ERFURT, Germany – In her first national championships since graduating with a degree in chemistry, San Francisco track and field alumna Elena Burkard turned in a personal best to race to fourth place at the German Athletics Championships on Sunday.
Burkard finished second in her preliminary round heat, clocking in at 4:16.37, one one-hundredth of a second behind race winner Denise Krebs to advance to the finals and toe the line with the country's best.
In Sunday's race, Konstanze Klosterhalfen earned back-to-back national championships and set a new German record with a sub-four minute 1,500 meters, and the remainder of the field jockeyed for a place on the podium.