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Patras, 28-April-2002 Double Victory for Greek Host.....
 
Today more than 4000 spectators in a sold-out venue celebrated not only a double victory of their men by Vasileios Tsolakidis on bars and their World champion Vlasios Maras on high bar but they saw also very high-quality EF’s. After the not too strong performance level in the individual all-around – there seem to be less and less all-around specialists – today’s finals were of a very high level which shows that specialising seems to be the trend in modern gymnastics.

Vlasios Maras - the young high bar heroe
from Patras and also Ghent 2001

On the other four apparatus the competitions also were very interesting and of a high quality but there have been no big surprises, the favourites took the victories. On floor Alexei Nemov won the gold medal in front of Jordan Jovchev. On pommel horse Marius Urzica was the winner – who else...! And on rings World champion Jovchev managed to beat the Greek super-athlete Dimosthenis Tampakos. On vault even two winners could be seen, Dmitri Kasparovich (BLR) and World champion Marian Dragulescu

>> Final Results, inclusive Reports 

JUNIORS in the morning...: German double victory on bars, silver on high bar

 Junior-ECh newcomer Fabian Hambüchen from Wetzlar and the title holder from Dillingen Waldemar Eichhorn secured a convincing double victory for Germany on parallel bars. As a sensation can be seen the silver medal from Waldemar Eichorn on high bar as he only came into this final as the substitute gymnast. However, he was a very good substitute for Robert Weber from Wolfsburg. Berlin’s René Piephardt reached the 4th rank on pommel horse and the 8th one on high bar.
<< Eichorn and Hambuechen (right)

With alltogether one gold, two silver and three bronze medals the German juniors will leave this Junior-ECh as successful as never a German team before! The other gold medals today went to Romania (FX); Belarus (PH), Great Britain (SR), Greece (V) and the Czech Republic (HB). That means the six winners come from six different countries.

... the BAGA Website rejoices...:
"MARK FREEMAN- CHAMPION ON RINGS!"

British Junior MARK FREEMAN, won the Gold medal on Rings at the European Championships in Patras, Greece on Sunday morning, 28th April, scoring 9.237 and beating the other seven finalists on this pieces of apparatus with steady performance and difficulty and originality of his routine. 
The silver went to ANTON GOLOTSUTSKOV, Russia- 9.162 and the Bronze- to CIPRIAN VERES, Romania, 9.150. This is the best ever European achievement of a British Junior and in fact the first ever Gold medal in Men’s Artistic Gymnastics that British Gymnastics celebrates! “ It is an outstanding achievement and thoroughly deserved for a totally dedicated and disciplined gymnast!  We are
working together for 5 years and this has proved to be a winning combination. Mark’s routine is a result of months of planning after analyzing the best of the World class performance”, said his personal coach BYRON CLITHERO. (Source: Vera Atkinson/Baga Website)

  Results: Finals Juniors        REPORT
Patras, 27-April-2002 Dan Potra from Romania is the new Europen Champion
After their gold medal in the senior team competition, the Romanians won for the second time, thanks to the impressive performance of Dan Potra in individual all around .
Potra favoured Romania with the first gold medal in individual males all around. He came second to none before the Bulgarian Jordan Jovtchev with 55,623 points (9,700 points for the floor, 8,875 pommel horse, 9,712 rings, 9,337 vault, 9,187 parallel bars, 8,812 horizontal bar). The Russian Alexei Bodarenko came third with 55,612 points (9,600 floor, 8.775 pommel horse, 9.225 rings, 9.512 vault, 9.150 parallel bars, 9.350 horizontal bar). The Brit Kanukai Jackson came on 14th place.

    REPORT

... warming up: Thomas Zimmermann (Austria) seriously injured:
Suspicion on a torn patella-tendon and a fracture of the kneecap: A sad ending of this ECh for Thomas Zimmermann (Austria)  
ÖFT: He really was unlucky today: Thomas Zimmermann injured himself seriously during the warm-up for the first apparatus in today’s all-around final. Of all elements the 29-year-old gymnast even fell on his “Zimmermann”- vault a few minutes before the competition started. He badly injured his right knee. The first suspicion of the doctor in attendance: A torn patella-tendon and a fracture of the kneecap. A detailed diagnosis will be made in the hospital of Patras now. (Labner/ Austrian Gymn. Fed.)

TWO BRITS IN THE FINALS! 
DARREN GERRARD and KANUKAI JACKSON both qualified for the
Vault Final of the European Championships for Men in Patras,
Greece, 25th-28th April. Darren’s score in the Team Competition, 9.662 is third best only to Marian Dragulescu (ROM), 9.750 and Dmitry
Kaspiarovitch (BLR), 9.687. Kanukai’s  9.612 qualified in 7th place.

Thus the two British gymnasts repeat the story of the 1990,
European Championships, in Lausanne, Switzerland where Neil
Thomas and James May competed in the Vault Final finishing
3rd and 4th respectively. 
Kanukai Jackson, the Current British All-around Champion
also qualified in 12th place for the All-around Final today in Patras (52.860pts.)

