The 2031 World Athletics Championships are coming to München. Learn how to use the momentum of the pros and the right pacing for your own sporting success.
Anticipation in the sporting world is huge: as the world governing body World Athletics announced on the sidelines of its World Council in Budapest, the 2031 World Athletics Championships will be held in the newly renovated Olympiastadion in München. Following the successful 2022 European Championships, a truly major sporting event is returning to Deutschland. For us recreational athletes, this is the perfect opportunity to absorb the motivation of the pros and use it for our own running and athletics goals.
How to continuously improve is demonstrated by the world championship silver medallist in the hammer throw, Merlin Hummel. In an interview with leichtathletik.de after his victory at the World Athletics Ultimate Championships in Budapest, he explained that despite his successes, he is still miles away from perfect technique. He estimates his current level at around 60 to 70 per cent of his potential. For him, the daily hard work on his own progress is the priority. This attitude can be wonderfully applied to your own training: it takes patience to fine-tune your technique, and the willingness to get better step by step.
That success does not just lie in starting fast was recently shown at the 38th German 100-Kilometre Road Running Championships in Berlin-Wartenberg. According to leichtathletik.de, Lukas Kley secured the championship title with a time of 6:41:55 hours – a massive improvement on his previous personal best. His secret to success? While many competitors started the race too fast, Kley paced himself perfectly, maintained his speed, and was even able to accelerate over the final kilometres. In the women's race, Christine Fischer-Bedtke also won with a significant new personal best of 8:11:09 hours after a hard fight right to the end.
If you want to be successful over longer distances, you should not get carried away by the hectic rush of the start, but stubbornly stick to your own plan. This applies to the marathon just as much as to your next local fun run.
How fascinating running is can also be seen by looking at international events such as the traditional Great North Run. According to reports by Athletics Weekly and BBC Sport, around 63,000 people took to the start line there. Alongside elite victories by Brigid Kosgei and Zouhair Talbi, the age-group runners shone in particular: 65-year-old Treena Johnson set a new British best in the half marathon, and 82-year-old Peter Giles improved his own national best over 5 kilometres to 22:28 minutes. These achievements impressively show that sporting goals know no age limits. Grab your running shoes and set your own goal – with the 2031 home World Championships in your sights!
Your takeaway: Pace yourself wisely in training and competition and work patiently on your technique to remain injury-free and successful in the long term.
This article was generated automatically with AI from the sources listed above and has not been editorially reviewed.