Twenty-five archers from seven kyudo clubs in the state associations of North Rhine-Westphalia, Hesse, and the Rhineland gathered for the Rheingoldtaikai on Sunday, March 21. The gymnasium at the Gymnasium am Neandertal in Alt-Erkrath took on a Japanese atmosphere thanks to the Japanese national flag and colorful battle banners featuring the East Asian zodiac signs.

Following a welcoming address by the deputy mayor and chairwoman of the Erkrath City Sports Association, Ms. van Venrooy, Reinhard Kollotzek, Günther Dauner, and Johannes Maringer opened the event with a Heki Hitotsu Mato Sharei. Teams of three archers each competed in the team competition. Each team had three targets of different diameters (24, 30, and 36 cm) at their disposal. After five rounds, each archer had shot 20 arrows.
In the end, the team consisting of Reinhard Kollotzek, Christoph Wallrafen (Kyudoverein Neandertal), and Frank Bittermann (PSV Bottrop) finished just ahead of the Frankfurt team (25 hits) by a margin of two hits. With 21 hits, Ulla Haede (Kyudo Gruppe Aachen e.V.), Volker Bruckmann, and Bernd Rossmüller (both from Kyudoverein Neandertal) took third place.

Veteran Reinhard Kollotzek also prevailed in the individual competition after a tiebreaker. Second and third place went to Ulla Haede of the Kyudo Group Aachen and Luise Markefka-Witaschek of the Kyudo Club Neandertal. Thus, the challenge trophies—in the form of gold nuggets sponsored by Bottrop (since Frank Bittermann regularly trains with the club in Erkrath, he can already be considered half a Neandertaler)—will remain in Erkrath for the third competition as well.

Automatically translated by DeepL