Klaus-Peter Göpfert

Klaus-Peter Göpfert

Klaus-Peter Göpfert medal table
Wrestler
GDR
World Championship
silver	1971 Sofia	Light
bronze	1973 Tehran	Welter
silver	1974 Katowice	Welter
European Championship
gold	1970 Berlin	Light
bronze	1973 Helsinki	Welter
silver	1975 Ludwigshafen	Welter
silver	1977 Bursa	Welter

Klaus-Peter Göpfert (born October 22, 1948 in Coburg ) is a former German wrestler . He was European champion in 1970 in the Greco-Roman style lightweight.

Career

Klaus-Peter Göpfert grew up in Albrechts near Suhl and began wrestling as a schoolboy. Due to his talent for this sport, he was delegated to the children's and youth sports school in Zella-Mehlis . There he became a member of the SC Motor Zella-Mehlis and trained as a wrestler in the Greco-Roman style by Fritz and Helmut Albrecht. In 1966 he was GDR youth champion in Tambach-Dietharz in the class up to 70 kg body weight and a year later he took 3rd place at the GDR championships for senior citizens in the lightweight category. He won his first title at a GDR championship in 1970 in the lightweight. In the same year he was used for the first time at an international championship, the European championship in Berlin , and immediately became European champion. He was defeated in this tournament to the Bulgarian Stojan Apostolow, but was lucky that he was defeated by the German champion Manfred Schöndorfer and had to retire early.

At the 1970 World Cup in Edmonton , Canada , Klaus-Peter came in a good 5th place after two wins and two draws against Tage Weirum from Denmark and Simion Popescu from Romania.

At the 1971 World Cup in Sofia , Klaus-Peter Göpfert had to hit the mat eight times. He won five fights and fought three times and was thus vice world champion behind Sreten Damjanović from Yugoslavia, who had a slightly better point account than him.

Göpfert had black days at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich . He lost both fights that he had to contest prematurely and only came in 12th thanks to a bye in the first round.

From 1973 Klaus-Peter Göpfert started a weight class higher, in the welterweight division. He got along well in this weight class too. This was already evident at the European Championships in Helsinki , where he won a bronze medal. In 1974 Klaus-Peter celebrated another great success at the world championships in Katowice by winning the vice world championship title. He was also runner-up in Europe in 1975 and 1977. At the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal, however, Klaus-Peter Göpfert missed another medal with a 5th place.

In the course of his career, Klaus-Peter Göpfert has fought great fights against a large number of world-class athletes. Iwan Kolew and Stojan Apostolow from Bulgaria , Simion Popescu from Romania , Anatoli Bykow from the USSR , Jan Karlsson and Lars-Erik Skiöld from Sweden , Wladislaw Krzesinski and Andrzej Supron from Poland and Vitězslav Mácha from the CSSR , all Olympic champions and world and European champions are mentioned here.

After the World Cup in 1977, Klaus-Peter Göpfert ended his wrestling career and became a junior coach at SC "Motor" Zella-Mehlis . After German reunification, he also worked as a wrestling trainer in the Franconian region . He is currently a regional trainer at the Bavarian Wrestling Association.

International success

(all competitions in Greco-Roman style, OS = Olympic Games, WM = World Championship, EM = European Championship, lightweight, then up to 68 kg, welterweight, then up to 74 kg body weight)

