In recent years they have had to watch how THW Kiel and SG Flensburg-Handewitt fight for the championship among themselves. But this season Fortuna means well with them. The handball players from SC Magdeburg can no longer be pushed out of first place in the table.
SC Magdeburg is German handball champion for the second time in the club’s history after 2001. The club world champion made the premature title win perfect with a difficult 31:26 (15:15) victory against HBW Balingen-Weilstetten. The dethroned title defender THW Kiel can no longer catch up with the sovereign table leader in the remaining games of the season. However, the official championship ceremony will only take place on June 12th at the last SCM home game against the Rhein-Neckar Löwen.
In front of 6449 fans in the sold-out GETEC Arena, the guests proved to be party-crazers for a long time. The favorites, who missed out on defending their title in the European League last Sunday due to a narrow final defeat against Benfica Lisbon, struggled from the start and were never able to break away. So it remained a nail-biter for Magdeburg until the final phase, and the nervous tension was clearly noticeable in many actions. Only six minutes before the end of the game, a three-goal lead was achieved for the first time at 27:24 – the preliminary decision. With the cheers of the spectators, the lead was certainly brought over time.
With the triumph, coach Bennet Wiegert delivered his masterpiece in the seventh year of his tenure. The 40-year-old, who was a player in the first and so far only title win in 2001 under today’s national coach Alfred Gislason, is considered the architect of Magdeburg’s success. Since the son of the 1980 Olympic champion Ingolf Wiegert took over as coach in 2015, progress has been continuous.
The triumph of the traditional club, which brought in ten East German championship titles and won the European Cup in 1978 and 1981 – the predecessor of the Champions League – had long been apparent. The team around the Icelandic backcourt aces Gisli Kristjansson and Omar Ingi Magnusson only lost two Bundesliga games this season – in Flensburg and against Kiel. “With Bennet Wiegert, we have succeeded in strengthening the squad once again. The newcomers have hit the ground running,” said SCM Managing Director Marc-Henrik Schmedt.
In addition, the champion was largely spared injuries or corona failures over the course of the season. This is how the long-awaited jump to the top was achieved after Magdeburg had always occupied third place behind the top duo THW Kiel and SG Flensburg-Handewitt since 2018.
The reward is the return to the Champions League, which the club won in 2002. With the exception of goalkeeper Jannik Green (Paris Saint-Germain) and Magnus Gullerud (Kolstad IL), who are leaving the club, the club and its top performers are making long-term plans.
