(JTH) June 1, 2024 – An emotional day of fighting away against SSF Bonn lies behind the Bundesliga team of the Judo Team Holten. The Holten team won 10:4, but two controversial referee decisions cost them two points and the lead in the table again. “I am proud of the performance that everyone showed today, but in the case of Christian’s fight we will lodge a protest.”
This was the fight of Christian Beckmann +100kg, who entered the mat in fourth place with a score of 2:1 for the Holtener. Cevin Börgel (-100kg) and Manuel Baptista (-81kg) had previously won their matches for the JTH, but in Baptista’s fight there had already been irritations over two referee decisions, which, however, were not significant, as Baptista ultimately won clearly.
Wrong decision in Beckmann’s fight
The decisive scene in Beckmann’s fight came when he lifted and threw his Bonn opponent Jan-Marek Meyer Ushiro-goshi (hip counter throw). In an attempt to prevent this, the Bonner hooked his leg completely into Beckmann’s standing leg. Meyer fell anyway, Ippon – victory – for Holten. Actually. Because the judges saw it the other way round: Beckmann had completely hooked himself into Meyer’s standing leg, which is prohibited due to the risk of injury. The result: In addition to the score for Bonn instead of the JTH, Beckmann was also given Hansokumake, i.e. disqualified for the rest of the fight.
Cool head in heated mood
In this heated atmosphere, it was then up to Sebastian Menz (-73kg), Finn Bittscheidt (-66kg) and Jason Wong (-60kg) to fight – and all three remained calm and confident on the outside, aggressive in the fight but not risky. It seemed as if they were fighting for Beckmann’s rehabilitation. Menz secured victory for himself and the Holten judo team after just 21 seconds, Bittscheidt was also not really in danger and won after just under a minute with Ippon, Wong’s victory extended the half-time lead to 5:2.
“Now more than ever!”
During the 20-minute break, the Holten team analyzed video and image material showing the wrong decision in Beckmann’s fight. But first, they had to concentrate on the second half of the season and seven more fights. In a rousing speech to his teammates during the break, Beckmann built up the team, demanding that they give their all “now more than ever”, show good and fair judo and bring home the important points. And that’s what they did:
As in the first round, Börgel won after regular fight time with a waza-ari lead, Marcel Lauer, who now competed for Beckmann at +100kg, won with a harai-goshi (hip sweep) ippon, Bittscheidt and Wong also won with a lever (juji-gatame) and waza-ari-awasete-ippon after an uchi-mata approach. Before that, Basile La Fontaine, who had come for Menz at -73kg, had also brought his opponent into a hold after a waza-ari lead, which the Bonner ended with a knockdown. Justin Kappes was also knocked down in the -90kg fight from the judges’ point of view.
Knocked out or not knocked out?
This was preceded by an attempted throw by Kappes which brought both fighters down. Both ended up on their backs, with Kappes on the bottom. However, the referee had initially – rightly from Holten’s point of view – scored a waza-ari for Kappes. As Kappes was already leading with a waza-ari, this should have been a point and a win for Holten. Based on this, Kappes actually hit his opponent on the arm, but to signal that the fight was over. When the scoreboard then incorrectly showed an ippon score for Bonn, the confusion was complete. The referee initially gave an ippon for Bonn, but then corrected this and then again declared a win for Bonn, as Kappes’ “knock off” was counted as exactly that: a knock off, i.e. a surrender.
The young man from Holten was devastated afterwards, but the boss only had words of praise: “I’m proud of you! You brought home the victory despite two very different fights.”
Make a real fuss at home against Leverkusen on 29 June
While Beckmann concluded by calling for a “real fuss” in the home match against Leverkusen on June 29th and beating the favorites this time after three Bundesliga defeats (2021 1:6, 2022: 6:8 and 2023 6:8), the Holten judo team will officially turn to the DJB about Christian Beckmann’s fight. “In the end, these could be important points in the undervaluation that could cost us the lead in the table at the end of the season and we think the picture and video material clearly proves the wrong decision,” said head coach Ralf Najdowski, explaining the decision. More information about the club can be found on the homepage, on Facebook and on Instagram.
2024-06-01 18:26:21
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