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Kariem Hussein wanted to win gold at the European Championships in Athletics. But he interrupts the season. He is tormented by an injury – and insecurity.
"There is pain, you can not control it," says Kariem Hussein (Photo: Goran Basic / NZZ)
Reason has long been saying that it will not work and the press release says it, even as a bold title: "Kariem Hussein breaks the season early in 2018." But what is reasonable, and in general: what does the media already know? Hussein still has this feeling until Saturday. Until Saturday, he can still qualify for the European Championships early August in Berlin. There is another meeting in Lithuania and Belgium. And a 400-meter race, he could raushauen, just like that, without preparation. The feeling slips into the good times – and runs away again when he can barely jog in pain, not to mention sprinting. Hussein did not train properly for weeks. He is happy when the feeling is completely gone on Saturday.
Hussein, 29, sits in a box in the Letzigrund and tells of his injury. The season is bad, one race that he could do, and in pain – he stayed with 51.40 seconds, well above his personal best of 48.45 and also on the limit of the Championship. # 39; Europe. In January, he had a torn muscle. In fact, everything seemed to get better soon. But then, during the first race of the season in Doha, he pinched again, and the pain began to wander in the leg. Hussein still does not know where he is coming from. "There is pain, you can not control it," he says. He and his team would have tried everything out of school medicine, nothing helped.
Hussein soon wants to focus on the sport for the first time. (Photo: Goran Basic / NZZ)
A picture is hanging in front of the box. Kariem Hussein in his best time, home European Championships in Zurich, he took gold. It was four years ago, and two years ago he won the bronze in the European Championship. Hussein has not been faster since 2015. He had to run once in the world class, he wanted it too. But the world class is younger and faster today and Hussein is usually hurt one way or the other. Why is he still torturing himself?
At the beginning of the season, Hussein's goal was EM gold. He wanted more than that: the same days as the semifinals and finals will be held in Berlin, the medical student would have completed the written part of his state exam. "When I heard it was the same day, I was almost overjoyed, I thought: It can not be a coincidence," Hussein says. It was the opportunity to create something that probably nobody has succeeded. Hussein started in 2009 with athletics and also with medical studies. Now, it was chance or fate that brought learning and sport to a common climax.
Why does he continue to torment himself?
Everyone fails, Hussein's successes are only small
Hussein will pass his state exam as planned. He will not win the championship of Europe. "I know we live in a meritocracy, but what brings me such a medal for life? Defeats bring more," says Hussein. He knows that one measures a sports career by their successes, their medals, and he knows that a few hundredths of success await failure, and that is what measures him. And to a man like Hussein, who always wanted to go far and talk about it – the defeats are interpreted as failures.
But everyone fails for himself, Hussein's achievements are only small. He says that he has created the foundation for fast times in recent years, which he did well in the training sessions. For weeks, every sting is a small defeat, every day a victory without pain.
Why does he continue to torment himself? For successes. Even though there are no medals at the moment. And for the defeats
Hussein is aiming for a world champion medal in 2019. (Photo: Goran Basic / NZZ) [19659009] Hussein could end his career, he would be a doctor, but he says that he does not think about it. He wants to focus on the sport soon, for the first time. It was difficult to combine medical studies and athletics, especially last year. "He could not focus on training, nor on the study.He had a lot of pressure," says his coach Laurent Meuwly.Other medical students have a 100-day plan eight hours a day, then just a state exam. Hussein also had this plan except that he needed two or three days off for a lesson, and finally he had give up trying to understand him.He wants to be perfectly prepared for this test, but maybe you can not, maybe it's like injury. "The study, the sport, the life – everything has to do with each other, we learn something for each other everywhere, "says Hussein
Why is he still torturing himself?" I want to get out of the body. There must be ways to do it, "says Hussein, at one point he wants to solve the mystery that his body is abandoning him.Meuwly says insecurity poisons Hussein
In 2019, Hussein wants a medal "Is it realistic," he says, "for me, it's realistic." Reason, the media, what do they already know?
Even the bears and the books are missing
abb. · Not only is Kariem Hussein absent at the European Athletics Championships from August 7 to 12 in Berlin.Another outstanding absent is the sprinter hurdler Noemi Zbären She still suffers from the after-effects of a cruciate ligament tear.This is the third consecutive season that the 24-year-old has to break: she finished sixth at the World Cup 2015. Also Nicole Büchler will miss Berlin, the pole vault, Olympic champion 2016, would have been a candidate for the medal. But she takes a pregnancy break, then she wants to return to sport
The Swiss marathon record holder, Maja Neuenschwander, also forfeits the European Championships, as well as the young multi-fighter Caroline Agnou. The final selection of athletes will be made by the Swiss Athletics Association on July 29th.
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