In general, I plan to increase the frequency of my athletics coverage during 2024. The first event of that sports in my calendar has been the Sparkassen Indoor Meeting in Dortmund, Germany, organized by local LG Olympia Dortmund. The World Athletics meeting has been held on the afternoon of 20th January 2024, featuring national and international athletes. There has been a certain focus on the track events. Nonetheless, I start my two-part report with the side events like youth competitions) and technical field disciplines.
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This posting comes with 303 major size pictures in the sports gallery.
Helmut-Körnig-Halle – The Venue
LG Olympia Dortmund hosted the Sparkassen Indoor Meeting in the Helmut-Körnig–Halle, which is the key center for professional athletics in the Westphalia region. Apart from the international standard athletics facilities, the arena has a total capacity of 4,500 spectators. The arena had not been sold out, but it definitely had been quite crowded on that Saturday afternoon. Thus, it has also been used for non-athletics events in the past, including Women Handball Champions League matches by local Borussia Dortmund.
The arena is more or less a direct neighbor of Signal-Iduna-Park (or Westfalenstadion for traditionalists), home of Borussia Dortmund soccer club. This also means that the athletics meeting profits from the excellent infrastructure provided due to the 81,000 spectator stadium. Helmut-König-Halle is right next to the underground station Stadiion (meaning “stadium”, lines U45, U46) and the local rail station Dortmund Signal-Iduna-Park is just a few steps away. There are several other sports and entertainment venues around, including the Eissporthalle (ice arena) and the Westfalenhallen.
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Sparkassen Indoor Meeting 2024 – Side Events
The events listed in this posting are given roughly in chronological order. The day kicked off with several youth and kids events.
1500m Male / Female Youth
The seven and a half laps on the indoor racing track race kicked off the meeting in Dortmund. First, the female youth competitors had their final heat. The rather close race was won by Jule Wickum (ASC Düsseldorf, 4:50.95 min), followed by Lya Bourgund (LAC Veltins Hochsauerland, 4:51.60 min) and Caroline Gruber (ASC Düsseldorf, 4:51.64 min). For competitors finished with personal bests. On the boys side, TV Wattenscheid’s Sandro Kauder (4:13.34 min) had a bit of a gap in front of local Jannes Derwald (4:14.52 min) and David Drepper (TLV Germania Überruhr, 4:14.64 min)
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50m Kids
Dortmund’s elementary schools were the first ones to sent their kids on the sprint track of the indoor arena. In this Under 12 competition, Pauline Jaschinski from the Marienborn-Grundschule had a close victory in the girls category (8.56 sec). The Hellweg-Grundschule cheered at the end of the boys’ race, when Jack Weißberg (8.04 sec) had quite a gap in front of the other young runners.
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60m Male / Female Youth
The second youth event on the sprint track was held over the “traditional” distance of 60 meters. The fastest time after two heats at the young ladies in the all-LG Olympia Dortmund event was Anna Brüggemann (7.88 sec). However, while the 2006-born is an Under 20 athlete, the competition also had significantly younger sprinters. For example, the times by much younger Charlotte Terbeck (born 2009, 8.31 sec) and Emmanuela Appiah (2011, 8.33 sec), who were third and fourth best overall, were absolutely remarkable.
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I did not manage to capture the male youth race, where Tom Krellman won the single race in 7.88 seconds.
Sparkassen Indoor Meeting 2024 – Field Events
Women Pole Vault
The Women Pole Fault, kicking off as the very first event of the day, has officially been held as one of the side events. SC Potsdam’s Ella Buchner was the only athlete passing the bar at 4.13 meters. Two athletes, Anne Berger (VfL Gladbeck) and Naya Füllers (TSV Bayer Leverkusen) made it over 4.00 meters. Remarkably, the only international athlete, Yana Hladiychuk from the Ukraine, entered the competition at 4.20 meters and failed to make this height.
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Men Pole Vault
Eleven athletes showed a rather interesting competition in the Men’s Pole Vault. The unlucky guy of the afternoon was likely Norwegian Pal Haugen Lillefosse, who easily passed 5.50 meters, but then had to retire due to injury. He still finished second, shared with Oleg Zernickel (ASV Landau). This also gave a rather easy cruise for Ersu Sasma from Türkiye, who finally was the only sportsman of the day who crossed the bar in a correct way at 5.72 meters.
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Women Long Jump
With German athletics hero and darling Malaika Mihambo (LG Kurpfalz) giving her comeback after the German Nationals in Kassel, the Long Jump became one of the key events in Dortmund. However, the Olympic gold medalist and two time world champion still felt to need some more events to be back at full strength. She finally finished fourth with a distance of 6.65 meters. For a rather long time, it looked like SCL Heel Baden-Baden’s Mikaelle Assani was on the victory track. Her first two attempts were 6.71m and 6.72m. However, the sixth and final attempt by Laura Raquel Müller (Unterländer LG) kicked her on the second spot of the leaderboard. With 6.81m, Müller became the world lead in Long Jump Women of the 2024 season so far.
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Sparkassen Indoor Meeting 2024 – Field Events Gallery
Here is the match gallery with 303 major pictures in the sports gallery section:
Sparkassen Indoor Meeting 2024 – Field & Side Events
Here is the other posting of the Sparkassen Indoor Meeting 2024:
Sparkassen Indoor Meeting Dortmund 2024 (Indoor Athletics) – Track Events
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