Gentsch, dpa
Ingolstadt
“I am incredibly happy to have the honor of fighting this battle for bronze.” As with his Olympic debut in Rio in 2016, the TSV Abensberg athlete failed in the individual in Tokyo in the first round, albeit very unhappy. The whole burden of the entire team day then rested on the broad shoulders of the policeman, who was sent to the mat for the first time in the team tournament with a score of 3: 2 for the German judo selection – in the small final of all things. “I tried everything to make this dream come true – and I succeeded.” The gatekeeper had to leave everything on the mat. In a balanced duel, Seidl’s opponent Tanike Tsjakadoea was given the third warning (Shido) after a total of nine minutes in the golden score time – the disqualification. Seidl had driven him that far. After leaving the mat with a very correct bow, the doorkeeper raised both fists in the air and let the rest of the team celebrate. “We are a sensational team, we fought like lions, you could see that in everyone’s eyes”, he describes our newspaper.
And although Seidl mutated into a medal hero, for him and many others above all teammate Anna-Maria Wagner was “the superhero”, as the Upper Bavarian himself said. The individual bronze medalist suffered an elbow injury from the competition. The joint bronze coup compensated them – and of course Seidl like all the other musketeers. “All the hard work, not just over the past five years, but 20 years has finally paid off,” the strong man became sentimental. Just thinking about it would bring tears to his head. “These are dreams that are just about to come true.”
The success could hardly be doused. With celebrations it was “nothing at all”, says Seidl, which was due to the press appointments and the immediate flight home. He landed in Munich late on Sunday evening. “Then you celebrate at home.” And the same applies here: One for all, all for one!DK
