Florence Ekpo-Umoh
Florence Ekpo - Umoh (* December 27, 1977 in Lagos ) is a German sprinter Nigerian origin.
Life
The 400-meter runner was for her native country at the Junior World Championships in 1994 at the start. In the spring of 1995, she was staying with the Nigerian athletics team in Stuttgart and left there the team to stay in Germany. She married on 25 March 1998 their coach Otmar Velte ( born September 22, 1964). Since July 25, 2000 it has the German nationality.
Three times in a row in 1997, 1998 and 1999, she was German Junior Champion, what do you as until then the only athlete managed (as of the end of season 2004). She took part in the 4 x 400 meters relay at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, but without reaching the finals.
At the World Indoor Championships in Lisbon in 2001, she won the German relay ( Claudia Marx, rock Birgit Meier, Florence Ekpo - Umoh, Shanta Ghosh ) in 3:31,00 min bronze. Outdoors they came at the World Championships in the same year in Edmonton semi-finals and won the silver medal relay ( 3:21,97 min, together with Grit Breuer, Shanta Ghosh and Claudia Marx). A year later she won the German relay ( Florence Ekpo - Umoh, rock Birgit Meier, Claudia Marx, Grit Breuer ) at the European Championships in Munich in 2002 in 3:25,10 min gold.
In January 2003, the banned doping substance stanozolol was found with her after a competition in Germinston ( South Africa). She was then locked until 10 March 2005 for the participation in competitions. As a result, her husband separated from her again, USC Mainz and their equipment did not extend their contracts. Even outside the sport she could no longer professionally foothold and lived on unemployment benefits. They became engaged and newly brought two children into the world. She lived in Kassel, her fiance worked in England, so it was a single parent.
In the spring of 2007, she was able to convince the coach of the German 400 - meter hurdles runners, Eberhard König from Erfurt LAC, to prepare them for participation in qualification for the 2008 Summer Olympic Games. It was now supported by the supplier of the German Athletics Federation ( DLV). In the European Cup in Annecy she could celebrate her international comeback in the German 4 x 400 - meter relay. At the German Championships in July 2008 in Nuremberg, they took silver and thus qualifying for the Olympics. At the Beijing Games, she came with the season in eighth place. In Berlin at the World Championships in 2009 she was runner replacement for the season.
Ekpo - Umoh was initially at the LG Baunatal / ACT Kassel, in 1998 the USC Mainz and Erfurt from 2007 to the LAC. She is 1.78 m tall and weighs 68 kg. Your 400-meter personal best of 51.13 s 2001