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| The 2008 European Athletics Rising Star Raphael Holzdeppe will be out to defend his under 23 title at the European Athletics U23 Champiosnhips in Ostrava. |
Germany, which finished third in the medal table two years ago in Kaunas, has selected 74 (43 men, 31 women) to go to this year’s European Athletics U23 Championships in Ostrava next month.
The event in the Czech city will be held between 14-17 July.
Among the top names are the rapidly rising shot putter David Storl, who the European junior title two years ago and has already made a big impact in the senior ranks by taking a silver medal at the 2011 European Athletics Indoor Championships and then winning at the SPAR European Team Championships.
Storl currently has nearly a two-metre advantage over his nearest rival.
Pole vault Raphael Holzdeppe, the 2008 European Athletics Rising Star of the Year, will defend the title he won two years ago and has gone over 5.72m this year.
There is also the 2008 World Junior Championships decathlete gold medallist Jan Felix Knobel, who recently scored 8288 points in Götzis, and high jumper Marie-Laurence Jungfleisch as good gold medal prospects.
All this four athletes are currently leading the European under 23 rankings.
There will also be a lot of interest in the performance of 2010 World Junior Championships javelin gold medallist Till Woschler and the 20-year-old discus thrower Christopher Harting, who is third on this year’s under 23 rankings but is sure to be getting some good advice as he is the brother of 2009 world champion Robert Harting.
On the women’s side, additional good medal prospects look like 800m runner Anne Kesselring, who won at the highly competitive American collegiate (NCAA) championships earlier this month, Corinna Harrer in the 1500m, 3000m steeplechaser Jana Sussmann and 100m hurdler Cindy Roleder.
The only notable absentee is sprinter Yasmin Kwadwo, who ran 11.29 in May to lead the European under 23 100m rankings but the 2009 European junior 100m champion has since then suffered back problems.
The complete Germany team is given here on the German athletics federation website (in German):
http://www.leichtathletik.de/index.php?NavID=1&SiteID=28&NewsID=33208&Year=2011&IsArchive=1