Lothar Metz (wrestler)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Lothar Metz
medal table

Wrestler

GDR
Olympic games
silver 1960 Rome medium
bronze 1964 Tokyo medium
gold 1968 Mexico City medium
World Championship
bronze 1958 Budapest medium
bronze 1971 Sofia medium
European Championship
silver 1967 Minsk medium
silver 1970 Berlin medium
Lothar Metz (left) becomes East German middleweight champion in 1968

Lothar Metz (born January 16, 1939 in Meerane ) is a former German wrestler . He was Olympic champion in 1968 in Greco-Roman. Middleweight style.

Career

Lothar Metz wrestled exclusively in the Greco-Roman style. His strength was ground fighting, for which he had developed new training methods.

He grew up in Auerbach in the Ore Mountains and started wrestling at the age of 14. Before he was active in athletics , cycling and ski jumping . In Auerbach, a place with decades of wrestling tradition, he found the first coach who led him to the youth championship of the GDR in 1956 . He made rapid progress and at the age of 19 was able to qualify for the World Championships in Budapest in 1958. There he took third place at the age of 19 and was only defeated by the multiple Soviet world champion Giwi Kartosia and Horst Hess from Dortmund . In 1959 he switched to ASK Vorwärts Rostock , where he was offered the best training conditions and new professional prospects as an officer in the People's Navy in the GDR. In 1960 he wrestled for the first time at the Olympic Games in the all-German team. In the qualification for it he had prevailed against Horst Hess. His biggest victory in the Olympic tournament was probably that over the Soviet champion Nikolai Chuchalov . In the following years he achieved good results at the international championships, but he was denied a great victory. Mostly he failed because of the then very strong wrestling Soviet athletes, such as Wassili Zenin , Walentin Olenik and Rimantas Bagdonas . Lothar Metz delivered great fights to the Turk Tevfik Kış , multiple world champion, the Yugoslav Olympic champion Branislav Simić and the outstanding wrestler in this weight class Valeri Resanzew from the USSR. At the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo , Metz won the bronze medal. His big day came at the 1968 Olympic Games , where he became Olympic champion after successful fights and defeating Tevfik Kış . At the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich , Lothar Metz tried again, it was his fourth game, to do well. However, he was already defeated in the preliminary fights to the Turkish Tari and the Yugoslav Josip Čorak and could no longer place himself in the front field.

Lothar Metz had to retire very early due to hearing loss.

International success

(OS = Olympic Games, WM = World Championship, EM = European Championship, Wed = middleweight, the weight limit of the middleweight was changed several times and was most recently at 90 kg, all competitions in the Greco-Roman style)

year space competition Weight class
1958 3. "Werner-Seelenbinder" tournament in Leipzig medium behind Rekow, USSR a. Siegried Neufang, GDR
1958 3. World Cup in Budapest medium with victories over René Schiermeyer , France , Witner, Netherlands, Souminen, Finland and defeats against Horst Heß , Dortmund , Dimitar Dobrew , Bulgaria and Giwi Kartosia , USSR
1959 2. Intern. Tournament in Greiz medium behind Per-Olov Ytterström, Sweden a. before Siegfried Neufang
1960 silver OS in Rome medium with victories over Marciano Magnani , Italy, Raymond Schummer , Luxembourg, Russell Camilleri , USA, Nikolai Tschutschalow , USSR and a draw against Jiří Kormaník , Czechoslovakia a . Ion Țăranu , Romania
1961 5. World Cup in Yokohama medium with victory over Camilleri, draw against gegenăranu and defeat against Wassili Zenin , USSR
1964 bronze OS in Tokyo medium with victories over Gheorghe Popovici , Romania, Czesław Kwieciński , Poland, Stig Persson , Sweden , Krali Bimbalow , Bulgaria and defeats against Valentin Olenik , USSR a. Jiří Kormaník
1965 5. World Cup in Tampere medium with victories over Wieser, Finland, Pötsch, Austria, Pinter, Hungary and defeat against Rimantas Bagdonas , USSR
1966 4th EM in Essen medium with victories over Cucic, Yugoslavia , Smolinski, Poland, Anatoli Kirow , USSR, Tsintsaroff, Bulgaria and a draw against Tevfik Kış , Turkey and Stig Persson, Sweden
1967 3. "Ivan Poddubny" tournament in Moscow medium behind Alexander Jurkewitsch u. Valentin Olenik, both USSR, before Petar Krumow , Bulgaria, Nikolai Tarasow, USSR a. Branislav Simić
1967 2. EM in Minsk medium with victory over Kosakiewitsch, Denmark a. undecided against Tevfik Kış and Alexander Jurkewitsch, USSR
1967 8th. World Cup in Bucharest medium with victory over Jiří Kormaník u. Tie against Popovici and Branislav Simić, Yugoslavia
1967 2. Pre-Olympic Games in Mexico City medium behind Alexander Yurkewitsch u. before Zinzarow, Bulgaria a. László Sillai , Hungary
1968 1. Intern. Tournament in Zella-Mehlis medium before Bertil Nyström , Sweden a. Petar Krumov
1968 3. Intern. Tournament in Warsaw medium behind Czesław Kwieciński u. Smolinski, both Poles
1968 9. EM in Västerås medium with victories over Kosakiewitsch a. undecided against László Sillai, Hungary, Nyström, Sweden and Nicolae Neguț , Romania
1968 gold OS in Mexico City medium with victories over Tevfik Kış, Kiraki, Japan, Baugham, USA, Överby, Norway, Nicolae Neguț, Romania, and a draw against Branislav Simić
1970 3. Tournament in East Berlin medium behind Nikolow, Bulgaria a. Panteleev, USSR
1970 2. Klippan tournament medium behind Valentin Oleinik u. before Olsson, Sweden a. Dieter Heuer , GDR
1970 2. EM in Berlin medium with victories over Nilsson, Sweden, Philippe, Luxembourg, Josip Čorak , Yugoslavia and a draw against Valeri Resanzew , USSR
1971 1. "Werner-Seelenbinder" tournament in Berlin medium before Percsi, Hungary a. Jürgen Heuer
1971 3. World Cup in Sofia medium with victories over Perczi, Hungary, Kowalewski, Witten, Ksroni, Lebanon, Czesław Kwieciński, Poland, Baugham, USA a. Losses against Stoyan Nikolov , Bulgaria and Valery Resanzew
1972 4th Klippan tournament Semi-difficult behind Stojan Nikolow , Bulgaria, Omar Bliadse , USSR u. Nicolae Neguț, Romania
1972 10. OS in Munich medium with a draw against Czesław Kwieciński and defeats against Tani, Japan and Josip Čorak

Championships of the GDR

Lothar Metz won the East German middleweight championship in 1959, 1960, 1961, 1963, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968 and in the light heavyweight division in 1971 and 1973.

Awards (selection)

swell

  • International Wrestling Database of the University of Leipzig
  • One hundred years of wrestling in Germany , Der Ringer Verlag, Niedernberg, 1991
  • 1972 yearbook of the German Wrestling Federation, Karlsruhe, 1972
  • Website www.sport-komplett.de
  • various issues of the specialist magazine "Athletik" from 1958 to 1972

literature

Web links