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sport
The Copenhagen Post cphpost.dk
7 - 13 September 2012
The closure of the international transfer window closure was a busy time for domestic players and clubs
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head of the international transfer window closing at midnight on Saturday, a number of Danish players and clubs finalised deals. Nicklas Bendtner has ended up signing for Serie A giants Juventus, although club chief executive Giuseppe Marotta indicated signing Bendtner was more out of need than desire. “Bendtner isn’t the star striker that we had hoped to sign, but it’s a chance we’ve had to take in the current difficult market,” Marotta told Italian sports newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport. Bendtner has already chosen to wear number 17 – digits that are considered unlucky in Denmark. The future of Denmark’s national team looks brighter
after two high-profile moves Horsens have signed Jude featuring promising young- Nworuh from FC Midtjylsters. Inter snapped up young land and Kenan Hajdarevic starlet Patrick Olsen from from Sønderjyske, while FCM Brøndby, while Lukas Anders- have bought Morten ‘Duncan’ en has moved to Ajax to join Rasmussen from Celtic. AGF the five-some of Danes already have recruited Finnish deplaying there. fender Petri FC CopenhaPasanen from gen have had a busy Red Bull time in the transfer Salzburg and market, selling four Mate VadBendtner isn’t the players and loansadze who ing another out. star striker that we scored three Bryan Oviedo was goals against sold to Everton, had hoped to sign, them when Martin Bergvold but it’s a chance Georgian to Esbjerg, Joside FC Dila han Absalonsen to we’ve had to take in Gori knocked Sønderjyske and the current difficult them out of Petter Hansson to the Europa Helsingborg, while market League. Youssef Toutouh Brø n d by was loaned out to Esbjerg. The had earlier in August sold Mionly acquisition was Rurik chael Krohn-Dehli to SpanGislason from OB. ish outfit Celta Vigo and used OB, in turn, have brought some of the money to bring in Michael Silberbauer back to Martin Albrechtsen from FC Denmark from Young Boys Midtjylland and Quincy Antion loan while selling Tore pas from Sønderjyske. Reginiussen to Rosenborg Esbjerg used the transfer and Kalilou Traoré to Sochaux window to bring in Adama in France. Tamboura from Metz, Ameri-
Selfless sensei writes history Sean Coogan A local instructor has become the world’s highest graded female in kyokushin karate
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ednesday 29 August will go down in the recordbooks as the day that Denmark made karate history. At a formal ceremony held at Den Danske Karateskole’s Østerbro dojo, a long-serving sensei at the school, Christa Koldin, was presented with her fifth dan, giving her the title of ‘shihan’ and making her the world’s highest ranked (and officially recognised) female black belt in the largest style of the martial art: kyokushin karate. It has been a long journey. Koldin began to train in karate in 1986 after returning from the US, where she trained racehorses for a living. Her karate talent, fuelled by extreme perfectionism and stubbornness, soon became apparent as she won the Danish championships
in the kata technical discipline three times. She then went on to make several appearances at the European Championships and was crowned vice-world champion in kata in 1998 – an incredible achievement for someone working a full-time job during the day and spending most evenings teaching karate. Koldin has been teaching students at the dojo in Østerbro three to four evenings a week on a voluntary basis since 1991. And starting in 2010, and for most of 2011, she has been combining this with intense training to achieve her fifth dan last December. “I was young when I went through my other tests, but I was 47 years old this time, so I had to approach it differently,” she said. “But I was glad for the opportunity – a good teacher never stands still, but is in constant progress. At the two-day test in December last year, Koldin led the way as 15 black belts and prospects took part in the gut-
First thing Bendtner needs to do is ditch his Danish tweeds for an Armani
can midfielder Charlie Davies from Sochaux, Jonas Borring from FC Midtjylland and Pierre Boya on loan from Austria Lüstenau. Brian Hamalainen has moved from one Belgian team to another, a better one at that, as Zulte Waregem have sold
him to Racing Genk. But despite interest from Turkish side Galatasary, Simon Kjær looks set to spend another extended period at Wolfsburg much to the consternation of him and national team coach Morten Olsen. “I would advise him to get
away from Wolfsburg because he does not have good prospects there in regards to playing time, so it’s a good idea for him to leave,” Olsen told TV2. He remains at Wolfsburg with Thomas Kahlenberg, another player Olsen wants to move on.
