Victory in the four-country match in ID-Judo – NWJV

Nihon Dutch Open in Venray

The Dutch partner club of our BRSNW judoka, the Sportinstituut Verhagen, organized the Dutch Open for judoka with a disability for the eleventh time after a three-year Corona break in the sports hall “de Wetteling” in Venray. At the same time it was an anniversary event for the 25th anniversary of the Verhagen sports institute. For the first time, some judoka with a visual impairment took part in the event.

A total of 220 judoka from 13 nations took up this challenge, including more than 30 judoka from North Rhine-Westphalia. As in previous years, the Dutch Open was only fought out in competition class 1 and was extremely strong, especially due to the participation of British judoka. Nevertheless, the NRW squad athletes were able to assert themselves with two first places and numerous third places at the last judo tournament of the year.

The two-time ID European Champion Andrea Kuhne from Hünxe had no problems with her two opponents from the Netherlands and Belgium in the class over 78 kg and won both fights after just a few seconds. Andre Conen from Leverkusen had a much harder time in the extremely strong 73 kg class, especially since he lost his British opponent in his first fight. But the class was so balanced that no fighter went undefeated. Andre won his other four fights prematurely, so that he was still able to take first place in the end. There were third places in competition class 1 for Patrick Berthold from Bocholt (up to 66 kg) and Bastian Wind from Hünxe (up to 81 kg). Mark Behrendt from Essen narrowly missed the final round in the heavyweight division, so that he ended up taking fifth place.

Since the competitions for judoka with a handicap are held in five competition classes in the Netherlands and only three in Germany, the assignment of our competitors was not always clear. Nevertheless, the ID judoka who came from Mülheim, Hünxe and Cologne could be happy about great successes in the various competition classes. A big compliment to the hosts, who managed to carry out this huge tournament on six competition mats almost flawlessly within a reasonable time frame.

The highlight of the event was undoubtedly the four-country international match of the ID judoka in the afternoon with teams from Great Britain, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Germany. Teams of five started in the weight classes -66, -73, -81, -90 and +90 kg, with each team only being able to occupy four weight classes.

We narrowly won the first fight against the Netherlands 3:2 thanks to victories by Patrick Berthold, Andre Conen and Marc Behrendt. We also defeated Great Britain with the same result. After winning the first three fights, victory was already certain and we easily got over the two defeats in the classes up to 90 kg and plus 90 kg.

In the last encounter against Slovenia there was a clear and never endangered 4:1 victory, so that Germany was able to win this international match, which was played for the second time, for the first time ahead of the Netherlands and Great Britain.

Before the two award ceremonies at noon and in the afternoon, enthusiastic performances of the Japanese art of drumming, Taiko, delighted audience and participants alike.

State trainer Frank Schuhknecht was happy about the great successes of his protégés at the last judo tournament of the year, of course especially about his team’s first place in the four-country fight, but also about the very good placings of the young junior judoka.

In the evening there was a big anniversary celebration with many international guests for the organizer of the international judo tournament Rudi Verhagen, whose sports institute is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year.