DTB-Cup Stuttgart: 2 victories for Romania and the Netherlands

Matthias Fahrig (GER) -
2nd place in the vault final

Two Romanian, two Dutch and one Russian victory - this is the balance of the first finales’ day at the 22nd International DTB-Cup in Stuttgart.

Romania’s Razvan Selariu won on vault narrowly in front of the young German Matthias Fahrig. A second victory went to Romania on pommel horse where the finale once again was won by Marius Urzica. A strong performance secured Yuri van Gelder (NED) the victory on rings. His team mate Suzanne Harmes won the floor finale in the women’s field. Ludmila Ezhova from Russia reached the 1st rank in the uneven bars finale.

A good atmosphere in the venue Schleyer-Halle in Stuttgart

Fabian Hambüchen among his fans

The first finales’ day in Stuttgart took place in an impressive atmosphere in a sold-out venue. Through the success of Fabian Hambüchen at the Olympic Games in Athens this year artistic gymnastics has gained back quite a lot of attention in Germany. Fabian himself didn’t take part in the competition today, he will have his three finales tomorrow, but came into the venue “Schleyer-Halle” to support his team mates.

The competitions became even more attractive and exciting for the audience this year through the entry field of only 6 gymnasts in each finale. Although some of the big stars of the gymnastics scene didn't come to Stuttgart this year at this post-Olympic point of time nonetheless great performances were presented during the first finales of this World-Cup tournament.

Matthias Fahrig (GER) on the way to a good handspring - double tucked fw.

Men's vault finale

Yernar Yerimbetov KAZ – 9.375
the vault specialist with a small step on the landing of his 1st vault, 2nd: Handspring – double somersault fw. piked - again with slight problems on the landing;
Takuya Nakase JPN – 9.100
1st vault handspring - layout fw. with 1 1/2 twists – and he stuck it; 2nd: Yurchenko – with a fall on the landing…;
Razvan Selariu ROM – 9.443
layout Tsukahara with 2 1/2 twists – slight corrections on the landing; 2nd: handspring – layout fw. 2 1/2 twists – he had to support the landing with his hands…

Leszek Blanik POL – 9.349
the vault specialist with his “Blanik” (SV 10.00) – but he fell on the landing; also his 2nd vault with slight problems on the landing, so he didn’t manage to reach the winners final today;
Matthias Fahrig GER – 9.537
layout Kasamatsu with 1 1/2 twists – the whole audience shouted „stick it!“, and he did – almost, only with a slight step he had to secure the landing; 2nd vault: handspring – double somersault fw. tucked with a perfect landing and he took the lead;
Martin Konecny CZE – 9.368
a safe 1st vault but a large step on the landing of his 2nd vault, handspring – layout fw. 2/1 twists;

The winners final was reached by Selariu and Fahrig

Selariu: 9.618
2 very good vaults, only very slight corrections on the landings;
Fahrig: 9.543
a good 1st vault with a small step on the landing and again a stuck landing on the handspring –double somersault fw. tucked!
The victory in this winners final goes to Romania but the 2nd place also was a great success for the young 18-year old gymnast from Germany.

Jana Sikulova (CZE) with a strong performance

Women's uneven bars finale

Laura van Leeuwen NED – 8.875
a well-presented routine but without spectacular highlights and she fell on the landing…;
Heike Gunne GER – 7.950
the second-ranked from the qualification with problems today, she got frighteningly narrow to the bar on her Gienger and then lost the rhythm in her routine which she ended with a full-in dismount;

floor- specialist dos Santos (BRA) also with a good performance on uneven bars

Daiane dos Santos BRA – 9.200
the floor World Champion also with a good performance on uneven bars today, a good routine with great Tkatchev and Gienger, only a step to secure the landing of her double somersault dismount;
Ludmila Ezhova RUS – 9.287
a strong routine by the tiny gymnast, great flight elements, spectacular moves between the bars and a stuck full-in dismount, with this routine she took the lead;
Lisa Brüggemann GER – 9.137
a very good routine by the gymnast from Cologne with a Jaeger and a stuck full-in dismount;
Jana Sikulova CZE – 9.362
the tiny gymnast from Czech Republic presented her difficult routine easily and technically perfect with Gienger and a difficult double somersault fw. dismount; this routine secured her a spot in the winners final!

Ludmila Ezhova - smaller than her competitor but the biggest star in the uneven bars finale

Ezhova and Sikulova competed in the winners final.

Ezhova: 9.437
great routine with only a small step on the landing of the dismount;
Sikulova: 9.412
also a very good routine but she couldn’t top the technical perfection of Ezhova with it.

