From May 25th to 29th, Kazakhstan hosted the World Cup in Para Judo, which is advertised worldwide. Visually impaired and blind judoka from 22 nations met in Nur-Sultan to compare themselves in sport and to gain experience in international competitions of the “International Blind Sports Federation” (IBSA).
The German delegation was represented by 4 athletes (three of them from the Hessen state association), the national coach and two assistant coaches. The three judoka from Hesse belong to impairment class J1, which means they are blind judoka with no residual vision. For Vanessa Wagner (blind at birth) and Lennart Sass (later blind) this tournament represented the second international Grand Prix, Tabea Müller (blind as a young child) made her debut in Kazakhstan as a representative of the German national team. All three are members of the Hessian Disabled and Rehabilitation Sports Association (HBRS) and the Hessian Judo Association (HJV). The severely visually impaired athlete Nikolai Kornhaß, who comes from Baden-Württemberg and was recently the world number one, was the only veteran in the national team.
Vanessa Wagner (Silbermedaille bis 57kg, J1), Markus Zaumbrecher (Trainer)
Battles against international competition went well for the whole coach-athlete team. Tabea Müller (up to 48kg, J1) beat her first three opponents confidently and was only defeated in her last fight. With this excellent start she achieved the 2nd place and was rewarded with a silver medal. It was similar for Vanessa Wagner (up to 57kg, J1), who reached the final without defeat thanks to her good fights. Her opponent from Turkey, World Cup winner of the previous Grand Prix in Antalya, was able to secure victory in the tournament this time as well. Nevertheless, Wagner was very satisfied with this success, as a runner-up she was almost at the top of the podium and received the silver medal. Lennart Sass (up to 73kg, J1) and Nikolai Kornhaß (up to 73kg, J2) had to assert themselves in a larger field, which they did with flying colors with two bronze medals.
“Today me and my trainer Markus got the reward for the extremely intensive work that we have done through daily individual training, which we have increased in the last four weeks after the Grand Prix in Antalya. I’m really happy!” remarked 20-year-old Wagner, visibly pleased with her silver medal. Markus Zaumbrecher, judo teacher trainer at the blista in Marburg, has specialized in the field of “judo for people with blindness and severely impaired vision” for many years and has done extremely successful development work in Hesse. Both Müller and Wagner learned their judo at the HBRS performance center at the blista in Marburg and were discovered and trained by him early on as talents. “In this high international environment, I have to analyze every tournament in cooperation with the top athletes and incorporate the knowledge I have gained into the training process in a timely and individually coordinated manner. This is significantly more time-consuming for blind people than for people with visual impairments, but it’s worth it, because we’re now clearly on our way to the top of the world,” said Zaumbrecher with satisfaction and confidence.
Next come the “European Para Youth Games”, which represent the European Championships in the junior Para Judo area and then the European Championships for seniors at the beginning of September. The qualifying phase for the Paralympic Games begins with the World Championships in early November. The proportion of national fighters from Hesse is particularly large and the successes so far show that a promising path is also being taken here in the sports state of Hesse.
Vlnr: Matthias Krieger, Lennart Sass, Vanessa Wagner, Tabea Müller, Nikolai Kornhaß, Carmen Bruckmann, Markus ZaumbrecherAutoren: M. Kunzmann, M. Zaumbrecher
Fotos: Alua Tussupova
The HJV congratulates all fighters and the coaching team on this great achievement.
Bettina Mueller
