Game against Italy broken off – no one hurt
Ten RSV Lahn-Dill team members, Thomas Böhme, Jan Haller, Christopher Huber, Björn Lohmann und Marco Zwerger, both Coaches Nicolai Zeltinger and Ralf Neumann as well as US-national players Michael Paye and Steve Serio, experienced the earthquake last Saturday.
The game between Germany and Italy at the Dr-Jochen-Trawinski tournament in Istanbul had to be broken off. The incident seems all the more dramatic considering that this very tournament was created in commemoration of German coach instructor Dr Jochen Trawinski, who lost his life in an earthquake in west Turkey in 1999. Thankfully no one got hurt this time at the tournament in Istanbul, but over the whole of Turkey there have been around 270 injured people.
So the test match against first World Championship opposition Italy became a minor matter, despite Germany winning the game 68:42 after 33 minutes. Over all did the German national team surrounding RSV –players Boehme, Haller, Huber, Lohmann and Zwerger win two games, against Canada and Italy, and lost three, against the hosting team Turkey, Spain and the US. Both Paye and Serio scored twelve points each of the 58 against Germany’s 49.
National Coach Nicolai Zeltinger considers the tournament a successful preparation for the Worlds. “Our wins against Italy and Canada were important and we did a sovereign job there. Especially the win over Italy gives us a bit of security for the start in Korea. Still, Italy and Spain have shown us our deficits. Still, I do consider the tournament a success as we will learn from our mistakes, and the team has shown a good reaction and the will to work on these points.”
Most successful German shooter of the tournament was Dirk Passiwan with 118 points in all five games. Junior-world-champion Thomas Boehme scored 57 points, Lohmann scored nine points and Haller six.
All results to be found at www.teamgermany.net.