'Cursed' amateur German club mourns deaths
Sports
By
AFP
| Mar 27, 2017
A German sports club is mourning the deaths of two amateur sportsmen who suffered heart attacks on successive days, leaving team-mates wondering if the club is cursed.
Last Wednesday, 24-year-old footballer Hannes Rumpker suffered a heart attack while training with his local team in the north-west German town of Edewecht, near Bremen, and later died in hospital.
The club, VfL Edewecht, called off a regional league match out of respect.
Then on Thursday, Arne Hobbie, 33, who played for and ran the club's basketball team, Edewecht Wattworms, also suffered a heart attack while training.
READ MORE
France boss Deschamps confirms Ekitike to miss World Cup
Why Kenya must rethink how food systems are delivered
Donor funding declines as Kenya shifts toward health self-reliance
Will Harambee Starlets survive Australia's onslaught?
Key sectors that could lift Kenya out of 'hustle economy'
IMF cuts 2026 global growth forecast on Mideast war
Girls shine as boy's struggle in the drama festival
DRAMA REVIEW: Students take centre stage to challenge tradition, injustice and social change
Five down two standing: Will Butere and Moi Girls Kamusinga survive the champions purge?
He was revived by emergency services, but later died in hospital.
Like the grieving footballers before them, the mourning basketball team also called off a key match, which would have decided promotion.
The tiny town of Edewecht, which has a population of 21,000, is in shock.
"For us, the whole thing is still completely surreal," Hobbie's team-mate Henning von Aschwege told regional newspaper Nordwest Zeitung.
"After the death of Hannes, it's like a curse is hanging over us."
Club official Ute Meinen added: "We have never experienced such a thing before.
"We do not really know how to deal with the situation."