COMPETITION I: Team qualification WOMEN  / Frauen

Verona Van de Leur

Rotation 1:
The Netherlands started well on bars with an impressive display of the highest difficulty, with their best result coming from Verona van de Leur who was awarded a lenient 9,337 for her routine with a noticeable break on an attemptted shoot to high bar and a biglunge on her double double dismount. The best routine was performed by Renske Endel (9,30) both routines had a 10 SV.
Ukraine confirmed the weak impression they have made all year with at best mediocre performance on floor. Natalia Sirenko opened well with an Arabian double front but fell on her full-in. Natalia Sirobaba was best with a 8,937 but she couldn’t stay in bounds while Olga Roshchupkina was a shadow of her former self, tumbling a double tuck for her final pass.

Germany was confident on vault, anchored by a great handspring front pike with a ½ twist. Lisa Brueggemann vaulted a Podkopayeva. Germany’s 36,287 was the second highest total on vault so far.

Happy Netherlands: The highest score on bars

Rotation 2:
Ukraine continued to struggle on vault with Sirobaba falling and Alyona Kvasha landing her McIntosh in a very low squat.

Cheered on by a large contingent of German fans that included injured Dagmar Fhrenschild and junior Camilla Ermert, Gernmany was consistent on bars with a strong showings from veteran Gabi Weller (Shushunova; Tkachev; full-in dismount) and team leader Schweigert. Their start values of 9,5 and 9,4 respectively kept them in the eights.
The Netherlands had a bye. 

Former Russian trainer Oleg Orlow >>  
- living in Netherlands since a very long time - in interview with a Netherlands radio station Zealand

Rotation 3:
India caused a few surprises when two of their gymnasts walked off in the middle of their floor routines. None of them seemed to be injured, leaving the audience puzzled. There music seems go be longer than 90 seconds, so they just walk off with the music still blaring.
Ukraine won some ground on bars with good routines from Yarosh and Sirobaba. Irina Yarodskaya is only competing bars and beam to protect her injured foot.
The Netherlands had to swallow a fall from Monique Nuijten on her standing Arabian while Renske Endel and Gabrielle Wammes put in good performances with excellent form but lacked in start value (9,2 for Endel which caused some commotion).
Germany had a bye.

<<Irina Yarotska (UKR)

Rotation 4:  

Mixed emotions for the Germans on beam with two falls from Gritt Hofmann (tuck jump-front tuck; side somi) and one on her mount of round off-layout. Lisa Brueggemann and Brigit Schweigert competed well – nice front pike mount from Birgit, who lives in England for the greater part of the year where she goes to school.

Renske Endel had a few problems in her floor routine with a fall on her second trumble. But her team mates Nuijten, Wammes, Valentijn and van de Leur put on quite a floor show for the second highest floor total so far. Verona van de Leur capped it all off with a super routine that opened with a piked full-in and closed with a triple twist for a 9,225.

Ukraine had a bye.

Lisa Brueggemann (GER)

Flying Verona...!

Rotation 5:
The Dutch finished their successful outing on vault where they continued to impress judges and spectators alike. When Verona van de Leur’s feet hit the mat after her double twisting Yurchenko, the Dutch fans in the arena errupted. The cheering became defening when the score board showed them in second place in the team standings behind the USA. Verona van de Leur moved into first palce in the individual standings. Despite some small problems they lived up to the very high expectations people had of them..
Germany finished well on floor with another strong and confident showing to put them in fifth place, a rank very few would have expected after the disastrous 1999 World Championships. Even Lisa Brueggemann’s 8,175 after a fall couldn’t stop the team. Birgit Schweigert was best here with a 8,837 for, among others, a high Arabian double front. Coming to Ghent, the German’s goal reportedly was any place higher than the 15^th place they ended up in Tianjin.

Report: Nora Schuler / Photos by Don Johnson
Web editor: Eckhard Herholz