GDR Ski Championships 1975

The 27th GDR Ski Championships took place from February 6th to 9th, 1975 in Oberwiesenthal , Saxony . Originally they were supposed to take place in Lauscha , Thuringia , but had to be relocated to the Fichtelberg by the GDR Skier Association due to the weather . The groomed trails at the Sachsenbaude had snow depths of approx. 60 cm, so that the previous thaw and rain could not endanger the competitions. Around 180 athletes competed in nine decisions in the Nordic ski disciplines cross-country skiing , ski jumping and Nordic combined , including three team competitions. Shortly before the turn of the year, the champions on the long distances were determined. Despite the lack of snow and rain, the planned races were held over a shortened 40 km for men and for the first time 20 km for women in Steinheid am Rennsteig .

Cross-country skiing

Men

15 km

On the short men's course it was still exciting after half of the course to be completed, just 3 seconds separated Gerhard Grimmer from second-placed Gerd-Dietmar Klause. Until the finish line, however, this lead increased to a calming 28 seconds, so that Gerhard Grimmer was able to celebrate his 20th GDR championship title.

Saturday February 8, 1975

space	athlete	team	Time (h)
1	Gerhard Grimmer	ASK forward Oberhof	43:07
2	Gert-Dietmar Klause	SC Dynamo Klingenthal	43:35
3	Dieter Meinel	SC Dynamo Klingenthal	44:03
4th	Gerd Hessler	SC Dynamo Klingenthal	44:27
5	Jürgen Wolf	SC Motor Zella-Mehlis	44:34
6th	Axel Lesser	ASK forward Oberhof	44:55

30 km

The first decision for the men in good external conditions was won by Gerhard Grimmer from Oberhof with a lead of almost two minutes. However, there was a tough fight for second place, after 22.5 kilometers Klause and Meinel were still tied. In the last few kilometers, however, Gerd-Dietmar Klause still ran out a lead of 21 seconds and was happy about silver.

Thursday February 6, 1975

space	athlete	team	Time (h)
1	Gerhard Grimmer	ASK forward Oberhof	1:31:15
2	Gert-Dietmar Klause	SC Dynamo Klingenthal	1:33:07
3	Dieter Meinel	SC Dynamo Klingenthal	1:33:28
4th	Axel Lesser	ASK forward Oberhof	1:34:19
5	Gerd Hessler	SC Dynamo Klingenthal	1:34:31
6th	Hartmut Freyer	SC tractor Oberwiesenthal	1:35:19

40 km

In Steinheid, championships were fought under the most unfavorable conditions. Continuous rain and blow-dry temperatures made it necessary to postpone the start by one and a half hours and shorten the route to 40 kilometers. The 50 km world champion Gerhard Grimmer only came in fourth.

Sunday December 29th 1974

space	athlete	team	Time (h)
1	Gerd Hessler	SC Dynamo Klingenthal	2:16:21
2	Volker Kunzmann	SC Dynamo Klingenthal	2:20:38
3	Frank Spengler	ASK forward Oberhof	2:21:18
4th	Gerhard Grimmer	ASK forward Oberhof	2:22:47
5	Gert-Dietmar Klause	SC Dynamo Klingenthal	2:23:39
6th	Rainer Paul	SC Dynamo Klingenthal	2:25:26

4 × 10 km relay

After the first change, the Oberhof squad was on a par with the Klingenthal defending champions, even switching with a two-second lead. In second position, Gerhard Grimmer even ran out a lead of 37 seconds, a big surprise was within reach. Afterwards, however, Gerd-Dietmar Klause ran a sensational 2:14 minutes against the overwhelmed Arnd Krause. Although Axel Lesser was the last runner to catch up for almost a minute, the Klingenthal team was still 36 seconds ahead of gold.

Sunday 9th February 1975

space	team	athlete	Time (h)
1	SC Dynamo Klingenthal	Gerd Heßler Dieter Meinel Gert-Dietmar Klause Jürgen Wolf	2:01:42
2	ASK forward Oberhof	Frank Spengler Gerhard Grimmer Arnd Krause Axel Lesser	2:02:18
3	SC Motor Zella-Mehlis	Greiner Günter Beutel Friedhelm Schmidt Schlott	2:08:22

Women

5 km

A little unexpectedly, Petra Hinze received championship honors on the short distance. The previous season had not suggested that. The bronze rank also went to 17-year-old Christel Meinel, who, despite falling, left Barbara Petzold 14 seconds ahead of her.

Saturday February 8, 1975

space	athlete	team	Time (h)
1	Petra Hinze	SC tractor Oberwiesenthal	16:16
2	Sigrun Krause	ASK Oberhof	16:31
3	Christel Meinel	SC Dynamo Klingenthal	16:35
4th	Barbara Petzold	SC tractor Oberwiesenthal	16:49
5	Monika Debertshäuser	SC Motor Zella-Mehlis	16:52
6th	Marion Büchner	SC Motor Zella-Mehlis	16:56

10 km

Sigrun Krause from Oberhof won the first women's competition in a convincing manner. After the two-time GDR champion from 1973 missed out in the following season, after bronze over 20 km she won the third GDR championship title at the end of 1974. Co-favorite Barbara Petzold was plagued by stomach cramps from kilometer six and was almost a minute behind only in fourth place.

