Dhen it causes stress to complete a PCR test every two days, Kai Häfner frankly admitted right at the start of the tournament: “You get tense before the corona test because, firstly, you don’t want it, and secondly, if you have it, the tournament is over for you.”
It is the “new normal” that not only accompanies handball professionals in their everyday life. Test – and hope. Since New Year’s Day, the entourage of the German Handball Federation (DHB) has subjected itself to a strict self-imposed test regime, ordering a PCR test every other day. In addition, single rooms, compulsory masks, no visits to cafés or restaurants in Bratislava. A stroll through the city, through the historic city center up to the impressive “Bratislavsky Hrad” palace when the weather is fine – no chance.
And yet, with all due caution, the DHB reported the positive test for backcourt player Julius Kühn on Saturday evening. The 28-year-old Melsunger has been double-vaccinated and boosted. Still, it hit him. On Sunday he moved symptom-free from the “Lindner” team hotel to the quarantine hotel of the European Federation EHF.
It’s not a bubble
Thanks to the quarantine shortened from 14 days to five days, Kühn could be back on Thursday at the start of the main round after two negative PCR tests, which had to be taken 24 hours apart. So the tournament didn’t go as feared by teammate Häfner. With the news from Saturday evening, however, it was clear that the in-form shooter would not be there either on Sunday evening against Austria (6 p.m. / in the FAZ live ticker for the European Handball Championship and on ARD) or for the preliminary round against Poland on Tuesday at 6 p.m.
Preliminary round over: Julius Kühn was one of the best against Belarus.
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Image: dpa
In the 33:29 win against Belarus on Friday, Kühn had scored six goals and appeared very stable in defence. Hendrik Wagner from Die Eulen Ludwigshafen traveled to replace him on Sunday morning. He had kept fit at home and had been closely tested. As the DHB announced, Wagner should not be used against Austria in the evening. In Kühn’s absence, all eyes are on Göppingen’s Sebastian Heymann.
It is not a bubble in which the handball professionals live at this European Championship in Hungary and Slovakia. The EHF trusts the two-day PCR test rhythm, which was named in the hygiene concept of November 2021 as a central tool to prevent infections or break chains of infection. There was a so-called bubble a year ago at the World Cup in Egypt – under different signs because nobody had been vaccinated yet. At that time, the Germans had come through the tournament without infections.
At this European Championship, eyes had so far been anxiously directed towards Hungary: 20,000 fans in Budapest, in the hotel in Szeged, tourists mingled with the handball players while eating, which France star Nikola Karabatic complained about. The EHF meanwhile made changes. But the many infected people in North Macedonia, the Netherlands, Croatia, Serbia and the German group opponent Poland (six cases) suggest that the Omicron variant has long since reached all venues. About 15 players have tested positive since the tournament began. Poles live in the same team hotel as the Germans – but on a different floor. The careful acting DHB is not to blame. But now the discomfort of being infected in the game is omnipresent.
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