Jürgen Austin-Kerl grew up in Bilshausen in southern Lower Saxony and completed an apprenticeship as a retail salesman after secondary school . Later he worked as a professional soldier in the Bundeswehr and rose to the rank of sergeant major . Between 2002 and 2007 he was stationed in the Fritz-Erler-Kaserne in Rothwesten in northern Hesse , and since August 1, 2007 at the NATO headquarters in Brunssum, the Netherlands . Jürgen Austin-Kerl has two children from his first marriage and has lived in the Netherlands with his second wife and son since 2007 , previously he lived in Simmershausen .
Jürgen-Austin-Kerl has been active in sports since he was five, and he ran his first competition on September 11, 1977. At the 1989 World Cross Country Championships in Stavanger ( NOR ), he ran the juniors over 8,000 m in 28:22 minutes as third-best German in 83rd place out of 134 athletes. He won his first medal at the German Athletics Championships with the team of the LG Göttingen . Along with Axel Wölk and William Graves he ran in the Berlin Marathon in 1996 integrated Marathon DM 1996 on the bronze rank; in the DM individual ranking he finished sixth with a time of 2:18:37 h and in the overall run of the Berlin Marathon 31st place. In 1999, meanwhile switched to LG Braunschweig , he ran at the Half Marathon DM 1999 in Xanten with 1:04:50 h to eighth place and in the team together with Jörn Wagner and Georg Diettrich to the bronze medal. They were able to increase this team result with DM silver at the cross-country championship over the long distance in Viersen in the same year , but Thorsten Witte ran for the LG Braunschweig instead of Jörn Wagner .
Jürgen Austin-Kerl won his first of a total of three DM team gold medals at the 2001 cross-country championship over the long distance for the LG Braunschweig together with Robert Langfeld and Georg Diettrich in Regensburg . The second DM gold medal in the team classification followed at the half marathon DM in 2002 in Schotten with Carsten Eich and Jörn Wagner, and in the same year in the 10 km road race DM silver in Salzgitter with Georg Diettrich and Jörn Wagner. After switching to PSV Grün-Weiß Kassel in 2005, Jürgen Austin-Kerl was also able to achieve a podium placement in the individual competition with bronze at the Marathon DM 2005 as part of the Regensburg Marathon , as well as with his new club and the athletes Alexander Merkel and Jürgen Wagner DM -Win silver in the team competition. His time of 2:25:25 h in Regensburg was the fastest time of a North Hessian marathon runner since Djillali Abdesselam ( DZA ) at the Frankfurt Marathon in 1999, half in 1:12:12 h Jürgen Austin-Kerl still had with the later DM -Winner Dirk Nürnberger ( SC DHfK Leipzig ) tied. In the following year at the Marathon DM 2006 as part of the Munich Marathon , he initially ran in a top group of three, which passed the half marathon mark after 1:10:28 h, but had to tear off two kilometers later due to severe toothache and finally after 35 km to give up.
He won his third and last DM team gold medal at the half marathon DM 2009 in Aichach together with Julian Flügel and Jörn Harland , followed by team DM silver in Ohrdruf a year later in the 10 km road race . At the age of 41 Jürgen Austin-Kerl ended his competitive sports career at the 2011 Kassel Marathon due to persistent physical problems. He was 13 × North German champion, 63 × Lower Saxony champion, 28 × Hessen champion and took part 9 times in the military world championship in cross country.
From 2016 to 2019 Jürgen Austin-Kerl trained the long-distance runner Alina Reh (* 1997) at SSV Ulm 1846 and led her to several German championship titles as well as wins at U23 European championships and cross-country championships (age group U23). Due to strong family obligations on the part of Jürgen Austin-Kerls, it was no longer possible to continue caring for his athlete as before, whereupon she has been cared for by the former walker and current long-distance national coach for men, André Höhne .
Germany
Tannheim (Tyrol)
Landgraaf
Saint-Astier
Seville