The road narrows, Richard Ringer runs towards the finish of the marathon at the European Championships. He fought his way up to silver. A few 100 meters to go. The silver sensation within reach.
And then he succeeds in what hardly anyone suspects: Richard Ringer once again mobilizes the last of the strength that is somewhere in his body and sprints past the Israeli Maru Teferi after more than 40 kilometers. Gold at the European Championships for the 33-year-old. His winning time: 2:10:21 hours.
For minutes he lies exhausted and grinning on the floor. He gets to his feet, euphoria beats exhaustion. A loud scream, then he encourages the cheering spectators to wave La Ola.
After a smart race, Ringer celebrates the biggest win of his career. The Israeli Gashau Ayale is in third place. Amanal Petros from TV Wattenscheid, who was doing well in the medal race for a long time, finally fell back to fourth place.
Miriam Dattke also just missed out on an individual medal. The 24-year-old, who is running for Regensburg, finished fourth over the 42.195 kilometers in 2:28:52 hours. Nienke Brinkman from the Netherlands at the same time secured bronze in the final sprint.
Aleksandra Lisowska from Poland won the first title at this European Championship in 2:28:36 hours. Silver went to Matea Parlov Kostro of Croatia in 2:28:42. The German champion Domenika Mayer in sixth (2:29:21) and Deborah Schöneborn (2:30:35) in tenth ensured that the German team won the team classification. Rabea Schöneborn in 12th and Katharina Steinruck in 15th completed the excellent German team result.