FCN “underdogs” to progress
scanpix/ Nils Meilvang
Christian Wenande
scanpix/ANNE-CHRISTINE POUJOULAT
Old Lady of Italy adopts young Lucky Pants from Denmark
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“I never would have made it without Shihan Budtz. He has been my teacher from the very beginning,” she said. Looking to the future, Koldin said: “I’m going to train karate until the day I die.” In the meantime, she will continue instructing and be involved in plans to expand the karate school’s street work, reaching out to the underprivileged youths in the city. It’s a goal of the school’s to integrate more children at the karate school, and more children with disorders like ADHD.
anish champions FC Nordsjælland learnt last week that they will play Italian champions Juventus, English giants Chelsea and Ukrainian title holders Shakhtar Donetsk in Group E of the Champions League group stage. “It’s a master-class group with the potential for some fun and exciting games,” FCN coach Kasper Hjulmand told Sporten. dk. “We will be the underdogs in every game and will remain humble and take on the group as we did the league.” The draw sets up the possibility of striker Nicklas Bendtner making a return to Denmark with his new club, Juventus. While Ajax’s five Danish players – Christian Eriksen, Christian Poulsen, Lasse Schøne, Nicolai Boilersen and Victor Fischer – learnt that they have drawn three other champions: English Premier League winners Manchester City, Primera Liga title holders Real Madrid and German Bundesliga champs Borussia Dortmund. Meanwhile, FC Copenha-
gen were reasonably fortunate in their draw for the Europa League group stage, which may help wash away some of the disappointment following their bitter loss to French side Lille in the final CL qualification round last week on Wednesday. Seeded second, FCK drew German outfit Stuttgart, Romania’s Steaua Bucharest and Norwegian surprise package Molde. It’s a genuine opportunity to progress to the knockout stages. Especially intriguing will be the return of former club captain William Kvist to Parken, the ‘home’ where it all began for him. FCN and FCK are the only two Danish teams left in European football this season, as FC Midtjylland and AC Horsens crashed out of the Europa League qualifiers last week. FCM impressively beat Swiss team Young Boys 2-0 away, but it was not enough to overcome a 0-3 home defeat. Horsens are out too after being soundly spanked 5-0 in Portugal by Sporting Lisbon, following a 1-1 draw in Denmark. (CW)
Kill Bill 2! Christa Koldin fought over 50 opponents in a row
wrenching physical and technical tests. As the cherry on the cake on the final day of the test, Koldin provided an unforgettable display as she fought 50 contenders in a row in front of an ecstatic crowd and two Japanese officials, who had flown over from Japan to oversee the test at the Østerbro dojo. Despite the historic achievement, Koldin remains humble and was quick to praise Humberto Budtz, her seventh dan chief instructor, who is the founder of Den Danske Karateskole.
Sports news and briefs Jackie Gold!
Committed to the king
Luck runs out for Løchte
Squashed in the final
Danes still favourites
Give me rain in Spain
At the time of going to press, Denmark sat in 46th place in the 2012 Paralympics medal table with five medals: one gold and four bronzes. Denmark’s gold came courtesy of Jackie Christiansen in the men’s shot put (F42/44 – amputees with a prosthesis), which he won by nearly four metres, while in the same disability class, Daniel Jorgensen took bronze in the men’s long jump.
Describing Swansea City’s new manager Michael Laudrup as “royalty”, Viasat plans to show all his English Premier League games, with no exceptions! Some 85,000 viewers tuned into Viasat’s EPL-dedicated channel to watch Swansea beat West Ham United on Saturday August 25 – double the normal audience. Viasat, which shares the rights with K6, shows five EPL games every weekend.
Wimbledon men’s doubles champs, Denmark’s Frederik Løchte Nielsen and Britain’s Jonathan Marray, have failed to win a second grand slam title in succession, bowing out of the US Open in the second round. The number eleven seeds lost 1-6, 7-6, 4-6 to US/Austrian duo Jesse Levine and Marinko Matosevic, converting just two of their 19 break points, compared to their opponents’ 71 percent success ratio.
Line Hansen, the world number 26, made it to the final of the Crocodile Squash Challenge Cup in Hong Kong without losing a set over the weekend, but failed to perform when it mattered most. The 29-yearold lost in straight sets 6-11, 8-11, 6-11 to Australia’s Donna Urquhart, a player ranked nine places above her. The next best ranked Dane in the world is Sally Skaarenborg at number 94.
Denmark head into their first 2014 World Cup qualifier on Saturday without their star striker Nicklas Bendtner and midfielder Niki Zimling. However, their opponents, the Czech Republic, are also missing players, and the bookmakers still rate Denmark strong favourites to win (evens at Bet 365, while the Czechs are 11/4). The game at Parken kicks off at 20:15 and will be shown live on TV2.
Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank’s star rider Alberto Contador is running out of ideas ahead of the conclusion of the Vuelta a Espana on Sunday. Despite launching numerous attacks in the mountains in recent days, he remains second, 28 seconds behind compatriot Joaquim Rodriguez Oliver. With time running out, Contador told media that he needed some luck. “The rain could be my ally,” he said.