17.12.2024

Gina Lückenkemper and Mikaelle Assani are coming to the INIT INDOOR MEETING Karlsruhe 2025

The first names for the INIT INDOOR MEETING Karlsruhe as part of the World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold on 7 February 2025 have been announced: athletics fans can look forward to two top athletes, Gina Lückenkemper in the sprint distance and local hero Mikaelle Assani in the long jump, who will be competing at the 40th INIT INDOOR MEETING in Karlsruhe's Europahalle.

‘I'm looking forward to a sold-out Europahalle and my start at the INIT INDOOR MEETING in Karlsruhe. Being so close to the audience is really something special’ Gina Lückenkemper

Olympic medal glory is coming to Karlsruhe with Gina Lückenkemper. Germany's fastest sprinter with a best of 10.93 seconds over 100 metres and 7.11 seconds over 60 metres indoors has been one of the top sprinters in Europe for eight years. ‘I'm looking forward to a sold-out Europahalle and my start at the INIT INDOOR MEETING in Karlsruhe. Being so close to the audience is something special,’ says Gina Lückenkemper. The European title two years ago at the home European Championships in Munich in the 100 metres and with the 4 x 100 metre relay was one of the glittering highlights in the career of the 28-year-old, who competes for SSC Berlin and now has ten international medals in her trophy collection. She will never forget her phenomenal turn in the final of the Olympic Games in Paris in the 4 x 100 metre relay, when she even handed the baton to the final runner, Rebekka Haase, who finished behind the USA and Great Britain to win the first German relay medal at an Olympic Games since reunification.

With her best distance of 6.91 metres, Mikaelle Assani is now one of the best long jumpers in the world. The 22-year-old Assani, who was born in Pforzheim and grew up in Karlsruhe, has long since put her qualifying exit at the Olympic Games in Paris, where an injury to her gluteal muscle prevented her from reaching the desired final, behind her. The injury has been cured and at the training camp in South Africa, where she recently travelled with the German national team, ‘she trained very well’, as her coach Udo Metzler says. ‘The performance was very acceptable and we are fully in the programme,’ Metzler said of his athlete. She narrowly missed out on a medal at both the European Indoor Championships in Glasgow and the European Outdoor Championships in Rome, finishing fourth, but showed that she is one of the international long jump elite. Assani is currently training at the Europahalle in Karlsruhe to fine-tune her skills for the indoor season. The best conditions for a victory at the INIT INDOOR MEETING Karlsruhe on 7 February 2025.