22 Aug 2014 at 23:08 | Published by: mindthegap | Views: 14907 | News search

The new European Champion Karel Molnar from the Czech Republic  (Photo by Björn Dinau 2014)

Another thrilling day at the European Championship in Neubtraubling.

The first combination round on Friday (rounds 9 and 10) didn't bring dramatic changes for the men. The leader Patrik Jönsson from Sweden, who conquered the lead with a new course record of 21 on the concrete course in the last round yesterday, could keep the leading position, and Karel Molnar from the Czech Republic kept the 2nd place. But the margin was only one shot. Alexander Geist from Germany, on 3rd place yesterday, shot himself back on the 7th place with a 31 on concrete, and was replaced on position 3 by Michel Rhyn from Switzerland who pushed himself up in the ranking with a blue round on concrete (a 24), so did Germany's Oleg Klassen, who climbed up one position to the 4th place by achieving a 24 on concrete as well. Michel was only 3 shots behind Karel, and Oleg 5 shots.

The ladies saw a similar development. Switzerland's Sandra Wicki and Germany's Bianca Zodrow defended their leading positions, but Bianca could equalize. Sandras team mate Maja Wicki was overtaken by Germany's Stefanie Blendermann, who was only 5 shots behind the leaders. Maja's margin to the leaders increased to 8 shots. So the final combination round, which was started with a rolling start on eternit, promised exciting fights for the gold medal in both categories.

Bianca Zodrow could win one shot on Sandra Wicki on eternit, so was leading after round 9. Stefanie Blendermann could reduce the margin to Sandra to 3 shots, and even the lead was in sight. Maja Wicki fell back a lot with a 27 and found herself on the 8th place. Her 4th position was taken by Eva Libigerova from the Czech Republic with an excellent round of 20, but her margin to place 3 was 4 shots.

No change of the leaders on the first two position saw the men in the 9th round. The margin between Patrik Jönsson and Karel Molnar was still only one shot. But Oleg Klassen reached the 3rd place and Michel Rhyn fell back with a red round. The margin to the silver medal was only 3 shots for Oleg now.

The last round on concrete then brought thrilling fights in both categories again - like yesterday. Patrik Jönsson lost the lead with a 29 and even fell back on the 3rd place and got the bronze medal, just one shot ahead of the Czech Martin Jecny, who was leading after the first day. Positions 5 to 7 went to the other 3 Germans who reached the final round - Alexander Geist, Harald Erlbruch and Achim Braungart-Zink, the last year's World Champion. All three finished with a 26. With another blue round (24), Germany's Oleg Klassen won the silver medal, only one shot behind the new European Champion, Karel Molnar from the Czech Republic. Oleg even had a chance to win, but with a 3 on lane 15 he failed to catch up to Karel and force a sudden death play-off for gold. Nevertheless it's a great success for Oleg as he was the substitute player of the German team, being the best German on place 5 after the team final, and winning a silver medal at the end. Was there something wrong with the lineup of the German team? With Karel Molnar the European Championship in Germany saw a winner from the Czech Republic, not a German or a Swedish player as majority might have expected.

Stefanie Blendermann showed a great performance in the last round. Bianca Zodrow and Sandra Wicki didn't achieve excellent scores, so Stefanie could overtake Sandra and even catch up to her team mate Bianca with a very good 25. But look at her score card: She got a 3 on lane 2 and another 3 on lane 17, so a 25 with only three twos. With the 3 on lane 17 she missed the chance to even overtake Bianca. After leading for a long time, it was "only" the bronze medal for Switzerland's Sandra Wicki, just one shot behind the silver medalist Stefanie Blendermann. And last year's World Champion from Germany, Bianca Zodrow, could defend the title and won the gold medal after a hard fight. Lara Jehle from Austria reached the 4th place and Maja Wickie could improve to the 5th place with a very good last round on concrete. It was quite a good Championship for the Austrian and Swiss ladies as 3 Austrian and 3 Swiss ladies reached the final of the best 9.

With the matchplay finals the European Championship will be finished tomorrow. Think we will see matches as thrilling as in the last 3 days.

By the way - watch the videos to learn about how to play the courses. Many shots are shown by excellent players - and many aces!

Links to results, reports, photos and videos, most in German language:

»Results
»Lots of online reports on facebook website of DMV
»Online reports and photos on facebook website of Swedish Minigolf Association
»Daily reports from practice by Achim Braungart-Zink
»Photos by Janne Persson
»Photos on facebook website of DMV
»Video from practice on Sunday by Manuel Szablikowski, Manuel Möhler and Jan-Peter Lichtenberg
»Video from practice on Monday by Manuel Szablikowski, Manuel Möhler and Jan-Peter Lichtenberg
»Video presentation of the German team by Manuel Szablikowski, Manuel Möhler and Jan-Peter Lichtenberg

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