It was surprising news from La Chaux-de-Fonds: Mathieu Jaquet, the 23-year-old hurdles sprinter from LC Frauenfeld, ran over 110 m hurdles in a strong time of 13.48 seconds at the weekend. This means a personal best and a Thurgau record.
At the same time, Jaquet undercut the EM limits by two hundredths of a second. He will thus be part of the Swiss delegation taking part in the European Championships in Munich in August.
A first exclamation point at the Swiss Championships
Jaquet had already drawn attention to itself at the Swiss championships at the end of June. In a strong field, he took the silver medal behind national dominator Jason Joseph.
Even then, the Thurgau man had set a new personal record of 13.60 seconds and at the same time left behind Simon Ehammer, the world-class all-around athlete who counts the 110 m hurdles as one of his strongest disciplines.
There are signs of Jaquet’s rise: since 2016 he has been able to continuously improve on his personal bests. Last season he had never undercut the 14-second mark. Before he made his breakthrough this season.
Kora and Giger with personal bests of the season
Two women from eastern Switzerland were also successful at the meeting in La Chaux-de-Fonds: Salomé Kora from St.Gallen and Yasmin Giger from Romanshorn set personal bests of the season. Kora over 100 m with 11.32 seconds, Yasmin Giger over 400 m hurdles with 56.2 seconds. Both will also be present at the World Cup in mid-July. Giger on the hurdles, Kora most likely as part of the Swiss sprint relay. With her performance from La Chaux-de-Fonds she has probably consolidated her place in the highly competitive sprint team.
Speaking of the World Cup: The hurdle sprinter Mathieu Jaquet is not yet ready for a World Cup appearance. To do this he would have to improve his own best time by 16 hundredths of a second – but with his current run of improvement this is not impossible for the World Championships in the coming years.