Strong handball players achieve fifth place at DHM

The team from Karlsruhe started on Friday, 11.07 on the journey to the final of the German University Championships, which was hosted this year by the Humboldt University in Berlin. After a long journey, the team arrived in Berlin at around 5 p.m. and, after checking into the hotel, made the short journey to the venue, where the first group matches were already played.

The competition team from Baden then started the tournament on Saturday morning against WG Cologne. Against a not overpowering opponent, this game was unfortunately clearly lost. Especially the miserable chance utilization and several lost balls enabled the opponent to score easy goals by counterattack again and again. After a break of two hours it went then already into the vorendscheidenden duel against the team from Braunschweig. With a defeat the preliminary round exit of the Karlsruhe students would have been already sealed. The first minutes of the match were very even and the opponent from Braunschweig was even in the lead at times. Gradually the team improved and in the end won clearly with 15 goals difference. Thus, the starting situation for the last preliminary round match against the team from Magdeburg was clear. With a victory, the semifinal ticket would be booked, a defeat would lead to 3rd place in the preliminary round and thus elimination. The match started with a fierce fight and until 7:7 in the middle of the first half, the team kept up well with the physically strong Magdeburg team, which had a former Bundesliga professional in its ranks. After a series of mistakes in the attack, the team from Magdeburg managed to play out a lead of 4 goals at halftime. Unfortunately, the team from Karlsruhe completely overslept the start of the second half and the opponent gradually reduced the lead to 10 goals. The team from the fan city put now everything on a map and covered (still) more offensively. This did not taste the student team from Saxonia anhalt at all and so one shortened gate by gate. Just as the play became correctly close and the Karlsruher students on two goals verkürzen could, lost the referees completely their line and each decision fell against the team from Karlsruhe. The sometimes hair-raising decisions even brought the home crowd on the side of the Karlsruhe boys, who then lost the game narrowly, but could leave the field with their heads held high.

By this result the WG Karlsruhe occupied the 5th place and ranks thus among the TOP 5 of the handball teams of the students from Germany. His farewell tour in Berlin was given by Alexander Kugele, who is one of the founding members of this team and from now on may use his skills in his new passion as a teacher. The team of the WG Karlsruhe would like to thank the host from Berlin, who organized a great tournament and gave us an unforgettable weekend. A special thanks goes to the team coach Elli, who took care of us sacrificially during the whole weekend. Thank you!

Active for the WG Karlsruhe in Berlin:

(back row from l.t.r.)

Alexander Kugele, Max Kühner, Christian Fritz, Stephan Keibl, Simon Spilger, Patrick Türk, Gerrit Kirsch, Valentin Futterer (MV)

(front row) Elisabeth Trübenbach (SpoWi Guide Berlin) Vedran Dozic, Max Mitzel, Pascal Boudgoust, Marco Kikillus, Daniel Grimm, Michael Förster (Motivator, Supervisor),