Susanne Gogl-Walli from Linz surprisingly even made it into the 400 m final following a competitor was disqualified in the semi-finals; she had set an ÖLV record in the preliminary round. All-rounder Verena Mayr from Ebensee narrowly missed out on the medals in fifth place with 4,466 points. Sprinter Markus Fuchs came tenth over 60 m with a new personal best of 6.58 seconds.
Gogl-Walli finished fourth in her semifinal heat in 52.47 seconds following fiercely battling with Ireland’s Sharlene Mawdsley for third position during the run and losing her rhythm. She was 31 hundredths short of a top 3 place in her run, which would have entitled her to the final. Mawdsley’s disqualification took them into the six-man final on Saturday (10 p.m. CET).
“In my opinion, what the Irishwoman did wasn’t entirely fair, she cut me too hard. What happened just felt wrong and was certainly more than is normal in a race,” said Gogl. Wally. “I’m really happy regarding reaching the final, it’s really awesome. Today was very physically and mentally demanding, but I’ll try to recover well and give it my all once more tomorrow.” The semi-finalist from the Olympics, World Cup and European Championships said she didn’t expect to be in the top ten.
In the preliminary run, the 27-year-old had improved her own ÖLV record from the previous year by a whopping three tenths of a second in 51.43 seconds. 400m world record holder Femke Bol from the Netherlands was the fastest in the semifinals in 50.66 seconds.
“I never expected that”
In the pentathlon, Mayr was very happy with fifth place in the field of twelve. The 2019 outdoor World Championships third-place finisher in the heptathlon competed in international title competitions for the first time since the 2021 Olympics following difficult years due to injury and achieved season best performances in the 60 m hurdles (8.47 seconds) and in the high jump (1.76 m). The 29-year-old Upper Austrian reached 13.83 m in the shot put, while the long jump did not go as planned at 5.93 m. After the final 800 m run (2:14.31 minutes), the top result was confirmed and important points for the ranking were collected.
Picture: (GEPA pictures)
“A few months ago I wouldn’t have thought that I would be able to be here at the World Cup today, so taking part was brilliant. Fifth place is of course really cool, and above all I’ll score a lot of points for qualifying for the European Championships and the Olympics.” said Mayr. She should have taken more risks in the long jump. “But I’m really happy regarding the competition and my placement, I never expected that.” Belgian Noor Vidts (4,773 points) took gold ahead of Saga Vanninen (FIN/4,677), Sofie Dokter (NED/4,571) and Sveva Gerevini (ITA/4,559). Mayr was 105 points short of precious metal.
Fuchs clocked 6.66 seconds in the preliminary heat and was only a hundredth of a second below his own record in the semifinals – although two hundredths behind his final ticket and Andreas Berger’s Austrian record from 1988. “I’m in unbelievable form and lightness “I came here. I mightn’t quite show it in the morning, but I always had a run like this in the back of my mind. Now I’m just incredibly proud to be among the ten best sprinters in the world.”
He saw the narrowly missed final with a tear in his eye, but it was “a really great feeling to run so well in a World Cup semi-final.” The title went to the American Christian Coleman in the world’s best time of 6.41 seconds, ahead of compatriot Noah Lyles in 6.44. Shot put gold went to Ryan Crouser (USA/22.77 m) and Sarah Mitton (CAN/20.22 m), the high jump title went to Nicola Olyslagers (AUS/1.99 m).
