At the Austrian Judo Championships in the U18 and U23 age groups, which were held last weekend in Feldkirch in Vorarlberg, Helene Schrattenholzer and Alexa Kainrath won three excellent medals for the Judo Union Klosterneuburg.
Particularly impressive were the performances by Helene Schrattenholzer, who brought her excellent form of the last few months, which also brought her call-ups to the national team, to the mat well. On Saturday she dominated her weight class in the U18 and won all fights early with Ippon. On Sunday she followed up again in the U23. Here, too, the competition simply couldn’t hold a candle to her. Again, all fights went early with Ippon to the Klosterneuburg judo talent, who was allowed to return home with two gold medals in their luggage.
The struggle with expectations
“The expectations were of course relatively high after the last few months. I’m still having a hard time dealing with it. It’s all the nicer that it worked twice at the same time,” the double champion analyzes her competition weekend.
Alexa Kainrath in the U18 provided the third precious metal in the JUK collection. She showed a lot of fighting spirit, only had to admit defeat to the later vice champion and was happy about third place on the podium. Vanessa Buxbaum gives everything in her fights, but has to admit defeat in the third and last fight, even though she was in the lead at times. Despite impeccable performances, she has to be satisfied with fourth place.
After a good start in the U18 tournament, Mario Kainrath was no longer able to play to his strengths in the later fights and ended up in seventh place. Leon Gümüskaya started in the U23. Due to carelessness, which was quickly punished, he was eliminated in the first lap.
