Untitled Document

	A question of patience for everyone involved
Reporting from Cottbus: Sonja Schmeißer, Lisa Worthmann, Nora Schuler, Eckhard Herholz, Jac van den Beemt (holländische Fassung), Manfred Schulz, Sascha Herholz und Nils Bohl (Fotos)

After more than seven hours the qualification in Cottbus has ended now in the evening. There were presented altogether 290 routines. In the women’s field especially Oksana Chussovitina (UZB) and the two Dutch gymnasts have impressed everyone. In the men’s field Jordan Jovtchev from Bulgaria could win the qualification on two apparatus.

Please read the GYMmedia-reports about all qualification-rounds, also in Dutch.

>> Reports and results can be found in >> "Results"

Meetings in Cottbus:
+ Short notes following the women's qualification, >>> more dutch version
+ Wajdi and Mohamed Habib Bouallegue (Tunisia) >>> more

Today at 1 p.m. local time the qualification rounds with more than 250 exercises will start in the Cottbus venue "Stadthalle". GYMmedia will publish from 6 p.m. on the first results, but at the final days GYMmedia is reporting LIVE from Cottbus... (every day from 2 p.m. on).

Sylvio Kroll

Thursday, March 21st, 3.45 p.m.:
Venue “Stadthalle”, shortly before the training starts:
Tournament director Sylvio Kroll on the spot:
“...everything is running smoothly! Now, at 4.00 p.m. the training starts. The first in the competition arena are the Brazilians led by Daniele Hypolitho, Vice-World champion on floor. She certainly has planned to compete well against Chorkina. The Chinese gymnasts won’t come, but except for the women from Romania and the USA we have all leading gymnastics nations of the World here. For the Europeans it is a last test for the European championships. I’m looking forward to the tournament – I wouldn’t mind if the competition starts now...!”

Since today morning the training has started in the modernised, theatre-like competition arena “Stadthalle“ in Cottbus. The special atmosphere is created in particular through the direct and close contact from the audience to the competition apparatus. Here, where normally the stars from show-business are acting, everyone is now looking forward to the high-quality sportive duels from the GYM-stars:

Especially on rings there will be the power-fight of the giants: Olympic champion Csollany against World champion Jovtchev. In addition to that, we will have the remake of the floor duel between the last World champion Jovtchev against Vice-World champion Dragulescu and bronze-medal-winner Vichrovs... Not to be overlooked also Ivan Ivankov, the almost-World champion and unlucky fellow from Ghent. He could put a spoke in the wheel of all gymnasts mentioned before concerning their World Cup calculations. Furthermore, you could name him “Mister Cottbus Tournament”: He is the athlete who is Cottbus for the 10^th time now since 1991. That is the 2^nd tournament record this year after the altogether number of participants...!!!

Ivan Iwankov: ..in Cottbus to the 10^th time!!

Premiere for the Ergojet in Cottbus

In the women’s field it can be especially looked forward to the meeting of Olympic champion Yelena Zamolodchikova, World champion Svetlana Chorkina and Vice-World champion Oksana Chussovitina

(<<Photo on the right: Chussovitina
2001 on the new vaulting table in Cottbus)

After “Pegases“ at the World championships, now “Ergojet” from the company SPIETH Gymnastics is being used for the 1^st time officially in the Cottbus competition. Already last year – out of the competition – Oksana Chussovitiona performed the first high-level vault on it.
It is certain that “Europe’s sportswoman of the year“ Svetlana, the queen on uneven bars, also in Cottbus is one of the favourites. However, it can be looked forward to Verona van de Leur competing against her. She unluckily fell from bars in Ghent.

And on floor surely the aesthetic choreographies of Vice-World champion Daniele Hypolitho from Brazil – who is in Cottbus for the first time – and of Svetlana Chorkina (3^rd at the World championships) will be among the other many highlights!

From the German point of view each spot in the finals which can be reached would already be a great success, every good position in the finals a welcomed addition to this. Who knows, what a strong home crowd can affect for the gymnast from the host city Cottus Ronny Ziesmer or the German all-around champion Birgit Schweigert.

The qualification marathon starts on Friday, 1.00 p.m.. From there on GYMmedia will report live from the venue “Stadthalle“...

The TV station “ORB“ (Ostdeutscher Rundfunk Brandenburg; Potsdam) is planning to show on both days of the finals (Saturday and Sunday) one hour in their evening programs (11 p.m.)

The TV station “ZDF“ will show a report on Sunday in their programme "Sportreportage“.

The Swedish company for TV rights "IEC insports" is handling the world-wide sale of this TV event, which had been a real “winner“ last year with having been sold in more than 70 countries resp. TV stations!

The first of the 120 participants in the 26^thtournament “Turnier der Meister“ will arrive in the metropolis of the region Lausitz and in the World Cup Hotel Holiday Inn. The modernised venue “Stadthalle“ is expected to be full on all three competition days. Already today the television light is going to be installed so that the afterwards following training of the gymnasts will not be disturbed. The installation will be executed by the company GYMmedia which acts for the first time as TV producer.
On Friday at 1.00 p.m. a marathon of gymnastics will start with the qualification:
Really and truly 387 routines (254 in the men’s and 133 in the women’s field) are required by the current valid competition mode to find out the 8 finalists on each of the 6 apparatus for men and 4 for women. This is a procedure which meanwhile brings even the most willing organiser into great distress! Especially because it is most likely that the best 4, maximum 6, gymnasts on each apparatus are well-known anyway. So it is up to tournament director Sylvio Kroll, after the – certainly successful - completion of this 26^th tournament, to look for new ways in determining the profile of the high-quality Cottbus tournament tradition...

