Martin Herbster

Martin Herbster (born January 29, 1962 in Karlsruhe ) is a former German wrestler .

Career

Martin Herbster began in frühester Youth Olympics at KSC Graben-Neudorf near Karlsruhe with the rings . He developed very quickly there and became one of the most successful young German wrestlers. At first he wrestled in both styles, Greco-Roman and free style. Between 1972 and 1983 he was German champion twelve times in a row in the age groups of pupils (today C-youth), youth (today A and B-youth) and juniors. Martin Herbster's international career began at the age of 16 at a free-style paperweight tournament in Athens , which he won ahead of British Mark Dunbar.

In 1979 and 1980, Martin Herbster was runner- up in free style at the World Youth Championships, which were held in Colorado Springs . 1979 in the weight class up to 52 kg body weight behind Bruce Malinowski and 1980 in the weight class up to 56 kg body weight behind Kevin Darkus (wrestler) , both American.

In 1983, Martin Herbster was used for the seniors at both the European Championship in Budapest and the World Championship in Kiev in the featherweight division. In Budapest he managed a victory over the British Gavin Beswick, with which he reached 7th place. In Kiev he was defeated in his two fights against the absolute world class wrestlers Kazuhito Sakae from Japan and Viktor Petrovich Alexejew from the Soviet Union and only came in 14th place.

In 1984 Martin Herbster achieved an excellent 5th place with three wins at the European featherweight championships in Jönköping . In the fight for this place he defeated the French Gerard Santoro with 12: 0 points. At the Olympic Games in Los Angeles that year , Martin Herbster could have won a medal with a little more luck. He first defeated the Peruvian Inagaki and was defeated in his next fight by the Turkish Selman Kaygusuz with 5: 6 points. As it turned out, this was a fateful defeat. In his third fight he managed the feat of scoring the Japanese Kōsei Akaishi 8: 1. He lost his next fight against South Korean Lee Jung-Keun on shoulders, so he had to retire while Akaishi and Lee played the pool finals. If Martin Herbster had won against Kuygusuz, he would have been the pool winner despite the shoulder defeat against the South Korean and would have certainly had the silver medal. So he only had the opportunity to fight for 5th place against the Italian Antonio La Bruna . He finished this wrestler with 11: 4 points. Kosei Akaishi, the wrestler he defeated, ultimately won the silver medal .

In 1985 Martin Herbster competed in the lightweight world championship in Budapest. He won his first fight against the Japanese Goizuka, but then had to give up injured and was not placed.

Martin Herbster was German senior featherweight champion in 1984 and achieved six other placements among the top three winners. After the German championship in 1986, in which he had finished second behind Ahmet Çakıcı in the lightweight, he started, although only 24 years old, at any championships. But he was available to his club, the KSC Olympia Graben-Neudorf, which had made the leap to the 1st Bundesliga in the mid-1980s, for team fights until 1991.

International success

(OS = Olympic Games, WM = World Championship, EM = European Championship, all competitions in free style, paper weight, flyweight, bantamweight, featherweight, lightweight, back then up to 48 kg, 52 kg, 57 kg, 62 kg and 68 kg body weight)

year	space	competition	Weight class
1978	1.	Tournament in Athens	paper	before Mark Dunbar, United Kingdom a . Constantin Dogos, Greece
1979	4th	Grand Prix of the Federal Republic of Germany in Freiburg im Breisgau	paper	behind Arshak Sanojan , USSR , Claudio Pollio , Italy a . Wladyslaw Olejnik , Poland a . before Jan Falandys , Poland a. Karsten Höntschke, GDR
1979	2.	Youth World Cup in Colorado Springs	up to 52 kg body weight	behind Bruce Malinowski, United States a . before Chris Brown, Australia
1980	1.	Tournament in Dudenhofen	Bantam	before Robert Clark et al. Kelley Drake, both United States
1980	2.	Youth World Cup in Colorado Springs	up to 56 kg body weight	behind Kevin Darkus (wrestler) , United States. before Takao Kashiwasi, Japan , Claes Axelsson, Sweden a . Ahmed Kassem, Egypt
1983	7th	EM in Budapest	feather	with a victory over Gavin Beswick, Great Britain a. Defeats against Jozsef Orban , Hungary a . Ivan Grigoryev , USSR
1983	14th	World Cup in Kiev	feather	after defeats against Kazuhito Sakae , Japan a. Viktor Petrovich Alexeyev , USSR
1984	5.	EM in Jönköping	feather	with victories over Mark Dunbar, Traian Marinescu, Romania a . Gerard Santoro , France a . Defeats against Simeon Schterew , Bulgaria a . Jozsef Orban
1984	5.	OS in Los Angeles	feather	with victories over Inagaki, Peru , Kōsei Akaishi , Japan a. Antonio La Bruna , Italy a . Defeats against Selman Kaygusuz , Turkey a . Lee Jung-Keun , South Korea
1985	unpl.	World Cup in Budapest	Light	retired due to injury after defeating Goizuka, Japan
1990	2.	Tournament in Pirmasens	Light	behind Frank Wolff, GDR a. in front of Scott Henahan, Netherlands

German championships

year	space	style	Weight class
1978	2.	F.	paper	behind Uwe Dodrimont, Baienfurt u. before T. Kappis, Urloffen
1979	3.	F.	To fly	behind Willi Heckmann , VfK Schifferstadt u. Fritz Niebler , SRC Viernheim
1980	3.	F.	Bantam	behind Hans Partsch , ASV Bauknecht Schorndorf u. Fritz Niebler
1981	2.	F.	Bantam	behind Hans Partsch u. in front of Peter Lohrbächer, SRC Viernheim
1983	2.	F.	feather	behind Hans Huber (wrestler) , KSV Witten u. in front of Günter Laier , AV Reilingen
1984	1.	F.	feather	before Michael Kuhn , KSV Witten u. Helmut Wild, Kelheim
1986	2.	F.	Light	behind Ahmet Çakıcı , AC Goldbach u. in front of Erwin Knosp , Urloffen

Note: F = freestyle

swell

• Trade journal Der Ringer , numbers: 9/1979, page 13, 5/1983, page 5, 10/1983, page 5, 5/1084, page 11, 9/1984, page 12 and 11/1985, page 5
• Hundred years of wrestling in Germany , Verlag Der Ringer , Niedernberg , 1991, pages 182, 222, 223, 224, 226 u. 227
• Database of the Institute for Applied Training Sciences at the University of Leipzig
• Website "www.sport-komplett.de"

Web links

• Website of the KSC Olympia Graben-Neudorf with several pictures by Martin Herbster
• Profile of Martin Herbster at the Institute for Applied Training Science