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Sabrina Mockenhaupt and René Herms highlighted the running events at the German Championships in Wuppertal last weekend. On Saturday Sabrina Mockenhaupt won the 5,000 m easily in 15:09.39 minutes while Rene Herms got his ticket for Helsinki on Sunday. He won the 800 m in 1:45.39 minutes and hit the standard.

Sabrina Mockenhaupt was all alone in Wattenscheid. At the end, the winner of the AVON RUNNING Berlin Women’s Race, won with a huge margin of over one minute. The marathon runner Ulrike Maisch finished second in 16:17.75 minutes. The results reflected once more the poor situation in the running events in Germany. “The time was great for me – I wanted to run a time between 15:20 and 15:30 minutes. I am on a good path towards the World Championships”, said Sabrina Mockenhaupt, who will run the 10,000 meter in Helsinki.

In the men’s race it was a similar picture. Jan Fitschen was the lonely runner in front. “I had thought the race would be different. We wanted to share the pace making in the race, but I was by myself”, Jan Fitschen explained. He won in 13:29.71 minutes. Second was Arne Gabius in 13:52.99 minutes.

A perfect run had Rene Herms on Sunday. On Friday he had no chance at the Golden League Meeting in Paris in the 800 meters. There he finished seventh. But now in Wattenscheid he ran 1:45.39 minutes and was one hundredth of a second faster than the standard he had to meet for Helsinki. He has no problem with self confidence, saying: “I want to make the final – and a place between three and six is realistic.” But his promises seem not at all realistic.

The 1,500 meter race was won by the former training partner of Herms, Wolfram Müller. He finished first in a slow race in 3:47.40 minutes. Just recently he split apart from coach Dieter Baumann. The 3,000 m steeplechase was won by Filmon Ghirmai, who trains with Dieter Baumann. He ran 8:34.10 minutes. He was nominated for Helsinki, although he just beat the standard once and not twice. “I hope I can go to Helsinki. I will do my preparation for it in St. Moritz“, said Filmon Ghirmai.

In the women’s 800 meter race, Monkia Gradzki won in 2:03.51 minutes. Kathleen Friedrich finished second in 2:03.85. Antje Möldner won the 1,500 m race in 4:12.38 minutes while Verena Dreier won the first 3,000m steeplechase race at the German Championships in 10:06.51 minutes.