Special Preview: GYMmedia SUPERSCORE         REPORT

.. from Patras  GYMmedia correspondet Jens Milbradt:
 JUNIORS ALL-AROUND: The new European Champion is Deviatovski


For GYMmedia in Patras:
Jens Milbradt (Germany) former Vice-European Champion on pommel horse and rings 1990 in Lausanne)

The Russian Maxim Deviatovski is the new Europe juniors champion. He conquered the first position at the individual all around finals with 54,861 points and he was the only athlete to gather more than 9,000 points on all six apparatus and in particular 9,350 on the floor, 9,187 on the pommel horse, 9,012 in the rings, 9,225 on the vault, 9,050 on the parallel bars and 9,037 on the horizontal bar. the silver medal went to another Russian, Anton Golotsutskov with 54,186 points; the bronze medal went to the German Rene Piephardt with 53,573 points.

>>> Report 
Patras, 26-April-2002 The new European Team Champion is Romania
 

After their silver medal from two years ago in Bremen the Romanian men crowned their development now by winning the team gold medal for the first time at European Championships. With the score of 168.170 they took the lead in front of title holder Russia (167.098) and Belarus – without their star Ivan Ivankov -  (166.582). 
Behind France, the European Champion from 1998, the Germans surprisingly managed to repeat their 5th place from Bremen 2000. They presented a good fighting spirit and reached the score of 165.40. 
Sven Kwiatkowski from Chemnitz even placed 6th in the individual ranking and qualified for the all-around final. ECh-newcomer Tom Neubert – also from Chemnitz – presented a strong high bar routine and secured with this the only spot in an apparatus final for the German team.

  ...Results:      >> Teams             >> Individual all-around       >> REPORT

...2nd Subdivision:
After the 2nd subdivision the team from Italy is in the lead with the score of 162.534 in front of the host team Greece (161.571) and the Czech Republic (154.609).

The best gymnast in the individual ranking is currently the World champion on high bar Vlasios Maras with 53.336 points in front of Manuel Campos from Portugal (53.112) and Ilia Giorgadse from Georgia (52.999).
The Greek were in the lead at first but then made too many errors. Vasileios Tsolakidis presented a great routine on bars with the combination uprise – Diamidov – uprise – Diamidov - 1/2 turn and received for it the highest score up to now: 9.737. The second highest score, 9.7, has been received on rings by the silver medallist from Sydney Dimosthenes Tampakos. Finally on pommel horse the Italians managed to decide the competition of this subdivision in favour of themselves, although they had their only major mistake of the competition there...

..... Results of 2nd subdivision:    >> Teams          >> Inividual All-around

>> Daily GYMnews:  GYMmedia 

Patras, 25-April-2002 Russia Gold, Switzerland Silver, Germany Bronze...

At the beginning it didn’t look at all like a successful title holding:
The Russians messed up there starting apparatus floor completely and to their own surprise they found themselves on the 9th rank! Then, however, the proved why they were the favourites. They took the lead after having competed on vault and kept it until the end.

The team with the fewest instabilities in their routines were the boys from Switzerland. Led by Niki Boeschenstein, they set up the first sensation of this men’s European Championships by surprisingly winning the silver medal.  

At the end the difference was less than one tenth of a point – but the German juniors were absolutely happy about having defended successfully their bronze medal from Bremen 2000. Despite a few instabilities they fought strongly and managed to improve from rank 7 at the beginning to the 3rd place in the end. Their best gymnast was René Piephardt from Berlin, he is 2nd in the individual ranking behind Russia’s Anton Golotsutskow. Niki Boeschenstein from Switzerland is on the 4th position, but also Fabian Hambüchen managed to qualify for the all-around final with his 12th rank...


René Piephardt (GER)
>> Results: Team Final >> Results: AA-Qualif. >> AA-FIN (Qualification) >> Report
 

After the second subdivision at afternoon:
Before the last subdivision starts with the 12 best teams and the final decision, Hungary is in the lead
1. Hungary with 149.959 points in front of
2. Poland with 149.872 and
3. Croatia (149.160). The Netherlands have been driven out to rank 5 from the Czech Republic.

In the individual ranking currently Alexander Benko from Slovenia is on the first position (51.824), behind him Martin Konechny from the Czech Republic who also has received the highest scores on three apparatus up to now (rings: 8.4; vault: 9.412; bars: 8.862)
On floor no score about 9.0 could be seen up to now. This might of course change after the last subdivision which is competing at the moment.
  << Martin Konechny, third and the best gymnast of his team at their last ECh-test, a competition against the German team in Berlin  - currently second in the individual ranking.

>> Results Teams (after 2 subdivisions) >> Results all-around (after 2 subdivisions)

>> Tagesaktuelle News immer bei GYMmedia 
Patras, 24-April-2002 Podium training men: No real favourite within sight

... from Patras for GYMmedia: Jens Milbradt


GYMmedia correspondent:
Jens Milbradt

  In contrast to the situation in the junior’s field, in the men’s elite level no real favourite for the team title is within sight.

