On March 29, the Neandertal Kyudo Club hosted the 11th “Rheingoldtaikai.” Twenty archers from six clubs came to Erkrath to determine the best team and the best individual archer.
After a welcome address by club president Uta Scholten and a “Yawatashi”—a ceremonial test shot that, so to speak, certifies the shooting range—the competition began among the seven teams, each consisting of three archers. What makes this tournament unique is that archers shoot at “matos” (targets) of varying sizes. In three rounds, each archer had to shoot 12 arrows.
The “Kame” team—with Timeea (Neandertal), Sabrina (Waldniel), and Joachim (Neandertal/Waldniel)—secured first place by a margin of one hit. Joachim, in particular, shone with a top-notch performance, scoring a total of eight hits on the smallest target—24 cm in diameter—across the three rounds. The race for second and third place got exciting once again: the two teams tied for points—SSF Bonn (Oliver, Christian, and Heinz-Jürgen) and last year’s winners, “Mato Doko” (Dominic, Thorsten Sven, and Uta)—had to go into a tiebreaker. Uta secured second place for her team with the only hit in the first round.
After a break, during which everyone could help themselves to the lavish buffet of donated treats, the individual competition continued. Nineteen shooters had to complete two qualifying rounds. This time, the targets were the same size for everyone. Six archers advanced to the final round with at least a 50% hit rate.
Due to tied scores, a tiebreaker was necessary to determine the final rankings. Dustin (Hürth) and Christian (Bonn) competed for first place. Christian won. Third place was decided among four archers in an “Enkin” round. All archers shoot one after another at the same target. The arrow closest to the center wins. Here, Sabrina (Waldniel) showed the steadiest nerves.
In addition to certificates and prizes, the respective winners took home the “challenge cup”—gold-plated Rhine pebbles—and are looking forward to defending their titles next year.
Congratulations to all the winners. Thanks to all the participants who didn’t present Reinhard, the referee, with any insurmountable challenges. Also, a big thank you to all the volunteers who helped ensure the event ran smoothly.

Automatically translated by DeepL