Berlin  - High jumper Ariane Friedrich and a few throwers lead the charge as ailing German athletics aims to redeem itself at the home world championships from Saturday onwards.

The 92 athletes from the host team are aware that competing in front of a home crowd, in Berlin's Olympic stadium, is a once-in-a- lifetime opportunity in which they want to do well.

While not everyone will make it to the podium, officials hope that the Olympic disaster from Beijing last year (just one bronze from javelin thrower Christina Obergfoell) can be amended and the team can enjoy similar success to the last worlds in Osaka, Japan in 2007.

There Germany picked up seven medals highlighted by two golds, from discus thrower Franka Dietzsch and hammer thrower Batty Heidler. This effectively also matches the German showing at the 1993 worlds at home in Stuttgart, eight medals in total, two of them gold.

A similar achievement in Berlin would be more than welcome at a time when interest in athletics is declining in the country.

"The championships are of enormous strategic importance. We have had problems with the perception of athletics in Germany. We hope the that the sport is reborn through the worlds," said German athletics federation supremo Clemens Prokop.

The biggest hopes are in Friedrich, who soared to a national record 2.06 metres in the Olympic Stadium at the Golden League meet in June, beating world champion Blanka Vlasic.

"I wanted to make a statement for the Berlin championships and athletics in Germany," said the 26-year-old Friedrich.

Friedrich leads the 2009 top list in her event and so does Obergfoell.

Long jumper Sebastian Bayer hopes for another staggering leap as at the European indoor championships in March where he stunned the world with 8.71 metres.

Like Friedrich, the 23-year-old Beyer adds some glamour to the sport, also through the relationship with hurdler Carolyn Nytra who is on the Berlin team as well.

"I want to make the final. More than a hand full of athletes can jump 8.40m. I hope to be among them," he said.

The throwers are the other usual suspects when Germany aims for big event medals in athletics.

Apart from Obergfoell there is javelin rival Steffi Nerius (in her farewell season), Heidler, as well as discus aces Dietzsch and Robert Hartung.

The situation on the track, by contrast, is grim, with no one in sight to give Germany a first individual race gold since Kathrin Krabbe won a sprint double in 1991.

In addition, the team was rocked by the late withdrawal of marathon runner Irina Mikitenko due to the death of her father. The two-time London Marathon champion Mikitenko had originally planned to aim for gold on her 37th birthday August 22.

Decathlete Michael Schrader is another notable absentee for injury reasons while pole vault veteran Tim Lobinger failed to qualify.

A good German team result and big crowds are also anticipated by the ruling body IAAF.

"My primary desire is that Berlin matches what we saw last year in Beijing on the track. As for the German athletes ­ I always thought that they would be motivated by the occasion ... Germany has a team which can win medals and this is what will help fill the stadium," IAAF President Lamine Diack told the German Press Agency (dpa).