28 Jul 2011 at 09:30 | Published by: mindthegap | Views: 12764 | News search

Winners of the Youth German Championship.  (Photo by MSK Neheim-Hüsten 2011)

In the photo: Top left: Winners female kids: Lena Hengstler, Maike Haupt, Rebecca Hoch. Top right: Winners male kids: Nico Knäulein, Marcel Waleska, Christian Zielaff. Bottom left: Winners junior men: Lukas Eisleben, Thomas Höfler, Philip Lau. Bottom right: Winners junior women: Anne Bollrich, Annika Dellmann, Vanessa Peucker.

The minigolf club in Neheim-Hüsten hosted the best German junior players for the Youth German Championship from the 21st to 23rd of July. It’s a traditional club in Northrhine-Westfalia, founded in 1967. Their courses, concrete and eternit, are located in a beautiful scenery, especially the concrete course is built into a slope with a beautiful view down to the valley. But this also means that most of the lanes on concrete have strong breaks and require well-weighted shots. Both courses are challenging but allow excellent scores as the results show. Furthermore there is lots of space to accommodate the players in tents and the catering is always great. This is an ideal location for such a minigolf event.

The first day of the competition was a nightmare! It bucketed down all day. A disappointing, actually disgusting, day for the young minigolfers keen on playing. A TV team of the WDR came to film the first impressions of the Championship, but there was nothing to film than - RAIN. The start was postponed several times and then abandoned and moved to the next day. Nevertheless the WDR TV team created a very nice report from that day with some interviews. Watch it! (See link list below)

But the weather was more pleasant on the next two days. Only the temperature could have been slightly higher - 11 degrees in the morning don’t evoke summer feelings. With a marathon on the 2nd day they managed to get 6 rounds through, so the qualification was cut to 6 instead of 8 rounds, and the finals could start on the last day according to plan.

The individual ranking at Youth Championships in Germany is generally split into four categories - by age and by sex. The younger kids (called Schüler in German) are aged up to 15 and the juniors are aged from 16 to 19 (called Jugend in German).

In the female kids category last years winner Maike Haupt from Herten could defend her title and won 9 shots ahead of Lena Hengstler from Singen who had won the bronze medal last year in front of Annika Dellmann. But now Annika is in the juniors women category. Rebecca Hoch from Dormagen came 3rd another 10 shots behind.

The male kids category had some favourites: Marcel Waleska, the winner in the youth category at this years YNC in Nartuns and bronze medal winner of last years German Championship, and Thomas Sieber, the vice Champion from Naturns and last years German Championship. Furthermore Manuel Szablikowski and Pascal Fischbeck because of their good results at this years Youth Federal States Cup (Jugendländerpokal in German) in Neugattersleben. Marcel Waleska fulfilled the expectations and won 10 shots ahead of Nico Knäulein from Würzburg followed by Christian Zielaff from Gelsenkirchen (Berger Feld) further 4 shots behind.Last years winner Max Barbarino now plays in the junior men category but couldn’t repeat his success. Thomas Sieber, last year’s vice German champion and this year’s vice champion at the YNC in Naturns, reached a 6th place.

The local Annika Dellmann tried to repeat her victory in the female kids category from 2010. But this year she had to compete with the 2010 World Team Champions Anne Bollrich and Vanessa Peucker in the junior women category. Anne Bollrich was 1 shot in lead after the qualification, but in the final rounds Annika won shot by shot and was the winner at the end, 2 shots ahead of Anne. Vanessa Peucker from Dormagen could keep her position after the qualification and ended up on the 3rd place, 9 shots behind Anne. Last years bronze medal winner Katharina Benn from Murnau ended up on the 4th place. Anna Nitschke couldn’t participate but nevertheless was there as a guest.

Although one of the top players, Robin Hettrich, couldn’t participate, the junior men category still promised an exciting competition. Thomas Höfler from Waldshut, the 2009 World Team Champion, won in a convincing manner 11 shots ahead of Philip Lau from Hilzingen. He had two terrific scores of 19 on eternit, one of them even with a 2 on the labyrinth. Philip Lau won the sudden death play-off against Lukas Pascal Eisleben from Köln, who was 3rd then. One of the favourites, Andreas Schneider from Arheilgen, the reigning German Champion and the best German boy at the YWC in Sochi last year, was equal with Florian Becker from Neheim. But Florian was put on the 4th place due to a smaller difference. Andreas had two terrific scores of 19 on eternit as well but missed the double waves (lane 17) twice.

The team competition was decided after the qualification rounds. The juniors team from Arheilgen won this category 5 shots ahead of Niederstetten. The local juniors team from Neheim reached the 3rd place another 6 shots behind. In the kids category the team from Celle won in a convincing manner 18 shots in front of Arendsee. The Murnau team came 3rd. The team from Celle was a real family team. All three players in the team belong to the Willnus family (Simon, Marco and Jana). So they celebrated their victory together with their parents who are of course good minigolf players as well. It’s interesting anyway to see how many children from active minigolf players participate in the big national and international competitions.

After the Youth German Championship, the German Youth National Coach Petra Szablikowski fixed the nominations for the YEC in Naturns (see also link):

Katharina Benn
Anne Bollrich
Annika Dellmann
Vanessa Peucker
Marina Heinel (as potential successor)

Gerrit Below
Lukas Eisleben
Robin Hettrich
Thomas Höfler
Philip Lau
Andreas Schneider
Marcel Waleska
Lars Vielhauer (as potential successor)

» final results combination
» results concrete only
» results eternit only
» website of the organizer
» report 1st day
» report 2nd day
» report finals
» newspaper for the championship
» nominations for the YEC in Naturns
» photos by the organizer
» photos by DMV
» photos by Dormagen-Brechten club
» photos by Arheilgen club
» WDR TV broadcast

SHARE Share Tweet