Kathrin Weßel

Kathrin Ullrich (1986)

Kathrin Weßel (born Kathrin Ullrich ; born August 14, 1967 in Annaberg-Buchholz , Karl-Marx-Stadt district ) is a former German long-distance runner who was one of the world's best track runners in the late 1980s and early 1990s and was later successful in road running .

Her sporting career began in the GDR , where from 1987 to 1990 she was four times champion in the 3000 and 10,000 meter run . In 1987 she was third at the World Athletics Championships in Rome in 1987 and set a German record over 10,000 meters with 31: 11.34 minutes. At the 1988 Olympics in Seoul , she was fourth over the same distance. In 1989 she was the first German female runner to stay under 15 minutes over 5000 meters with 14: 59.01 minutes, and at the European Championships in 1990 she was second over 10,000 meters.

In the 10,000-meter run of the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo in 1991 , she finished fourth after setting the current German record over this distance on June 30, 1991 in Frankfurt with 31: 03.62 minutes. On September 10th of the same year she improved her 5000 meter record in Berlin to 14: 58.71 minutes. She celebrated her first successes in road running at the 25 km in Berlin , where she won in 1991 and 1992 and in her second victory with 1:24:41 h set the current German record over this distance. In 1992 she won the Swiss Women's Run , 1994 the Berlin Half Marathon (1:10:47 h, her personal best over this distance) and 1995 the Basel City Run .

In 1998 she came second in the Cologne Marathon and after a baby break in 2001 she was third in the Hamburg Marathon and in the Berlin Marathon , in the latter with her personal best of 2:28:27 h. In 2002 she won the Regensburg Marathon with the current course record of 2:30:36 h and repeated this victory in 2003. Her last marathon victory was in 2004 at the Mannheim Marathon . From 1991 to 1996 she was German champion over 10,000 meters six times in a row, thus continuing her successful streak at the GDR championships. In addition, she was German marathon champion in 1994 (third overall in the Frankfurt Marathon ) and 2002 (eighth overall in the Berlin Marathon).

Kathrin Weßel started for SC Dynamo Berlin until the fall of the Berlin Wall , and later for SC Charlottenburg and OSC Berlin . In her playing days she was 1.69 m tall and weighed 54 kg. On September 25, 1992 she married the long-distance runner André Weßel, with whom she has a daughter. In 2004 she announced her retirement from competitive sports.

Web links

• Kathrin Weßel in the database of World Athletics (English)
• Portrait ( memento from September 30, 2004 in the Internet Archive ) on the NDR website