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Chiara Kampschulte in action while paddling. © kampschulte
Chiara Kampschulte from Soest has a meteoric career in the trendy sport of padel and wins a European Championship tournament in Munich.
Soest/Munich – Chiara Kampschulte is actually known as a player and captain of the women’s association league of the BW Soest tennis club. But the 24-year-old has another sporting passion – padel. This is a trend sport that is particularly popular in South America and on the Iberian peninsula. “Padel” is a kind of mixture of tennis and squash and is played in a kind of glass cage, with the walls also being used and players competing against each other in doubles (or mixed).
Last weekend, Kampschulte won an international event in Munich, a kind of mini European Championship, while her tennis team from Soest suffered the bitter relegation from the association league.
The German team around Kiara Kampschulte (2nd from left) with the trophy and winner’s check. © kampschulte
Kampschulte started padel in April 2022 when she was approached by national player Christian Böhnke. She completed a training camp in Mallorca and there she met Milla Blaschke, who is still her doubles partner today. Hooked on the fast reaction sport, both got better and better, playing tournaments in different categories, similar to tennis from 100 up to 1000. “We played more and more, basically the whole of 2023,” says Kampschulte.
There had already been tournament victories before, the rankings kept going up and then at some point the nomination for the German national team followed. Kampschulte adds: “The community isn’t that big yet. But I’ve always dreamed of playing for Germany one day.”
Chiara Kampschulte in action while paddling. © Kampschulte
There are no padel facilities in the Soest district yet, and tennis halls and industrial halls are often converted for this purpose. Kampschulte, who now lives in Essen and is doing a dual study course, plays and trains in the Ruhr area, in Essen or Dortmund and also in Düsseldorf.
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After the European Championships of the FIP association were cancelled last year, Kampschulte and Blaschke took part in the European Championships of the rival association FEPA in Lisbon in November – they made it to the quarter-finals and finished seventh. “That was a great experience,” says the Soest native. There are three doubles players in the national team and ideally there are eight players so that they can switch.
Last weekend saw the nomination and participation in the “European Championships” in the “Padel City”. This was set up in the ice stadium in the Olympic Park and thus provided a spectacular backdrop. The game was played with a female and male doubles team per nation, with participants from Hungary, Poland, Switzerland, Austria and Spain also taking part. However, Spain, where padel is almost a national sport, was not its best player.
In the preliminary round, they lost to Poland, but won against the Czech Republic and Hungary. In the semi-finals, the German team defeated Switzerland. There were two doubles matches – one for men, one for women. The number of sets had to decide the winner or the loser – counting like in tennis. Poland was waiting again in the final – and this time they got revenge and won the tournament. The quartet received an impressive 8,000 euros in prize money.
“It’s fun. There are cool people everywhere and everything is more relaxed than at tennis and sometimes there is music playing in the background during the games,” says Kampschulte, citing further differences.
There will be a World Championship in Qatar in October. If Kampschulte were to be nominated, she would probably go with Milla Blschke, even if she had to cover the costs herself – she wouldn’t miss something like that.
But she also continues to play tennis at BW Soest. “I love tennis as a team sport,” she says, and hopes that there will be a promotion to celebrate next year.
2024-07-02 18:00:00
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