Paralympics: Germany's daring gold plan in sitting volleyball

They had chosen the last group match as a test match, now the German sitting volleyball players are competing for medals at the Paralympics. The goal is to win against the two top nations.

Before things got really serious in the sitting volleyball semi-final against Bosnia-Herzegovina on Thursday (September 5, 2024, 12:00 p.m., live stream at sportschau.de), the German team had taken an active break. Coach Christoph Herzog's team took the last group game against the home gold favorite Iran (0:3) as an opportunity to take a close look at the possible final opponent at the net – and above all to warm up a little for the semi-final, which was already a done deal thanks to clear victories against Brazil (3:0) and Ukraine (3:1).

Schrapp: “We are looking forward to a fight against Bosnia”

“That was just a test run for our semi-final. We wanted to try something out and save energy. Now we are really looking forward to a fight against Bosnia”said Jürgen Schrapp. His teammate Francis Tonleu went even further: “It's like chess sometimes, you have to sacrifice something now and then to win later. We did that, but we prepared to win the next game – and we will win that one.”

Tonleu: “We came here to get gold”

Tonleu and his colleagues are brimming with confidence after the German sitting volleyball players failed in the preliminary rounds at the last two Paralympics. “We came here to get gold and we are still in the race”said Tonleu, who even sees Bosnia-Herzegovina as a grateful opponent. “They suit us, they play extremely slowly and that’s great.”

But it is also a revenge match, because the duel is a repeat of last year's European Championship final. That was a close 3-2 win for the Bosnians, after Germany had already led 2-1. “We lost narrowly, but now we have to show that we are number one in Europe”said Tonleu.

Bosnia or Iran have won the gold medals since 1988

The Bosnians are still unbeaten in Paris, having won against Egypt (3:1), Kazakhstan (3:2) and France (3:0) in the group phase. This is just the overture to the final, in which they will most likely face Iran, who will have to play against Egypt in the semi-final.

The team around Morteza Mehrzad, who is not only outstanding in terms of height (at 2.46 meters he is the second tallest person in the world), will achieve the triple after two Paralympic victories in a row. Iran has been crowned champion in seven of the last nine editions. The other two times Bosnia won gold. 40 years ago the last title holder was not Bosnia or Iran, but the Netherlands. The German team's daring gold plan is to end this series.