On the second day of the U-21 Junior European Championships in Prague, national judo squad athlete Sarah Mehlau from SV Winnenden secured third place in her weight class up to 70 kilograms. After the unfortunate fifth place at the U-21 World Championships in Guayaquil (Ecuador) five weeks ago, this is finally the long-awaited and well-deserved medal.
Sixth in the world rankings, Sarah Mehlau started the tournament with a bye. In the second round she faced Ida Jakobsen (Denmark) against whom she scored a waza-ari (half score) for o-soto-gari (leg throw) halfway through the bout. There was no escape for the Dane from the subsequent hold, which meant that Mehlau made it into the pool final.
Brilliant start in the semifinals
Here she faced the Ukrainian Mariia Rytska. At first the fight was balanced. But after two and a half minutes, the winnender applied a waza-ari for o-uchi-gari (leg throw). Encouraged by the lead, she sent the Ukrainian down again 30 seconds later with a nice counterattack and thus decided the fight in her favor early on.
In the semi-finals, Mehlau got off to a brilliant start and, after only ten seconds, thundered her opponent Elena Dengg from Austria onto the mat with a lightning-fast O-soto-gari with Waza-ari. In the further course of the fight she had the Austrian under control and additionally imposed two shidos (penalty points) on her.
Getting into the final seemed within reach. However, after an injury, the Winnender had taken a moment too long before she was ready to fight again, and the referee already gave the signal to continue fighting. The Austrian jumped on her and overran her. Thus, Mehlau lost her fight and went into the fight for bronze. “She should have been in the final, she was much better,” coach Lorenz Trautmann struggled with the result.
Don’t be discouraged
But Sarah Mehlau was not discouraged by the lost semifinals and started the bronze medal fight against Nika Koren from Slovenia with great concentration. With her strong Kumikata (grip) she put her opponent under pressure from the start. After less than a minute, Mehlau was able to take over an approach from her opponent on the floor and complete it with an arm lock – Ippon for Mehlau and thus bronze at the Junior European Championships. “Sarah fought a very, very strong tournament and started the same way as at the World Cup,” said national coach Lorenz Trautmann. She deserved the medal and after the unfortunate fifth place at the World Championships she finally arrived where she belongs.
Sarah Mehlau’s home trainer Steffen Rommel and his son Ben Rommel (former training partner), who were there live in Prague, are also very happy about Mehlau’s success.
On the fourth day of the European Championship, the German team competed in a mixed team with three female and three male fighters. Here, too, the woman from Winnender was in top form. In the fight against Ukraine, she defeated her opponent in her weight class up to 70 kilograms. After a draw, Mehlau drew the lot for the deciding battle in the Golden Score. Here she calmly waited for her chance and ended the fight with a nice combination to win for Germany. Equally pleasing was the only win against Azerbaijan for a point of honor in the next higher weight class plus 70 kilograms. Here, Mehlau initially fell behind against her much heavier opponent, but then turned up the heat and won prematurely with a leg technique. Despite Mehlau’s victories, Germany only finished fifth overall.
