Track and field athlete Maximilian Rath (14) is currently in great shape.
As a result, he already has to realign his goals for this season.
Munich – Maximilian Rath had hurried to get to the finish line as quickly as possible – and then it was time to wait.
The Penzberger (14) already knew that he had set a personal best in the 3000-meter race of the Bavarian Indoor Championships.
The 9:45.52 minutes from last year, achieved outdoors, were history.
But had he also reached the magic 9:30 mark?
It lasted and lasted.
Then finally the times of the U18 race were official.
And what was displayed there, "I was all the happier".
9:28.30 minutes stood next to Rath's name - an amazing result.
Maximilian Rath runs Bavarian indoor record
The high school student improved the Bavarian indoor record for the M14 class (9:45.55/run in 2022 by Tim Alt from Munich) by around 17 seconds.
Even in the class above it, the M15, Rath is now ahead – according to a report, it undercut the existing record by five seconds.
On the website of the Bavarian Athletics Association, the record statistics are difficult for the layperson to follow;
the search leads to a pdf document with an M15 record (9:42.99) set in 1986 and an M14 record (10:09.33) from 2016. Based on the current season at least offers The DLV homepage provides a good overview: Rath is currently the runner across Germany who leads the season's best list in the M14 and M15 over 3000 meters with his 9:28.30 minutes.
The youngster, who has been competing for LG Stadtwerke München since this year, described his performance and the result as "quite a surprise".
Lately, "I haven't been training that much for long distances," reports the eighth grader.
That's why he didn't approach the race in the Werner-von-Linde-Halle that aggressively.
Maximilian Rath with a strong finish in Munich
Maximilian Rath, who was registered in the M15 class, which was higher for him, had five other U18 athletes to oppose.
The later winner, Elias Kolar (born 2006/8:53.08) from TSG Roth, quickly pulled away.
Behind them ran the rest, Rath was initially in fourth place.
After about three minutes, he lost a bit of the connection to Paul Rammelt (9:33.60/LG Stadtwerke München) and Anton Meinlschmidt (9:36.40/LG Eckental).
When there were still 1,000 meters to go, "I was fine," reported Rath.
He pushed the pace while the rivals in front of him slowed down.
He went into the final round as second overall.
And there "I was even able to gain".
The youngster completed the final 200 meters in 34.5 seconds.
Rath has already achieved the goals he originally set himself for this year in terms of "times".
Two weeks ago, the 14-year-old ran the 800 meters in 2:11.38 minutes.
This was also a Bavarian indoor record for the M14 class.
Now it is time to readjust the focus.
The competitions that really count are the outdoor ones.
At the beginning of March the Bavarian Cross Country Championships will take place.
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Rath trains in Munich once a week.
Officially, his club is the MRRC (LG Stadtwerke is an association of Munich clubs);
he is coached by André Naumann.
He is still in contact with his previous coach, Hans Thomann (Lenggries).
In addition to the units in Munich, Rath runs at home in Penzberg, where he has some routes “around the lakes and along the railway line”.
In general, he trains more for speed than for distance.
This is more important when you are young, he explains.
In an ordinary week he can cover up to 45 kilometers.
On top of that, Rath goes swimming twice a week at SG Oberland-Penzberg.
With his older sister, member of the federal squad Julia Rath (18), the Penzberger can talk less about running.
On the one hand, she spends most of her time in Nuremberg, and on the other, neither the content of the training nor the dates of the competitions match.
No problem for Maximilian Rath - he's lightning fast too.
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