Birgit Fischer's olympic dream comes to an end

Birgit Fischer, at the press conference in Duisburg

We started this year 2012 with news about the comeback of legend Birgit Fischer trying to qualify for her seventh Olympic Games at London. But this weekend, in a press conference from Duisburg, where Germany Olympic trials started on Saturday, she has announced her refusal after being discovered heart arrythmias during the winter training. Doctors treating the eight times olympic gold medalist said that she will need specific treatment not compatible with the elite training she was carrying.

A dissapointed Fischer appeared in front of the media last Friday to refuse his olympic try, that would have made even bigger her impressive career, including 6 olympic Games (could have been seven, because of the boicot of former RDA to Los Angeles '84), 8 gold medals (at 18 years old the first one, 42 the last one) and 4 silvers, as well as several world and european championships.

But German Canoeing didn't stop after this sad news and the Duisbourg venue had great races this weekend under a very cold weather. They were the first national trials to make the olympic team and despite of important absences, like Nicole Reinhardt and the K4 component Paul Mittelstedt, both world champions and having a fever episode, some other great paddlers take an advantage in the tough German competition. Victories of Ronald Rauhe, Franziska Weber, Max Hoff , Tina Dietze and Sebastian Brendl in the C1 have shown that they are in the good path to be at London this summer. On the other hand, Katrin Wagner-Augustin was not having her best weekend and finished third over 500 metres. The Postdamer, a bit disappointed, said that good news are that there is still time to recover and she trusts her improvement margin in the next few weeks facing the second and definitive trial.

Head German Coach Reiner Kiessler said "this weekend we have already seen some important references for the national team. It's a pity having some people not competing due to illness, but they are strong paddlers that I'm sure they will show up again in a great performance at the second test".