Completely motivated, Thomas Petraschek and Karin Steinbichler set out on a mission to win the senior national championship title (or Blech) in Judenburg on November 16th/17th, 2024.
Thomas:
What if … ? With various scenarios in mind and highly motivated, Thomas Petraschek started into the senior state championships.
But it didn’t help at all, because if the luck of the draw fails, perfectly thought-out battle plans, clever strategies and sophisticated tactics are of no use. And so ultimately there was nothing to be won in the men’s singles. Except for the repetition of an encounter that last took place around 30 years ago. Against Harald Hochgatterer (BSC 70 Linz), ultimately runner-up in the men’s singles 45+ competition, Thomas scored 15 and 9 points. Due to the knockout mode, there were no further singles matches.
In the men’s doubles, Thomas found his partner in Peter Monnerjahn, player from BSC 70 Linz, in the men’s doubles 45+. A group of four then made several encounters possible, all of which were unfortunately lost. However, some of them are also tight. What remains are the thought games in your head – what if…
Karin:
The fact that I was placed first in both competitions (DD 50+ and MX 50+) made me a little nervous… so staying calm and not losing my nerve was the tactic.
The mixed games started on Saturday. Since I and my partner Reinhard Hechenberger from BSC 70 Linz had a bye at number 1, we were assured of a medal place. That was a good start. 😉 The semi-final against Claudia Kristelly (WBH Vienna) and Dieter Altvater (ATUS Weiz) started as desired. However, after winning the first set, we made too many unforced errors in the second and had to go into extra time, which we then won 21:15. Then I met my former club colleagues Susanne and Dariusz Nahrebecki from Top and Fit Badminton Bad Vöslau. As expected, it was a close game. In the first set we were already leading 18:15. Unfortunately, the opponents came up, took the lead through clever tactics and won 22:20. Unfortunately, we also had to lose the second set with 16:21 and ultimately ended up in 2nd place. Considering that it was my first time playing together with Reinhard, the performance was okay and I was able to collect my first medal.
However, in the women’s doubles we (Susanne Nahrebecki and I) lived up to our role as favorites. After two rather easier games on Saturday evening, the final took place on Sunday against Andrea Ofner and Claudia Kristelly (WBH Vienna). We assumed that – as in the past – it would be a very close game. However, we played with a lot of pressure and consistency from the start, which our opponents were unable to counter. We won faster than expected with 21:17 and 21:10 and were crowned state champions in the DD 50+. The strenght is to be found in serenity.
