Hamburg. No fight has crossed the mat yet, but Rainer Ganschow can already anticipate the sporting conclusion he will draw this Saturday evening. “There is nothing better in Germany this year JudoI can promise that,” he says. Ganschow, whose main occupation is a pediatrician and director of the University Clinic in Bonn, has been President of the Hamburg Judo Association (HJB) since 2002. You can rely on his classification, and so is the anticipation that Hamburger Judo-Team (HJT) prevails everywhere, more than understandable.
German championship: HJT is the favorite at the start
As the host of the final round of the German team championship the selection of head coach Slavko Tekic in the Wandsbek sports hall as the north champion in the semi-finals (11 a.m.) against the south runner-up JC Leipzig is favored at the start. If the hoped-for success is achieved in the two rounds of seven fights each, the winner of the second semi-final duel between the defending champion and record champion TSV Abensberg and Sport-Union Annen awaits in the final at 3 p.m. The fights will be streamed live on Sportdeutschland.TV. “All opposing teams are strong, we have to go to our limit. But we have the best Germans and that will be decisive,” says Tekic. Because local judoka have to be used in ten of the 14 fights, a strong German faction in the Bundesliga is often the winning factor.
With Moritz Plafky (26/class up to 60 kg), Yerrick Schriever (21/up to 73 kg), Dominic Ressel (29/up to 81 kg) and Dario Kurbjeweit Garcia (28/up to 100 kg), Hamburg has four outstanding national fighters in the squad. However, President Ganschow, who also heads the HJT, sees the greatest strengths in two other areas. “For one thing, Slavko is a huge factor. He deals with judo 24 hours a day, knows every opponent and adapts the boys individually in a way that no other coach in Germany can,” he says.
On the other hand, the unity of the team is the big trump card compared to other teams. In the years 2016 to 2018, when Hamburg left its first marks on the judo championship card with three titles in a row, there was still much discussion about whether it was necessary to sign so many legionnaires from home and abroad in order to win a title to pursue, for whom there is no reward other than fame and glory. When the solvent sponsor Peter Wittmann parted ways in the 2019 season, a rethink took place in Hamburg judo. “We then decided to rely more on our own growth,” says Ganschow.
Fighters are not in Hamburg for the money
Of course, it is not possible to do without experienced leaders completely, no team can only fill the permitted 40-man squad with athletes from their own circle. But under Tekic’s leadership – the Serb is also the head coach at TH Eilbeck and highly regarded as a talent developer – the youngsters were gradually introduced to the Bundesliga team. Top talents like Losseni Koné (21/over 100 kg) and Lasse Schriever (19/up to 90 kg) are now top performers.
In addition, the HJT selection fighters all have a non-financial connection to the team. Moritz Plafky and especially Dominic Ressel could earn significantly more money elsewhere, they get offers after each season. “But they stay because they appreciate the team spirit here,” says Rainer Ganschow. In general, there would be many who would fight for a place in Tekic’s squad. “But when selecting the team, we make sure that the character and motivation are right.”
Yerrick Schriever (TH Eilbeck) and Dario Kurbjeweit Garcia (Bramfelder SV) come from Hamburg clubs but had to leave their hometown because the members of the national squad have to train at the federal bases. This is one of the reasons why Rainer Ganschow is working to achieve federal base status for Hamburg in the medium term. “It was rightly criticized that we currently have too few full-time trainers for this,” he says. As a first consequence, national coach Florian Hahn was hired at the beginning of the year. “Now Slavko always has a representative he can rely on. That made an incredible difference,” says the President. Now he is pursuing the idea of setting up a youth base in cooperation with the other northern associations in Hamburg, which should work together with the adult base in Hanover. “It won’t be easy, but if we didn’t have goals like that, we wouldn’t need to continue.”
Hamburg’s judo sport has become more professional
However, the most important infrastructural step in recent years was the move to the new state training center at Eulenkamp, which was put into operation in 2019. “The conditions before in Wandsbek were no longer bearable. With the new hall, we have been able to professionalize all of our processes,” says Ganschow, who emphasizes the support from the city and the sports department against this background. “We are very grateful to politicians for their help over the past few years,” he says. The fact that the Wandsbek sports hall is now a permanent home for the Bundesliga fights is also an important development.
After all, they organize the fighting days in the HJT on their own, so fixed processes are needed. Florian Hahn, national coach Daniel Lenk and sporting director Patrick Strutz form the trio responsible for the smooth running of the final round. This now includes a live stream in TV quality, the provision of monitors and moderation in the hall and an appropriate VIP area to keep the sponsors happy. In this area, too, a rethink had taken place in the HJT after the big bang in 2019. Away from a large patron towards a network of smaller donors. “Even 2,000 or 3,000 euros is good money for us, and we have put the support on a much broader basis,” says Ganschow.
German Championship: That’s the budget of the HJT
The basic costs for a Bundesliga season are EUR 40,000, and the total budget for the Final Four tournament is EUR 36,800. Money that first has to be earned in a niche sport like judo. “Fortunately, we don’t have any financial problems. The location is not luxurious, but adequate,” says the President, who is nevertheless always on the lookout for new partners.
What he can offer you can be seen again on Saturday: Honest, fair sport in a pleasant atmosphere – and a city in which Japanese martial arts, in contrast to the national trend, has increasing membership numbers. Around 4,850 active members are currently registered in the 62 Hamburg clubs. “Unfortunately, some small clubs didn’t survive the Corona crisis, but we have growth in many clubs that we didn’t expect,” says Rainer Ganschow. He now wants to work to further strengthen the women’s sector in Hamburg. With the fighting community from Bramfelder SV and JG Sachsenwald, there was already a quite successful second division team in the city this season.
On this Saturday, however, the present counts first. “We want the fifth star and I think we’re strong enough to get it,” says Ganschow. And if not, then we still celebrate, after all, the path they have taken is a good one.
Updated: Sat., 19.11.2022, 06.00 a.m
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