What’s new from the HYLO® Sports family
It has been another exciting week for our #hyloathletes. We take a look back at the last seven days’ events and competitions featuring our athletes, teams and clubs.
Our boccia athletes at the Paris Paralympics
A voyage of adventure to the 2024 Paralympics has come to an end in sporting terms after the group stage for our boccia athletes Anita Raguwaran and Boris Nicolai. The two HYLO® athletes have tested their mettle alongside the best in the world, put in impressive performances, and unfortunately only just missed out on reaching the quarter finals.
Anita Raguwaran competed in the women’s BC4 class and was able to beat the world number four in one of her group games, but had to accept two defeats. Despite her early departure, Anita has made history: she is the first German boccia player to win a game at the Paralympics.
Boris Nicolai was also up against strong competition in his group. After a clear defeat by the world number six and narrowly losing to the world number one, he gained a convincing win in the final group match to ensure a positive end to his Paris Paralympics.
The two athletes are currently disappointed about missing out on medals, but an understanding of all that they have achieved will soon set in. We are proud of the performances put in by our two HYLO® athletes and look forward to future moments together.
Read more about these exciting days in Paris in our detailed report: report
Convincing home win for SVE
On Saturday (31 August 2024), SV Elversberg celebrated their first 2. Bundesliga win with an impressive 4:0 against SV Darmstadt 98. Elversberg dominated right from the start in the match at the URSAPHARM arena. Luca Schnellbacher gave the home team an early lead, followed by two goals from Fisnik Asllani and one by Filimon Gerezgiher in the 90th minute.
The win was overshadowed by a serious elbow injury suffered by Florian Le Joncour, who is doing well given the circumstances. We wish him all the best and a speedy recovery.
Coach Horst Steffen praised his squad’s team spirit and performance: ‘On every match day, we set the team up so that we can win. Everyone has to understand that.’ Steffen made it clear that performance is rewarded in his team, and that every player is given an opportunity to prove themselves.
After four days of play, SV Elversberg are eleventh in the table with five points, which does not mean very much yet but is a reassuring place to be ahead of the international cap break. Thanks to downtime for the Nations League, the squad now have two weeks to consolidate their team play. On Friday (6 September) they have another test match against third-division team SV Wehen Wiesbaden. On Sunday (15 September), SVEreturn to the 2. Bundesliga with an away game against SpVgg Greuther Fürth. More details can be found in our post-match report.
Füchse Berlin win the Super Cup
Saturday (31 August 2024) saw the start of the 2024/25 German handball season with the HBL Super Cup in Düsseldorf at the PSD Bank Dome. As runners up, Füchse Berlin will be competing against two-time winners SC Magdeburg for their first title of the new season.
The capital club won the HBL Super Cup for the first time in their history. In a thrilling game, the team from Berlin beat SC Magdeburg in Düsseldorf 32:30 (17:17).
For 60 minutes, Füchse and SC Magdeburg offered a thrilling duel, alternating between equalisers and a narrow lead for the capital club. Ultimately Füchse were celebrating the loudest, as they won the match in Düsseldorf’s PSD Bank Dome 32:30 (17:17).
Two minutes before the end, Olympic champion Mathias Gidsel span the ball into the net to put the scoreline at 31:29. The team managed to defend against Magdeburg’s attack, paving the way for their first Super Cup title win. The game’s top scorer was Swedish left winger Jerry Tollbring with nine goals, including four penalties.
Danish Olympic champion Lasse Andersson, who scored eight goals, was named player of the match by the DKB. Another key factor in this success was Serbian goalkeeper Dejan Milosavljev, who managed eleven saves in total and was particularly impressive against free throws in vital situations.
Coach Jaron Siewert: ‘I am of course hugely happy that we were able to win this historic title. We put in a good performance on the court, caused problems for our opponents’ defence, and improved even further in this area in the second half. We believed in ourselves, and had a slightly luckier hand when push came to shove.’
When the final whistle sounded, Füchse exploded. For the first time in the club’s history, the players and coach were able to lift the German handball Super Cup trophy.
On Saturday (7 September), Füchse start their Handball-Bundesliga (HBL) season by playing ThSV Eisenach.
Bitter pill in 1. FC Saarbrücken Tischtennis’s home opener
On Saturday (31 August 2024), 1. FC Saarbrücken TT had to handle a bitter defeat in their first home game of the new Tischtennis-Bundesliga (TTBL) season. Against TTC Schwalbe Bergneustadt, led by an exceptional Kanak Jha, the Saarbrücken team lost 1:3.
Eduard Ionescu took FCS TT into the lead in Saarbrücken’s Joachim-Deckarm-Halle in a hard-fought match against Benedikt Duda. In the second singles match, Kanak Jha beat the Saarbrücken captain Patrick Franziska to bring the score to 1:1. Belgian player Adrien Rassenfosse dominated in the third match of the evening against Saarbrücken’s Cedric Meissner and gave Bergneustadt a 2:1 lead. In the subsequent duel, Kanak Jha put in a strong performance against the recent winner of the WTT Contender in Lima, Darko Jorgic, to secure the win for Bergneustadt.
For 1. FC Saarbrücken TT, their task is now to quickly shake off the defeat and focus on their upcoming tasks. They have little breathing space, as Tuesday (3 September) sees their next home game against the Werder Bremen team. The Saarbrücken players will be hoping to secure their first home win of the season.
Team BIKE AID successful in Turkey
The Tour of Route Salvation, held in Turkey from 27 August to 2 September 2024, was a huge success for Saarland’s professional cycling team BIKE AID. The team achieved numerous impressive results across the four stages and demonstrated their prowess in various rankings.
Vinzent Dorn and Oliver Mattheis both secured a stage win, putting the team in a good position early on in the race. The team gained a total of four podium finishes and eight top-ten placings.
In the overall rankings, Vinzent Dorn managed an exceptional second place, closely followed by Oliver Mattheis in fourth place and Antoine Berlin in seventh. It is particularly noteworthy that Oliver Mattheis also won the point classification, highlighting his outstanding performance throughout the entire Tour.
Oliver Mattheis appeared delighted with his first UCI victory and his win in the point classification. He wrote on his social media account: ‘Tour of Route Salvation in the books. First UCI win. 4th place in GC. Winner of the Point Classification. Thanks to my teammates.’
With these performances, team Bike Aid have impressively shown that they can stand shoulder to shoulder with the top teams in international cycling.
Some of the team are already in China, where they will be competing for points and titles at the Tour of Poyang Lake from 2 to 12 September. We are looking forward to upcoming appearances from our #hyloathletes and wish all of our HYLO® partners much luck and success.