Hey blog readers,
better late than never: Our German Freestyle Championships were only held in December this year. Despite the late date in December, when everyone has a lot of appointments to attend, many members of the German community took the opportunity to come to Walldürn near Frankfurt.
Of course, I didn't miss the opportunity and accepted. The preparation went well and after judging the Irish Championships, the motivation was definitely high. Chris Bennet Bröker aka CBB, a long-time friend and freestyle companion, had agreed to host the championships and in the end put on a great event!
So on Friday we headed to Frankfurt to do the final training on the stage and the floor, where the competition will take place on Saturday at noon and in the evening. The location wasn't super big, but it was very well set up and organized, so we didn't miss anything and everyone was very nice and helpful. Just like you would expect from our freestyle community.
The next morning, the qualification started at noon. I won my circle with ease and finished in 3rd place in the overall ranking. I could certainly have shown a few more tricks, but I wanted to save as much as possible for the next rounds.
The plan worked and I got through the round of 16 relatively relaxed. In the quarter-finals I also met Felix, who is only 15 years old, trains a lot and can be described as one of the “young hopes” in German freestyle. There I had to raise my level a bit for the first time and also resort to more difficult moves. I managed that relatively well and also won the battle 3:0.
In the semi-final, I then had to compete against Patrick Bäurer, another long-time companion and true German freestyle legend. He travels the world with his girlfriend Aguska, performs worldwide and has now made freestyle his profession. As a result, he naturally trains a lot more throughout the year, which I still wanted to beat with my performance. So I tried to show enough tricks to be rated better than my opponent and still save some moves for the final, which I would definitely have needed to have a chance there. Unfortunately, I made a few small inaccuracies while my opponent started the battle very well and put me under pressure. In the end I was able to show my strengths and after my last round it was clear to me that it would be a very close decision. Accordingly, the judges took their time and then decided 2:1 against me. Tough for me, but I'm absolutely fine with the decision. I would have liked to have won the battle more clearly with my performance. Nevertheless, I didn't let it get me down and then focused on the last battle and my remaining chance of the podium.
The battle for third place was against my good friend Jan Rüdenauer aka Rüdiger aka “Kleiner Mann”. The man from Stuttgart has also been training very hard for several years and is very active in the scene. He has made great progress in recent years and is well on his way to becoming one of the top freestylers in Germany. I still felt clearly superior and knew that I could make the most of my versatility and experience. That's how it turned out in the end and despite good sets, Jan wasn't quite fit and rested, so he wasn't able to complete all his sets in the end and I got through relatively error-free. In the end, I secured my place on the podium with 2:0, but after three runner-up finishes, I finally ended the day with a win :)
In the end, CBB won the final ahead of Patrick, as was to be expected. Big respect to Chris, who had many tasks as organizer. Although he couldn't focus 100% due to the double load, he won the championship.
For next year, I will prepare a little earlier and more intensively and probably try to raise my level a little earlier in order to be better prepared for the final battles. However, the championship also showed me that the level in Germany is getting higher and that I have to "keep up the ball" even after 11 years of freestyle.
Let's goo!
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