Judo: Hunger and Reiter choose themselves again as state champions

Eight Wimpassinger judoka in the medal fights

It was again an impressive performance by the Wimpassinger judoka at the Austrian State Championships in Weiz. Even without the World Cup starters Michi Polleres and Aaron Fara, the squad of head coach Adi Zeltner showed that they are currently among the best in Austria.
A class of his own was Lukas Reiter up to 73kg. Seeded number 1, he successfully defended his title and won all four of his fights prematurely with ippon. He also clearly kept the distance to his approaching opponents in the same weight class in the ÖJV team. With this success he secures his fifth state championship title in the AK.
Marlene Hunger also managed the feat of repeating her previous year’s victory with three Ippon victories and thus already winning her third national championship title in the AK.
Sarah Mairhofer also qualified for the final in the -70kg class. There, however, she was defeated by the newly crowned Junior Vice European Champion Elena Dengg from Salzburg. The woman from Wimpassingen was right to be happy about her silver medal.
Lisa Grabner was unlucky in the class up to 57kg. A little carelessness in the grip fight cost her victory in the semifinals against teammate Verena Hiden, who also regularly scores points for wimpassing as a guest fighter in the women’s Bundesliga team. Lisa then had to go to the small final, where she clearly won with ippon for uchi mata (inside thigh throw) and thus won the bronze medal.
Evergreen Florian Wallner was able to prove his skills again in the class up to 90kg. He only lost in the semifinals to national team fighter Adam Borchashvili. In the subsequent bronze fight, he prevailed in a pure Wimpassinger duel against youngster Niklas Weitzbauer and, with bronze, achieved his seventh medal at the Austrian State Championships AK. It was a sensationally strong performance for the U18 fighter Niklas Weitzbauer, who surprisingly clearly qualified for this bronze fight with an ippon throw in the repechage round. In the end he ended up on the very good 5th place.
Mike Zeltner, who was fighting in top form, initially astonished all opponents. After only a short fight time, he first put national team fighter Andreas Wagner and then his next two opponents out of action with ippon for a hold, choke hold and arm lock. Also in the semi-final against national team fighter Wojcech Kanik it looked like a small sensation, as he was able to fix his opponent briefly with a handheld device. But Kanik was able to free himself and then countered with a decisive osotogari (large outer sickle). In his fifth fight, Mike then had to fight Ronny Proell, third at the European Championship U18 in 2022. The young top talent from Upper Austria was able to prevail in an open bronze fight and the man from Wimpassingen had to be content with rank 5 that day.
In the +78kg class, Daniela Polleres was able to present herself very well. She was initially able to record two safe Ippon victories. It was also a long open fight against the youth European Championship starter Helene Schrattenholzer before her opponent was able to prevail with 3:2 penalties. Another defeat against national team fighter Maria Höllwarth meant a secure third place in the end.

A successful comeback after a 5-year break from competition was Stefan Morgenbesser in the class up to 73 kg. After very good fights he ended up on the respectable 9th place.

In the club ranking, the JC Wimpassing Sparkasse ended up with these top performances with a total of two gold, one silver, three bronze and two fifth place in the very strong 2nd place behind Sanjindo Bischofshofen and ahead of Galaxy Tigers Vienna among 29 participating clubs.