15.01.2026

US girls meet German hurdling power: Grace Stark and Alaysha Johnson as well as Ricarda Lobe and Marlene Meier part of the starting field

The women's 60-metre hurdles is a discipline that will forever be associated with the name Susanna Kallur at the INIT INDOOR MEETING Karlsruhe in the Europahalle. In 2008, the Swedish athlete set an indoor world record here with a time of 7.68 seconds, which stood for a total of 16 years and was only improved by one hundredth of a second in 2024. This discipline is therefore always a highlight at the INIT INDOOR MEETING Karlsruhe. This will also be the case this year on 8 February, when, among others, the Americans Grace Stark, reigning bronze medallist at the 2025 World Championships, and Alaysha Johnson, bronze medallist at the 2023 Pan American Games, will be competing.

Ricarda Lobe and Marlene Meier, two exciting German hurdlers, will also be among the starters at the INIT INDOOR MEETING. Ricarda Lobe is a multiple German champion, both outdoors in the 100 metres hurdles and indoors in the 60 metres, and has plenty of experience, including at international level, having already competed in World and European Championships as well as the 2021 Olympic Games in Tokyo. But Marlene Meier, despite being only 23 years old, already has a number of successes as a hurdler to her name. In 2022, she caused a sensation when she won her first national title in the women's 100 metres hurdles in her first year after the U20.