Roger Gries

This article is about the wrestler Roger Gries. For the clergyman, see Roger William Gries .

Roger Gries (born August 10, 1965 in Königshofen / Spessart ) is a former German wrestler .

Career

Roger Gries grew up in his birthplace and began there as a child with the rings . He developed into an excellent wrestler in Greco-Roman. Style. Soon he was one of the best young German wrestlers and in 1985 was German A youth champion (international name: Juniors = age group up to the age of 18). At the German Junior Championships (Espoirs = age group up to the age of 20) in 1985, he was German runner- up behind Andreas Steinbach from Lahr - Kuhbach . Andreas Steinbach then became one of Roger Gries' main competitors on a national level over the next few years.

In general, Roger Gries always had to struggle throughout his international wrestling career to assert himself in the Federal Republic and from 1991 in the all-German wrestling team. In addition to Andreas Steinbach, he dealt with world-class athletes such as Uwe Sachs from Freiburg im Breisgau , Gerhard Himmel from Aschaffenburg , World Champion 1989, Maik Bullmann from Frankfurt (Oder) , Olympic champion 1992 and Olaf Koschnitzke also from Frankfurt (Oder). Often he had to start in the heavyweight division instead of the light heavyweight division in order to avoid one of these wrestlers. Nevertheless, Roger Gries came to some appearances at international championships, which were also crowned with success.

His international career began in 1983 when he finished 2nd behind the Soviet athlete Naumenko at the Junior World Championships in Oak Lawns / USA in the class up to 81 kg body weight. He also took an excellent 2nd place at the Junior World Championships (Espoirs) in Colorado Springs . Here he only had to admit defeat to the Soviet athlete Sauri Ivanoshvili.

He made his debut at the international senior championships in 1986. However, he was unable to place himself in the front of the field at the European championships in Athens or at the world championships in Budapest .

In qualifying for the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul , Roger Gries just failed in the light heavyweight division at Andreas Steinbach. For this he was used at the world championship in 1989 in Martigny, Switzerland in the light heavyweight division. He showed excellent fights there and defeated u. a. the world class athletes Franz Pitschmann from Austria , Uen Jin-Han from South Korea and Sjarhej Dzjamjaschkewitsch from the Soviet Union . The reward for his good performance was 3rd place and thus the bronze medal at the World Championships.

Roger Gries also showed good performances at the European Championships in 1990 and 1993, which is proven by 5th place in 1990 in Poznań and 6th place in 1993 in Istanbul . The Bundeswehr member also achieved a respectable success at the military world championships in Quantico / USA, because he was military world champion there ahead of Jerry Jackson from the USA and Tahir Yılmaz from Turkey .

Roger Gries, who was also in the Bundesliga relay RWG Mömbis-Königshofen for years, ended his international wrestling career in 1994.

International success

(WM = World Championship, EM = European Championship, GR = Greco-Roman style, Hs = light heavyweight, S = heavyweight, back then up to 90 kg or 100 kg body weight)

• 1983, 2nd place , Junior World Championships (Juniors) in Oak Lawns / USA , GR, up to 81 kg body weight, behind Igor Naumenko , USSR a . before Johannes Meindl, Austria a . Hideyuki Numura, Japan ;

• 1985, 2nd place , tournament in Götzis / Austria , GR, Hs, behind Sándor Major , Hungary Zbigniew Gluk, Poland , Andrzej Wroński , Poland a. Karl-Heinz Heinze, FRG ;

• 1985, 2nd place , Junior World Championships (Espoirs) in Colorado Springs / USA, GR, Hs, behind Sauri Ivanoshvili, USSR a. before Sándor Major, Stanislaw Tanew, Bulgaria , Andrzej Wroński u. Todd Seiler, USA;

• 1986, 7th place , European Championship in Athens , GR, Hs, after bye in the 1st round, point defeats against Atanas Komtschew , Bulgaria a. Ilie Matei , Romania ;

• 1986, 11th place , World Cup in Budapest , GR, Hs, with a victory over Olaf Koschnitzke , GDR a . Losses against Yasutoshi Moriyama, Japan a . Andrzej Malina , Poland;

• 1989, 3rd place , World Championship in Martigny / Switzerland , GR, Hs, with victories over Henri Meiss, France , Radosław Turkot, Poland, Sjarhej Dsjamjaschkewitsch , USSR a. Franz Pitschmann , Austria a. a loss to Michael Foy , USA;

• 1990, 5th place , EM in Poznan , GR, S, with victories over Dušan Masár , CSSR , Panagiotis Pikilidis , Greece a . Ferenc Takacs , Hungary a . Defeats to Ion Iremicius, Romania a. Anatol Fedarenka , USSR;

• 1991, 1st place , CISM military world championships in Quantico / USA, GR, S, ahead of Jerry Jackson , USA, Tahir Yılmaz , Turkey, Omrane Ayari, Tunisia a . Akhbar Ayub, Pakistan ;

• 1992, 4th place , Grand Prix of the Federal Republic of Germany in Kelheim , GR, S, behind Sjarhej Dsjamjaschkewitsch, Norbert Növényi , Hungary a. Andreas Steinbach , FRG a. before Tahir Yılmaz u. Dušan Masár;

• 1993, 4th place , tournament in Paris , GR, S, behind Andrzej Wroński, Song Sun-Ul, South Korea a. Georgij Saldadze , Russia ;

• 1993, 6th place , EM in Istanbul , GR, S, with victories over Ioannis Kaltsidis, Greece a. Ion Iremicius et al. Defeats against Ibragim Chavtschalow , Russia, Tengis Teodoradze, Georgia a . Tahir Yılmaz;

• 1993, unpl. , World Cup in Stockholm , GR, S, after a defeat in the 1st round against Igor Dapikow, Kazakhstan , eliminated

International battles

• 1990, FRG against Hungary, GR, Hs, points victory over Sandor Major,
• 1990, FRG against GDR, GR, Hs, points victory over Olaf Koschnitzke

German championships

• 1986, 2nd place, GR, Hs, behind Uwe Sachs , Freiburg im Breisgau -Haslach u. in front of H.-Dieter Schulz,
• 1988, 2nd place, GR, Hs, behind Andreas Steinbach , Lahr - Kuhbach u. in front of Franz Achter, Hallbergmoos ,
• 1989, 3rd place, GR, Hs, behind Andreas Steinbach u. Rainer Weber , Nuremberg ,
• 1990, 1st place, GR, Hs, in front of Andreas Steinbach u. Franz Achter,
• 1991, 1st place, GR, S, ahead of Thomas Horschel , Lampertheim a . Leo Sawadsky, Kirrlach ,
• 1992, 1st place, GR, S, before Andreas Steinbach u. Torsten holiday, AC Goldbach ,
• 1993, 1st place, GR, S, before Andreas Brüchert, Sulzbach u. Torsten holiday, Waldaschaff

swell

• 1) Trade journal "Der Ringer", numbers: 5/6/1982, page 34, 5/1985, page 21, 9/1985, pages 7 to 9, 5/1986, page 9, 11/1986, pages 6/7 , 5/1988, page 10, 9/1989, pages 5/6, 5/1990, pages 6/7, 3/1992, pages 7/8, 4/1992, pages 8 to 10, 5/1993, pages 7 to 9, 10/1993, page 6
• 2) "Hundred Years of Wrestling in Germany", Verlag "Der Ringer", Niedernberg, 1991, pages 180, 219 u. 220,
• 3) Website of the Institute for Applied Training Sciences at the University of Leipzig,
• 4) "www.sport-komplett.de"

Web links

• Profile of Roger Gries at the Institute for Applied Training Science