Good chances for a top place
Created: 01/21/2022, 13:00
Felix Karpfinger (left) and Maxi Kloiber were already very successful at the long-range championships two weeks ago.
At the weekend, normal team curling is the order of the day in the VER Selb team.
© Beate Purucker
This time it's not about distance for Felix Karpfinger, it's about precision.
Erding – Felix Karpfinger not only masters long-distance curling, but also the team game, which he wants to prove once again on Saturday.
Together with Maxi Kloiber, his club colleague from SC Oberhummel, he will compete in the VER Selb team at the 35th German Championships on the winter tracks in Ruhpolding tomorrow, Saturday.
As reigning Bavarian U23 team champions, the two SCO shooters, along with their teammates Jannik Purucker and Sebastian Sperr, are among the favourites.
In Selb's patchwork team, only Purucker is a member of the VER.
His teammates come from Oberhummel and Ismaning (Sperr).
The constellation is made possible by the "division of the playing rights" (green card), which allows the shooters to shoot for another club - but only in classes that their own home club does not have.
This partnership of convenience has already paid off for Karpfinger and his colleagues this season: the quartet won the title at the Bavarian Championships in mid-December in the Donau-Arena in Regensburg and thus managed to qualify for the Germans.
This is now taking place in the Ruhpolding ice rink.
A total of eight teams take part in the U23 team competition. And since curling is only widespread in Germany in the south, the starting places from the north, east and west regions were not reported at all. That's why the seven best of the Bavarian championships are starting next to the one south-west representative SG Langenargen/Friedrichshall. In addition to VER Selb, these are EC Feldkirchen, SV Windberg, EC Lampoding, EC Gerabach, EC Oberhausen and FC Penzing. The game is played in the mode "everyone against everyone" - and Feldkirchen and host Lampoding in particular will do everything they can to stop them this time.
For SCO coach Florian Kloiber there are no clear favorites in the U23 team competition.
“But the prospects for our boys are good.
Because if you're right at the top with the Bavarians, then you also have a good chance of getting a top spot with the Germans.
That's why we're counting on at least one place on the stairs.” From his point of view, two things speak in favor of the Selber team: On the one hand, all four athletes could occupy any position.
On the other hand, his two protégés and Jannik Purucker, as long-distance archers, are able to shoot with "tighter" running plates on the ice stock, which of course doesn't make it easier for the opponents.
BY JOSEF FUCHS