display

Warsaw (dpa) - Frank Stäbler quickly turned his gaze back to the front. To his very big goal. At the end of his successful international career in the summer. "A wake-up call before the Olympics" was his surprisingly early end at the European Championships in Warsaw, said the exceptional German wrestler. After just one fight, the three-time world champion in Poland ended again on Saturday. That was not how the 31-year-old had imagined his last European Championship. But he wants to learn his lessons from it. For the arduous preparation for the final act in three months.

"Unfortunately, it didn't go as planned," said Stäbler after his defeat against Selcuk Can from Turkey. "It was a very difficult first fight that somehow I didn't really get into." The Swabian was leading 5-0. “Then I fell into a swing grip. That happened to me the last time nine years ago, ”he quarreled. Since his opponent made the last two points, the 6: 6 was not enough for Stäbler in the end to advance. And because Can did not advance to the final after that, the defending champion from Musberg was not allowed to run in the hope round for bronze either.

"We knew that the preparation process was rather suboptimal due to the corona," said the sports director of the German Wrestling Association (DRB), Jannis Zamanduridis.

"Something like that can happen," he commented on the end of his model athlete.

"That won't upset him".

display

He had become aware again of "how special it is to win a medal or even gold," said Stäbler himself. "Winning is simply not a matter of course."

Especially not with the shoulder injury that has been affecting him for months.

With this in mind, the Greco-Roman wrestler had previously classified the EM as “incredibly important” and “elementary test” for the Olympics.

For Japan - unlike in Warsaw, where he started in the 72 kilogram class - he will also starve himself to 67 kilograms.

While the EM ended in disappointment for the greatest German hopefuls, it went much better for others.

After the collective out of the German freestyle squad at the beginning of the week, Aline Rotter-Focken (76 kg) and Annika Wendle (53 kg) as well as Hannes Wagner (82 kg) and Eduard Popp each won bronze in the class up to 130 kg.

For the Greco heavyweight it was the first medal in a very big tournament.

The Olympic third party Denis Kudla (87 kg), on the other hand, just missed the podium, but is likely to be one of the favorites again in Tokyo like the dethroned European Championship champion Stäbler.

© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210425-99-348938 / 2

display

Schedule and results of the EM

Homepage German Wrestling Association