KIT athlete wins bronze at EUC Taekwondo

The European University Taekwondo Championships in Croatia were the fourth event of its kind and the first time that a KIT athlete took part. Kai Kleindienst from General University Sports (ADH) was nominated due to his outstanding performance at the German University Championships (DHM) 2015, where he won silver. For Kleindienst, the nomination made his dream of competing in an international tournament come true. To prepare for such a tournament, he trained under the guidance of KIT coach Robert Plasa and the coach of his club, Marek Langer (Kwak Kum Sik). In order to prepare himself physically and mentally, independent training was also on the daily schedule in addition to the usual training sessions.

Accreditation was scheduled for the first day of the four-day event. After the weigh-in on the second day, the lists of participants were announced. This showed that the competition was greater than expected. Fighters from the upper world rankings took part in all weight classes. In contrast to the usual knockout system in taekwondo, the fighters competed in a round-robin system. This means that everyone fights against everyone else and at the end, similar to the group stage of major soccer tournaments, the ranking is determined based on the results. Each fight lasted three rounds of 1:30 minutes each.

Bad luck with injuries in the first fight

In his first fight, Kai Kleindienst had to face this year's world championship participant from Belarus, Kanstantsin Yarmak. Kleindienst got off to a strong start and was already 1:0 up in the first round, a result he was able to maintain until the third round, when he suffered an injury. As a result, he was unable to maintain the lead and had to settle for a 1:5 defeat. With the injury, Kai Kleindienst had to fight two more matches. Armin Gredic, the European Championship participant from Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Austria's Philipp Schmidmayr were waiting for him next. The injury made it more difficult to reach the top places. Nevertheless, Kai Kleindienst made it onto the podium and took third place.

In addition to the sports, the entire supporting program was also remarkable. The participants stayed in a 3-star hotel on the Adriatic coast. There were also well-organized shuttle buses to the competitions and events, such as the opening ceremony. Each university entered with its own flag. The speeches by the officials were rounded off by a dance performance by a local group. There was a friendly atmosphere and the multinational diversity of the participants meant that many new contacts and intercultural bonds were forged.