26th February 2008 - Hamburg Otto Super World Cup - Paischer scores the ippon of his life

On the first day of the annual Hamburg Tournament Ludwig Paischer of Austria threw three time Olympic champion and Japanese hero, Tadahiro Nomura, for ippon with a leg sweep in the 60kgs final on the left. The leading European 60kgs qualifier for Beijing, Craig Fallon GBR, was not on form and went out in his second match to the little known Gkornteev of Greece who then lost his next match. Ruben Houkes NED, Rio 60kgs world champion, did not participate having won bronze at the Paris Tournament two weeks earlier. On the final day (Sunday) Japan suffered a further devastating upset when Benjamin Behrla of Germany threw current heavyweight Olympic champion and 2005 world champion, Keiji Suzuki of Japan, for ippon in the 100kgs division while his heavyweight team mate Yasuyuki Muneta was beating the extraordinary 18 year old world champion, Teddy Riner of France, nicknamed Teddy Bear by the girls, on the adjoining mat in the o100kgs category. Unfortunately the Behrla throw was not caught on camera. In the 100kgs semi final Behrla threw Elco Van der Geest NED for ippon to reach the final against Henk Grol, the other Dutchman in the category. Henk Grol NED defeated Benjamin Behrla by ippon in the final. Full web pages will follow. On the Saturday, Great Britain saved face when Sally Conway won silver in the 70kgs division. On the top right she is seen celebrating her victory after throwing Yulia Kuzina of Russia for ippon in the quarter final and on the bottom right throwing Shumei Dou of China for wazari in the semi-final. A report from the British perspective is at this page LINK. David Finch