Germany team for WOC 2006

The star in the German WOC 2006 team is no doubt Karin Schmalfeld, who is one of the outsiders for a medal at WOC 2006. The best male German runner is probably still Ingo Horst, although Ingo is training less this season, and will concentrate only on the sprint and relay in this years WOC.

Ingo Horst at WOC 2005, long distance final. Photo: Henning Spjelkavik

Stable top 10
Karin (result history) has been part of the top 10 Women Elite the last five years - at this years EOC in Estonia she managed three top 10 results, giving her a 5th place in the overall 2006 World Cup so far! Her 2nd place at the World Games in Germany last year probably counts as her top achievement. She has also managed a 2nd place in a World Cup race in Belgium in 2002 at the middle distance, as well as a 3rd place in the World Cup Final in Germany 2004. With a top run, Karin will fight for a medal in Denmark!

The rest of the women team will probably have to fight to get into the top 15.

2 x 10th place
Ingo Horst (result history) has two times 10th place at the sprint distance at the European Championships (2002 in Hungary and 2004 in Denmark) In the sprint final at the World Championships in Japan last year he started too fast, and never managed to get into control. The result was a very disappointing 40th place. This year, although he is training less, he has full focus on the sprint distance and on the relay, and should have the possibility to improve his best WOC result - a 19th place from the long distance in Japan - if he manages a good race. Ingo himself says that he runs for the top 10.

The Germans relay team is also strong - and is definetely one of the teams which fights for a diploma. In Japan at the 2005 WOC, the German team was at the 7th position before the last leg. Both Christian Teich and Leif Bader, who will join Ingo Horst in the German WOC relay team, are strong, young runners who can do well in the danish terrain.

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(C) 2006 Jan Kocbach