From 7th to 9th May the world's best gymnasts compete at the World Cup in Corbeil-Essones, a smaller city not far from Paris.
At this 36th edition 66 gymnasts from 30 countries will fight to stand on the top of the podium. After finishing the first two routines the competition Russia´s Daria Kondakova is in the lead followed by Alina Maksymenko from the Ukraine, which is a quite big surprise because at the beginning of the year she hardly could place between the apparatus finalists. On third place is currently Silviya Miteva from Bulgaria ...
Daria KONDAKOVA (RUS)- Favourite in Corbeil-Essones * Reporting from Corbeil-Essones: Dirk ZIMMERMANN (photos) and Esther TEIJEIRA
WORLD CUP RHYTHMIC GYMNASTICS - Corbeil-Essones, France, May 7 - 9 - ____________________________________
* Friday, May 7 - Qualification, part I
... who already won medals at big events and even at the last World Championships.
Unfortunately, the Russian team participated only with two out of four gymnasts, because Daria Dimitrieva´s visa was denied - and she couldn´t travel to France - and Olympic Champion Evgenia Kanaeva didn´t compete today although yesterday there was no offcial statement about the reasons. Today her coach informed that Evgenia is ill with fever and isn't able to compete
* SATURDAY, May 08: On Saturday the all-around will be decided after the performances with ball and ribbon, and, if the first three don´t perform perfectly clean routines, Ganna Rizatdinova from Ukraine on fourth place and Delphine Ledoux from France on fifth may have a chance to enter the podium.
Belarus, also one the big nations in rhythmic gymnastics, send their young hopes Aliaksandra Narkevich and Hanna Rabstava who will be strong competitors in the near future but currently still lack some experience to achieve high placements.
* SATURDAY, May 08: - All-around
The all-around competition finished with Russia's Daria Kondakova winning with 113,450 points in front of Silviya Miteva (BUL) with 107,850 points and Hanna Rabstava with 107,325 points. The third place for the young girl from Belarus is quite a surprise because after two apparatuses yesterday she only placed seventh.
Unfortunately, yesterday's second, Alina Maksymenko got low scores for her ball routine and made mistakes with ribbon that costed her the bronze medal.
* SUNDAY, May 09:
On Sunday the apparatus finals will take place and, although it will be quite difficult for the gymnasts to beat Daria Kondakova, there might be some surprises like at today's general classification. Above all, the fights over the silver and bronze medals will be very interesting, promising some variety on the podium.
* SUNDAY, May 09: -Apparatus Finals
Big surprise in Corbeil after two of four finals! Silviya Miteva from Bulgaria won the ball final! She got 27,900 points for her exercise and placed in front of Hanna Rabstava from Belarus and Anna Gurbanova from Azerbaijan. Daria Kondakova from Russia became only fourth.
Nevertheless, she could win the hoop final, placing ahead of Silviya Miteva and new Kazak star Anna Alyabyeva, who could replace her retired teammate Aliya Yussupova in no time.
The other two finals, with rope and ribbon, were won by Daria Kondakova. With rope she was followed by Alina Maksymenko from the Ukraine and with ribbon by her teammate Yana Lukonina. Silviya Miteva won two more bronze medals.
The groups from Russia, Italy, Spain and France were also in Corbeil, showing their exercises as a show programme to the public. One of the most emotive moments surely was when the Russian group coach held a speech in memorian of former Russian group gymnast and coach, Nataliya Lavrova, who died in a car crash a few weeks ago.
Russian group headcoach, Valentina Ivanitskaya (left) during a short speech in memoriam of Natalia Lavrova.
With this the 36th edition of the World Cup tournament came to an end and tomorrow the participants will leave to their home countries or directly to Marbella (Spain) where a Grand Prix competition will be held upcoming weekend. * GYMmedia-Editor: E. Teijeira;
Photos: Dirk Zimmermann
