German track athlete Alica Schmidt recently penned down a message after failing to qualify for the World Championships in Tokyo. This came after her disappointing results at the German Championships on Saturday, August 2.Competing in the 800m race, Schmidt finished third in the first heats of the event and failed to make a place in the finals, thereby losing out on a spot in the flight to Tokyo. She clocked a run time of 2:06.47 while Smilla Kolbe and Laura Wilhelm clinched the top two spots in 2:05.78 and 2:06.44, respectively.Schmidt shared a post on her Instagram handle after the event and revealed that she suffered from COVID just a few days before and thus was unable to produce her best performance. Additionally, Schmidt is still navigating the challenge of the 800m event and further remarked:"This season really put me to the test this year. Tough races, lots of lessons, and a whole lot of growth. It wasn’t the season I was hoping for, but it was definitely the one I needed. Unfortunately I caught Covid a few days before Nationals, so I wasn’t able to show up at my best, definitely frustrating.""This year is about committing, learning, challenging and accepting. Everything I need to learn on how to tackle the 800m. Hoping to get my body 100% healthy again and squeeze in a few more races before shifting focus to 2026," she added. View this post on Instagram Instagram PostNotably, Alica Schmidt competed in the Women's 4x400m and Mixed 4x400m events at the 2023 World Championships in Budapest. Her mixed team finished 7th in the finals, while the women's team was eliminated from the heats after finishing sixth.Alica Schmidt has had a challenging 2025 track and field season so farAlica Schmidt (Image via: Getty)Coming at the back of an Olympic year, Alica Schmidt has faced a challenging time in her 2025 track season so far. This season also saw the 26-year-old transition to the 800m after competing in the 400m for most of her career.Schmidt started her indoor season in a disappointing fashion with 6th and 9th place finishes in Erfurt and Ostrava, respectively. Next up was the German Indoors, where she did clinch a second-place finish in the 4x200m short track but failed to bag an individual title.In her outdoor events, too, Schmidt has been able to bag just a single podium finish that came at a World Athletics category C event in Geneva. Her other results from the outdoor season included a 5th place finish at the Ostrava Golden Spike and a 6th place finish at the Meeting Sport e Solidarieta Lignano.