Three South Hessian athletes land at the top in the annual election of the state sports association: Judoka Eduard Trippel, triathlon junior Jule Behrens and table tennis national trainer Jörg Roßkopf.
Eduard Trippel won two medals at the Tokyo Olympics. The judoka from JC Rüsselsheim was named “Sportsman of the Year” by the State Sports Association of Hesse.
(Photo: dpa)
FRANKFURT – Swimmer Sarah Köhler and Judoka Eduard Trippel are Hessen’s “Sportsman of the Year” 2021. This was announced by the State Sports Association of Hessen (LSBH) on Friday evening. In the annual election organized by the LSBH, Köhler won with 46.1 percent of all votes, ahead of dressage rider Dorothee Schneider (30.5 percent) and table tennis player Petrissa Solja (23.4), who competed for Bundesliga club TSV Langstadt. The result was even clearer for the men: At the end of the Olympic year in which he had won two medals in Tokyo, Eduard Trippel from Rüsselsheim left Uwe Wahlig (glider, 29.1 percent) and Christian Reitz ( Shooting, 22.3 percent) well behind.
In two of the six categories there were victories for athletes from southern Hesse. Triathlete Jule Behrens from the DSW Darmstadt was named “Newcomer of the Year”, while the national table tennis coach Jörg Roßkopf, who lives in Groß-Umstadt, was chosen as “Trainer of the year”.
The Trippel, who fights for JC Rüsselsheim, is one of the most successful German participants in the Tokyo Olympic Games with silver in the individual and a bronze medal in the team mixed competition. The now 24-year-old was named Newcomer of the Year by the LSBH in 2018.
This year, this title went to Jule Behrens, who won everything there was to win in the U20 triathlon class: World Championship, European Championship, German Championship. The 18-year-old also won bronze at the Mixed Relay European Championship for club teams with DSW Darmstadt.
Jörg Roßkopf is 34 years older and has been the national table tennis coach since August 2010 and has had an impressive track record ever since. Under his direction, the German men immediately won the gold medal in singles, doubles and with the team at the 2010 European Championships. Numerous other titles at European Championships were added. After three silver medals at the World Championships (2012, 2014 and 2018), this year was followed by silver at the Olympic Games in 2021, where Dimitrij Ovcharov also won individual bronze under the direction of Roßkopf.
Hesse’s sportswoman of the year 2019 had also won the election in 2021. At the Olympic Games in Tokyo, Sarah Köhler finished third in the 1500m freestyle final and won the first Olympic pool medal in 13 years for the German Swimming Association.
With the RSV Lahn-Dill one of the world’s best teams in wheelchair basketball was chosen. The 13-time German champion won the IWBF Champions League for the seventh time this year. Other winners are the wheelchair basketball players of RSV Lahn-Dill (team of the year), athletics sprinter Felix Streng (parasport athlete of the year / sprint team Wetzlar) as well as Natascha Hiltrop (shooting / SV Lengers) and Svenja Mayer (wheelchair basketball, Rhine- River-Rhinos Wiesbaden), who shared the title para-athlete of the year with exactly 36.2 percent each.
The winners were chosen by experts from the sports editorial team of the Hessian media and by a public vote carried out by the Hessian Broadcasting Corporation. The votes of the experts and the audience each contributed 50 percent to the final result. “Despite the difficult pandemic-related situation in young talent and top-class sport in 2021, our Hessian athletes have achieved outstanding results. This is underscored not least by the results of Tokyo, but also and especially by the numerous international successes in the youth field, “said Lutz Arndt, LSBH Vice President of Competitive Sports, regarding the choice of athletes who are expected to be honored in a special event in the first half of 2022 should.
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