World Class Athletics

The 27th BW-Bank-Meeting will take place on February 13th 2011 - Europahalle Karlsruhe.
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Liu Xiang meets David Oliver

The BW-Bank-Meeting men's 60 metre hurdle race is going to be a real clash of the titans. China vs. USA. Liu Xiang against David Oliver. For the boy from China it's a return to the place where he won the 60 metre hurdles in 2007 with a new Asia record of 7.42 seconds. His US counterpart Oliver is regarded as the world's best hurdler at present and with a time of 12.89 seconds over 110 metres is only two-hundredths away from Dyron Robles' world record. Two of the world's best hurdlers will be taking each other on the fast track of Karlsruhe's Europahalle so excitement's guaranteed.

» read more in our press release

European Champions Christian Reif and Verena Sailer at BW-Bank-Meeting

"I'm aiming for first place!" At the press conference in the run-up to the 27th BW-Bank track and field athletics meeting in Karlsruhe's Europahalle on 13 February 2011, Christian Reif's announcement was clear. At the 26th event in January this year, the 26-year-old long jumper "only" made it to fourth place – but this jump, 7.89 metres at that time, was effectively the prelude to a sensational season. Four weeks after the BW-Bank Meeting he became German Indoor Champion, also in the Europahalle, at 8.10 metres, qualifying him at the last minute for the World Championships in Doha where he achieved fifth place five weeks later.

He then landed the big coup at the European Championships in Barcelona when he won the title by jumping 8.47 metres. The fact that he only just missed the 30-year-old record by Lutz Dombrowski (8.54 metres) by 7 centimetres didn't temper his delight. On the contrary. "It's encouragement to jump even further than before when next year comes around. I'd like to break this record," said the golden boy of German track and field athletics. First of all, though, he's going for the BW-Bank Meeting record in the Europahalle, set by Larry Myricks in 1998 at 8.38 metres. "But the indoor stadium can't be compared with outdoors, partly because there's no tailwind indoors. 8.38 metres would be somewhere around 8.70 metres outdoors – in my reckoning," said the student of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT).

Traditionally the biggest jumps are held at the BW-Bank Meeting. So in 2011, too, not just the long-jumpers but also the best pole-vaulters will be gathering in the Europahalle – though this time the top female stars because, says athlete coordinator Alain Blondel, "the German women gave a convincing performance by winning two places on the podium at the European Championships in Barcelona." New heights are going to being reached even without a pole. After jumps of 2 metres and more by Ariane Friedrich at the last two meetings, it will be interesting to see how high the ladies can push the bar up in 2011.

Besides the jumps, the men will be getting down to business in the running disciplines. There'll be 60 metres to cover on the flat as well as over hurdles. The other track events are the 400, the 1500, and the 3000 metre races. The women will also be running the 60 metres on the flat and over hurdles plus the 400 and 3000 metres.

After Christian Reif, Verena Sailer is another European champion from Barcelona to run at the BW-Bank Meeting in Karlsruhe's Europahalle on 13 February 2011. Athlete coordinator Alain Blondel thus remains true to his word of "bringing top German athletes in particular to Karlsruhe." One person who had had his awareness drawn to her in Barcelona right from the outset was Alain Blondel. For him, she was a very hot favourite for the title even before the semi-final. The BW-Bank-Meeting's athlete coordinator had had the right hunch, pleased all the more that he can now present Verena Sailer to Karlsruhe's athletics fans at the BW-Bank Meeting in the Europahalle on 13 February 2011. Sailer was supposed to run at the last event with the other members of the German 4x100-metre relay team, which had won bronze at the world championships in Berlin in 2009, but she had to forego the indoor season 2010 due to a torn muscle fibre in her back muscles.