In today’s podium training the Russians once again presented themselves with a lot of instabilities. They will have to fight strongly for the gold medal against teams like Belarus (- without Ivan Ivankov), Ukraine and Romania. In addition to that, the fight for the following places will be as exciting and a few more teams will take part in it, e.g. France, Italy, also Latvia and Switzerland. This means for the German team that they would need a faultless competition to reach the planned rank 6...

..red more
Patras, 23-April-2002 Title holder Russia with strong rotations during the podium training...
    ... from Patras for GYMmedia: Jens Milbradt

Gold medal winner Russia made the strongest impression in today’s podium training and is on its’ way to a possible title holding. Behind them different teams can be expected, as Belarus and also Germany who will start in the same group. The French team didn’t have a very good day today, the Romanians presented mainly separated single elements so it is hard to judge them.
                                                             >> ... read more

  Furthermore, the Greek present a good organisation, the shuttle is working well, the conditions for the competition are good. Unfortunately, the floor is more than only a question of getting used to it: Hard and uncontrollably springy! At 20 degrees centigrade, sun and a good hotel the German gymnasts have settled in well..!

Frankfurt/Patras 22-April-2002 Arrival in Patras...
 

After their flight from Berlin to Athens and a 4-hour bus ride to Patras the German seniors and juniors have arrived in their hotel “Rio Porto“. That seems to be quite late for the juniors who will have their podium training already on the following day around 4.00 p.m. However, for the gymnast from Berlin René Piephardt this doesn’t cause any problems: “That’s the same to me, you simply have to cope with those kind of things...!“

Podium training for the men‘s team will follow on Wednesday. Germany’s head coach Rainer Hanschke is striving for rank 6 and two spots in the finals.         >> ...red more


René Piephardt
Berlin/Patras 19-April-2002 Germany: A final test before the departure to the ECh...
 

While the majority of men has already  arrived at the location of the ECh Patras – by the way, the two-time European all-around champion Ivan Ivankov has withdrawn his participation – others are busy with the last ECh-preparations. In the sports centre Berlin-Hohenschönhausen, where the gym from the club SC Berlin is located, the German junior national team competed against the gymnasts from the Czech Republic. The Czech team consists of gymnasts from the clubs SK Hrchany Prag and Sokol Brno.

The German boys proved to be in a remarkable competition form, they had bite and presented good performances, as expected they won the competition with the score of: 157.70 : 146.50. Furthermore, Fabian Hambüchen and René Piephard reached the top two places in the individual ranking. For Patras, they are believed to be capable of reaching more than only the participation in the all-around final of 24 gymnasts.


Miroslav Netusil (CZE) and Andreas Hirsch (GER)

The German senior national team took this opportunity to test their competition form once again, this time with different conditions (of apparatus).

Best all-around competitor in this field was again Thomas Andergassen (53.800), behind him Sven Kwiatkowski (52.300) and Ronny Ziesmer (51.850).
                                                                                >> ... mread more  (in German, only)

Eckhard Herholz/gymmedia

Patras, 17-Apr-2002 Männer-EM beginnt am Donnerstag, den 22. April
  Analog zu den Wettbewerben der Frauen beginnen auch die Männer am Donnerstag, den 22. April zuerst mit dem Team-Wettbewerb der Junioren. Tags darauf wird der Mannschafts-Europameister bei den Senioren gesucht. Zu den Favoriten gehören Titelverteidiger Russland, Mannschaftsweltmeister Weißrussland, die Ukraine und Rumänien.

Im Mehrkampf der Herren ist Alexander Beresch der Titelverteidiger von Bremen 2000.
Nach dem verpassten WM-Gold von Gent wäre auch dem weißrussischen Ausnahmeturner Iwan Iwankow  ein EM-Mehrkampftitel zu gönnen, wenn er auch im unmittelbaren Vorfeld (Cottbus) noch nicht genau wusste, ob er nach Patras anreisen wird...
Ob Marian Dragulescu nach dem erstmaligen Gewinn einer Mehrkampfmedaille für Rumänien (Bronze) vor zwei Jahren diesmal eine weitere eine Steigerung gelingt, hängt insgesamt sehr von der Stabilität der Übungen aller Fvoriten ab, zu denen man unbedingt auch den Bulgaren Jordan Jowtschew zählen muss. Aber auch Olympiasieger Alexei Nemow (RUS) ist mit Optimismus und der Botschaft gestiegener sportlicher Form nach Patras angereist, blieb er doch bei den letzten europäischen Titelkämpfen völlig ohne Medaille.

Die Mehrkampfsieger der EM 2000 in Bremen>>

Insgesamt haben bei den Senioren 151 Turner aus 37 Nationen ihr Kommen gemeldet, bei den Junioren werden 133 Athleten aus 32 Ländern erwartet.
Deutschlands Junioren testen sich am Freitag, den 19. April zu Hause in Berlin in einem Länderkampf gegen die Tschechische Republik. Auch die deutschen Senioren nutzen dies als willkommene Möglichkeit eines letzten Leistungschecks.

GYMmedia beginnt ab Dienstag, den 23. April mit der Berichterstattung aus Patras.

Eckhard Herholz/gymmedia

>> Tagesaktuelle News immer bei GYMmedia