year	space	competition	Weight class
1967	4th	Mälar Cup in Västerås	Light	behind Matti Poikkala , Sweden , Heinz Henkel, GDR , and Myllari, Sweden
1970	2.	"Klippan" tournament	Light	behind Kosin, USSR , and in front of Myllari
1970	1.	Tournament in Berlin (East)	Light	before Donkow, Bulgaria, and Myllari
1970	1.	EM in Berlin (East)	Light	with victories over days in Weirum , Denmark , Öistein Davidsen, Norway , Roland Schorkops, Belgium , Matti Poikkala , Finland , a draw against Sreten Damjanović , Yugoslavia , and a loss against Stojan Apostolow , Bulgaria
1970	5.	World Cup in Edmonton	Light	with wins over Istvan Nemeth, Hungary , and Shu Hun-Kyo, Korea , and a draw against Tage Weirum and Simion Popescu , Romania
1971	2.	"Ivan Poddubny" Memorial in Minsk	Light	behind Nowochatko, in front of Lukow, both USSR
1971	1.	"Werner-Seelenbinder" tournament in Berlin	Light	before Stojan Apostolow and Nedko Nedew , both Bulgaria
1971	2.	World Cup in Sofia	Light	with victories over Dada, Lebanon , Josef Brötzner, Austria , Asko Mattila, Finland, Tanoue Takashi, Japan , and Gary Alexander, USA , and a draw against Andrzej Supron , Poland , Stojan Apostolow and Sreten Damjanovic
1972	1.	"Klippan" tournament	Light	before Lars-Erik Skiöld , Sweden, and Tage Weirum
1972	1.	"Werner-Seelenbinder" tournament in Zella-Mehlis	Light	before Jürgen Hähnel , GDR , and Umerow, USSR
1972	12.	OS in Munich	Light	after losing to Veikko Lavonen, Finland, and Stojan Apostolow
1973	3.	EM in Helsinki	Welter	with victories over Imant Klintson, USSR, Christos Kaponis, Greece , Carlos Curbelo, Spain , and Stanisław Krzesiński , Poland, a draw against Vítězslav Mácha , Czechoslovakia , and Adrian Florin Popa, Romania, and a loss against Iwan Kolew , Bulgaria
1973	3.	World Cup in Tehran	Welter	with victories over A. Tannehill, USA , Tevfik Aydeniz, Turkey , Adrian Florin Popa u. Momir Kecman , Yugoslavia, and losses to Iwan Kolew and Jan Karlsson , Sweden
1974	7th	EM in Madrid	Welter	with victories over Johannes Van de Paverd, Netherlands , Mihály Toma , Hungary , and Adrian Florin Popa and defeats against Iwan Kolew and Stanislaw Krzesinski
1974	2.	World Cup in Katowice	Welter	with victories over Johann Kiss, Austria, Apostolos Messiakaris, Greece, Niels Madsen, Denmark, Mihály Toma and Josif Berischwili , USSR, and one defeat against Vítězslav Mácha
1975	2.	EM in Ludwigshafen am Rhein	Welter	with victories over Mehmet Tütür, Turkey, Stanislaw Krzesinski, Vojislaw Tabacki, Yugoslavia, Mihály Toma and Vítězslav Mácha and a defeat against Jan Karlsson
1976	5.	OS in Montreal	Welter	with victories over Petros Galaktopoulos , Greece, Stanislaw Krzesinski and Jan Karlsson and defeats against Mácha and Anatoli Bykow , USSR
1977	2.	EM in Bursa	Welter	with victories over Lasse Carlsen, Norway, Celal Taskiran, Turkey, Lennart Lundell , Sweden, Karoly Kasap , Yugoslavia, Stanislaw Krzesinski and Janko Schopow , Bulgaria, and one defeat against Vítězslav Mácha
1977	15th	World Cup in Gothenburg	Welter	after losing to Anatoli Bykov and Vítězslav Mácha

GDR championships

year	space	Weight class	Result
1967	3.	Light	behind Eckhard Schulz , ASK "Vorwärts" Rostock , and Klaus Pohl , SG Dynamo Luckenwalde
1968	3.	Light	behind Klaus Pohl and Jürgen Hähnel , SC Leipzig
1970	1.	Light	in front of Lothar Schneider , SC "Motor" Dessau , and Jürgen Hähnel
1971	1.	Light	in front of Lothar Schneider and Heinz Henkel, SC "Motor" Zella-Mehlis
1972	1.	Light	before Jürgen Hähnel and Woratsch, SC "Motor" Zella-Mehlis
1973	1.	Welter	in front of Detlef Klatt, SG Dynamo Luckenwalde, and Helbing, SC Leipzig
1974	1.	Welter	in front of Ralf Thieme, SG Dynamo Luckenwalde, and Triebel, SC "Motor" Zella-Mehlis
1977	1.	Welter	before Triebel and Rößler

swell

• Professional magazines Athletics from 1966 to 1975 and Der Ringer from 1976 and 1977
• Documentation of FILA's International Wrestling Championships , 1976
• Volker Kluge : The great lexicon of GDR athletes. The 1000 most successful and popular athletes from the GDR, their successes and biographies. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-89602-348-9 .
• Website www.sport-komplett.de

Web links

• Klaus-Peter Göpfert in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )