On November 22nd and 23rd, 2024, the Dutch partner club of the NRW judoka, the Sportinstitut Verhagen, organized the EJU’s European Get-Together tournament for the second time.
The Dutch partner club of the NRW judoka, the Sportinstitut Verhagen, organized the EJU European Get-Together Tournament for the second time on November 22nd and 23rd, 2024 in the “de Wetteling” sports hall in Venray.
A total of around 200 judoka from 20 nations, including a delegation from Australia, took part in this event. Around 20 ID judoka traveled from North Rhine-Westphalia to this special tournament.
In Adaptive Judo, judoka with intellectual disabilities, learning disabilities, autism, Down syndrome, physical disabilities and other limitations do not fight separately according to the type of disability. Instead, they compete together, with the differentiation being made into five competition classes based on motor skills. One challenge of Adaptive Judo is that there are currently no clear exclusion criteria. In principle, any judoka who feels impaired in any way can take part. For example, it is noteworthy that an English judoka with a bachelor’s degree regularly takes part in these tournaments.
The division of the athletes into the five competition classes, which took place on the first day of the tournament, therefore played a central role. The qualifying sessions were led by Virtus Judo Director Kerry Tansey from Great Britain. National trainers present observed and checked the assignment of the competition classes in order to make corrections if necessary.
On the second day, the competitions took place in the five determined competition classes. Since only ID judoka – i.e. athletes with mental disabilities – competed from North Rhine-Westphalia, many of them started in a competition class lower. In the highest competition class I, Patrick Barendonk from Budokan Bocholt was the only German to compete in the weight class up to 66 kg. Patrick showed an outstanding performance, surprisingly won his class and took 1st place.
Another victory for the NRW team was achieved in the 3 to 73 kg competition class. Here Ben Musaeus from Hückeswagen was able to repeat his victory from last year and win the gold medal again. Marvin Offermann from Eintracht Mülheim won another gold medal in the 4 to 73 kg competition class.
There were also many excellent placements for Eintracht Mülheim, who competed with numerous ID judoka:
- Second places: Solomon Schramm, Marina Kamphausen, Marc Behrendt, Daniil Shimon, Philipp Loh.
- Third places: Lisa Heise, Tom-Lukas Kneisel, Caspar Schlicht, Christine Leibnitz, Sven Tschinkel and Isabel Agbaglo.
- Fourth places: Lars Filipiak and Noel Becker.
A big compliment goes to the hosts of the Verhagen Sports Institute, who masterfully managed to hold this huge tournament on six competition mats almost flawlessly and within a manageable time frame.
State coach Frank Schuhknecht was very satisfied with the success of his protégés at the last judo tournament of the year, especially with the strong performances of the young judoka.
At the end of the tournament, a festive evening with a large buffet took place in the evening at the Astoria event hotel in Venray for the numerous international guests who began their journey home the next morning.
Report & photos: Wolfgang Janko
