Both thumbs up for 4th place: Annik Kälin is delighted
Image: Keystone
Annik Kälin achieves a second personal best in the final 800 m race after the hurdles sprint
Image: Keystone
The jump into the sand pit: Annik Kälin's specialty
Image: Keystone
Stretching exercise with the javelin, which will fly over 48 m
Image: Keystone
Annik and her father and coach Marco Kälin harmonize perfectly
Image: Keystone
Both thumbs up for 4th place: Annik Kälin is delighted
Image: Keystone
Annik Kälin achieves a second personal best in the final 800 m race after the hurdles sprint
Image: Keystone
The jump into the sand pit: Annik Kälin's specialty
Image: Keystone
Stretching exercise with the javelin, which will fly over 48 m
Image: Keystone
Annik and her father and coach Marco Kälin harmonize perfectly
Image: Keystone
Annik Kälin shares a room with Angelica Moser in the Olympic village. There is now also a jubilant mood in the 4th place flat share.
09.08.2024, 22:44
09.08.2024, 23:02
SDA
No time? blue News summarizes for you
- Annik Kälin just misses out on an Olympic medal in the heptathlon in fourth place.
- Kälin improved the Swiss record by 124 points to 6639 points.
- Kälin says: "I can't blame myself. I would have signed for fourth with this score beforehand."
"Sensational". This is the one word heptathlete Annik Kälin uses to describe her two days in the Stade de France. The athlete from Graubünden didn't waste a thought on the fact that she should be the first loser in fourth place at an event where medals are what counts.
The 24-year-old increased the Swiss record by 124 points to 6639 points. She was 68 points short of bronze. Ultimately, it was not up to her whether she would win a medal or not. She had done what she could and also left higher-ranked athletes behind her. Ultimately, she could only have won if the now three-time Olympic champion Nafissatou Thiam (6880) from Belgium, Great Britain's Katarina Johnson-Thompson (6844) or Belgium's No. 2 Noor Vidts (6707) had allowed themselves any serious mistakes.
Unlike Angelica Moser or Simon Ehammer, Annik Kälin did not have it in her own hands to lift Switzerland back into the athletics medal table at the Olympic Games 36 years after Seoul 1988 and Werner Günthör. "Annik arrived in top form and was able to show this. I would have set her a maximum of 6650 points," said her father and coach Marco Kälin.
"I would have signed"
"I can't blame myself. I would have signed for fourth with this score beforehand," emphasized Annik Kälin. She doesn't like the gimmick of adding up all the best performances to gauge her chances of winning a medal. "That's no good. Firstly, you can never do that, and secondly, you'd have to calculate all the competitors as well". She prefers to look to the future. And this view is promising, because she can still improve: In basic speed, jumping power or technical details in the high jump or with the shot put.
On Friday morning, the all-rounder had improved by three positions in the intermediate rankings thanks to great performances in the long jump (6.59) and with the javelin (48.14). Before the final 800 m race, she was in 3rd place. Projected for the final ranking was 5th place, but thanks to her personal best in the 800 m (2:11.33) she even managed 4th place. The athlete from Graubünden achieved her first personal best at the start with a hurdle sprint in 12.87 seconds.
