 |
From
Ghent: Eckhard Herholz and Reinhard Linder
Ghent
certainly has one problem. There may be a lot of hotels. But they
are all nice, but small. So the over 700 guests from all over the
world are scattered all over town in different hotels. Amazingly
enough, the organisation manages to shuttle all gymnasts from their
various hotels to the EXPO area according to plan.
|
The
Spanish team – Victor Cano on the right- at breakfast in
the Holiday Inn hotel.
|
Greek
Ioannis Melissanidis was the
first to leave the Holiday Inn hotel this morning. While chatting to
us, he confided that he is training a completely new vault, but
would offer no details other than that it is totally different from
his Melissanidis vault. And then he disappeared off into the early
morning darkness, his bag over his shoulder…
The
Spanish team were seen at
breakfast early this morning as well. World high bar champion Jesus
Carballo had already gone back to his room. Parallel bars
virtuoso Victor and his mates looked optimistic and reported that
Jesus Carballo has put all his injury problems, which had kept him
out of most of this year's competitions, behind him.
|
|
The
French women at accreditation…
|
…
while the French men go shopping for the official Ghent 2001
T-shirts.
|
All
teams – among them the French team
seen here; their men won their last competition against Germany and
Switzerland last week - had to go through the process of
accreditation. The French team includes star Ludivine
Furnon. Despite their tight schedule, the athletes used
the opportunity to buy T-shirts commemorating the competition at
souvenir stands set up for them specially.
|
|
The USA did, in the end, send two teams. The coaches, all in
a sombre mood, explained that the decision to travel had not
been an easy one considering recent events and the current
political situation.
"But
we have two teams that are well prepared for this
competition and our goal is to contend for medals",
said coach Steve Rybacki (photo
on the right).
|
| The
USA may have arrived in a sombre mood, but is very
optimistic for the competition. |
Ukraine
troubled by injuries
Ukrainian
stars Alexander Svetlichni and Valeri
Pereshkura will miss the championships due to knee
injuries sustained on vault at the Ukrainian National Championships.
The men's team arrived with only six gymnasts. Alexander
Beresh, third all-around at the 2000 Olympics, is still
struggling with shoulder problems and might compete on four events
only. Likely all-arounders are Roman
Zozulia and Andrei Mikhailichenko.
German
"afterthoughts"
Robert
Juckel from the SC Cottbus club was the last gymnast to
be named to the team by head coach Rainer Hanschke. Following the
last test competition, he was awarded the sixth spot over Sergej
Pfeifer from the TK Hanover club.
Berlin native Gritt Hoffmann
arrived in Ghent on her own on Tuesday evening, went to
accreditation and was then driven to the hotel the team is staying
in by members of the organising committee. The reason for her
"solo": She had gone to Munich for one last thorough
check-up on her back and hopes to be in top form for the competition.
|
|