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Lea Meyer celebrates her surprise success
Photo:
WOLFGANG RATTAY / REUTERS
The German runner Lea Meyer surprisingly won EM silver over 3000 meters obstacle.
In the absence of defending champion Gesa Felicitas Krause, the woman from Cologne, whipped up by the frenetic Munich crowd, ran an extremely strong race in 9:15.35 minutes and only had to admit defeat to the new European champion Luiza Gega (Albania/9:11.31), bronze went to her the Briton Elizabeth Bird (9:23,18).
Elena Burkard was twelfth (9:39.63).
Krause (30) canceled her participation in the EM because of an illness.
"My current state of health has a deeper medical background that cannot be solved quickly," said the sports soldier, who had no chance of finishing last in the final at the World Championships in Eugene.
At the World Cup, Meyer had made a fool of himself
Krause had won the title in Amsterdam in 2016 and in Berlin in 2018.
Also in 2014 in Zurich, the European Championship title went to Germany through Antje Möldner-Schmidt.
At the World Championships in Eugene, Meyer became famous when she fell headlong into the water ditch in the run-up.
After that, she was seen on social networks as a symbol of the crisis in German athletics.
Then Corona came along.
"The last three weeks have been very stressful," she said on TV station Sport1: "First with the fall in Eugene, then with Corona.
It didn't all go so well.«
But now Mayer could celebrate the greatest success of her career.
"I don't quite understand what happened here," Meyer said after her silver run: "I was simply carried here."
aha/sid