GDR Ski Championships 1981

The competitions of the 33rd GDR Ski Championships took place from February 6th to 8th, 1981 in Schmiedefeld , Thuringia . Nine competitions, seven individual and two relay decisions, in cross-country skiing , Nordic combined and ski jumping were held. After the resignation of some top performers such as Alf-Gerd Deckert or Ulrich Wehling , these title fights were an initial assessment of the current position for the upcoming selection squad, especially for the men. The women were also missing Veronika Hesse, a two-time GDR champion from 1980, due to the birth of their son. The long distance championships over 20 km for women and 50 km for men, which were to take place in Masserberg on March 29, 1981 , were canceled due to lack of snow.

Cross-country skiing

Men

15 km

Klingenthal's Steffen Kühne won the second running competition. With the exception of the silver medalist Christoph Rollinger from Oberwiesenthal, the first six places were only made by dynamo athletes.

Date: Saturday February 7, 1981

space	athlete	team	Time (h)
1	Steffen Kühne	SC Dynamo Klingenthal	45:56
2	Christoph Rollinger	SC tractor Oberwiesenthal	46:27
3	Bachmann	SC Dynamo Klingenthal	46:51
4th	Müller	SC Dynamo Klingenthal	47:12
5	Fancier	SC Dynamo Klingenthal	47:12
6th	Frank Schröder	SC Dynamo Klingenthal	47:44

30 km

After the resignation of four national team members in the previous year, the young squad moved more into focus. However, these were not available in adequate numbers, which a starting field of ten athletes clearly demonstrated. Andreas Rollinger from Oberwiesenthal, who was just 18 years old, won the opening race ahead of defending champion Karsten Brandt from Klingenthal.

Date: Friday February 6, 1981

space	athlete	team	Time (h)
1	Andreas Rollinger	SC tractor Oberwiesenthal	1:33:02
2	Karsten Brandt	SC Dynamo Klingenthal	1:34:09
3	Schubert	SC tractor Oberwiesenthal	1:34:32
4th	Wretch	SC Dynamo Klingenthal	1:34:51
5	Bachmann	SC Dynamo Klingenthal	1:35:16
6th	Bold	SC Dynamo Klingenthal	1:36:47

4 × 10 km relay

Even the individual decisions had shown a high level of performance among the Klingenthal cross-country skiers. The season championship title was therefore not surprising, at most the large lead of almost two and a half minutes. Somewhat unexpectedly, the relay from Oberhof won silver. In the two individual decisions, there was not an ASK athlete among the top six. Bronze remained for the relay from Oberwiesenthal, which at least started with a master and a runner-up after the individual decisions.

Date: Sunday February 8, 1981

space	team	athlete	Time (h)
1	SC Dynamo Klingenthal	Müller Bachmann Karsten Brandt Steffen Kühne	2:07:51
2	ASK forward Oberhof I	Detlef Kotlinsky Cuno Schreyl Heiko Schmidt Fischer	2:10:16
3	SC Tractor Oberwiesenthal I	Schubert Christoph Rollinger Andreas Rollinger Uwe Wünsch	2:11:04

Women

5 km

In the absence of Veronika Hesse, the double Olympic champion Barbara Petzold left no doubt about the victory. In the end she overtook Carola Anding, who started half a minute ahead of her, and won the race with a 36-second lead. In fourth and fifth place, Kerstin Moring and Simone Butters, two 17-year-old young runners, drew attention to themselves.

Date: Friday February 6, 1981

space	athlete	team	Time (h)
1	Barbara Petzold	SC tractor Oberwiesenthal	16:23
2	Carola Anding	ASK forward Oberhof	16:59
3	Ute Noack	SC tractor Oberwiesenthal	17:30
4th	Kerstin Moring	ASK forward Oberhof	17:31
5	Simone Butters	SC Motor Zella-Mehlis	17:34
6th	Marlies Rostock	SC Dynamo Klingenthal	17:35

10 km

Even over the longer individual route, the champion was called Barbara Petzold. However, the second-placed Carola Anding was at times 10 seconds ahead of the Olympic champion. In the end she had to admit defeat to the Oberwiesenthalerin by nine seconds. The increased performance density of the Oberhof runners was shown by Petra Sölter's bronze place and Kerstin Moring's fourth place.

Date: Saturday February 7, 1981

space	athlete	team	Time (h)
1	Barbara Petzold	SC tractor Oberwiesenthal	33:42
2	Carola Anding	ASK forward Oberhof	33:51
3	Petra Sölter	ASK forward Oberhof	34:43
4th	Kerstin Moring	ASK forward Oberhof	36:31
5	Misersky	SC Motor Zella-Mehlis	36:33
6th	Rehropp	SC tractor Oberwiesenthal	36:57

4 × 5 km relay

The season decision ended with an exciting finale. The Klingenthal relay team around Marlies Rostock was able to maintain its lead up to the last lap, but it steadily melted thanks to the strong Oberhof runner-up, Carola Anding. In the finish sprint, the ASK athlete was one step ahead and gave her club the first season title at the GDR championships. Barbara Petzold was able to reduce a gap of 1:40 minutes to 36 seconds, but in the end only bronze remained for her relay.

Date: Sunday February 8, 1981

space	team	athlete	Time (h)
1	ASK forward Oberhof	Petra Sölter Kerstin Moring Jung Carola Anding	1:06:37
2	SC Dynamo Klingenthal	Marlies Rostock Gündel Seidel Demski	1:06:38
3	SC tractor Oberwiesenthal	Steffi Meßner Beate Witscher Philipp Barbara Petzold	1:07:13

Nordic combination

After the jump, Gunter Schmieder was in front of Konrad Winkler. The Olympic fifth from Lake Placid , Uwe Dotzauer, initially only finished fourth, but only 6.3 points behind the leader. On the second day of the competition, Konrad Winkler was unable to make up for the 16 seconds behind Schmieder due to a cold. On the contrary, Uwe Dotzauer, who started 41 seconds behind, moved up from fourth to second place. This immediately achieved a double victory from Klingenthal, which ended Oberwiesenthal's years of dominance in this discipline.

Date: Jumping Friday, February 6, 1981; Cross-country skiing 15 km, Saturday, February 7, 1981

space	athlete	team	Points
1	Gunter Schmieder	SC Dynamo Klingenthal	442.5
2	Uwe Dotzauer	SC Dynamo Klingenthal	438.6
3	Konrad Winkler	SC tractor Oberwiesenthal	434.10
4th	Hops	SC Motor Zella-Mehlis	415.05
5	Peter Opitz	SC Motor Zella-Mehlis	381.45
5	Menz	ASK forward Oberhof	381.45

Ski jumping

Normal hill

After silver in 1980, Henry Glaß won the competition on the normal hill this time. Already described in the press as an old master, the success came as a surprise even for Glaß, as the ski jumping season had been rather mediocre for him until then. Especially with his good posture grades, Glaß led after the first round. In second and third place came the two Zella-Mehliser starters Duschk and Zitzmann. They won the only two medals for their sports club.

Date: Friday February 6, 1981

space	athlete	team	Points
1	Henry Glass	SC Dynamo Klingenthal	251.6
2	Harald showerk	SC Motor Zella-Mehlis	249.2
3	Axel Zitzmann	SC Motor Zella-Mehlis	247.9
4th	Martin Weber	SC Dynamo Klingenthal	247.3
5	Ulrich Pschera	SC Dynamo Klingenthal	246.2
6th	Jochen Danneberg	SC Motor Zella-Mehlis	243.9

Large hill

The large hill was firmly in Klingenthal's hands. The Vogtlanders ended the competition with a triple success. Somewhat surprisingly, Ulrich Pschera prevailed over Klaus Ostwald and Manfred Deckert. In the end, it was only 0.5 points ahead that secured him the championship title.

Date: Sunday February 8, 1981

space	athlete	team	Points
1	Ulrich Pschera	SC Dynamo Klingenthal	264.7
2	Klaus Ostwald	SC Dynamo Klingenthal	264.2
3	Manfred Deckert	SC Dynamo Klingenthal	254.5
4th	Axel Zitzmann	SC Motor Zella-Mehlis	253.0
5	Andreas Auerswald	SC tractor Oberwiesenthal	245.5
6th	Matthias Buse	SC Dynamo Klingenthal	240.9

Medal table

Five out of nine titles went to Klingenthal alone. With 11 medals won, the Vogtländer were also the most successful sports club. The most successful athlete was Barbara Petzold from Oberwiesenthal with two championship titles.

Medal table (after all 9 competitions)
space	team	gold	silver	bronze	total
1	SC Dynamo Klingenthal	5	4th	2	11
2	SC tractor Oberwiesenthal	3	1	5	9
3	ASK Oberhof	1	3	1	5
4th	SC Motor Zella-Mehlis	0	1	1	2

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Berliner Zeitung of February 4, 1981, p. 6.
2. ^ ND of March 27, 1981.
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} ND of February 9, 1981, p. 7.
4. ↑ ^{a b c d} ND of February 7, 1981, p. 15.