Rosina Schneider emerged as one of the stars of this year’s European Athletics U20 Championships in Jerusalem, winning double gold.
Firstly, she won the 100m hurdles and later contributed to the 4x100m title, running the third leg for Germany. Both gold medals were also in European U20 leading times for the year, adding the cherries on the cake for the talented teenager.
Yet, her individual success came despite her only recently switching her focus to the hurdles, hinting at much more progress to come.
Hurdles switch bears fruit
“I’m like a newcomer,” said the modest Schneider. Normally I was doing sprints in Germany, but I decided I wanted to do hurdles. I’m very proud that it worked out.
“It was my own decision. I looked at the European rankings and I saw that I could make it. The first girl was only one tenth away and I was like ‘Okay. Maybe I can make it?’ And in the sprints, the girls from Great Britain are very fast. So, I’m very happy to run hurdles. I (still) want to do sprinting too. Maybe more in the future years?”
Until this year, Schneider had been predominantly a 100m and 200m sprinter, only occasionally dabbling over the sprint hurdles. Last year she reached the 100m flat semifinals at the World Athletics U20 Championships in Cali, Colombia and she raced just three times over 100m hurdles across two domestic meetings.
A relative novice she may still be, but her talent over the barriers is clear. She scorched to gold in 13.06, a clear 0.17 ahead of the rest in Jerusalem. It was an improvement of 0.32 on her best time before the championships.
“Maybe next year, if everything goes well, I will manage to go under 13 seconds,” speculates the fast-improving hurdler, not unreasonably.
Looking further ahead she says: “Hopefully I will establish myself in the international competitions. I am a newcomer, and I am very happy with every race that I run. Every time I think I can learn a lot of things from each race and the technique.”
A team effort takes her to double gold
Training out of Stuttgart, she draws from a highly professional support network to guide her progress. This includes former world 4x100m bronze medallist Cathleen Tschirch who writes her training programmes, hurdles coaches Aleksandra Gacic and Sven Rees and gym coach Nicolas Neumann.
With her breakthrough results in Jerusalem and her rapid progress accelerating her to the top of the German senior rankings, expectation has grown on Schneider. But like any great hurdler, she understands the importance of feet being on the ground.
She retains a fan-like admiration for some of the sport’s biggest stars. “I like Mondo Duplantis. - although he is doing the pole vault. He is still very, very young and he breaks world records after world records at a young age. He is like an idol for me. I love Sydney McLaughlin and Usain Bolt – everybody loves him,” she smiles.
Only just turned 19, she also is keen to travel. “I graduated in Germany in April and now I want to visit the world a little bit. Next year we have no international competitions, because it is my first year of being U23.
“I would like to go to Australia and New Zealand, maybe to the United States? Maybe I can look to join some training groups? I have got a trainer in Germany who can help me with this.”
For an athlete as talented as Schneider, the world awaits.
Chris Broadbent for European Athletics