Marius Urzica (ROM) in perfection

Men's pommel horse finale

Kristian Berki HUN – 9.712
the tall and elegant gymnast presented a good routine but without major highlights;
Ioan Silviu Suciu ROM – 9.725
a technically perfect routine which he presented very well today;
Du, Wie CHN – 9.675
the laws of physics don’t seem to count for this gymnast – he presented his routine almost agravic and with great speed – but unfortunately with a mistake on the dismount;
Marius Urzica ROM – 9.837
the king of pommel horse once again proved his perfection on this apparatus, the audience was thrilled by his great routine!

Alexander Artemev USA – 9.525
his father and coach once had been a great gymnast – and also the son did a good job today, he presented a spectacular routine but with slight technical insecurities;
Thomas Andergassen GER – 9.662
after two falls yesterday he competed a bit reluctantly today but got through the routine without mistakes and stuck the dismount;
Günther Couckhuyt BEL – 9.562
a good routine but without spectacular highlights and with problems on the dismount;

Victory ceremony with Suciu
and Urzica (ROM)

The two Romanians Suciu and Urzica
reached the winners final.

Suciu: 9.687
a good and well-presented routine;

Urzica 9.825
a spectacular and technically perfect routine.

And once again in his career Marius Urzica is the winner in a pommel horse finale!

Women's floor finale

Suzanne Harmes NED – 9.412
a good performance of her sportive routine but she showed it a bit reluctantly today and with slight technical insecurities,
Elena Zamolodchikova RUS – 9.062
a stylish routine full of rhythm with interesting elements but also with a bit lack of difficulty today;
Lais Souza BRA – 8.362
the young 15-year old gymnast from Brazil certainly is a big talent but not yet ready for a perfect performance, today she fell on her double somersault;
Daria Bijak GER – 8.675
a powerful routine with a strong beginning, but the power then was missing a bit towards the end, slight insecurities and also the routine didn’t match the difficulty level of the others;
Alexandra Eremia ROM – 9.275
perfect Romanian gymnastics on floor which she presented with a great technique today;
Daiane dos Santos BRA – 9.175
The floor World Champion with a fireworks of acrobatics, slight insecurities here and there and problems with her triple twist, but nonetheless a great performance full of temper! A bit surprisingly she didn’t reach the winers final!

The winners final was reached by Harmes and Eremia.

Harmes: 9.462
a bit more powerful presentation compared to her first routine, but slight insecurities, however her difficulties like a piked full-in were presented perfeclty;
Eremia – 8.850
she presented the most difficult routine today – and almost without mistakes, the audience – and we – were a bit confused about the score…?

Men's rings finale

Matteo Morandi ITA – 9.675
the gymnast from Italy with perfect strength elements and a good double layout dismount of which he stuck the landing;
Takuya Nakase JPN – 9.442
slight insecurities with his inverted cross and a small step on the double layout dismount;
Eriks Revelinsh LAT – 9.475
the second-ranked from the qualification showed a technically perfect routine which thrilled the audience and a stuck double layout dismount at the end;
Yuri van Gelder, NED – 9.762
a difficult routine which he presented very well until the dismount with which he had very slight problems;
Levente Fekete HUN – 9.487
he started off very well but then had problems in the second part of his routine and also made a mistake on his double piked dismount;
Dmitri Savitski BLR – 9.525
a dynamic presentation at the end of this finale with a perfect double layout dismount.

In the winners final competed Morandi and van Gelder.

Morandi – 9,675
again a good and concentrated performance but with small problems on the dismount;
van Gelder – 9,812
a perfect presentation!

At the end of this first finales’ day a view on a future highlight was presented: The World Championships in artistic gymnastics 2007 in Stuttgart. The “World Championships- Team 2007” including rhythmic gymnasts Magdalena Brzeska and Lisa Ingildeeva presented a beautiful show to a nice choreography which included gymnasts from artistic gymnastics, rhythmic gymnastics and trampoline.

Germany's head coach Andreas Hirsch

Comments:
Matthias Fahrig (GER) on his 2nd place on vault:
This success means a lot to me also for my training, as up to now I never managed to show my real vault potential in a competition, neither at the European Championships nor at the Olympics. Here it worked for the first time to show my training performance also in a competition. Of course, once I had reached the winners final I aimed for the victory – it didn’t work today, but that’s okay and I’m very glad about this 2nd place.
Germany’s head coach Andreas Hirsch on the fact that now in addition to Fabian Hambüchen there is a second one of his gymnasts in the spotlight in Germany:
I also see this as a kind of relief for Fabian so that he can go into the competitions a bit more relaxed. But above all, we now have a second gymnast who reached the top. And so I’m glad about this twist: gymnastics gets more attention again in Germany and we have gymnasts which can reach the international top level again.
reporting from Stuttgart: Sonja Schmeißer
photos: Torsten Hauptvogel
editorial: Lisa Worthmann

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