KIT most successful university at DHM Taekwondo

After the coaches' meeting and welcoming the athletes, the tournament started on Saturday at around 10 am. Following the competitions, there was a spectacular team fight, where two teams of three fighters each from different weight classes competed against each other for six minutes at a time in alternation. Around 6 p.m. the award ceremonies for the successful athletes followed. The Karlsruhe team succeeded in winning four medals and thus KIT is in first place in the overall ranking!
The result shows: It pays off that KIT offers a competition group for full contact Taekwondo in addition to the regular Taekwondo courses. This unit is led by Robert Plasa. Further preparation took place in the regular training operation and in the free training with Jessica Gromer. In addition, the athletes also met themselves in the castle park to practice. We are happy about this nice result of our work and congratulate all participants! Thanks to our friends in Konstanz for hosting the tournament!

The fights in detail:

Paul Bödeker:
This is Paul's first tournament participation after a short preparation time. He has shown himself to be a technical prodigy in training, executing kicking combinations and techniques before they are shown to him. In the fight, however, it is the purposeful application that counts the most. Paul competes against Jan Murawski (Uni Bochum) and is somewhat unsettled by an early head hit. In the further course he succeeds to call off his technique repertoire but he does not proceed decisively enough to still get the victory.Paul steps in as coach in Jessica's first fight due to time overlap.

Jessica Gromer:
Starts with a walk-through directly into the semifinals and wins here thanks to numerous head shots with 12 points ahead of Müjde Haberci (TU Dortmund) early at 16:4. In the final she is defeated in a technically almost mirror-image fight by Carolin Stahl (TH Mittelhessen), who also started with a walk-through. The slightly smaller Carolin succeeds again and again in infighting to undermine Jessica's cover.

Kai Kleindienst:
At the DHM 2013 he already took first place in the heavyweight division in LK II. Now he has switched to the LK I. Characteristic is his fight cry and his specialty are head hits in infight. In the quarterfinals he warms up with a win against Simikic Lazar (Uni Duisburg-Essen). Tactically he could have let the much heavier opponent run out more. The semi-final has to be cancelled by Niklas Wahl (Uni Heidelberg) due to injury. In the final, Bruno Raab (Universidad de las Americas Puebla), an experienced fighter, waits for Kai, whom he knows how to oppose despite the tension, but finally loses. Kai is coached by his club colleague Taoufik Skandrani (University of Konstanz) and starts together with him in the team fight.

Karim Mnasri:
The fact that Karim has gained tournament experience at the DHM 2013 (3rd place) is felt by Maik Bünz (Kiel University). Karim has a good eye for distances, sees when opportunities for head shots present themselves and knows how to use them for himself or prevent them. In addition, he always stays cool and implements the tactical instructions of his coach one-to-one. He already faced his semi-final opponent Philipp Hemmann (University of Tübingen) once in 2013. Back then, the match was a tactical test of nerves. This time Karim took a narrow lead early on, which he held until the end. In the final he faces Jorel Djamen (TU Clausthal), who repeatedly takes the lead with clean kicks to the electronic vest, but mostly misses Karim with his head kicks. Karim relentlessly finds his gaps when the Clausthaler becomes inattentive in the action. He loses in a match exciting to the end finally hair-thin.

Oskari Pakari:
On his first opponent Arno Pohlmann (TU Clausthal) Oskari lets loose a firework of kicks. Unfortunately, the hit level on the electronic vest is rarely reached and the head hits are not scored. Here Coach Robert could have used his video replay card earlier. The smaller Arno also manages to score points himself in Oskari's numerous attacks, so that Oskari only wins by a narrow margin in the end. In the quarterfinals Oskari then perfectly implements the tactic of keeping a smaller opponent at a long distance and thus leaves Marcel Schürzeberg (Uni Paderborn) no chance. In the semi-final against Daniel Ontyd (Uni Bochum) he also manages a clear victory. His opponent in the final, Andree Blumenstein (Uni Bielefeld), was in part even more clearly superior in the preliminary fights with versatile techniques. In particular on his long, direct cuts to the head, into the attacks of his opponents, they were a suitable answer owed. In the tactics prearrangement with Robert Plasa were chosen for this distance shortening by lateral forward movements around the cuts, Antäuschen to disguise the attacks and push kicks with the front leg from the closed position. The answer fits: After a round of feeling out, the score is zero to zero. The exciting match remains even, then the Bielefelder briefly takes the lead with a westward strike. But Oskari has more puff and chases him out of the fighting area, so that it is equal again in successive warnings. The fight goes into the fourth round for the Golden Point and here the KIT'ler is defeated conceivably narrowly.

Sopheak Meangkhori Seng:
Sopheak meets the later first-placed Jorel Djamen (TU Clausthal) in the very first fight. In his tournament debut, he is able to take a three-point lead in the first ten seconds with a stitched-in Neario-Chagi (Axe Kick) over the block of the Clausthal fighter. But loses the lead as a result of warnings for falling down and because he allows himself to be driven out of the fighting area by the aggressively acting Clausthaler, whose head is narrowly missed by further kicks. The fighters start the second round with an offensive exchange of punches with Jorel in a narrow lead and then in a lurking position. In the third round, both athletes give it their all. Both score and then Sopheak is again in front, until it comes in the last seconds as a result of a warning to the equalizer and thus to the fourth round for the Golden Point. It's a pity that the Clausthal fetches it, otherwise a ranking would have been possible.