ISTAF Indoor 2024 Duesseldorf (4th February 2024)

With the ISTAF Indoor 2023, I kicked off my campaign to intensify my athletics coverage in 2023. The more, I was happy to be back at the PSD Dome in Dusseldorf on 4th February 2024. For the second time in a row, I could cover the energetic sports event. Fun fact: the ISTAF Indoor is in fact held in an multi-purpose European ice hockey field size arena. Here is my report from the event.

This posting comes with a section of 765 major size pictures in the sports galleries.

 

PSD Bank Dome – The Venue

Nothing has changed about the PSD Bank Dome in comparison to the 2023 event. The home of Dusseldorf’s ice hockey club Düsseldorfer EG comes with a capacity of 14,282. Due to the infield facilities, ISTAF Indoor has a maximum of some 10,000. The arena is close to Dusseldorf Airport (DUS) and the German motorway system. Tram line 701, which is stopping right in front of the venue, is giving a direct public transport link to the center of the city.

 

ISTAF Indoor Dusseldorf 2024 – The Event

The 2024 ISTAF indoor more or less followed the same concept as the 2023 event. Why should you change a winning team? The indoor event of the famous Berlin summer athletics meeting, held in Dusseldorf and the German capital, provides a 60m running track, a long jump lane and one for the pole vault. The main events were thus majorly in line with the previous year. Only a 60m para sprint has been added to the Olympic / Paralympic year schedule. There were just minor changes to the side events which cheer up the spectators.

 

Pre-Events

The event kicked off with youth races and 20x50m relays, all with young talents of the region. Unfortunately, parts of these events happened during the photographers’ briefing. Nonetheless, here are some impressions of the warm-up events and the young athletes’ medal ceremony. By the way, my heart was warmed when one of the girls’ sprint competitors stated floorball as her hobby – there are not too many German floorball players who compete in front of a German attendance of amazing 6,350 people.

 

ISTAF Indoor Dusseldorf 2024 – The Competitions

Here are the impressions and results of the main events, starting with the technical disciplines.

 

Women Long Jump

German athletics pride Malaika Mihambo took part in this competition. Thus, the women’s long jump was definitely one of the main competitions of the indoor event. However, Mihambo’s positive experience on that day in Dusseldorf was limited. She felt the love of the crowd, who also gave her a belated Happy Birthday chant. After three failed attempts, she did not make it into the final jumps of the eight best placed. I was really happy that Hungarian Diana Lesti was back at the ISTAF Indoor. However, her 6.30m just meant the seventh place. Nonetheless, the victory went to Germany with Mikaelle Assani (6.64m) beating Laura Raquel Müller (6.52m). Bulgarian Plamena Mitkova sealed the third spot with her final attempt (6.47m).

	Women Long Jump	Distance
1st	Mikaelle Assani (GER)	6.64 m
2nd	Laura Raquel Müller (GER)	6.52 m
3rd	Plamena Mitkova (BUL)	6.47 m

 

Men Pole Vault

In fact, the Men Pole Vault was the first main event discipline of the day. Similar to the Women’s Pole Vault, the crowd’s favorite Bo Kanda Lita Baehre was unlucky. He just arrived back from a training camp in South Africa and could not pass his starting height of 5.40m. Polish Piotr Lisek and US-American Sam Kendricks both passed 5.75m. However, Lisek had less attempts on 5.65m and thus partied with the Dusseldorf people at the end.

	Pole Vault Men	Height
1st	Piotr Lisek (POL)	5.75 m
2nd	Sam Kendricks (USA)	5.75 m
3rd	Oleg Zernickel (GER)	5.65 m

 

60m Para Sprint Men

The para sprint (which is unfortunately typically not a winter indoor discipline) had its debut with a one race competition. Italian Maxcel Amo Manu was the fastest racer of the day, beating Zachary Shaw (Great Britain) and German Johannes Floors.

	60m Para Spring Men	Time
1st	Maxcel Amo Manu (ITA)	7,04 sec
2nd	Zachary Shaw (GBR)	7.13 sec
3rd	Johannes Floors (GER)	7.45 sec

 

60m Hurdles

The 60m Hurdles went straight into their final heats. he highlight of these races was definitely the 7.47 sec victory by Polish Jakub Szymanski, who set a new Polish record and a new World Lead as well. Asier Martinez (Spain) finished second, but was disqualified later. His reaction time in the first attempt was 0.099 seconds and thus one thousandth of a second too quick. Despite four other competitors had season best or personal best times, US-American Amber Hughes was the winner of the women’s competition, being two hundredth of a second quicker than Danish Mette Graversgaard.

	60m Hurdles Women	Time
1st	Amber Hughes (USA)	8.06 sec
2nd	Mette Graversgaard (DEN)	8.08 sec
3rd	Franziska Schuster (GER)	8.14 sec

 

	60m Hurdles Men	Time
1st	Jakub Szymanski (POL)	7.47 sec
2nd	Krzysztof Kiljan (POL)	7.66 sec
3rd	Tim Eikermann (GER)	7,75 sec

 

60m Sprint

The 60m sprint event was held with two semifinals and a final race for both, men and women. The event closed the competitions on the racing track. Emmanuel Matadi from Liberia was the winner on the men’s side (6.57 sec), which Jamaican Shashalee Forbes (7.11 sec) was the fastest lady on the race track, which was built for the ISTAF Indoor events only, on this evening. In both events, the second and third places went to Dutch and German athletes.

	60m Women	Time
1st	Shashalee Forbes (JAM)	7.11 sec
2nd	N’Ketia Seeo (NED)	7.15 sec
3rd	Alexandra Burghardt (GER)	7.20 sec

 

	60m Men	Time
1st	Emmanuel Matadi (LBR)	6.57 sec
2nd	Kevin Kranz (GER)	6.61 sec
3rd	Raphael Bouju (NED)	6,62 sec

 

ISTAF Indoor Dusseldorf 2024 – My View of the Event

Again, I absolutely loved the event. The audience is great and the ISTAF Indoor is great sports entertainment. For the athletes tin the technical disciplines pole vault and long jump, I felt a bit of sorry. They had to face rather long interruptions due to the staggered jumps. Overall, I already look forward to the ISTAF Indoor events in 2025.

 

ISTAF Indoor Dusseldorf 2024 – Gallery

In the sports gallery, there is a designated major size picture gallery with 765 pictures of this event at

• 2024-02-04 ISTAF Indoor Duesseldorf

 

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