Power and elegance: Yemisi Ogunleye Image: dpa
Mikaelle Assani and Yemisi Ogunleye once found a refuge in sport to leave the racism of everyday life behind them. The German athletes are now convincing with strong performances at the Indoor World Championships.
Is one centimeter a lot or a little? Is three centimeters more or less? By these tiny margins, two German athletes missed out on even greater successes at the World Indoor Athletics Championships in Glasgow at the weekend. Mikaelle Assani from Baden-Baden jumped 6.77 meters on Sunday evening, a hundredth of a meter shorter than the Spanish Fatima Diame in third place, well behind the American winner Tara Davis-Woodhall, who flew at 7.07 meters. Yemisi Ogunleye missed out on the shot put title by just three centimeters.
Competitions of a lifetime
“One centimeter, that’s not a lot, that makes it bitter,” said 21-year-old student Assani: “Of course I was flirting with the medals. But they are not far away. I see my potential to be on the podium.” But there are more important things than numbers and rankings.