Sprinter Géraldine Frey hopes for the season finale with Mujinga Kambundji

The Swiss relay championships usually form the end of the national athletics calendar for runners. They don’t usually create too much interest for the general public. This year is different, however. On the one hand because the LK Zug, which is carrying out the competitions, was been able to sign up  the leading Swiss runner, Mujinga Kambundji (27) (see box). On the other, because, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, this could be one of the few athletics events taking place this year.

But it’s not yet certain it will take place. Géraldine Frey hopes to represent her club LKZ at these first relay championships in Zug since 1986. The 22-year-old from Unterägeri is one of the fastest women in Switzerland. In the 2019 season, she ran 100 metres in 11.47 seconds - a personal best - thereby taking fifth place among the very best on the leader board.

In doing so, she underlined her potential: Frey was the youngest of the Swiss Top Five last year. As a reward, she was allowed to travel to the World Championships with the national relay team as a substitute runner. Adidas also seems to believe that she will develop well. In early March, Géraldine Frey announced on Instagram that the sporting goods giant is now supporting her.

Training on the schoolhouse running track
She would very much have liked to have shown what she can do. But instead of targeted training with her group in Zurich, she currently has to follow the – digitally communicated – guidelines of her trainer, Rita Schönenberger – and mostly on her own. To top it all off, Frey is not able to carry out her training sessions at the athletics facility in Zug(Leichtathletikanlage), as it is currently being renovated. Instead, she can be seen training, for example, on the 100-metre track near the Schönenbüel schoolhouse, "and sometimes on a steep road," she adds. In the absence of competitions, she is currently completing another four-week build-up block, in which the technology is also being honed. "That's cool, because it's hardly possible during the competitive season," says Géraldine Frey. The sprinter has learned a few things about herself during the solo training:

"In the group you can motivate each other, and that is much easier. It now takes a lot of extra motivation to keep going. The fact that I can generate this extra motivation gives me a good feeling."

Géraldine Frey occasionally trains on the track at the Schönenbüel schoolhouse in Unterägeri.
 

She is also finding some advantages from the current situation at the training level. She can bring forward her exams for her pharmacy studies, in order to have more time for sport next year.

This can be particularly valuable, because the Olympic Games, which have been postponed this year, will be held in the summer of 2021. And, who knows, given the extended selection period and her physical development, it could turn out that the difficult Corona season 2020 will have an extremely positive impact on Géraldine Frey's sporting career.

Four Kambundjis are registered for Zug
Together with her three sisters Kaluanda (29), Muswama (24) and Ditaji (17), Mujinga Kambundji (27) will appear for the ST Bern in the 4 x 100 meters at the Swiss Relay Championships in Zug on September 20. "This is the first time that all four will run as a relay team," says Jan Mühlethaler, the general secretary of the organising committee at the Zug Athletics Club(Leichtathletikklub Zug). Three of the Kambundjis have already shown how fast they are: two years ago, Mujinga, Muswana and Ditaj set the current club relay record of 44.86 seconds, together with Florence Nri.

According to Jan Mühlethaler, the contact with the Swiss sprint star – Mujinga Kambundji won the World Championship bronze in the 200 metres and the European Championship bronze over 100 metres – came about via Jörg Kürzi. The former OK president of Quer durch Zug invited her to that occasion in 2017 as guest of honour. Kambundji will be the guest of honour at this year's Day of Prayer (Bettag) meeting on 19 September in Zug, and will also sign autographs. The LK Zug can allow itself this paid commitment for the 75th anniversary this year.

The Tartan track in Zug damaged during "Federal Alpine Wrestling Festival (ESAF)"
The relay championships on the following day will coincide with the official re-opening of the Zug Herti Allmend athletics stadium, which has been renovated by the city. Among other things, the Tartan track will now be blue instead of red. The replacement of the running track was necessary following the Federal Alpine Wrestling Festival 2019 (ESAF), after the stone throwers (Steinstösser) had carried out their competition on it, says the LKZ competition manager Jan Mühlethaler. "We couldn't have carried out the relay championships on the old track." Whether the championships will take place is still uncertain due of the Covid-19 pandemic, however. The organisers expect a decision by the end of May.