Sprintstar at the ISTAF in Berlin: How Deniz Almas wants to break through the national sound barrier

The silence is only interrupted by the quiet squeaking of the neon yellow shoes.Deniz Almas gets warm in the athletics hall on the Leipzig Sportforum all alone.He loosely trots over the tartan track, but a moment later his head sinks like a race horse when the goal of the start box opens.And Almas chases the almost 50 meters down on the Tartanbahn.When he strikes a mat on the wall with a lot of force, the beam of the hall wiggles.

Deniz Almas wants to make a difference in German athletics.First on Sunday at the ISTAF Athletics Meeting in the Berlin Olympic Stadium."I still have a bill with Berlin," he says."The German championships here last year were my worst competition."Above all, the 23-year-old wants to be the first German to create 100 meters in 10.00 seconds or-even better-stay below the magical brand.

The Germans and the sprint, this is a story of longing, triumph and great disappointment.The longing was awakened in the Berlin Olympic Stadium in 1936 when African -American sprinter Jesse Owens grown away from the competition of the competition in front of Adolf Hitler.The Germans later celebrated great success in the most popular discipline of athletics.

Armin Hary was the first person to spend the distance in hand -stopped ten seconds.The time is converted in 10.20 seconds according to today's scale.And the runners from the GDR led in the 1970s and 1980s in dimensions, which - as it turned out later - also came about because of anabolic steroids.With the end of the GDR, the end of the exaggerated class struggle on the track, the air was long out in the sprint in this country.Until a few years ago, Gina Lückenkemper appeared and was the first woman since the sprinter Katrin Krabbe, who grew up in the GDR, stayed under eleven seconds.

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Almas could become the male counterpart to Lückenkemper, maybe even a little more than that.When he breaks the German record over 100 meters.So far, it was like bewitched with the ten-second sound wall for the German Sprinter.Either there was no blink of an eye, as with Julian Reus ’record run four years ago, when he lined in 10.01 seconds in Mannheim.

Or the time was not recognized because the conditions were irregular.This is what happened in Florida seven years ago when Martin Keller's 9.99 seconds could not be rated as a record because of too strong tailwinds.Zehommanull, the number is a sign in athletics.For the Germans, it has so far been a dream and trauma at the same time.It separates the sprinters from the others.Germany is considered to be advertising.But it doesn't have to stay that way forever.

Almas leads Europe's leaderboard

It is a Monday when Deniz Almas puts his black car in the parking lot at the Leipzig Sportforum.There are still six days until the athletics meeting IstAF in Berlin.Almas wears a worn T-shirt and gray sweatpants, in his hand he holds a portable speaker."A little music is always good," he says.

The Swabian native has been living in Leipzig for three years.It did not take long for the small town of Kleinstät from the south to feel comfortable in the most inhabitant city of Saxony."I am enthusiastic about Leipzig," he says.He is also Swabian and accordingly he looks at the money."And what you pay for an apartment here is a dream compared to southern Germany."Almas tells of friends from Tübingen, who would pay just as much for a shared apartment as it was for his two-room apartment with a balcony.

But because of the cheap living situation, Almas did not come to Leipzig.He is here because he wants to get even faster.He's already traveling well now.Almas currently leads the annual best list of Europe.In August he first ran 10.08 seconds in Weinheim, a few days later he won the German championships on a rather slow track and without a tailwind in Braunschweig in 10.09 seconds.

In better conditions on this day, the Zehommanull might have been due.Almas does not want to deal too much with this ten -commanull.You have to get free of times, he says.Otherwise you cramp."It's best not to think about it, just make it."Maybe then it will happen.

But it's not that simple, the magical brand hangs like a sword of Damocles above it.He is constantly reminded of it.So on Monday a friend of him will have a look at the training.The two hug each other, the visitor knocks on his shoulder again and says: "Congratulations on the title at the championships.Now you just have to run under ten seconds."

Ronald Stein also wants that.The national sprint coach sits on a jumping box and watches his training group in the hall at the Leipzig Sportforum.Stein has been there for a long time, since 1992 he has been training athletes in Germany.The sports scientist has brought many Sprinter ahead, Marc Blume, Alexander Kosenkow and some more.But none of them have torn the magical ten.

„So einen Tag würde ich gerne erleben", sagt Stein.A few meters next to him is Deniz Almas, only a black underpants, on a couch and can be kneaded by the former sprinter Sven Knipphals.Almas shouts a few times when Knipphals penetrate deep into the muscles.Almas, Stein knows that since August at the latest, could make his dream come true. „Es muss ein geiler Tag sein", sagt Stein, „dann ist es möglich."

Until a few months ago.Its development stagnated in 2017 to early 2019, the jump of 10.33 seconds from his times at VfL Sindelfingen up to 10.28 seconds in the past year was not promising.This was also due to the many muscle injuries suffered in earlier years, probably due to incorrect training control and unexpected instabilities in the fuselage area.

Almas simply didn't have the professional environment in Sindelfingen, as he now finds it in Leipzig.Thanks to the support of the Bundeswehr and his association VfL Wolfsburg, for which he officially competes, he can now fully concentrate on his sporting career.

From the "splash" to the "Steher"

„Früher war ich Leistungssportler", sagt er, „heute bin ich Profisportler." Das Profitum durchzieht nun sein ganzes Leben, angefangen bei der Ernährung.Until a few years ago, he still stuffed everything into himself, he says.“Today I have a nutrition plan." Tagsüber gebe es keine Kohlenhydrate.He also has to get used to the many training session.

He is still not a training world champion, says national coach Ronald Stein.And if a trainer Frank and Frei says that about his protégé, it means that it means that a lot of potential in the athlete is still slumbering.In the case of Almas, maybe so much that he could be in a 100-meter final run at the Olympic Games.The last German who succeeded was the Klaus-Dieter Currat started for the GDR at the Summer Games 1976 in Montreal. „So weit sind wir aber noch lange nicht", grummelt Ronald Stein.

Before that, Almas must continue to increase. Vor ein paar Jahren hatte er noch als „Spritzer" gegolten.In this way, the athletes mostly grown up in the sprinter scene who can only start well and who are only booked for the meetings to make the top runners on the first meters legs. „Ich habe bewiesen, dass ich kein Spritzer mehr bin, der nach sechzig Metern keinen Lauf mehr ins Ziel bringt", sagt Almas.In the meantime, according to national coach Stein, Almas has been almost better over the past forty meters than in the first sixty.

The well -known stamina, it decides whether a runner will make it to the top or not.A hundred-meter sprinter all lose speed after about sixty meters.It is therefore your goal to keep the pace to a certain extent with the longest possible steps and short ground contact times, to fly over the train, as stated in athletics speaking.The larger the runner, the easier it is to fly.

Carl Lewis (1.88 meters tall) or Usain Bolt (1.95 meters) are probably also the most important athletes in the sprint because of their body length.Almas is only 1.75 meters tall, but that's the reigning 100-meter world champion Christian Coleman too. „Der Trend geht im Moment wieder zu den kleineren Sprintern", sagt Almas und grinst.

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The unit this Monday is over.Almas sits on a bench and pulls out his training clothes.The shirt is from Adidas, the pants from Nike and the shoes of Puma.This is no coincidence.Almas is still the probing of which sponsor it should be.There are more and more inquiries. „Nach den Meisterschaften ist schon einiges passiert in der Hinsicht", sagt er.Of course he also wants to make his quick legs into money.The Zehommanull or - better still - a nine before the comma would certainly help him.But just don't think about it.Make it easy.