DHB returnee reformed after drunk driving
Timo Kastening's drink-driving has made headlines, and now he wants to rewrite them for his comeback in the national handball team. He wants to make a big impression with the DHB team at the home European Championships. His role model is the basketball world champions.
Timo Kastening can hardly wait for his comeback on the big handball stage. "I'm on fire," gushes the bundle of energy. After difficult years with painful setbacks, Kastening is looking forward to the home European Championship, his first tournament in almost three years, like no other. "I'm really, really keen," he emphasizes.
Despite his comparatively short DHB career, Kastening's history with the national team provides enough material for his own biography. Former national coach Christian Prokop's faux pas when he asked the right winger his name ("What's your name?") during a team meeting in front of the cameras and an audience of millions at his tournament debut in 2020 remains unforgotten. And the coronavirus case at the European Championships two years ago, when Kastening spent much of the tournament in isolation in his hotel room with a sore throat and headache, also caused a stir.
Alcohol trip as a low point
Kastening finally hit the headlines, especially in the tabloids, with a drink-driving incident in January 2022, after which he lost his driver's license. "A bad mistake," says Kastening today and remembers the difficult days and weeks afterwards: "Many children and fans didn't believe I could do that because I was otherwise the cheerful one with a role model character. To be honest, it really hit me again. When you do something that people don't expect you to do, it does something to you. Questioning my behavior has really opened my eyes on this issue."
Kastening consciously deals openly with the dark side of his past. He has reformed and the 2019 Handball Player of the Year wants to be a role model again. "When this drink-driving incident happened to me, I called my mother straight away. She said: 'You made a mistake, make sure it doesn't happen again. One mistake is okay, if you make the same mistake two or three times, you're not quite crisp in the head. You have the chance to change, to learn from it,'" says Kastening and asks: "Why shouldn't you be transparent about it?"
Basketball world champion as a role model
Kastening's focus is now fully back on sport. Having missed last year's World Cup after tearing a cruciate ligament, the left-handed player wants to cause a sensation again in the coming weeks as "Speedy Gonzales" with his specialty, lightning-fast pace counter-attacks.
Kastening's role in the team has changed over time; at 28 years of age, the smallest player in Germany's European Championship squad at 1.80 meters is now one of the more experienced players. "That doesn't mean that I'm calling the shots, but that I want to show what I can do in certain stressful situations: We stick to our plan, it's all okay, we keep doing it this way," says Kastening, formulating a high standard for himself: "In terms of behavior on and off the pitch, in terms of respect, in terms of passion, in terms of will, I want to be a role model."
His own role model for this tournament is the German basketball world champions. "That was absolutely brilliant. We want to adapt this team spirit, this relaxed attitude, this desire for success," he said: "I think all doors are open to us." At the tournament, which begins next week with the world record match against Switzerland in front of 50,000 spectators in the Düsseldorf Arena (January 10/20.45 in the ntv.de live ticker), he and the German team want to "create enthusiasm and a little hype", said Kastening: "The best thing would be if this enthusiasm is reflected in the halls after the tournament. That we see even more children in the halls. That we might be asked about it at the bakery. That would mean that people enjoyed seeing us."
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Timo Kastening is determined to make an impact with the DHB team at the home European Championships, showcasing his skills in handball-em, the national handball team's jersey. His desire to be a role model once again is evident as he aims to emulate the team spirit and success of the German basketball world champions.
Despite his previous controversy with drunk driving, Kastening has used this incident as a learning opportunity, leveraging it to strengthen his commitment to the sport and his responsibilities as a member of the national handball team.
Source: www.ntv.de
