18th July 2013 09:24
Despite the fact she was favourite, there are plenty of those who have fallen by the wayside. Championships are made to upset the odds.
Nothing deterred, she set about demolishing the opposition right from the start and was never headed. In the end she won by over 11 seconds, a record gap for this event in the history of the U23 Championships.
'11 seconds is a lot,' reflected the Eintracht Frankfurt athlete. 'But I am so happy I took gold that the time is all the same to me.
'I went to Tampere as clear favourite, but you never know what can happen at championships. The others are just as highly motivated and can outdo themselves. Gold was not a given.'
And so the 20 year old set out on her lone quest on the Tampere track. The first kilometre was reached in 3:12.56. Was this the plan?
'Everything was discussed beforehand with my coach [Wolfgang Heinig]. The plan was to run between 3:10 and 3:12 per kilometre,' she told leichtathletik.de.
'But it took courage because I had to make the pace from the very first stride. I was hoping the rest would have given up long before. But by the half way mark the Russian [Yekaterina Sokolenko] was still right behind me and that made me nervous.
'I had to keep saying to myself: 'Stay calm, you feel good, you can do this. So I continued to run at my pace and then she was gone too.'
There were no heats for the steeplechase in which an athlete can measure the opposition. Would she have preferred to have had qualifiers?
'I would rather have had heats, just to see what the others were like. And also to get rid of my nervousness. But it was fine. That way I have some strength left for the rest of the season.'
The second kilometre was slightly slower than the first as Krause went through 2000m in 6:27.88. But she finished with a 3:10 to set a new championship record of 9:38.91. Having competed in European championships and the Olympic Games, where does she place the U23s?
'I wanted this gold medal, I don't have so many titles, that's why the U23s is so important for me. There was a certain amount of pressure that I put on myself. I hardly recognised myself. Normally, I'm quite cool and let things happen, but in Tampere I was really nervous. After my European Junior title in 2011, this is my first medal. I hope I soon get one in the absolute championships.'
There is quite a big adult championship coming up, the World Championships in Moscow in August. With a lifetime best of 9:23.52 from last year what aims does she have for that?
'To get into the final, of course. I don't have a brilliant time this season [9:38.76] but I know I can fight and with that fighting spirit, I shall approach the heats.'
One of the peculiarities of Krause's relationship with her coach is that she addresses him formally as Herr Heinig, while he simply calls her Gesa. It is one of the staple questions she gets from the media, but she states simply that 'we understand each other and I trust him implicitly.'
Gesa Krause: cool and polite, but more importantly with an iron will.