Hamburg. It can only get better, and I think so Masha Ballhaus, is a good premise for what lies ahead. In Qatar’s capital, Doha, the start this Sunday World Judo Championshipsand the 22-year-old from Hamburg is required a day later in the weight class up to 52 kilograms.
It will be her second adult world title fights, and after her first fight in Tashkent (Uzbekistan) in October last year was her last, she is determined to survive the group stage this year. “My goal is to finish in the top seven, and I think that’s realistic,” she says.
Coach trusts her a medal
It is an assessment shared by those who know Mascha Ballhaus best. “I absolutely trust her to be at the front and even to fight for the medals,” says Slavko Tekic. The 53-year-old is the head coach of the Hamburg Judo Team (HJT) and the TH Eilbeck, for which the reigning German individual champion continues to go on the mat, although she has been training at the federal base in Munich since 2019.
“She’s got a stronger head and has proven that she can keep up with the international elite,” says the Serb. In particular, her victory at the Grand Slam tournament in Tashkent at the beginning of March catapulted Mascha Ballhaus into the focus of the world elite.
“I do think that the respect of my opponents has grown again as a result. Maybe they underestimated me a bit before, but that won’t be the case anymore,” says the nutritional science student, who, thanks to her status as a soldier in the Bundeswehr’s sports promotion group, can focus entirely on judo.
Olympic champion Abe is the top favorite
Nevertheless, she does not want to count herself among the medal candidates. The Japanese Uta Abe (22), Olympic champion in Tokyo 2021, the Hungarian Reka Pupp (26), the top seeded Kosovan Distria Krasniqi (27), who won Olympic gold in Tokyo in the 48 kg limit, and the French Amandine Buchard (27) , who won the Grand Slam tournament in Antalya (Turkey) at the end of March, considers her to be stronger.
“They will decide the medals among themselves. But with a bit of luck I can make it into the medal round,” she says. Especially since compared to her World Cup debut, one thing is different that is of great importance to Mascha Ballhaus: Her twin sister Seija, who is a minute older, will be by her side. The two have shared almost everything since they were born, except for their respective life partners, with whom they live in Munich.
Just because Seija, as an employee of the Bavarian state police, has to be a member of a Bavarian club, she no longer starts for the TH Eilbeck. Last year she was out for a long time due to a knee injury, she still has to stabilize and is therefore not one of the hopes for a medal in her World Cup debut.
Sister Seija starts in the 57 kg limit
Because the two athletes were used to being constant sparring partners for each other in training, Mascha Ballhaus had to make some changes. “It wasn’t an easy time for either of us, so I’m all the happier that Seija is fit again and has been nominated for the World Cup,” she says.
This was not a matter of course, since Seija Ballhaus in the class up to 57 kilograms – the sisters had decided in their youth at their home and heart club TSV Glinde to fight in different limits so as not to compete with each other – in Pauline Starke ( 25/Hanover) has a national competitor. At a World Cup, that’s not crucial because double nominations are allowed.
But the Olympic Games only allow one competitor per country and weight class, which could mean the Ballhaus sisters are split again next year when the Summer Games are held in Paris.
Masha is eighth in the Olympic ranking
In the Olympic ranking, which is independent of the world rankings and from which the top 18 qualify, Mascha currently occupies eighth place and is unrivaled nationally. Seija, on the other hand, is 20 places behind Pauline Starke in 35th place due to her long injury break.
All of this, however, is still a dream of the future, even if the Olympics are the long-term goal. “This year, the World Cup is the highlight of the season, it’s the most important title to win, and that’s what we’ve geared our entire training to,” says Masha, who is correspondingly happy that the German association won the World Cup despite the participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes not boycotted. “It’s important for me to gain experience at this level,” she says.
Competing is more fun now
Over the past few months, she has worked a lot in the strength area in order to finally arrive in adult judo. “Above all, the many international training camps and competitions have helped me enormously. If you constantly measure yourself against the best, you gradually adapt to their level,” she says. At the latest with the gold medal in Tashkent, I realized “that I can get involved at the front. And then the competitions are automatically even more fun,” she says.
This mental strength, says Slavko Tekic, both sisters, who are only rarely in Hamburg and start in the Bundesliga for JSV Speyer, have the competition ahead of them. “They are always really good when things get serious. That’s why I believe that both have good chances at the World Cup and will go to Paris together.” The only downside would be that things couldn’t get any better for the Ballhaus twins.
From Hamburg Among the men are Dominic Ressel (29/HJT/class up to 81 kg) and Losseni Koné (22/SC Alstertal-Langenhorn/over 100 kg) as well as Glinderin Miriam Butkereit (28/up to 70 kg) who is now starting for Halle (Saale). ) nominated for the World Cup.
Updated: Sat., 06.05.2023, 06.00 a.m
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2023-05-06 04:02:36
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