As the only fighter of the 1.JJJC Lünen, Elias Hauert competed in the state individual tournament in the U17 age group. As a yellow belt, he had only been able to gain little fighting experience, so he saw this tournament as a good opportunity to be able to measure himself against good competitors at NRW level.
Since his weight class (-60kg) was well occupied, it was fought in a double KO system. If you win, you move on to the next round, if you lose you get to the consolation round and you can still fight for third place.
Elias was lucky at the beginning and got a bye, so he went straight to the next round. Then he met a more experienced opponent, whom he could not defeat despite attempts to throw. In the end, Elias was defeated by the opponent’s well-placed foot technique.
Elias was also unlucky in the consolation round – his opponent was able to throw him overhead, which eliminated Elias from the tournament.
Despite the two defeats, it wasn’t a wasted day. After all, Elias could watch many fights of strong judoka and learn a lot from it.
