Hans-Günter Klein (wrestler)

Hans-Günter Klein (born May 24, 1954 in Lünen ) is a former German wrestler . He was a multiple German heavyweight and super heavyweight champion in the Greco-Roman style.

Career

Hans-Günter Klein began wrestling as a teenager at ASV Westerfilde-Huckarde . At first he wrestled in both styles, the Greco-Roman style and the free style. After joining the national team, he focused entirely on the Greco-Roman style. As a junior he moved to ASV Heros Dortmund and a little later to KSV Witten . He started in light heavyweight (then up to 90 kg body weight), but soon switched to heavyweight (then up to 100 kg body weight). Towards the end of his wrestling career, he started in the super heavyweight division (then over 100 kg or up to 130 kg body weight).

In 1972 Hans-Günter Klein became German champion in the A-youth in the free style in the weight class over 87 kg body weight and took second place in the Greco-Roman in the same weight class behind Pedro Pawlidis from Aalen . In the following years he won several medals at the German junior championships. In 1974 he was German junior light heavyweight champion (Greco-Roman style) before Siegbert Koch from Lichtenfels .

At the German senior championships between 1975 and 1977, Klein finished second in the light heavyweight division (Greco-Roman style) behind Fred Theobald from Schifferstadt and Pedro Pawlidis . Hans-Günter Klein won his first German senior title in 1978 after he switched to the heavyweight division. In this weight class, he won the German championship five times in a row from 1978 to 1982. After a somewhat longer break at German championships, he finally won German super heavyweight championship titles in 1986 and 1987 and was German runner-up in this weight class in 1988 and 1989.

With KSV Witten, Hans-Günter Klein also became German team champions in 1978, 1980, 1981 and 1983.

The international wrestling career of Hans-Günter Klein began in 1974 with a third place at the European Junior Championships in Haparanda in the light heavyweight division behind Georgi Rajkow from Bulgaria and Airapet Minassjan from the USSR .

From 1977 to 1981 he competed in several world and European championships. The best results were a 5th place at the 1978 World Cup in Mexico City and another 5th place at the 1980 European Championships in Prievidza . He could not take part in the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow because of the German boycott of these games. Hans-Günter Klein's international career fell at a time when a number of outstanding heavyweight athletes were at the start. It was therefore extremely difficult for him to do well at the international championships. His competitors were Nikolai Balboschin , Nikolai Inkow and Valentin Misgaitis from the Soviet Union , Roman Bierla and Roman Wroclawski from Poland , Vasile Andrei and Ivan Savin from Romania , Georgi Rajkow and Andrej Dimitrow from Bulgaria , Tamás Gáspár and Jozsef Farkas from Hungary and Refik Memišević and Josef Tertelj from Yugoslavia .

From 1982 Hans-Günter Klein only started on the German wrestling mats. After his active time as a wrestler, he continued to wrestle in various functions. His son Mirko Klein was also a top German wrestler.

International success

year	space	competition	Weight class
1974	3.	Junior European Championship (Espoirs) in Haparanda	Semi-difficult	behind Georgi Rajkow , Bulgaria a . Airapet Minassyan, USSR
1974	1.	CISM Military World Cup in Rome	Semi-difficult	before Lassila, Finland a . Fin, Italy
1975	2.	EC championships in Frederikshavn / Denmark	Heavy	behind Svend Studsgaard, Denmark, in front of Artsen, Norway
1977	1.	Int. Tournament in Kladovo / CSSR	Semi-difficult	before Darko Nišavić , Yugoslavia
1977	8th.	EM in Bursa	Semi-difficult	with a victory over Georgios Posidis , Greece a . Defeats against Herbert Götze, GDR a . Roman Wroclawski , Poland
1977	2.	Tournament in Helsinki	Heavy	behind Andrzej Skrzydlewski , Poland, in front of Jarmo Pöyry, Finland
1978	1.	Int. Tournament in Athens	Heavy	before N. Koytsouridis et al. Georgios Pikilidis , bde. Greece
1978	6th	EM in Oslo	Heavy	with a victory over Polat, Turkey a. Defeats against Jozsef Farkas , Hungary a . Georgi Rajkov
1978	3.	Grand Prix of the Federal Republic of Germany in Aschaffenburg	Heavy	behind Nikolai Balboschin , USSR a. Ivan Savin , Romania , before Heinz Schäfer , FRG a. Refik Memišević , Yugoslavia
1978	1.	"Werner-Seelenbinder" tournament in Leipzig	Heavy	before Virtanen, Finland a. Svensson, Sweden
1978	5.	World Cup in Mexico City	Heavy	with a victory over Ivan Savin u. Defeats against Jozsef Farkas u. Georgi Rajkov
1978	7th	World Cup in Bucharest	Heavy	after losing to Roman Bierla , Poland and Vasile Andrei , Romania
1979	5.	Grand Prix of the FRG in Aschaffenburg	Heavy	behind Nikolai Balboschin , Andrej Dimitrow , Bulgaria, Vasile Andrei u. Georg Svensson, Sweden
1979	3.	"Werner-Seelenbinder" tournament in Leipzig	Heavy	behind Valentin Misgaitis u. Nikolai Balboschin , bde. USSR, before Bogdan Dąbrowski , Poland a. Tamás Gáspár , Hungary
1979	8th.	World Cup in San Diego	Heavy	after defeat against Vasile Andrei u. Georgi Rajkov
1980	6th	Grand Prix of the FRG in Aschaffenburg	Heavy	behind Nikolai Balboschin , Roman Bierla , Vasile Andrei , Georgi Rajkow u. Jozsef Farkas
1980	5.	EM in Prievidza	Heavy	with victories over Svend Studsgaard u. Vasile Andrei et al. a loss to Jozsef Farkas
1981	2.	Grand Prix of the FRG in Aschaffenburg	Heavy	behind Nikolai Inkow , USSR, in front of Roman Wroclawski , Jozsef Farkas , Roger Öberg , Sweden a. Josef Tertelj , Yugoslavia
1981	unpl.	EM in Gothenburg	Heavy	after losing to Josef Tertelj resigned due to injury
1987	3.	Grand Prix of the FRG in Aschaffenburg	Super heavy	behind Tomas Johansson , Sweden a. Mathias Heinrich , GDR , before Lubomir David, CSSR a. Roman Wroclawski

