Athlete choice, part 14: The Rotenburg judoka Andreas Wöhl crowns his career with the World Championships silver medal in Paris.
Rotenburg – The year got off to an exciting start for Andreas Wöhl. The regional magazine “buten un binnen” from Radio Bremen showed a report about the Rotenburger on television at the beginning of January. No wonder: after all, the judoka won the silver medal in his age group at the World Championships in Paris in November! “The camera team accompanied me for almost three hours. It’s funny to see that after all the recordings, a contribution of three to four minutes is created,” says the 71-year-old. “It was a great experience.”
The conclusion is likely to be similar when Wöhl thinks about his achievements in Paris. The district town native, who competes for the Enjoy Judo team in Bremen and trains in Oyten, crowned his long career with the silver medal in the M 9 age group and the weight class under 73 kilograms. It was only in the final that the pensioner had to admit defeat to the Czech Bohumir Sarsoun. “I’m super happy, but after the final I was annoyed for a moment. I was so excited for the fight that I was over-motivated and ran straight into the action,” Wöhl looks back.
In addition to a bronze medal at the 2014 European Championships in Prague, Wöhl has already won gold three times at the German Senior Championships – in 2017, 2019 and 2024. So far, however, it has not been enough for precious metal at a World Championships. In 2014 and 2015 he was quite close with a seventh and a fifth place, but then refrained from further participation. “The last World Cup was in Las Vegas or Abu Dhabi. That’s far too far away for me. So I had to wait almost ten years for my chance,” reports the exceptional talent.
So it should work in Paris now. The World Cup in the French capital was the biggest of all time. More than 2,300 athletes from 65 nations submitted their entries. There were 24 starters in Wöhl’s competition instead of ten in previous years. “I was shocked and almost wrote off the medal thing,” he says. Before the competition, he went on a strict diet to get down from his normal weight of 77 kilograms. “For four weeks there was only low-fat quark, oat flakes and so on. Every day we went on the scales,” reveals Wöhl. On site in Paris, a 72.8 finally flashed in front of the inspectors – spot-on landing!
What followed was the greatest success of a career that actually seemed to have already ended. Wöhl started at the age of 15 and made it to the North German championships as a young adult. But at the age of 45 he stopped. “The motivation was gone, I had a lot to do at work. And so the judo suit hung on the hook for quite a long time,” he reports. But when his youngest son Justus announced his intention to go to training in the hall at the Ratsgymnasium 15 years later, his father came along – his second career began at the age of 60.
The sport is now his great passion again. But for how much longer? “I will definitely continue judo, just for my health.” There shouldn’t be any big competitions anymore – or should they? “Who knows what else will happen to me. I heard that the World Championships this year are in Sarajevo…” says the Rotenburger and laughs. By the way, Wöhl has long since discovered a second sport for himself. He has been playing at the Wümme Golf Club almost every day for three years.
