“I’ve never seen a finish line like this before. It went really steep, up a hilltop, and then I was there, and I saw the whole panorama,” Josefa Mathis (TSG Eisenberg) described her highlight of last year at the World Mountain Running Championships in Stubaital. And this stunning finish, which was crowned with a bronze medal, was also ultimately responsible for the fact that it had another hit in the readers’ vote. Readers of Rheinpfalz voted her as an area athlete. The experienced sprinter took 593 votes, beating technical cyclists Karina Steiger, Anna-Lena Becker (309) and Sophie Stellgenbauer (163), who were with her horses at one of Saturday’s many Whitsun Championships.
The two runners-up, who should start in the senior class starting this year, were optimistic that they would also be able to teach District Manager Rainer Guth the basics of technical cycling in a practice session. “We’re going to get it done, it’s really not that hard,” Steiger said. Sebastian Stollhoff, who steered the Donnersberger Sports Day and Awards with great cleverness, brought up the idea with a wink in light of the on-stage celebrity gathering and District Manager Rainer Guth’s interest in cycling.
“That’s really big.”
There was praise not only for the athletes’ exceptional performance, but also for the “outstanding athletic facility”, which was well received by Uwe Renners, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of RHEINPFALZ, as well as second-tier handball players. The team of Julen Ludwigshafen, Christian Klimeck and Pascal Bohrer couldn’t help but be amazed: “It’s great that this is happening here. We know what it will be like when we play in front of empty stands,” said Bohrer, who was impressed by the participation of so many clubs and several hundreds of offers from the performances. He added, “This is really big and can’t be taken for granted.”
The afternoon passed merrily as the kids continued playing soccer, trying tennis, completing a test about bathing rules or riding an electric motorbike for the first time. Max Steinbach also feels comfortable on these machines, last year he became a youth champion in the Rhineland-Palatinate, and came second in the German Junior Trials Championship. As the third-place athlete in the selection, he also received a medal, as well as the Talent and Referee Trophies as well as Teams of the Year, donated by RHEINPFALZ, a certificate and cash prize.
Motivation is not a sure success, even for top athletes
Despite all the success, he has days of lacking motivation: “When the weather is nice and everyone goes to the pool, do you sometimes think why? But you sit on your bike or motorbike and you know right away that you are doing something much bigger,” said the young man from AMC Kerzenheim. Player of the Year, Finn Mager (kickboxing team Kirchheimbolanden), sent his mother Patricia Mager. He himself is currently participating in the World Cup in Budapest. “It has become our passion,” she explained of her son, daughter and husband’s ambitions. All three are active in kickboxing, Abi Sven Majer has trained his children for many years.
Great respect was also shown to the judge of the year, Helmut Schwartz, who was delighted “to receive this award”. District Manager Guth expressed his respect for the many referees without whom nothing would work in many sports. As a former “West Curve season ticket holder”, he knows the chants sometimes sung when fans don’t like making the decision. “The referee is always the fool,” Guth said, which makes volunteering there all the more important. Uwe Reigns, who wanted to know how many red cards a referee like Schwartz had awarded him on the field over 40 years ago, also agreed. Not that many, some have been lucky and have already been replaced by their coach beforehand,” Schwarz said with a smile.
big brooms
On the other hand, the talents of the year are still early in their sports career: Jonti and Jordice Gauss as well as Leon Schmidt, track and field athletes from SV Borstadt and TSG Eisenberg. Jördis describes a typical day in her daily life: “school in the morning, homework, then sports.”
TSG Eisenberg is the biggest winner in this year’s Athletes’ Choice, because not only is it the Athlete of the Year in their ranks, President Mireille Gill has also accepted the award as Club of the Year. The runners were honored around their coach Ralph Mattis, who praised an athlete’s “heart and soul”, as Team of the Year. They won by 487 votes against Vikings Muay Thai Marnheim (353) and TuS Göllheim (225). Like the second and third place winners, they receive a RHEINPFALZ Trophy, certificate and cash prize.