22 Aug 2013 at 23:09 | Published by: Hans | Views: 14568 | News search

German Walter Erlbruch and Achim Braungart Zink is celebrating their team gold  (Photo by Björn Dinau 2013)

After day one in Bad Münder we reported about the unsatisfying German performance in front of their home crowd. Today both German teams took their game to a higher level aiming at the double team gold. The weather was a bit hotter and the pace in the game was much slower, so the ending was not until half past eight in the evening.

In the ladies category the four teams that we yesterday predicted should play for the medal for sure did. All four teams were in the end within eight strokes, with the unlucky Swedish girls in fourth place two strokes from silver. The first eternit lap in the morning didn’t change that much except that the Swedish girls fell behind and was all of a sudden 14 from the medals. The Germans took 3 of the six they were behind Austria.

Then on the felt lap the Austrian girls had a real catastrophic round of 100. At the same time the Swedish girls made an 81 and the Austrians fell from gold to fourth place in one lap. The Germans took over the lead and now it was the Czech girls that were shadowing the Germans only three points behind.

On the last eternit lap the German girls soon proved too tough for the other teams and even though it was only 6 strokes in the end it felt almost like gold already in the middle of the last lap. But for silver and bronze it became dramatic. Czech second player Lucie Pavelkovà had a bad round and decided to substitute after two shots on lane 15. A bit controversial the substitute Eva Libigerovà could play the third shot from the tee-off point even though Lucie was in a much worse position after two shots. A quite strange rule you might say and this time was entirely crucial to the medal outcome in the end.

At the same time that Eva aced her “third” shoot on lane 15 Sweden’s anchor girl Frida Elmdahl had an unlucky two on the last lane leaving Eva with a possibility for bronze if she aced the last three lanes. Austrias Sandra Schwarz showed that she had her nerves under control and aced the last six lanes to secure the silver by one shoot. And Czech Eva aced the last three lanes with huge crowd support and secured the bronze. Eva Libigerovà and Karin Heschl were the ladies of the day with 70 strokes. Karin is taking over the lead in front of tomorrow’s stroke play finals.

Best individually ladies:

1. Karin Heschl, Austria 149
2. Bianca Zodrow, Germany 151
3. Annika Dellmann, Germany 151
4. Marielle Svensson, Sweden 152
5. Jasmin Ehm, Germany 153

In the men’s competition the Swedish first man Filiph Svensson gave his team a real sharp start of the day by acing 13 of the 15 first lanes on felt. With and ending of 2-2-1 he made an equalized world record lap of 22. With a team average of 26,5 the Swedes extended their lead to 7 strokes by winning the first lap 159 against the Germans 161. On the second lap it was the Germans starting very sharp and for very long it looked like they even could make a blue average score on six persons. But with some misses in the end lanes it became 123 for the Germans against 128 for the Swedes.

Then on the last felt lap the Swedes got off to a very bad start inspiring the Germans to hunt for gold. After only 1/3 of the last lap the Germans had a 10 stroke lead. And with the easy ending on the felt course that is a huge advantage. So even if the Swedes played quite well in the end part it was not match for the German squad to easily secure their first ever team gold on the men’s side (general class) on felt-eternit. With the best team round of 155 (only one from the team world record) the Germans ended their home games in style.

The three team that was fighting for the bronze (Austria, Switzerland and the Czech Republic) had a tough battle throughout the entire day. On the final felt lap it was the Austrians playing the best and by winning the last lap by eleven the won the bronze by two, also getting a small revenge from last year that happened almost the other way around. The Czech Team ended with a disappointing team round of 179 to end in fifth place only 8 from medal.

Achim Braungart Zink was the player of the day with 71 strokes and by then took over the lead with 139 strokes.

Best individually men:

1. Achim Braungart Zink, Germany 139
2. Dennis Kapke, Germany 140
3. Ulf Kristiansson, Sweden 141
4. Filiph Svensson, Sweden 142
5. Alexander Geist, Germany 144

It’s still quite tight tough to make it into the final 32. You need 153 strokes to be in place 32 at the moment. Tomorrow is the stroke play finals with two double rounds.

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