“It’s eight, nine kilos,” said Shamil Borchashvili yesterday, describing the difference that he is above his weight class up to 81. That’s four days before the Bundesliga preliminary round that starts on Sunday, says the 26-year-old, who will therefore go to the mat in Bischofshofen for his regular club Multikraft Wels in the class up to 90 kilograms.
The people of Messestadt are defending champions. Last year, Shamil and his brothers Kimran and Wachid led the club to their first league title since 1977. The start of the league this week comes at the worst possible time for the trio. Wachid returned from the European Championships in Sofia with a strained knee ligament, and a decision on whether to play Kimran will only be made at short notice after his shoulder injury. Including Shamil’s weight class excursion, the result is that Welser, who are vulnerable at least in the preliminary round, have strengthened themselves with the Italian World Cup runner-up Manuel Lombardo, among others.
The UJZ Mühlviertel would like to be the beneficiary of Borchashvili’s concerns. The troop around heavyweight Daniel Allerstorfer is one of the four opponents that the Welser meet in the first of two preliminary rounds – the second follows on September 18th. “Mühlviertel has good chances,” said Borchashvili. After the relegation of Union Kirchham, Dynamic One from Feldkirchen is the only other Upper Austrian club represented in the upper house.
In the latter, it is noticeable that while other sports have long since shaken off the Corona mode, the judo league has not returned to the normal championship mode, but instead uses collecting rounds with four matches per team. As usual, the best four will advance to the Final Four.
Revitalized Women’s League
The women’s Bundesliga will start again on Saturday with the first half of its preliminary round. The field, which had recently shrunk to three teams due to the performance gap, was expanded to nine. Among them are three from Upper Austria, Reichraming, Mühlviertel and Burgkirchen (competition community with Flachgau). Nevertheless, the defending champion Wimpassing around Olympic silver medalist Michaela Polleres remains the favourite. (pue)
Source: Nachrichten