Thursday February 6, 1975

space	athlete	team	Time (h)
1	Sigrun Krause	ASK Oberhof	34:26
2	Veronika Schmidt	SC Motor Zella-Mehlis	34:59
3	Marion Büchner	SC Motor Zella-Mehlis	35:11
4th	Barbara Petzold	SC tractor Oberwiesenthal	35:21
5	Monika Debertshäuser	SC Motor Zella-Mehlis	35:24
6th	Christel Meinel	SC Dynamo Klingenthal	36:13

20 km

As expected, Barbara Petzold won the first time run distance of 20 kilometers. As with the men, continuous rain and hairdryers made competition difficult.

Sunday December 29th 1974

space	athlete	team	Time (h)
1	Barbara Petzold	SC tractor Oberwiesenthal	1:17:48
2	Veronika Schmidt	SC Motor Zella-Mehlis	1:20:58
3	Sigrun Krause	ASK forward Oberhof	1:21:01
4th	Marion Büchner	SC Motor Zella-Mehlis	1:22:25
5	Sigrid Opitz	SC Dynamo Klingenthal	1:22:35
6th	Doris Wesche	SC Dynamo Klingenthal	1:22:56
6th	Kleditzsch	SC Dynamo Klingenthal	1:22:56

4x5 km relay

The relay decision for women was made at the green table. After a protest, the victorious relay was disqualified from SC Motor Zella-Mehlis in the line-up of Debertshäuser / Siegel / Büchner / Schmidt due to mixed up start numbers. So the local heroes around Barbara Petzold could win gold.

Sunday 9th February 1975

space	team	athlete	Time (h)
1	SC tractor Oberwiesenthal	Heinzmann Barbara Petzold Kutz Petra Hinze	1:11:37
2	ASK forward Oberhof	Löffler Ritzmann Sigrun Krause König	1:11:48
3	SC Dynamo Klingenthal I	Kleditzsch Sigrid Opitz Pechmann Christel Meinel	1:12:43

Nordic combination

After jumping from the Oberwiesenthal normal hill, the decision for gold was already made. Last year's world champion Ulrich Wehling left nothing behind and won the championship title with a lead of over 40 points. The silver medalist was more surprising. In his first senior season, the 1974 European junior champion, Konrad Winkler, was able to advance from sixth after the jumping to silver. He referred Klaus Tuchscherer to bronze.

Ski jumping Friday, February 7, 1975; 15 km Saturday, February 8, 1975

space	athlete	team	Points
1	Ulrich Wehling	SC tractor Oberwiesenthal	437.80
2	Konrad Winkler	SC tractor Oberwiesenthal	396.00
3	Klaus Tuchscherer	SC Dynamo Klingenthal	389.55
4th	Andreas Michlik	SC Dynamo Klingenthal	386.05
5	Frank Koch	SC Motor Zella-Mehlis	384.40
6th	Axel Scheibenhof	SC Dynamo Klingenthal	378.80

Ski jumping

Contrary to the original plans to hold an individual competition on the large hill in Klingenthal, an individual and a team competition were held on the Fichtelbergschanze.

Normal hill

After a very mixed four hills tournament , in which two third places were the maximum and no GDR jumper stood on the podium in the overall standings, at least some jumpers were able to come up with good results. The Aschenbach brothers in particular made people sit up and take notice. However, it was first the older Dietmar who caused a sensation in training with the width of 91.5 m, 2 meters above the hill record at the time. In the competition, however, it was only enough to achieve a thankless fourth place, albeit with a new hill record of 90 m in the second run. His brother Hans-Georg took home the championship title.

Saturday February 8, 1975

space	athlete	team	Points
1	Hans-Georg Aschenbach	ASK forward Oberhof	260.6
2	Henry Glass	SC Dynamo Klingenthal	253.7
3	Heinz Wosipiwo	SC Dynamo Klingenthal	252.4
4th	Dietmar Aschenbach	ASK forward Oberhof	250.9
5	Bernd Eckstein	SC Motor Zella-Mehlis	249.2
6th	Jochen Danneberg	ASK forward Oberhof	248.6

Team jumping from the normal hill

The other teams had no chance against the ASK team from Oberhof, made up of the world class jumpers Hans-Georg and Dietmar Aschenbach as well as Jochen Danneberg. In the fight for second place, however, it was tight, in the end the team from Klingenthal had the lead.

Sunday 9th February 1975

space	team	athlete	Points
1	ASK forward Oberhof	Martin Weber Jochen Danneberg Dietmar Aschenbach Hans-Georg Aschenbach	746.4
2	SC Dynamo Klingenthal I	Höring Seifert Heinz Wosipiwo Henry Glaß	725.1
3	SC Motor Zella-Mehlis I	Blum J. Eckstein Bernd Eckstein Schmidt	723.9

Medal table

Although the SC Dynamo Klingenthal won over a third of all medals, it was only enough for third place because of the two gold medals. Thanks to the strong jumpers and Gerhard Grimmer's two championship titles, the ASK Vorwärts Oberhof was the most successful sports club in the end.

Medal table (after all 11 competitions)
space	team	gold	silver	bronze	total
1	ASK Oberhof	5	3	2	10
2	SC tractor Oberwiesenthal	4th	1	0	5
3	SC Dynamo Klingenthal	2	5	6th	13
4th	SC Motor Zella-Mehlis	0	2	3	5

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ND . February 4, 1975, p. 5.
2. ↑ ND. February 5, 1975, p. 5.
3. ↑ BZ . December 30, 1974, p. 6.
4. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g} ND. February 10, 1975, p. 8.
5. ↑ ^{a b} ND. February 7, 1975, p. 5.
6. ↑ ^{a b} BZ. December 30, 1974, p. 6.

literature

• Manfred Seifert, Roland Singer, Hans-Jürgen Zeume: Great love for skiing . Sportverlag, Berlin 1979, pp. 210-211.