The German u18 club team championship also took place this year in the Niederlausitzhalle in Senftenberg. After the sensational title win for the u15 girls on Saturday, our boys in the fighting community with PSV Eisenach wanted to follow suit on Sunday. Martin Engelhardt (Eisenach), Baldur Senze (both -55kg), Sebastian Vogel (Eisenach), Jonathan Stanja, Erik Schneider (all three -60kg), Luca Feldbusch (Eisenach, -66kg), Benedikt Arning (-73kg) went for our team ), Henry Röder and Quentin Kucharczyk (both +73kg) on the scales. Since we couldn’t fill the -50kg weight class, our boys almost always had to make up for a 0-1 deficit.
Thanks to a bye, our team only started the tournament in the second round. In the first encounter, the strong team from TSG Blau-Gold Giessen was on the other side of the mat. Martin, Sebastian, Benedikt and Henry were all able to win their fights early, so that in the end a deserved 4-2 win meant they made it to the quarter-finals.
There we met the Sportfreunde Kladow from Berlin. Here too, our boys showed judo worth seeing with several ippons from well-timed foot throws and walked off the mat as winners with a very deserved score of 4:2. Martin, Sebastian, Benedikt and Quentin contributed the victories.
UJKC Potsdam waited in the subsequent semi-finals. Unfortunately, only Sebastian and Quentin were able to win their individual battles, so the dream of the final was unfortunately dashed with a score of 2:4.
In their last fight of the year, our boys were aiming for bronze. The judoka from JC 66 Bottrop came onto the mat as opponents. In an exciting and self-sacrificing fight over several minutes in the Golden Score, Martin was able to win his fight. Sebastian once again scored our team’s second point with a remarkable foot sweep. Unfortunately, Jonathan, Benedikt and Henry were unable to defeat their top-class opponents in close fights. In the end, our boys were just off the podium with an ungrateful fifth place.
With their second semi-final participation in a row, our boys can still be very proud of their performances, which put them among the best teams.
