Run director Jo Schindler on the highlights in the 3 years of German championships in Frankfurt as well as the enormous mistakes of the DLV.
Three years the German Marathon Championship in Frankfurt: Which moments are etched in your memories?
When looking at the German Championships, I look this differences on both sides of the medal. One of the important sides, are the athletes as well as the German top athletes as well as hobby runners. The other side being the DLV (Deutsche Leichtathletik Verband). We had great results, yes, I even got in some great moments in the over 30-year history of the Mainova Frankfurt Marathon when I spoke with the German top athletes and others in different age groups. I think about the German record that Arne Gabius set and the European best time from Klemens Wittig, the hometown winner from Katharina Heinig and the other top newcomers Jonas Koller, Laura Hottenrott or Franzi Reng. The made a great impression, and established themselves in the footsteps of others. These were such wonderful moments by the German Championships.
And the other side of the medal?
We knew that we were responsible the special sport highlights by the marathon in Frankfurt. Because the involvement for the clubs for their athletes was simply embarrassing – this really shocked me. Every year we have invested over 100,000 Euro towards the sustainability for the German runners who participate in the German Championships. We announced this at the beginning to the association, unfortunately in 3 years there are not a single discussion that took place between
the DLV and us about the sport. There was only a discussion with the marketing agency of the DLV about licensing fees, that we should pay on the association and to have the organization only confirmed with their approval. The content of the association over its championship didn’t matter to them and I personal felt this as scandalous. Whoever knows me, knows that myself, the DLV and its agency the DLM were always critical. I always had the view, that they did “too little” for the long-distance sport. But that it was so little, like I witnessed in the last 3 years, I never that that was possible. A crazy example: In the year 2017, they finally had an age group from over 85, it was complete forgotten about by the DLV to add and change the new highest age group. This lead to the 85-year old required to run the German Championships in under 5 hours and 15 minutes just to be in the rankings. Arne Haase was the winner of the over 85 age group. Unfortunately, no the German Champion because he needed 5 hours and 55 minutes to finish.
What finishing time was required in the past in Frankfurt for the German Championships?
Our goal was the sustainability and continued support of the German top athletes and offer them a pleasant stage in Frankfurt and to improve the image of the Mainova Frankfurt Marathon through positive feedback. One of my first suggestions to the DLV was, the television contract that is between the club and the SportA (Sports agency for the public television events), to use this so that the German Championship would be televised on ARD or ZDF. Of course, it wouldn’t be live, since the hr-TV does this already for years and as our partner do a superb job at this. But a 15-minute compilation should be possible. Unfortunately, the DLV never reacted. Why not, they never answered this question. And still after my question, its still not answered. We had the intention, to make the German Marathon Championships to be once again a competition of the best German marathon runners. That is why we were prepared, to invest lots of money in the German professional athletes. Those athletes we are talking about, are the ones who earn their living through sport alone. And they cannot earn a living by receiving a certificate from the DLV that they participated in a competition. We were able to do this partially. For example, not all German top athletes wanted to start by us, even when the financial offer was quite tempting. I came to realize in the last 3 years that the German Master title, doesn’t really matter to the runners. And this is where the DLV should come into play.
In what way?
They could use the championship, to develop young athletes over a 3-year time span – first using them a pacemaker up to the half marathon marker, then letting them run their first marathon to gain experience and then in the third year, sky’s the limit. Simultaneously, you can start to bring runners from the third row to the second etc. Sporting events such as the international noteworthy marathon in Frankfurt offers a good basis for the athletes to develop. Unfortunately, he, not even a subject for the association, not even a topic of discussion. For us, it is extremely disappointing, but also for the German marathon runners, to have such an experience with an association that doesn’t care is disappointing as well. That doesn’t sit well to invest in competitive sports. And yes, we did have conversations with both local trainers and athletes alike. The DLV never seemed to care or be present for their athletes and use the championship for their athletes.
How would you rate the involvement of the running scene in Frankfurt the last 3 years?
We received mostly positive feedback. I am always very careful, and reflect back if this is really true, if this is not just someone with his critic that actually has a different expression behind closed doors. But if you ignore this, there was mostly positive feedback and very little critic.
Can you imagine, that Frankfurt sometime in the future once again apply for the Germany Championships?
I would only apply again, when there would be a signal from the DLV and a clear concept behind this.
For a simple, „keep doing it”, we are not doing this.
