42 KIT swimmers at DHM in Bayreuth
From May 16-18, 2014, they were able to demonstrate their skills in Bayreuth in Upper Franconia.
The competition was particularly fierce this year; a total of 530 students from all over Germany took part in this sporting event.
The umbrella organization of the German University Championships, the General German University Sports Association (adh), reports on its homepage that this was one of the largest competitions.
This weekend alone, there were 1794 individual starts and numerous relay starts, so that a total of almost 2000 starts went over the stage.
With 42 athletes, the swimmers from the fan city were by far the largest team at this year's DHM and were able to convince not only with their swimming performances but also with the great team cohesion.
On Friday morning, a bus departed from the Sports Institute in the direction of Bayreuth. After a five-hour bus ride and a detour to Heidelberg, the Karlsruheers and Heidelbergers reached their long-awaited destination, the university town of Bayreuth. Once there, they moved into their dormitory, a gymnasium at the university. From there, they continued by bus to the swimming hall three kilometers away. The competition started with 200 meters freestyle. Already at the beginning the swimmers from Karlsruhe could take off and Marleen von Seht, as well as Hector Sauri Suarez swam themselves places under the top 20, which is a considerable achievement measured against the large number of participants. Also among the best 20 swimmers of German universities are Michael Reize over the 100 meters butterfly and Birthe Roß over 50 meters breaststroke as well as over 200 meters medley. Teresa Steinke also achieved placements in the front range over 50 and 200 meters backstroke. Jochen Schweikert also scored points in the backstroke with a 13th place. In breaststroke Markus Karrer was convincing.
In the 400-meter freestyle, Karlsruhe swimmers Corinna Kipke and Hector Sauri Suarez also performed well and achieved placements in the top 20. In the 50-meter freestyle, Kari van der Vaart achieved 15th place, leaving 98 swimmers behind her. She also achieved great placements in other disciplines. Also in freestyle, Dominik Landerer swam his way to 36th place out of 152.
The Karlsruhe swimmers were also convincing as a team and finished in an excellent 7th place in the 4 x 100 meter freestyle relay. Teresa Steinke, Birthe Roß, Kari van der Vaart, as well as Marleen von Seht contributed to this great result. Four times the swimmers from Karlsruhe could be happy about a great eleventh place in the relay. This was the case in the men's 4 x 100m freestyle and medley relay, as well as in the mixed relay over 6 x 50m butterfly and 6x 50m crawl.
The swimmers owe these great placings to the intensive swimming training. This has prepared the Karlsruhe team, as it turned out in retrospect, very well for the university championships. Other highlights of the DHM were a fun relay and the subsequent pasta party on Saturday evening. Some took advantage of the central location of the swimming hall to stroll through Bayreuth during the lunch break. After a four-hour bus ride, the swimmers returned to Karlsruhe at around 7:00 p.m. on Sunday and were greeted by bright sunshine.
On behalf of all swimmers, we would like to thank the "Hochschulsport Karlsruhe", as well as the representatives Christian Marzi and Florian Müller for their great support and organization.
(Photo: adh)