1. JC Mönchengladbach starts with victory over feared opponents

After staying up in the 2nd Bundesliga in 2021 was only secured on the last day of the fight, from the point of view of 1. JC Mönchengladbach it should be a little less drama in the judo season that has now started. The start of the new season – to a certain extent the exposition in the course of the classic drama – has already been a success for the gentlemen. Mönchengladbach defeated Braunschweiger JC 9:5 and celebrated a win in the first act of the season – it remains to be seen whether the rest of the “piece” in the 2nd Bundesliga can also convince.

For the first day of fighting, the men of the 1st JC had decided to end the negative series against the guests from Lower Saxony, as the last duels against the Braunschweig JC were always lost. Newcomer Aslanbek Kagermanov gave the Mönchengladbachers the lead in the first encounter in the weight class up to 90 kilograms with an early Ippon victory. Eldar Tliashinov (+100 kg) was also able to prevail in the subsequent fight despite a significant weight disadvantage against his opponent with a shoulder throw. In the weight class up to 66 kilograms, no winner could be determined in the regular fight time, so that the golden score extension had to bring the decision. Alexander Wegele kept his nerve and scored the decisive score after around two minutes of extra time, which allowed the 1. JC to pull away 3:0.

Although Daniel Vishnevski (-73 kg) dominated his opponent in the ensuing bout and inflicted two penalties on him, he was defeated by a choke technique after a careless fight on the ground. Lightweight Peer Radtke (-60 kg) was able to defend his Waza-ari rating until the end of the fight and thus prevent the Braunschweig team from connecting. Raymon de Vos extended Gladbach’s lead with his victory in the category up to 100 kilograms, before Odai Almawarde (-81 kg) lost in the final fight of the first round.

The game went into the break with a 5-2 lead. In order to fulfill the two mandatory changes required by the association for the break, JC trainer Vahid Sarlak now relied on Ahmad Alerksosi in the weight class up to 60 kilograms, the weight class up to 81 kilograms remained vacant. The second round also started promisingly, as Kagermanov forced his opponent to surrender with an arm lock. This time, however, Eldar Tliashinov had to admit defeat. On the other hand, both Alexander Wegele and Daniel Vishnevski won their encounters with remarkable techniques and made Gladbach’s victory clear with three fights before the end. With this security behind him, the only 17-year-old Ahmad Alerksosi was able to step free onto the mat and showed a strong Bundesliga debut, in which he only lost in the golden score overtime. With his second win of the day, De Vos made it 9:5 for 1. JC over Braunschweig. This means that the Gladbach judokas have been unbeaten for three duels across the seasons and are currently second in the 2nd Bundesliga. Next Saturday there will be a duel at table leaders and promotion favorites TSV Bayer Leverkusen.

The women of the 1st JC also started the new season of the NRW league at the weekend. A day of fighting with two duels was scheduled. However, since JC Holzwickede did not serve in the Rheindahlener Halle, the fight was scored 7-0 for Mönchengladbach. The only thing left for the women was the duel against 1. SC Lippetal. Muna Dahouk, who competed for the IJF refugee team at the Olympic Games in Tokyo, surprisingly lost in the weight class up to 63 kilograms against her opponent from Lippetal. While Lisa Hiller (-57 kg), Jana Schmitz (-52 kg) and Julia Tillmanns (+78 kg) won their fights, Leonie Grabowski (-78 kg) and Oula Dahouk (-70 kg) had to admit defeat. Since both teams did not have any fighters in the weight class up to 48 kilograms, the fight against Lippetal ended in a 3:3 draw. The women’s game continues on May 21 in the Jahnhalle against the teams from Dortmund and Bochum.