Star in the venue “Cottbuser Stadthalle“ should be "Europe’s sportswomen of the year",
Svetlana Chorkina (RUS)
... but she does'nt come to Cottbus

Ronny Ziesmer,
last year’s vault finalist (9^th)

Today the German Gymnastics Federation has announced its’ participants in the men’s field for the World Cup. The team is led by Ronny Ziesmer from the host city Cottbus.
In addition to him there will be two gymnasts from Chemnitz Sven Kwiatkowski and Tom Neubert, Christian Berczes from Halle and for the first time in an important competition after a long break due to injury Dmitri Nonin from Berlin.
It seems to be certain that Ronny Ziesmer will compete in the official World Cup ranking. The rest of the team will only be announced by the head coach after a few performance tests this week during a training camp in Kienbaum.
As the 2 Cottbus-candidates Katja Abel and Lisa Brüggemann are out due to injury, the decision for the women’s field has not yet been made by head coach Petra Theiss.

In addition to Birgit Schweigert it is planned that Yvonne Musik and Conny Schütz are going to compete.

At the German Gymnastics Federation further well-known guests for the World Cup tournament in Cottbus have been noted.

So the representative for competitions, Dieter Kirkam, could register the start of Daniele Hypolitho from Brazil. She had won a surprising silver medal at the last World championships in Ghent – the first at all for Brazil – by beating Svetlana Chorkina in the Vlanderen Arena...! In the all-around the lively Brazilian missed a medal only by 44 thousandth of a point (Raducan placed third).

In general the Brazilian, and so also the Dutch, women have been the surprising nation of the last World championships (rank 11, two years before 18) – a result of the work from the former Ukrainian star coach Oleg Ostapenko who has been working in Brazil since autumn 2000.

Lisa Brügemann (photo), who had been nominated for the World Cup in Cottbus by the German Gymnastics Federation, injured herself yesterday while training on uneven bars in her club “Turn-Team TOYOTA Köln“. She has a fracture in her left middle hand and definitely can’t compete in the competition “Turnier der Meister“ in Cottbus. On the operation from today morning at least 6 weeks in a cast and 2 weeks of regenerative training will follow. This is why it seems to be most likely that she also won’t be able to compete in the European Championships in Patras. However, Lisa definitely wants to be present in Cottbus...!

After Berlin’s Katja Abel last Monday had to undergo an operation on her navicular bone and German champion Birgit Schweigert has only just recovered from a foot injury, head coach Petra Theiss has major trouble with nominating gymnasts for the competition. However, if you see it in a positive way, this would also be a chance for the younger squads, which prepare for Athens, of the German Gymnastics Federation...!

Actually, you really can’t miss Cottbus in your competition schedule! Even if the organisers had to wait a little bit longer: Now Russia has confirmed the participation of their stars:
The team is led by the World-ranking no.1 and “Europe’s sports women no.1” Svetlana Chorkina, in addition to her the two-times Olympic champion Yelena Zamolodchikova will come. However, surprisingly female gymnasts from Romania won’t compete in Cottbus.

The men will be there without the World-ranking no.1 but with the World-ranking no.3 Alexei Bondarenko and the newly-crowned Russian all-around champion Jevgeni Podgorni.
The organising committee around tournament director Sylvio Kroll is still waiting for the by-name entry of World champion China.

The female gymnasts from USA had to cancel their participation (due to injury) and so had all-around European champion Alexander Beresh. The Ukraine will now be represented by Roman Zozulia and Olga Roschupkina.

The host nation will compete with Lisa Brüggemann and Birgit Schweigert, their two best gymnasts from last year’s World championships. However, due to an operation on her foot Birgit Schweigert will probably only start on uneven bars, maybe on beam.
For the men it is expected that Ronny Ziesmer from the host city Cottbus will get his chance to start. The other gymnasts will only be nominated in the middle of next week by head coach Rainer Hanschke. In a training camp in Kienbaum he still wants to get an overview about the performance level of all gymnasts.

In the modernised venue “Stadthalle” Olympic champions, World- and European champions from 38 nations are welcomed on the 4^th weekend in March. World stars like Ivan Ivankov, Szilveszter Csollany, Igors Vichrovs, Marian Dragulescu or in the women’s field Oksana Chussovitina, Allana Slater, Verona van de Leur or Olga Roschupkina promise that the first World Cup of the season will show high-quality art of gymnastics.

For the first time the TV-pictures will be produced by GYMmedia-TV. The TV station “ORB” (Ostdeutscher Rundfunk Brandenburg) plans to show one hour on each day of the finals, the TV station “ZDF” wants to show short reports and the Swedish company for TV rights “IECinsports” is handling the sale into about 70 different countries resp. their TV stations.

After financial problems at the beginning tournament director Sylvio Kroll and his team have again managed that the region supports this internationally unique tournament. With the expected record participation of altogether 117 participants from 38 nations, since 1973 it is not possible to think about a competition schedule without this World Cup tournament anymore.

It is the World Cup premiere in Cottbus for the new vaulting table “Ergojet” of the company Spieth from Esslingen. Last year the first TV-pictures of it – out of the competition - have been produced and transmitted around the World. Traditionally, the company Spieth supports also the daily-topical internet-reporting at www.gymmedia.com.

Translation:
Lisa Worthmann