Germany’s Alina Reh won the 10,000m title at the Gavle 2019 European Athletics U23 Championships, photo by Getty Images
The German athlete is one of her countries’ finest top young stars. In winter 2019, I was able to watch Alina compete indoors over 3000m and battle top competitors. A 15:18 time trial, in this current time, is a fine indication of fitness.
The landscape of the remainder of the season is still very much to be decided but Germany’s Alina Reh looks in a good position to take advantage of any racing opportunities which could come her way later this summer.
Alina Reh , photo by World Athletics
The reigning European U23 10,000m champion laced up her spikes for the first time this season and took to the start-line of her four lane home track in Laichingen on Sunday (3) to run a solo 5000m time trial to gauge her current level of fitness.
The indications are only positive as Reh covered the distance in 15:18, only fourteen seconds slower than her lifetime best, speeding up considerably in the last kilometre which she ran in 3:01.
The lack of pacemakers wouldn’t have unduly daunted Reh who won the European U23 10,000m title in gun-to-tape fashion in a championship record of 31:39.34 last summer but she did receive support from her family who were cheering on each lap from the sidelines.
Alina Reh, photo by European Athletics
“To get into competition mode, I put on spikes and attached a start number. Of course it was hard all alone but the race has shown that the training has been working over the past few weeks,” Reh told Leichtathletik.de.
Reh set lifetime bests over 3000m (8:39.45), 5000m (15:04.10) and 10,000m (31:19.87) last season and while there might not be any significant races taking over the next few months, Reh said she is hoping to take the form she showed at the weekend into a proper race scenario later this summer.
Alina Reh, photo by European Athletics
