VfK Schifferstadt did it! By winning 16:11 against ASV Nendingen, the team from the Pfalz removed any theoretical doubt and will be the second finalist together with KSV Ispringen at the GWL Premier Season show down. This will take place on 3 February in Ispringen and on 9 February in Schifferstadt. The fact that three TV stations sent camera crews to Schifferstadt shows how the standing of the wrestling league has grown. When last did that happen at a preliminary fight?

Not only Sport1, SWR and Rhein-Neckar_TV was there; also the big German wrestling sites were present: Ringertreff streamed live, the long since standard broadcast of the GWL at Sportdeutschland.tv was on and more chairs were needed in the press media section.

The fight itself was more decisive than the 16:11 indicates. Schifferstadt was already 12:1 in the lead at break time. Zhora Aovian fought brilliantly in the 59 kilo-class and with four throws scored a quick 16:0 and four points for the VfK. Just as expectedly, Georgi Melia could stop his work after 5 min and 2 seconds when the fight was called due to technical superiority. Too little was the 5:3 score by Andrei Perpelita fighting his brother Maxim which gave the team from Nendingen their only win before the break.

The match was decided by the highlight of the evening: Zurai Erbotsonasvili showed fireworks against Evgheni Nedealco: leg lace after leg lace, a full turn of his opponent on the mat decided his team’s entry into the final under the ear piercing cheering of the fans.

How seriously Nendingen took this fight shows the first GWL appearance of the silver medalist from London and world champion 2015, Zhan Beleniuk. He showed his class in a now irrelevant clash and scored four points against Ilyas Ozdemir.

The VfK team celebrated for a long time with the fans and many a beer or cider will have been drunk that night…

In a separate GWL fight this weekend Germania Weingarten was able to take home both points from KAV Eisleben after a 18:12 score.

Even though there was a level score after the singles, the Nordbadener had higher scores. Four of the Germania team: Alejandro Valdes, Adam Juretzko, Georgi Rubaev and Magomedghadzi Nurasulov secured the full four team points. Only Manrikos Theodoridis managed to do this for Eisleben, which was not enough for the team from Luther’s town.