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Frankfurt / M.
(AP) - When Hendrik Pfeiffer suddenly didn't even taste anything himself when he bit into a lemon, "all alarm bells rang".
That was at the end of March. After an icy race in Dresden, the marathon runner from TV Wattenscheid thought at first that he had caught an infection.
But: Corona!
Just a few months before the summer games in Japan, exactly what every competitive athlete fears.
Now Pfeiffer, who has already run the Olympic standard, is fighting for his “lifelong dream”.
The after-effects of Covid-19 in top athletes “cannot currently be explained properly because we do not have that much experience”, says Ingo Froböse, professor for prevention and rehabilitation at the German Sport University Cologne. “But what you do know is natural: if the disease strikes properly, it can even lead to the end of your career,” says the 64-year-old. The greatest danger: starting again with training too early and too intensely.
Pfeiffer slept 16 hours a day during his illness.
"Whenever I picked up a box of water, I had to lie down first afterwards."
It took four weeks before he could start walking again very easily.
At weddings, the 28-year-old, who won the Cologne Marathon in 2017 and 2019, completes 160 to 170 kilometers a week.
In February 2020, Pfeiffer ran the 42.195-kilometer classic in Seville in 2:10:18 hours - the third-best time for a German on the way to Tokyo to this day.
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Only his club colleague Amanal Petros (2:07:18) and Richard Ringer (Rehlingen / 2:08:49) have been faster so far. The close race for the three Olympic tickets is officially open until the end of May, but no expert can trust a runner to undercut Pfeiffer's performance. He himself had no chance of topping up a competition. "In addition to Corona, there was psychological pressure," says Pfeiffer. "I've been under tension for a year now."
After an ECG, lung function test and cardio MRI, Pfeiffer has resumed his endurance work. He is now in the high altitude training camp in Kenya. An endurance test. «I had a very difficult start with a significantly increased heart rate that went beyond the normal altitude adjustment. But after four days the lever was thrown », says the professional athlete of the Bundeswehr. "I have already lost my shape noticeably through Corona, but now I can train normally again and have everything in my hand."
He apparently got out of the matter without consequential damage or Long Covid.
How good - that will be seen in Sapporo, where the Olympic marathon starts on August 8th.
"It's the work of more than a decade," says Pfeiffer, who has already been slowed down: he was absent for a short time in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 due to a heel injury, while he had already packed his official clothes.
It was one of the darkest hours of his life.
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© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210504-99-463103 / 2
German marathon leaderboard men 2021
German marathon leaderboard men 2020
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Portrait of Hendrik Pfeiffer on Leichtathletik.de
Hendrik Pfeiffer on Instagram
Article about Hendrik Pfeiffer in the ARD "Sportschau"