The JudoKA as a guest in Aachen - DHM Judo

The Karlsruhe judoka were represented at the German University Championships with a delegation of 18 athletes. Despite a number of absentees in their own ranks, the decision was made to present themselves from their best side.

On Saturday, the athletes began with the individual competitions. With Melanie Gallmeier (PH Karlsruhe; 2nd place 2016), Souhail Slimani (KIT; 3rd place 2010) and Arnold Resch (KIT; 7th place 2015), the group had several irons in the fire and thus one or two surprises up their sleeves.
Souhail Slimani fought his way through to the quarter-finals, where he was defeated by the eventual tournament runner-up. In the consolation round, Slimani was then able to work his way through to the penultimate consolation round, where he unfortunately had to retire due to health problems. This meant seventh place for Souhail Slimani.
Mustafa Jamil (KIT) competed up to 60 kg and, after an impressive performance in the preliminary round, advanced to the semi-finals, which he unfortunately lost by the narrowest of margins. He was also unable to win the following fight for third place, which resulted in fifth place for Mustafa Jamil.

Arnold Resch advanced to the final of the 100 kg class after three clear knockout victories. There he could only be stopped by the youth national squad athlete from the University of Cologne. Hence second place for Arnold Resch.
Melanie Gallmeier finally competed in the final of the 48 kg category. After an evenly balanced fight for a long time, her opponent caught her in a careless moment, which unfortunately caused her to lose the final again. This resulted in a good second place for Gallmeier.

We congratulate our two winners Melanie Gallmeier and Arnold Resch on their nomination for the EUC 2019 in Zagreb!

The team matches were on the program the next day. It started with the men. After a clear 5:0 opening victory, the team from Karlsruhe had to play against WG (Wettkampfgemeinschaft) Hannover. Unfortunately, the team lost to the eventual runners-up by a very narrow margin of 2-3.
After two more wins in the consolation round, the team was able to fight its way through to the small final, where WG Heidelberg awaited.
Thanks to tactical finesse and greater flexibility on the part of the Heidelberg team, WG Karlsruhe ultimately had to admit defeat and settle for a somewhat thankless fifth place.

The women entered the tournament with an injury-weakened team. With more than enough lightweights and a lack of middleweights, the team fought their way to the small final, where they unfortunately lost by the narrowest of margins and with a lot of bad luck.

The newcomer men's team, consisting of very ambitious judo beginners, most of whom were competing for the first time, advanced to the semi-finals. There they met the eventual winners, against whom they were unfortunately unable to score any points. The team narrowly lost in the small final, which also resulted in fifth place.

Even though many a competition success would still have been possible, we still went back to the fan-shaped city with an overall satisfied feeling. After all, the German University Championships showed us where we stand, what we are already capable of and how close we came to the medals in some cases.

Next year we're going to win!