Karen Forkel (born 24 September 1970 in Wolfen) is a German
track and field
Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping eve ...
athlete and an Olympic medal winner. In the 1990s she was among the world's best
javelin throw
The javelin throw is a track and field event where the javelin, a spear about in length, is thrown. The javelin thrower gains momentum by running within a predetermined area. Javelin throwing is an event of both the men's decathlon and the wom ...
ers. Her biggest success came in the
1992 Summer Olympics
The 1992 Summer Olympics ( es, Juegos Olímpicos de Verano de 1992, ca, Jocs Olímpics d'estiu de 1992), officially known as the Games of the XXV Olympiad ( es, Juegos de la XXV Olimpiada, ca, Jocs de la XXV Olimpíada) and commonly known as ...
when she took the bronze medal with a throw of 66.86 meters.
Her personal best throw with the new-type-javelin was 65.17 metres, achieved in July 1999 in
Erfurt
Erfurt () is the capital and largest city in the Central German state of Thuringia. It is located in the wide valley of the Gera river (progression: ), in the southern part of the Thuringian Basin, north of the Thuringian Forest. It sits i ...
. This ranks her fifth among German javelin throwers, behind
Christina Obergföll
Christina Obergföll (; born 22 August 1981) is a retired German track and field athlete who competed in the javelin throw. She was World Champion in 2013. Her personal best throw of 70.20 m is the German record. It also ranks her fifth on ...
Tanja Damaske
Tanja Damaske (born 16 November 1971 in East Berlin) is a retired German track and field athlete who competed in the javelin throw. She is best known for winning the gold medal at the 1998 European Championships. A year earlier she earned a br ...
and
Linda Stahl
Linda Stahl (born 2 October 1985) is a retired German track and field athlete who competed in the javelin throw.
Career
She won gold at the 2010 European Athletics Championships in Barcelona, Spain, throwing a then personal best throw of 66.81 ...
. With the old javelin type she threw 70.20 metres in May 1991 in Halle. This ranks her fifth among German old-type-javelin throwers, behind Petra Felke (who held the
world record
A world record is usually the best global and most important performance that is ever recorded and officially verified in a specific skill, sport, or other kind of activity. The book ''Guinness World Records'' and other world records organization ...
),
Antje Kempe
Antje is a female name. It is a Low German and Dutch diminutive form of Anna. Once a very common name in the northern part of the Netherlands, its popularity has steadily declined since 1900.Silke Renk and Beate Koch.
Forkel represented SC Chemie Halle, which after the German reunification was renamed SV Halle. During her career she was 1.72 meters tall and weighed 63 kilograms.
1994 IAAF World Cup The 7th IAAF World Cup in Athletics was an international track and field sporting event sponsored by the International Association of Athletics Federations, held on September 9–11, 1994, at the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre in London, Engl ...
final: 3rd place (61.26); 1994 European cup final: 2nd place (65.58)
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