The German runner failed to qualify for the World Championships in a distance that was new to her.
Alica Schmidt, one of the world's most famous track and field athletes, will miss the World Championships in Tokyo after performing extremely poorly in the qualifying starts.
According to Lent.az citing foreign media, at the German Championships, the 26-year-old athlete failed to reach the final by running the 800-meter distance, which was new to her, with a result six seconds (!) worse than the standard for the 2025 World Championships, which is 2.00.70. The reason, according to the star girl, was the coronavirus infection that ended the captivating athlete's life earlier this summer.
In addition, the change in specialization to a distance twice as long as 400 meters turned out to be more difficult than the runner thought. As a result, Schmidt decided to end the season early. Thus, Keely Hodgkinson can breathe a sigh of relief - in Tokyo, no one will distract the audience from the high-level victories of the British champion.