GERMAN MEETINGS: BERLIN – „A great day at the ISTAF BERLIN …“ not just for Robert Harting

One meeting record with World Lead, three victories by German athletes, 53, 831 enthusiastic spectators, and TV audience figures of a kind not seen for years – that is the balance sheet from the 72nd Berlin International Stadium Festival.

Twelve world champions from Moscow competed at the International Stadium Festival on 1 September 2013, including the four Germans Christina Obergföll, Robert Harting, David Storl and Raphael Holzdeppe. In total, 189 athletes from 34 countries took part in 15 events.

Russian javelin thrower Maria Abakumova’s performance was the highlight of this year’s ISTAF. She threw her javelin 70.53 metres, achieving World Lead. A woman has never achieved such a throw in the history of the ISTAF! Abakumova missed the world record set by the Czech Barbora Spotakova (72.28 metres) by only 1.75 metres. World champion Christina Obergföll had only one valid attempt and, at 63.30 metres, ranked third behind Linda Stahl from Leverkusen (65.35).

While the world champion pole-vaulter Raphael Holzdeppe injured himself while warming up, the two remaining German world champions gave the public plenty to cheer about. Robert Harting provided plenty of excitement in the discus competition, coming out top in his fourth throw, at 69.02 metres. Previously Martin Wierig from Magdeburg had taken the lead, with a throw of 66.73 metres. Harting counter-attacked and produced the fifth victory in a row in "his living room."

Robert Harting said: "Once again there was an incredible atmosphere in my “living room”, a really wonderful day for me."

Great attention was attracted in the discus event by Paralympics champion Sebastian Dietz, who reached 39.77 metres and was just slightly ahead in the duel with Robert Harting: "We reckoned that the winner is the person who most often exceeds the average distance of his five last contests. I managed to do that twice, Robert only once. Now it's pay-out time for him this evening."

Shot-putter David Storl also did well and with a throw of 20.91 metres beat the Czech Ladislav Prasil (20.79). Ex-European champion Ralf Bartels made the last competition of his career. Bartels, from Neubrandenburg, came fifth, at 19.08 metres.

The third German victory came from long-jumper Christian Reif, who achieved a jump of 8.11 metres at his last attempt. Sprinter Verena Sailer came second in the hundred metres. Mohammad Aman from Ethiopia won the 800 metres in a good 1:43.97 minutes. Cuban Dayron Robles came first in the 100 metre hurdles in 13.35 seconds.

Chief organiser Martin Seeber says: "We are very glad that the ISTAF 2013 was such a great sporting success and such a good advertisement for Berlin as a sports venue." An average of 1.9 million viewers tuned in to the live broadcast on ZDF; at peak times it was actually 2.2 million. This meant that the ISTAF achieved a market share of twelve per cent.

"Of course we hope to see an equally successful ISTAF Indoor", continues Martin Seeber, "which we intend to hold in exactly six months at O2 World." It is scheduled for 1 March 2014 and is the first major indoor meeting in Berlin since 1968.

You will find tickets and further information on the ISTAF at www.istaf.de.

Claus Frömming

ISTAF BERLIN