Barbara Gähling (LT DSHS Köln, W55) improved the 300m hurdles W55 World Record (48.74) previously held by Great Britain’s Susan Frisby to 47.46sec at the sprint meeting in Solingen/GER on 12 June 2021. The two marks are separated by almost 1.5sec.
Barbara’s performance looks even more spectacular, as she has been 56 years old since January 20th and is in the second year of age category W55. Due to the restrictions caused by the corona pandemic, she did not find the opportunity to tackle world records last year.
The exceptional athlete is also a hot contender for the W55 European Record in the heptathlon. Here, too, Susan Frisby has set the target at 5855. Barbara’s W50 WR for this combined event is 6456 points.
When asked how Barbara was able to prepare so well without official competitions during the corona pandemic, the teacher from Cologne explained that home schooling, of all things, had given her the freedom to organise her daily training individually. She also drew motivation from joint training with a 26-year-old athlete from the club. Then, three weeks ago, she felt signs of overtraining. Her performance had deteriorated alarmingly. The experienced athlete recognised the signs and began a targeted regeneration.
The world record success shows how precisely Barbara is able to prepare. From her initial analysis of the run, she is confident that she will be able to lower the long hurdles WR even further, “perhaps at the German Championships.”
Current World Records of Barbara Gähling
400mH: W40 58.35
400mH: W45 1:01.28
300mH: W50 44.90
300mH*: W55 47.46 (* pending ratification)
Heptathlon : W50 6456e
Results list: https://ergebnisse.leichtathletik.de/Competitions/CurrentList/250051/4662
A.H