23 Aug 2013 at 23:38 | Published by: Hans | Views: 14712 | News search

Bianca Zodrow and Achim Braungart Zink wins the gold medals in strokeplay  (Photo by Hans Bergström 2013)

Today the stroke play finals were played in shady but warm conditions. In the morning there were some light showers but it stopped after 45 minutes. In the end it was to become a real nail-biting end with close margins for the gold medals in both categories.

In the morning Austria’s Karin Heschl had a two stroke lead over Bianca Zodrow. The big question was if the young Austrian could hold on for the gold medal against huge pressure of meeting the home favourite and extremely routine and successful Bianca. Bianca is one of the most merited female players in the history of Minigolf World Championships with two gold’s (99 and 03) and two silvers (05 and 11) in stroke play and gold (11) and silver in match play (07).

Bianca was in many ways challenged by the next generation. Bianca is born in 1979 and the nine others in the final were in average 12 years younger (born between 1986 and 1995). This makes it the youngest average age for a final in history of the world championships with and average age of 23,3 years.

Yet it was another youngster Marielle Svensson (younger sister of Filiph) only 18 year old who was giving Bianca the first challenge of the day. On the felt part of the shot-gun double round she started up in a way making her older brother look proud. She aced 10 of the eleven first lanes and was by that time in a lead. But after a terrible ending (3-3-2-1) of this round looking like a world record for 14 lanes, even though scoring 25, she gave Bianca the opportunity to take back the lead for the final rounds. Bianca played a solid 26 gaining 3 strokes on Marielle on the last 4 lanes. But also Karin Heschl played 26 and was at that point 3 points behind Bianca.

Also playing for the medals where Annika Dellmann and Jasmine Ehm of Germany. On the final eternit lap (round 9 of 10) not much happened between the top players so in front of the last lap it was Bianca in a three stroke lead before Karin and Annika was another stroke behind and Jasmine and Marielle yet another.

On the last lap Karin Heschl once again played a solid game ending on 26 putting lots of pressure on Bianca. With three lanes to go they were all square, but then Karin was close but not in for an ace on 16 while Bianca just made an ace. Small margins indeed. On lane 17 Karin made a 2 and then Bianca missed the first shot. But a solid second ace gave Bianca still the one shot lead to play lane 18. Even though Bianca had a bad history on this lane before in the tournament with two times scoring 3 she didn’t miss this chance of becoming the World Champion in stroke play for the third time. Last time she won in stroke play was in 2003 on the same courses as today.

The bronze medal was taken by Annika Dellmann in a sudden death play-off against fellow German Jasmine Ehm.

Final results ladies:

1. Bianca Zodrow, Germany 247
2. Karin Heschl, Austria 248
3. Annika Dellmann, Germany 253
4. Jasmin Ehm, Germany 253
5. Marielle Svensson, Sweden 260

In the ladies category no-one could touch the world records on one (23) and two laps (50), even though Marielle Svensson made equally 50. But for 3-5 rounds new world record where set today. 3 rounds new record holder is Karin Heschl with 78 (26-26-26). Four rounds world record holder is Marielle Svensson with 105 (25-30-25-25). And lastly Karin Heschl again for five rounds with 137 (30-29-26-26-26).

In the men’s class last year’s winner of European Championships Achim Braungart Zink was in the lead one stroke in from of fellow German Dennis Kapke and two strokes in front of Swedens Ulf Kristiansson in the morning. Another stroke behind was the reigning world Champions from 2011 Filiph Svensson of Sweden. But in the morning Achim made the best double round of the tournament in the shoot-start by 25-19 so far and left the challengers in a 5 stroke distance when entering the final. Second was Ulf Kristiansson and third was Filiph Svensson.

But on the last eternit lap things started to happen making the scores tighter. No less than 3 rounds of 18 were scored within 15 minutes by Filiph Johansson, Dennis Kapke and Ulf Kristiansson. Together with Fredrik Perssons 18 lap this morning and Sandra Bengtssons 18 lap from yesterday these five where the only ones in the tournament (four of them scored by Swedes).

When Achim scored 21 he was down to a 2 stroke margin in front of Ulf Kristiansson and another two strokes down to Dennis Kapke in third position.

On the last lap Filiph Svensson showed he hadn’t given up his chance of defending his title yet. After starting 2-2-2 he aced 13 of the last 15 lanes ending up in a 23 lap. And when Achim got in some trouble in the start only managing 14 shots on the initial 7 lanes it became clear that the 6 strokes lead Achim had over Filiph was maybe not enough. Another player from Skoghall, Sweden also showed he would want something to say about the gold. When 7 lanes were played he was only one behind Achim. But after a 5 on the Örkelljunga Ulf had to try to set his mind on getting a medal.

The bronze medal was won by Ulf over Dennis after acing the last 7 lanes winning these finishing lanes over Dennis by 3 strokes. But still Filiph was pressuring for the gold. With 3 lanes to go Filiph were two shots behind Achim still, but after acing these last 3 lanes he pressured Achim to answer. Since Filiph was playing in the triple before he could only watch in the greenroom for Achims last lanes. But Achim failed to ace both 16 and 17 and was forced to ace 18 for a play-off with Filiph.

With a perefect straight but quite slow ace on 18 it was a play-off between the reigning World Champion and the reigning European Champion for the title. It’s quite clear that these two players are probably the two best male players in the world at the moment. Now it was also a battle between playing-style. Achim with a slow direct-ace aiming playing style and Filiph with a hard neck playing style on lane one. This time the slow and direct ace playing time won and Achim made an ace while Filiph put his ball in the obstacle trying to answer. And then Achim Braungart Zink was the new world champion.

A bit in the background from the medal stride, Finnish Oskari Vihervaara makes the tournament of his life ending up in fifth place. His last three felt laps of 23-25-25 is only one above the world record by Carl-Johan Ryner from 10 years ago in Bad Münder.

Before the tournament there was talks about possibilities of breaking world record but none where broken by the mens. The closest to break one was Oskari who had a 3 on lane 17 the last 25 -lap and Filiph Svensson with a two on lane 17 when making his equalizer of the 22 record.

Final results men:

1. Achim Braungart Zink, Germany 233
2. Filiph Svensson, Sweden 233
3. Ulf Kristiansson, Sweden 235
4. Dennis Kapke, Germany 238
5. Oskari Vihervaara, Finland 239

Tomorrow the match-play finals will be played. Will Germany take the clean sweep of 6 gold's of will other nations have their national tune played in the price ceremony. Tomorrow same time we will have the answers.

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