26.05.2016, 08:40
#Hello Cologne: All four teams safely reach the FINAL4 hotel

NEWS REPORT: Kielce with a long delay, Kiel’s Zebra got stuck

#Hello Cologne: All four teams safely reach the FINAL4 hotel

It was a routine for three of them, and a maiden voyage for one team. On Thursday evening all four participants of the VELUX EHF FINAL4 habe been checked in at the team hotel RadissonBLU in Cologne.

Kielce, Kiel, Veszprem and Paris are ready for the pinnacle event on Saturday and Sunday.

Vive Tauron Kielce were supposed to win this season’s race to be the first in the VELUX EHF FINAL4 team hotel in Cologne – but the Polish champions had a delay of more than an hour of their flight to Düsseldorf Airport.

So coach Talant Dujshebaev decided on the way to Cologne to go straight to the training session and not to go to the team hotel first.

“Our plane was so late, that our whole timetable needed to be rescheduled. But it was OK, in contrast to the last year all of our luggage is here and we are happy to be back,” said Dujshebaev after he had finally arrived at about 19:20 hrs. local time at the hotel.

Thus MVM Veszprem were the first team to enter the hotel's lobby. “A short flight without any problems. All players, who are supposed to be fit, are fit. We hope to make the next step,” said Zsolt Sevinger, manager of the Hungarian side.

Before, the staffs of Veszprem, Kiel and Kielce had already made it to Cologne by their own mini vans. And THW had bad luck, as their car with the zebra mascot clothing on board, broke down about 70 kilometre to Cologne.

After some support of the so called “yellow angels” on the motorway, Kiel’s staff – including their zebra have reached their final destination.

Paris Saint-Germain were the only squad not to arrive by plane but train, taking the straight high speed Thalys.

When the French champions arrived at the hotel, the by far biggest number of TV crews and journalists were waiting at the hotel, when they came out of the bus.

“It is nice to be in Cologne for the first time – and it was interesting to make the journey by train,” said coach Noka Serdarusic.

Right after the debutants, the record participants from Kiel arrived at the hotel. And also THW had a story to tell. They got stuck in a traffic jam on their way from Kiel to Hamburg airport and nearly had missed the train.

“Travelling to Cologne always produces some stories,” manager Thorsten Storm said. In 2015, the THW had to wait for another plane for more than two hours after some technical problems had occurred.

TEXT: Björn Pazen / br