Preview: Artictic Gymnastics World Cup Final 2009

World Cup Final
needs changes in the future!

As the basis for invitations to the World Cup Final on 13-14 December in Madrid, the international gymnastics federation, the F.I.G., published its world cup individual apparatus rankings at the end of November following the last World Cup of the series. As a result, the best eight gymnasts on each apparatus were now qualified, and in the event that a gymnast did not take up the invitation, their place would be taken by the next gymnast in the rankings ...

Aljaz Pegan, the Slovenian 'old master' did not perform in Beijing

WORLD CUP FINAL 2008
- Madrid, December 13-14 , Telefonica Arena -
_____________________________________________

The men's competitions:
Only four of the six leading gymnasts on the FIG world apparatus rankings have taken up the invitation to participate in the 2008 World Cup Final in Spain :
- Floor: Diego Hypolito (BRA),
- Vault: Krisztian Berki (HUN)
- Rings: Yuri van Gelder (NED) and
- High Bar: Aljaz Pegan.
On the vault the Polish Olympic gold medallist Leszek Blanik is missing, and on P-bars the Slovene Mitja Petkovsek, who holds the highest number of points, namely 1.016,34, will be absent, as will four more of the gymnasts who have qualified for this apparatus.

For a wide variety of reasons, as many as 20 (!!) of the 6x8 = 48 gymnasts who have qualified have waived their right to participate! Those whose absence will have the strongest effect on the sporting level of the competition are some of the Chinese stars of the Olympic Games, such as Zhou, Kai (3rd on floor; 5th on high bar), Xiao, Qin (2nd on vault), Li, Xiaopeng (3rd on P-bars) and Huang, Xu (5th on P-bars).

Vault specialist Fahrig (GER)

The German high-bar world champion and Olympic bronze medal winner Fabian Hambüchen (2nd on high bar) is also waiving his chance to take part and will instead be performing on behalf of his guest club Straubenhardt at home in the finals of the German Club Championships.

The German male gymnasts will therefore only be represented by the Halle-based vault specialist Matthias Fahrig.
Although he would not normally be qualified on account of his twelfth position in the rankings, he was one of the four to have moved up, following Hypolito (BRA), Isaac Botella (ESP) and Enrique Gonzales (CHI) .

>> Men's Qualifier

Cheng Fei -

The womens' competitions ...
... or rather the participants in this so-called "World Cup Final" cast serious doubt on the sense of the current system:
Cheng, Fei (CHN) is the only one among the top four in the rankings to have come (1st on floor).
Oksana Chusovitina (GER; 1st on vault), Beth Tweddle (GBR; 1st on bars) and Catalina Ponor( ROU; beam) are all absent.
The US gymnasts are leaving out this final altogether - as so often in this series of competitions. As a result, such top-class performers as Nastasia Liukin (3rd on bars; 2nd on beam), Alicia Sacramone (4th on vault) and Shawn Johnson (5th on beam; 5th on floor) are all missing.

Ariella Kaeslin: ... Chances of a place on the rostrum?

A gymnast who is ranked third on two pieces, Anna Pavlova (RUS; vault and beam) is also absent....
Swiss gymnast Ariella Kaeslin - who is tenth in the rankings - certainly has a reasonable chance of a medal along with the favourites, Cheng (2nd), Zamolodchikova (5th) and Komrskova (9th) . Switzerland's current Sportswoman of the Year is highly motivated in any case ...!

Of the 4x8 = 32 regular qualifiers, 21 (!!) are absent - that is exactly two thirds of the best gymnasts on each apparatus ... !
... The FIG is now considering giving up the World Cup Finals, which are regularly spurned by a large number of gymnasts, after this event in Madrid.
In the absence of Oksana Chusovitina, Kim Bui, will attempt to uphold the honour of Germany's female gymnasts, only three of whom are currently listed among the Top 30 in the individual apparatus rankings:
* O.Chusovitina (1st on vault ; 25th on beam; 22nd on floor)
* K. Bui ( 21st on vault; - : - ; 28th on floor)
* Jenny Brunner ( - ; 24th on bars; -; -; )

>> Women's Qualifier