DHPS flies flag at Judo tourney

The ‘South African Open Judo Championships’ in Port Elizabeth, South Africa is an annual event in which Namibia participated for the first time this year with a group of six judokas of the DHPS.
The team included, Lieselotte Krooss, Matthias Lichtenberg, Nils von Blottnitz, Dominik Esslinger, Philipp Beddies and their teacher and trainer Sylvia Wieczorreck.
“Besides the actual competition, the tight schedule for the week included daily sports activities, such as running, soccer or judo. For the judo competition a good preparation, both physically and mentally, is essential. Initially we were not aware of the Judo level that we had to expect and it soon became clear that South Africa had sent their elite. We had the opportunity to witness excellent judo performances of about 960 athletes who battled for the best positions in their weight and age classes in the course of five days,” the team said.
On the first day there was a setback, due to a 50g “overweight”, Dominik Esslinger had to participate in a higher weight class against opponents of up to 5kg heavier, which is significant in judo.

Nevertheless, Dominik won a bronze medal in the group of boys 12 years.
Group 3 was a packed group of boys up to 55kg where Matthias Lichtenberg had tough fights to deal with. Only after the official fighting time of 3 minutes, Matthias strongly won his first fight with two Yukos (5 points) by applying and a complex floor technique. Due to some misfortune in the following fights, Matthias missed the 3rd place.
The DHPS fighters Nils von Blottnitz and Philipp Beddies were on the competition mat for the first time. They had sovereign fights in filled, strong groups, but could not qualify for the finals.
Lieselotte Krooss achieved a strong 5th place in her filled weight class. By applying the Tai otoshi Osoto gari combination, she won her second and third fight early with Ippon (full score). She just missed the bronze medal after being caught in an arm lock unluckily.
The DHPS teacher and judo coach fought her way to the gold medal. In the final battle, she had an early victory over her opponent through an arm lock.
This was an exciting and exhilarating experience, which was mastered exemplary by all the DHPS judo fighters.
“It all started when I came to Namibia from Germany early in 2012 to work at the DHPS as a teacher. I was involved in Judo for almost 20 years and have trained and stood as a contestant in the Oststeinbeker judo club, Budokan Wellington and TSB Flensburg. During my studies I worked as a Judo instructor and brought Judo to the schools where I worked. I set my goal to build my own Judo group in Namibia” said Wieczorreck.