German championships

year	space	Age group	style	Weight class	Result
1972	1.	Youth A	F.	over 87 kg body weight	in front of Ullrich Burr, Königsbronn u. Bernhard Stössel, Sandhofen
1972	2.	Youth A	GR	over 87 kg body weight	behind Pedro Pawlidis , Aalen , in front of Bernhard Stössel
1972	2.	Juniors	GR	Heavy	behind Heinz Essig, Ludwigshafen am Rhein , in front of Max Schröger, Untergriesbach
1972	3.	Juniors	F.	Heavy	behind Bernd Redmann, Daxlanden u. Max Schröger
1973	2.	Juniors	GR	Semi-difficult	behind Roland Bohlen, Eppelborn , in front of Siegbert Koch, Lichtenfels
1973	6th	Seniors	GR	Semi-difficult	Winner: Günter Kowalewski , Witten ahead of Reinhard Drott, Mainz a . Kaspar Eham, Bad Reichenhall
1974	2.	Seniors	GR	Semi-difficult	behind Fred Theobald , Schifferstadt u. Roman Bednarek, Rheydt
1974	1.	Juniors	GR	Semi-difficult	before Siegbert Koch u. Paul Huebner, Inzlingen
1975	2.	Seniors	GR	Semi-difficult	behind Fred Theobald , in front of Anton Kunkel, Goldbach
1976	2.	Seniors	GR	Semi-difficult	behind Fred Theobald , in front of Roman Bednarek
1977	2.	Seniors	GR	Semi-difficult	behind Pedro Pawlidis , in front of Fred Theobald
1978	1.	Seniors	GR	Heavy	before Walter Götz, Seeheim a . Heinz Schäfer , Witten
1979	1.	Seniors	GR	Heavy	before Karl Hug , Freiburg im Breisgau a . Karl Dutchman, Mietraching
1980	1.	Seniors	GR	Heavy	before Karl Hug u. Andreas Breid-Holzer, Freiburg
1981	1.	Seniors	GR	Heavy	in front of Klaus Schneegans, Elgershausen a . Jürgen Richter
1982	1.	Seniors	GR	Heavy	in front of Klaus Schneegans u. Andreas Breid, Riegelsberg
1986	1.	Seniors	GR	Super heavy	before Peter Borutta, AC Goldbach a . Miroslav Hulboj, Goldbach
1987	1.	Seniors	GR	Super heavy	before Peter Borutta u. Wolfgang Gentzen, Bonn -Duisdorf
1988	2.	Seniors	GR	Super heavy	behind Fritz Gerdsmeier , Aschaffenburg u. before Stefan Kaiser, Freiburg
1989	2.	Seniors	GR	Super heavy	behind Fritz Gerdsmeier u. in front of Darek Chiechanowski, Bonn-Duisdorf

Note: GR = Greco-Roman style, F = free style, WM = World Championship, EM = European Championship, light heavyweight, then up to 90 kg, heavyweight, then up to 100 kg and the like. Super heavyweight, back then up to 130 kg body weight

swell

• Database of the Institute for Applied Training Sciences at the University of Leipzig ,
• Trade magazines Athletik and Der Ringer ,
• One hundred years of wrestling in Germany , published by the German Wrestling Association, Der Ringer publishing house , Niedernberg , 1991

Web links

Profile of Hans-Günter Klein at the Institute for Applied Training Science