Silver and Bronze for KLU Students
Absolutely unprecedented – three KLU students from three different clubs participated in the Final 4 (men’s/women’s) of the German Field Hockey Championship on June 4 and 5 in Bonn. Maximilian Schlüter (HTHC) placed third, while Kilian Pöhling (Hamburger Polo Club) is the new Vice Champion. Marie Jeltsch and the Club an der Alster delivered a great match in the semi-finals against the Düsseldorfer HC, who would go on to become German Champions.
“Needless to say, right now we’re very disappointed that we didn’t win the final match. Especially when you consider how close it was. But in a few days’ time we’ll look back and know that we had an outstanding season,” said Kilian shortly after the 0:1 loss to this year’s (and last year’s) Champions, Rot-Weiß Köln. Both clubs are automatically qualified for the EHL through their participation in the finals. The EHL is the Euro Hockey League, essentially the Champions League of field hockey, where three Germans will start in the men’s division next season.
Maxi secured the coveted third place for the EHL when he and his team from the HTHC won their match against the Mannheimer HC 4:2, meaning they can also look back on a highly successful season. In the semi-finals preceding the third place match, the team in black and yellow managed to keep pace with Rot Weiß Köln for quite some time, but ultimately suffered a 1:3 loss.
For Marie from the Club an der Alster, after a bitter loss to future German Champions Düsseldorfer HC in the semi-finals, which were settled by a penalty shootout, the Final 4 was already over. Since, unlike for the men, there is no third place for the EHL in the women’s competition, there was no corresponding match. All that remained was the sobering realization that, as the stronger team that day, they should have finished off the competition during regular time but didn’t manage to do it.
KLU congratulates all three athletes and their teams for making it so far and was pleased to see so many KLU students in attendance at what was, at the club level, the most important weekend in German hockey.
In addition to their athletic achievements, this summer Kilian and Maxi will have another chance to celebrate when they both graduate from KLU, having successfully completed their master’s degree program in Management. In contrast, we’ll get to enjoy Marie for another year before she tentatively finishes her bachelor’s degree in 2023.
KLU is an official “partner university of high performance sport” represented by the Olympiastützpunkt Hamburg/Schleswig-Holstein and Allgemeiner Deutscher Hochschulsport Verband (German University Sports Federation) and supports top athletes with a special sports program – both financially and by allowing for the balancing act between competitive sports and academic studies via flexible solutions in scheduling and exams.
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