The team from Dornbirn (Austria) succeeded in completing the ‘Grand Slam’ of victories in all national and international competitions in 2022. Dornbirn won their National Cup and National Championships as well as the UEC European and UCI World Championships. It was only in the UCI World Cup ranking that the team didn’t conquer, only finishing fifth, due to injury.
Yet fieldplayer Stefan Feuerstein's birthday had got off to a bumpy start in Sulgen (GER). "In the first two games of the preliminary round, things didn't go according to plan at all," the team admitted. Against Pfungen (SUI) and Schiefbahn (GER) they were to draw, 4:4 and 3:3, respectively. "We had to tremble about the semi-finals." But then Dornbirn got into their winning form, against B-group winners at the UCI World Championships Osaka (JPN), 8:0, and Dorlisheim (FRA), 6:2, Dornbirn scored the decisive points to move out of the preliminary round in second position.
There it came to a repeat match-up of this year's European Championship and UCI World Championship finals, as Dornbirn came up against the German Champions RMC Stein: Gerhard and Bernd Mlady. The cousins had won the other preliminary round group, having been unbeaten and level on points with Obernfeld, and then played a four-metre shoot-out for the group victory.
Thrilling semi-final
The semi-final between UCI World Champion Dornbirn and silver-medallists Stein was another close battle, resulting in a final score of 7:6 for Schnetzer/Feuerstein.
"We have improved from game to game", reflected the players from Dornbirn. In the final they faced Pfungen - just as they had in the preliminary round. The Swiss brothers Severin and Benjamin Waibel had defeated the second German team, RVS Obernfeld’s André and Raphael Kopp, 3:2 in the other semi-final. While Dornbirn’s 4:0 victory in the final was clear-cut on paper, the match was in fact very close. Pfungen failed to score, but put up a tough battle against winners Dornbirn, who declared themselves happy to have ironed out the mistakes made in their match earlier in the afternoon.
"A wild year" concluded
This marks the end of what Schnetzer/Feuerstein describe as "a wild year". Goalkeeper Patrick Schnetzer had twice suffered serious shoulder injuries and fought back to form despite a significant loss of training. The Austrians were quick to praise the German host club: "Our thanks goes today also to the host RSV Sulgen, who has put together an impressive final with a great fan backdrop and atmosphere."
Hosts Team Sulgen (Lukas Öhler and Manuel Ehrmann) were happy with their small, yet respectable, success. In the match for eighth place, the German second division team won against Osaka’s Yusuke Murakami / Yuma Takahashi, 5:2.
In the match for third place, the two best teams from Germany, Stein and Obernfeld, faced each other. They were tied 7:7 after the two seven-minute halves, and in extra time, it was Obernfeld who prevailed, pulling away to win 11:9.
See the full results from the season’s final UCI World Cup round in Sulgen (GER).[WKU1]
[WKU1]Again, not sure if we should link to this page. But on our Website there is just the final ranking online and not the results. We will try to change that for next year.