Degenfechter Laura Katalin Wetzker celebrated her second German championship title at the finals in Dresden against teammate Alexandra Ndolo. An athlete from TSV Bayer Leverkusen also triumphed among the men, who was the all -dominating team that day.
Wetzker and the favorite Ndolo fought a spectacular battle on Friday (01.08.2025) over the regular three rounds. None of the opponent was able to settle decisively and score the 15 goals necessary for the victory.
At 11:11, it finally went into extra time, in which both fencers initially landed a double hit before Wetzker made the decisive point against the defending champion. “It was mega exciting“, said Wetzker shortly afterwards in the ZDF interview:”We fencing each other every week, but I was concentrated until the end.“
Brinkmann for the first time
The title of the men also went to Leverkusen. The favorite Marco Brinkmann decided the duel against Bendix Kelpe (FC Taauberbischofsheim) after starting difficulties with 15:10 and celebrated his first championship title in the singles. In the semifinals, the national team fencing defending champion Nikolaus Bodoczi had beaten.
However, the first actions in the final belonged to Kelpe, who had earned a 3-0 early. But Brinkmann countered immediately and was able to compensate for in the last seconds before the first break thanks to a spectacular attack. Suddenly it was a one -sided duel. Brinkmann dominated the fencing railway, marked the point by point and ultimately won without major problems.
Wetzker also wins in the team
There was also no herb in the team competitions against Leverkusen. Wetzker and Ndolo, together with Fiona Müller, finally prevailed confidently against Eintracht Frankfurt (Anna Jonas, Cagla Aytekin, Eda Cevikol, Matilda Kunisch). 45:33 was called nine battles for the favorites. Outsider Frankfurt was able to comfort itself with the first medal at the German Championships.
Ndolo puts Leverkusen in the lead
In contrast to the foil and saber, the sword can score points anywhere on the body. In addition, double hits can be achieved and both athletes score at the same time. This is also why the style has a little more duel character, which the teams from Leverkusen and Frankfurt showed on the 14 meter long fencing. In the first duel, Frankfurt still had easy advantages, Leverkusen’s Ndolo, individual champion from the previous year, took care of a first lead that her teammates were able to further expand after four of a total of nine battles (20:14).
Nevertheless, the Hessians were allowed to take hope, which was particularly thanks to Aytekin, who was repeatedly risked in her duel against Müller and was rewarded for it. The deficit melts on three points (22:25). Afterwards it was also close to the planche, but Leverkusen claimed the lead and was able to prelude to 35:28 by the Wetzker, which was repeated again and again in the penultimate duel. At the end of Aytekin, Ndolo did not burn anything.
Leverkusen’s men trump up after stuttering
Leverkusen’s men were also able to celebrate the second title in series. Lukas Bellmann, Marco Brinkmann and Fabian Herzberg, who also compete for the German national team, won their finale against challenger FC Offenbach (Nikolaus Bodoczi, Roman Samoilov, David Dergay) with 45:30 and gave the Rhineland the fifth championship title in the team competition.
Offenbach initially bought the favor from the favorite. Dergay and Bodoczi were able to make their duels against Bellmann and Brinkmann a little surprisingly for themselves and took out a 6: 9 lead. Leverkusens Herzberg and Offenbach’s Samoilov also fought a battle worth seeing with good actions on both sides. The better scenes, however, had Herzberg, who played all his experience and brought his team to the lead with 13:12.
Inspired by this, Brinkmann also dominated Dergay on the planche – the lead grew to seven points (20:13). National team colleague Bellmann acted similarly confidently against Samoilov. Only Bodoczi was able to stop the downward trend against Herzberg and kept the title hopes for his team at least alive. Nevertheless: the momentum was on the side of Leverkusen. Especially after Brinkmann screwed the lead against Samoilov into the double -digit range (33:23) and the soft geven ones had finally put them on victory.