With her victory against Konstanze Klosterhalfen, Hanna Klein became the European indoor champion over 3000 meters. The 29-year-old from LAV Stadtwerke Tübingen won the track and field title fights in Istanbul with a personal best of 8:35.87 minutes.
The 26-year-old Klosterhalfen from Leverkusen had to settle for silver after being narrowly defeated. Melissa Courtney-Bryant of Great Britain won bronze.
Klein’s success was the first German title on this route since that of the GDR runner Ines Bibernell-Obst in 1986. After third place over 1500 meters in 2021, Klein was able to celebrate as the winner this time after a tactically quiet race. Klosterhalfen, European outdoor champion over 5000 meters, did not have enough to counter her final sprint.
Triple jumper Max Hess won bronze like in 2017, 2019 and 2021. A centimeter was missing after a distance of 16.57 meters on silver. Victory went to Olympic champion Pedro Pichardo with a clear lead. The Portuguese ended up with the world best performance of 17.60 meters.
