Ralf Bartels
Ralf Bartels ( born February 21, 1978 in Stavenhagen ) is a German shot putter. In 2006 he was European champion.
Life
The Junior World Champion in 1996 and European Junior Champion in 1997 was in the adult category for the first time at the 2001 World Championships in Edmonton at the start, however, different in the qualifier.
In 2002 he was, as in the four following years, German champion. At the European Championships in Munich, he won bronze. At the 2003 World Championships in Paris -Saint -Denis, he was fifth in the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens eighth.
In 2005 he presented on May 29 in Schloss Engers with a personal best 21.36 meters, and at the World Championships in Helsinki in 2005, he won bronze with 20.99 meters. His top form continued in the next season. In the hall he rose to 21.43 m ( February 25th in Karlsruhe), and at the European Championships in Gothenburg, he secured with 21.13 m in the last attempt for the title. At the 2007 World Championships in Osaka, he finished seventh. At the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, he was unable to attend due to a calf injury. A year later at the World Championships in Berlin, he managed to win the bronze medal. With a width of 21.37 m in the third attempt, he improved his personal best by one centimeter and only Christian Cantwell and Tomasz Majewski was defeated.
At the World Indoor Championships in Doha in 2010, he increased his personal best to 21.44 m and won the bronze medal with the width first. The same position he succeeded outdoors at the European Championships in Barcelona with 20,93 m. After 2013 imposed lifetime ban of the White Russians Andrei Mikhnevich and the subsequent deletion of his results from the 2005 World Cup, Bartels moved in the results of the European Athletics Championships in 2010 and the World Indoor Championships in 2010 in each case before the silver medal.
2011 Bartels won at the European Indoor Championships in Paris in superior style with 21,16 m. In the final he met the four largest coverage among all participants. At the 2011 World Championships in Daegu Bartels came in tenth place. 2012 took Bartels in London on his second Olympic Games in part, but did not reach the final. At the European Indoor Championships in 2013 he finished fourth.
Bartels 2012 was awarded the Rudolf Harbig Memorial Award.
Bartels is 1,86 m tall and weighs 145 kg. He starts for the SC Neubrandenburg and trained there under Gerald Bergmann. As a sports soldier, he belongs to the sports promotion group of the Bundeswehr. Bartels was awarded the Rudolf Harbig Memorial Award in 2012.