It is said that Rehlingen was just the beginning for Robert Farken

At the end of May, Robert Farkin stunned and dazzled the athletics world. At a sports festival in Rellingen, the 25-year-old blond boy ran the 1,500m in 3:32.10 minutes. That’s just half a second slower than Westphalian Thomas Wessinghage, who set the oldest still-current German Olympic track record 43 years ago.

It was also an exciting time because Farken had not been able to compete in a single competition for 14 months. A long-term hip injury to the femoral neck made walking impossible. Doctors baffled for a long time until the cause was found: hereditary vitamin D deficiency. When the man from Leipzig took the vitamin in much higher amounts than other athletes, he was finally able to start running again.

But Robert Farkin doesn’t just want to be affiliated, he wants to fight for titles and international spots up front. To this end, he is breaking new ground with his longtime coach Thomas Dreisigacker. A year ago, Swiss sporting goods manufacturer ON formed Europe’s first runner’s training kit. At ‘ON Athletics Club Europe’ (OAC), talented 1500m runners from five countries push themselves to new dimensions under Dreizigacker’s leadership – that’s the plan. Mid OAC: Robert Farken. “It’s just a very professional concept, as there are no other excuses. It’s now a real professional sport and now is the time to introduce it,” Farkin says in an interview. Sports in the East.

So far, these elite teams have only existed in the USA. The most famous of these was the so-called “Nike Oregon Project”, which European champion Konstanze Klosterhalten also joined for a brief period. After serious doping violations by then-suspended coach Alberto Salazar, sporting goods giant Nike terminated the project at the end of 2019.

ON AG, a manufacturer of sporting goods and a specialist in running shoes from Zurich founded in 2010 with 1,700 employees worldwide, is now investing significant funds in AOC groups in the USA, and last year also in and for Europe. For Farken and the nine other talents between the ages of 19 and 25 from Switzerland, Spain, Germany, Great Britain and the Netherlands, training at OAC Europe means maximum independence and 100% focus on coaching.

“They all get a salary and can live with it, they are supported at all training camps and you don’t have to worry about finances. Physiotherapy is always there, we have mentality coaches. The coach is paid for everyone. It is also an attraction to be involved in training in such an international group. You’re actually only competitive when you’re competing against each other at the World Championships,” explains Dreißigacker, who was previously a national running and walking coach for the German Athletics Federation (DLV).

The 34-year-old is now the head coach of the group of professional runners, with whom he runs high-altitude training camps in Switzerland and South Africa, for example, when training plans call for it without financial concerns. That’s why Robert Varkin is rarely in his hometown, he runs a lot in the heights of the Swiss Alps. But that doesn’t detract from his connection to his homeland: “I was born in Leipzig, I grew up here and I have deep ties to the city. So it’s not a competition: I wear an ON shirt and put the SC-DHfK logo on it.”

Where is the trip going? If possible in the fields of Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen, who is a current Olympic and European champion the measure of all things – and runs four seconds faster than Farken. “Jacob is currently in a world of his own, you have to be honest. And he’s always raising the bar. Those who come next are trying to get as close as possible. I think if we don’t all try to keep up, we won’t be real athletes,” Leipziger outlines his vision. Coach Dreißigacker’s words also speak of self-confidence: “There are still a few interesting places after number 1. And it doesn’t always have to stay that way.”

Robert Farken’s Fabellauf Ende Mai in Rehlingen passed a lot noch aus einem anderen Grund in his Bild: “Dieses Rennen ist er ja alleine 500 Meter von vorn gelaufen”, erinnert Dreißigacker und unterstreicht: “Ich bin mir ziemlich sicher, dass auch noch Luft nach oben he.” In high-profile international competitions like the Diamonds League, a whole group usually pushes themselves to exceptional times like 3:32.10 minutes, and hardly anyone can do it on their own.

So far the World Championships in mid-August in the Hungarian capital. Farkin is optimistic despite his short-lived abdication of the German championship final in Kassel a week ago. “It was a precautionary measure as there were problems with the Achilles tendon.” Budapest gives the green light. Reaching the final would be an incredible achievement, but it shouldn’t be the end of Robert Farkin’s athletic dreams.