Cottbus

	Attractive finals at a gymnastics event with a long tradition
Reporting from Cottbus: Sonja Schmeißer, Lisa Worthmann, Nora Schuler, Eckhard Herholz, Jac van den Beemt (holländische Fassung), Manfred Schulz, Sascha Herholz sowie Nils B. Bohl und Volker Minkus (Fotos)

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The 26th “Turnier der Meister“ has ended with an interesting day of finals in the venue “Stadthalle”. In the good atmosphere of the sold-out venue high-quality routines have been presented by the gymnasts. Again the organisers around tournament director Sylvio Kroll have managed to set up an attractive competition.

Overview Cottbus Successes >>

>> Superscore Men

>> Superscore Women

Nelli Kim, FIG, Olympic Champion in 1976:
“This was the 26th time the competition was held, and I already knew beforehand that it would be a good competition. The have a lot of experience with organizing the World Cup. The gymnasts here were of a very high level and the judges as well. I can`t speak for the men`s competition but for the women`s, we only had judges from the highest category with a lot of experience.

Nelli Kim

I`m happy with the results of the competition and the work done by the judges. I liked the audience which reacted really well to the gymnasts, especially on Sunday.”

The highlight in the first half of the year…

Rainer Hanschke and Rainer Brechtken

At the end of the competitions the president of Germany’s Gymnastics Federation, Rainer Brechtken, presented himself very happy with the organisation of the 26^th “Turnier der Meister” in Cottbus. “For me there are two highlights every year in Germany’s gymnastics schedule, the World Cup in Cottbus in the first half of the year and the DTB-Cup in the 2^nd half of it. According to him, everyone could see, that the whole wrld of gymnastics has been present in Cottbus.

This is why it is absolutely necessary to keep this competition also in the next years and to solve the existing financial problems. Also the German Gymnastics will do there utmost for that. For this reason, right after the competition Rainer Brechtken, joint by the director of the German Gymnastics Federation Wolfgang Willam, went to a meeting with local politicians.

From the sportive point of view Rainer Brechtken is very impressed by the participation of that many gymnast from all over the world, many of them among the world’s bests.
The German gymnasts haven’t been that successful this year, according to him mainly due to a lack of stability in the routines. In his opinion it is necessary to work on that and then also the German gymnasts could compete more successfully again.

Different quality-levels of the routines

The finals with the best routines in this tournament have been in the men`s field high-bar and vault. Remarkable were the performances of World-class gymnasts like Olympic champion Marius Urzica on pommel horse and Jordan Yovchev on rings
In the women`s competition floor has been the final with the highest level of performance. It was nice to see that some extraordinary choreographies have been presented which are a good publicity for women`s gymnastics. Impressive was also the high number of participating nations.This could be seen also during the finals. Unfortunately the German gymnasts couldn`t profit from their home advantage.

Only a few spots of them will be remembered by the audience – like Sven Kwiatkowski with his 6^th ranks on high bar and pommel horse as well as Birgit Schweigert with her uneven bars performance in the qualification.

Preview on second day:
On the 2nd and last day of apparatus finals at the Cottbus' World Cup the audience in the sold-out venue "Stadthalle" can again expect to see interesting finals.
On the men's vault a success for Cuba would be possible as Charles Leon Tamayo has taken the lead after the qualification.
On parallel bars there are various favourites, among them Mitja Petkovsek who has won the qualification on this apparatus, Yann Cucherat from France and the long-time gymnastics star Ivan Ivankov (BLR).
In the final on high bar German gymnast Sven Kwiatkowski will take part. Favourites for the victory are Philippe Rizzo (AUS), Aljaz Pegan (SLO) and Finland's Jari Mönkkönen.

In the wome's field on beam for the first time in Cottbus a Brazilian success would be possible. After the qualification Daniele Hypolitho is on the 2nd place behind Tatjana Zharganova (BLR). However, last year's Vice-World champion has not reached the final on her usually best apparatus floor.
Here, Australia's Allana Slater and Suzanne Harmes from the Netherlands could reach the winner's final.

But in addition to them also Elena Gomez (ESP) would have a chance, or Yevgenia Kuznetsova (BUL) or Oksana Chussovitina (UZB)?Or...? It will definitely be an interesting afternoon in Cottbus!

Spanning stijgt in Cottbus

Op de tweede en laatste dag van het World Cup toernooi in Cottbus staat de toeschouwers opnieuw een aantal spannende finales te wachten.

Bij het paardspringen voor de mannen hangt een Cubaans succes in de lucht in de wetenschap dat Charles Leon Tamayo de beste was in de kwalificatie ronde. Op de brug behoren behalve de Sloveen Mitja Petkovsek, winnaar van de kwalificatie, ook de Fransman Yann Cucherat en Ivan Ivankov (BLR) tot de grote favorieten. In de rekfinale staat de Duitser Sven Kwiatkowski uit Chemnitz. Maar hij behoort vooralsnog niet tot de favorieten. Daarvoor wordt in de eerste plaats naar de Australier Philippe Rizzo gekeken, die het moet opnemen tegen Aljaz Pegan (SLO) en de Fin Jari Monkkonen.

Interessant uit Nederlands oogpunt zijn natuurlijk de finales bij de vrouwen. Op de balk is een Braziliaans succes met Daniele Hypolito, tweede achter Tatjana Zharganova (BLR) in de kwalificatie, niet uitgesloten. Harmes en Van de Leur behoren overigens zeker niet tot de kanslozen. Waar Zharganova, vice-wereldkampioene op de vloer, de finale in Cottbus aan haar neus voorbij zag gaan, plaatsen de beide Nederlandse kampioenen zich daar wel voor. Suzanne Harmes was de beste voor de Australische Alana Slater en een winners final tussen deze twee hangt in de lucht. Maar misschien ook wel Elena Gomez (ESP)? Of Evgenia Kuznetsova (BUL)? En vergeet Oksana Chusovitina niet! Of...? Het wordt hoed dan ook een spannende middag in Cottbus!

De 26e editie van het Turnier der Meister is met een zeer interessante finaledag in de Stadthalle van Cottbus afgesloten. De stemming was goed in het uitverkochte complex waar het publiek nog een keer kon genieten van topprestaties aan alle toestellen. De organisatoren in Cottbus zijn er onder leiding van toernooidirecteur Sylvio Kroll, wederom in geslaagd om het evenement, dat een rijke historie heeft opgebouwd, opnieuw vorm en inhoud te geven.

Uit sportief oogpunt waren de finales aan rek en sprong bij de mannen de hoogtepunten. Wat zeker niet ten nadele is van de individuele prestaties die door Olympisch kampioen Marius Urzica bij het voltigeren en Jordan Jovetchev aan de ringen geleverd werden.

Bij de vrouwen was de finale op vloer het meest in het oog springend. De bijzondere choreografische hoogstandjes die daar soms te zien waren zijn een goede reclame voor het toekomstige vrouwenturnen.

Please see the GYMmedia reports about the qualification rounds also in Dutch.
Reports and results about all apparatus you can find here "Results"

>> Impressions of qualifications