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Dieter Baumann had been in awesome form during 1992, lowering his
personal bests for the 1,500m, 1 mile and 5,000m, and winning the gold
medal in the 5000m at the Olympic Games in Barcelona. However, he was
unable to capitalise on this form in 1993, as he missed the entire
season due to injury. Dieter made a successful return to form in June
1994 at the European Cup in Birmingham, where he won the 5,000m in 13min
48.95sec, which was just a prelude to his performance at the European
Championships in Helsinki. In the 5000m final in Helsinki, held on 14
August, Baumann was always well placed in the field, and used his
trademark devastating kick to outsprint the others in the final lap to
easily win the gold medal (see photo above) in 13min 36.93sec.
Later that month, at the ISTAF meet in Berlin, Baumann out kicked a
quality international field to win in his year's best time of 13min
12.47sec. Dieter experienced mixed fortunes during the 1995 season. At
the World Championships in Gothenburg, he easily won the first of three
heats of the 5,000m in 13min 30.59sec, and seemed on track to be highly
competitive in the final. However, in the final held two days later, on
14 August, Baumann inexplicably lost contact with the leading group
with three laps to go, and struggled home in 9th place in a time of
13min 39.98sec, nine seconds slower than he had run in his heat. Just
as incredibly, he bounced back only two days later, to record a new
personal best of 13min 01.72sec over 5,000m when finishing second to a
Haile Gebrselassie world record at Zurich. On 1 September, Baumann
produced another fast time of 13min 03.62sec, when he finished fourth
behind Gebrselassie at Berlin. (Ron Casey)
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