal circumstances he would have been less. “The injury at the start very likely cost a few seconds. Because two weeks ago in Pforzheim, Nick was significantly faster than his German teammates, ”said Melanie Jäger a few days after the race. Nick Jäger was ultimately of the same opinion: "When I took off my socks after the race, I was really shocked at first how massive the cut was."
Due to the injury, which had to be sewn with five stitches, the team doctor of the German team, Prof. Dr. Andreas Niess, the Penzberger urgently from a start at the German cross-country championship in Sonsbeck (North Rhine-Westphalia). “That is of course bitter. It would have been Nick's last start in the U23 age group, ”said Melanie Jäger. Perhaps, it is said by TSV Penzberg, the student would even have started against the advice of the doctor, but the risk of inflammation is too great. Especially since Nick Jäger and his brothers Tom and Luk will soon be traveling to the high-altitude training camp in Kenya. “Since the medical care in Kenya is not optimal, we don't want to take any risks,” says Melanie Jäger.
The focus is already on the coming year - and there would be a big competition "almost on the doorstep", says TSV trainer and athlete Markus Brennauer.
In the summer of 2022, the European Athletics Championships will take place in Munich as part of the “European Games”.
The chances for hunters to qualify there over 3000 m obstacle are small.
But as one of the eight best German obstacle course runners of the year, "he can certainly hope for a start in the Olympic Stadium," said Brennauer.
With a time of 8: 39.82 minutes (ran at the meeting in Oordegem, Belgium), Nick Jäger ranks seventh in the men's DLV best list for 2021.
