Luscious appearance, desolate form, almost no chance at the Olympics - after the low point in Braunschweig with only 57.29 meters and eighth place, the athletics scene asks itself: What is the matter with Christoph Harting?
The discus Olympic champion himself did not want to comment on his weak performance at the German championships, but for head coach Annett Stein the performance of the Berliner was "disappointing".
After all, Harting not only threw very badly, but also intentionally produced invalid attempts.
Tokyo will almost certainly take place without the champion from Rio.
Stein, a very diplomat, did not want to break the bar on Harting, who has not found his way since his spectacular triumph at the Sugar Loaf.
"His situation isn't that easy at the moment either, but I don't want to give out any details," she said nebulously.
In any case, it is "not insignificant" what hinders Harting, this giant.
His trainer Torsten Lönnfors spoke to the SID of “little problems in the private environment” that Harting “has to deal with”, maybe that's why he was “mentally not quite on point”. In addition, Harting threw in Braunschweig with a kidney infection and was therefore “not in full possession of his strength”.
“We take care of Christoph”, Stein assured: “We try to provide assistance, to get access, to take him with us.” But Harting always had a mind of his own. If successful, this is accepted as a quirky peculiarity, but if the performance fails, it becomes a problem. But "we don't want to re-educate anyone," said Stein, who emphasized that the 31-year-old federal police officer was "a completely different person" in "personal conversations" than he "comes across in public", there was "a big difference between them" .
But Harting, who has not spoken to the press since the beginning of August 2019 and left the stadium again without comment, remains a big puzzle with a weak limb.
After his coup in Rio, Harting did not make it to the 2017 World Cup in London, at the home European Championship 2018 in Berlin and the 2019 World Cup, he failed in qualifying.
For Tokyo, "it will be difficult," said Stein, the qualification period runs until the end of the month.
The German champion and Olympic third party Daniel Jasinski has his ticket safe, behind Clemens Prüfer (67.41 / Potsdam) and David Wrobel (67.30 / Magdeburg) each have around two meters ahead of Hartings season best.
Five years after Rio, there is not much left of the gold shine.
Lönnfors hopes, however, that Harting "shows once again what he can do with a riot".