On January 25, the Neandertal Kyudo Club hosted an event at the gymnasium of the Gymnasium am Neandertal in Erkrath to welcome the year 2009 with its traditional New Year’s archery competition.
Twenty-eight archers gathered to demonstrate their marksmanship in a friendly competition featuring traditional Japanese archery games. The reigning European champion from Erkrath, Johannes Maringer, gave his guests from other clubs and his clubmates no chance, winning the competition by a ten-point margin. However, this did not dampen the good spirits, as the focus was less on the competition and more on the archers’ joyful camaraderie.
In the Year of the Ox, club president Reinhard Kollotzek emphasized in his brief welcoming remarks, there is much work to be done, but this work will also bear rich fruit if everyone truly puts in the effort. This also shapes the club’s program for 2009. In addition to the usual competitions at the state and national levels, five teams—two more than in 2008—will participate in the Bundesliga preliminary round. It is particularly gratifying that a team has been formed from the ranks of the youth division. Even though only the first team—featuring veterans Reinhard Kollotzek, Johannes Maringer, and Günther Dauner—has a realistic chance of advancing to the final round of the top 15 German teams, participation offers the club’s less experienced shooters an excellent opportunity to practice in competitive situations. Another highlight of the year will be the seminars held by the European umbrella organization EKF this summer. On this occasion, about ten club members will undergo rigorous evaluation by Japanese examiners in order to achieve a higher dan rank.
And last but not least, the club will make further efforts to take a major step toward its long-term goal of establishing its own shooting range (dojo).

Automatically translated by DeepL