Sebastian Bayer

Sebastian Bayer medal table
Sebastian Bayer at the European Indoor Championships in Turin (2009)
Long jump
Germany Germany
European Indoor Championships
gold	Italy 2009 Turin	8.71 m
gold	France 2011 Paris	8.16 m
European championships
gold	Finland 2012 Helsinki	8.34 m

Sebastian Bayer (born June 11, 1986 in Aachen ) is a former German long jumper . He was European Champion in 2012 and European Indoor Champion in 2009 and 2011.

Life

The junior runner-up from 2004 and U20 European runner-up from 2005 won his first German championship title in the adult division in 2006. At the European Championships in Gothenburg he failed in qualifying.

In 2007 he became German indoor runner-up, and in 2008 he won the German championships with a personal best in the open air of 8.15 m. With the second fulfillment of the B standard, Bayer qualified for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing , but was eliminated from the qualification there.

By winning the European Indoor Championships on March 8, 2009 in Turin, he achieved his first major international success in the adult class. His 8.71 m there in the last attempt also mean an increase in the European indoor record, which the Spaniard Yago Lamela had previously held with 8.56 m, and an improvement on the old German indoor record (8.25 m) by Dietmar Haaf . With this increase in his personal best by 54 centimeters, Bayer moved up behind Carl Lewis (8.79 m) to second place on the all-time indoor world best list ; even outdoors, only seven athletes jumped further than Bayer when he won the European Championship. Bayer also clearly exceeded Lutz Dombrowski's national outdoor best (8.54 m) with his jump . Questions arising about a possible measurement error in Bayer's European record were invalidated by Helmar Hommel from Mainz , who once uncovered a deliberate wrong decision by judges at the World Championships in Rome in 1987 in favor of the Italian long jumper Giovanni Evangelisti . Based on his computer evaluation of Bayer's jump, it is "understandable that the width is roughly right," Hommel is quoted as saying.

At the German Championships in Ulm in 2009 he improved his best outdoor performance to 8.49 m, which also meant qualifying for the World Championships in Berlin in August 2009 . Bayer moved up to position two on the all-time national outdoor best list. At the World Championships, however, he was eliminated from qualifying due to a foot injury.

Bayer at the 2011 European Indoor Championships

In Paris in 2011 Bayer defended his European indoor championship title with 8.16 m. At the World Championships in Daegu , he came eighth.

In 2012 he won the German championship for the fifth time. At the European Championships in Helsinki , Bayer was European champion with a width of 8.34 m. At the Olympic Games in London , which took place in London that same year, he was fifth. At the 2013 World Championships in Moscow , he came in ninth.

Sebastian Bayer is 1.89 m tall and had a competition weight of 77 kg. He started with athletics at the DJK Rasensport Aachen-Brand. Then he started for Alemannia Aachen , LG Euregio, SC Neubrandenburg , from 2005 to 2008 for TSV Bayer 04 Leverkusen and then the Bremen LT. For the 2010 season he moved to Hamburger SV . The trained office clerk is a sports soldier . Bayer was in a relationship with hurdler Carolin Nytra from 2007 to 2013 and was named Bremen Sportsman of the Year in 2009. In 2014 he received the Commander's Coin for his sporting success.

On January 18, 2018, Bayer announced his retirement due to ongoing knee problems.