Passau/Dortmund (oz/sp) – After four months, Christian Krüger from the Fulda Judo Club was finally able to compete again. On Saturday the men’s ranking tournament of the German Judo Federation took place in Lünen (Dortmund). On Sunday we went to Passau for the Easter tournament.
In his weight class (under 66 kilograms) in Lünen there were mainly fighters from the Bundesliga and a strong Iraqi judoka, who fought at the World Championships in Baku in 2018 and only dropped out in the fourth round.
Krüger had to start against Kevin Müller from JC Leipzig, the 2017 German champion. The two already met in the first round of the 2019 German Cup. Back then, Müller quickly won the fight. This time Christian Krüger started defensively and successfully repelled the first attacks and surprised Müller with an O-Soto Gari after 50 seconds, which was rewarded with a Waza-ari. Subsequently, however, Kevin Müller’s class prevailed and won after one minute and 32 seconds with his second classification.
In the consolation round it was against Ilyas Vinayev from JC 66 Bottrop, who also fights in the 1st Bundesliga. This surprised Kruger early on and took the lead with Waza-ari. Christian didn’t find his fight and had to admit defeat after 40 seconds and was eliminated. With a little more competition practice there would have been more and yet he had a German champion on the verge of defeat.
On Sunday we went to Passau for the Easter tournament. Nine fighters were weighed in in the same weight class. Krüger was allowed to start in the second round against Felix Hofreiter from TSV Unterhaching. Christian was able to score with his special technique Seoi Otoshi. In the semifinals, the Austrian Thomas Gabbauer from JV Ort was waiting. Gabbauer was awarded a rating for an action that Krüger was unable to catch up over the competition time of four minutes.
In the small final, the man from Fulda again made short work of Jörg Gehrer from FC Hohenthann with his special technique and won the fight. Thus he reached the third place at the Easter tournament at the Nippon 2000 Passau.
