In the subsequent training camp on Sunday and Monday, together with Dr. Stefan Bernreuter and Dr. Magnus Jezussek who are on the DJB and EJU kata commissions who teaches Ju-no-Kata. The main thing is that athletes, judges and coaches are on the same level in order to know the main points of the evaluations and to make them more comprehensible.
The Nage-no-Kata for the age group up to 35 years was very hard fought. In the preliminary round there was only a small difference of seven points between places 1 and 6, after all, 8th place was more than 80 points away from 1st place.
The twins Immo and Hendrik Schmidt were in 4th place, four points behind the first pair and made it into the final. Michael and Mathias Zapf were only three points behind in 6th place. “The level was very high and the gaps extremely tight,” says DJB kata consultant Sebastian Frey.
“For the finale on Sunday, we made some technical changes and adjustments at Immo and Hendrik, and that paid off.” In the end, that was exactly enough to fight our way to the top. Both became European champions in nage-no-kata up to the age of 35.
Bronze goes to the couple Jörn Stermann-Sinsilewski and Volker Degenhart in the Kime-no-Kata in the age group up to 46 years. Both advanced to the final in fourth place. The second German couple Sönke Schillig and Johannes Christoph Kröger finished fifth in the preliminary round.
In the final, Jörn Stermann-Sinsilewski and Volker Degenhart fought their way to third place. “Only half a point behind second place is a very small gap,” assesses Sebastian Frey. “The two of them returned to competition for the first time in five years and did extremely well.” They deservedly won the bronze medal.
“After the long Corona break, everyone had to get back into the competition. All of our five couples mastered it excellently and I’m very satisfied with their performance,” says Sebastian Frey, assessing the performance of our couples at the European Kata Championships. For the first time, German kata athletes have won medals in three different katas at European Championships.
The conditions on site in Rijeka and the level at these European Championships were very good. The European Union has equalized the standards for continental championships in kata competitions as well, offering very worthy championships.
