From 31 July to 4 August the "WORLD AGE GROUP GAMES" took place in Odense:  Topical  WAG results / Overview    

  
German version 

 At the "World Games" in Japanese Akita, Olympic Champion and eight times World Champion Irina Karavaeva (RUS) declared in the context of her win of the gold medal at the last WCh in Odense (please look at GYMmedia report from 04 August) because of an unfortunate miscalculation in front of German Anna Dogonadze-Lilkendey: "I am very sorry because of this mistake of the judges at the WCh in Denmark. I have decided that it is necessary to correct this mistake and to give the gold medal to my friend Anna Dogonadze from Germany in the spirit of friendship and fair play."
According to present code of points of FIG no result can be changed after the official declaration of the winner. However, president of FIG and member of IOC Bruno Grandi decided in favour of an exception in order to correct this fatal mistake. Therefore, the result of the WCh will be changed so that

	Anna Dogonadze-Lilkendey is official World Champion 2001
	and Irina Karawajewa is silvermedallist.

Karavaeva:
Returns gold...!!

 Even at the World Age Group Games (WAG) traditionally following the world championships Russia proved being the dominating nation winning 16 medals including nine times gold.
China, Japan and France followed with three victories each and documented their efforts for a long-term orientated development of great potential.
In total, 14 nations archived victories, medals went to 19 countries.
Germany placed with only 1 silver medal on rank 16 together with Kazakhstan and New Zealand of the WAG medal balance sheet.        (   results WAG)

Anna Dogonadze: After all more than silver...?

  Trampoline, Women:
Regarding the lower score of difficulty of Russian trampoline athlete Irina Karavaeva, proved through video analysis (cf. announcement from 2 August), there is now an explanation by the TC Trampoline of FIG.

Spontaneous reaction of the Russian still world champion: She will immediately be ready to hand the gold medal over to her friend Anna...!

TC-president Horst Kunze explains the situation:
> more details

  Nine times gold for Russia - closely followed by Germany with 5 x silver

  Trampoline, Women:
  At the end it was a tiny tenth. One would have liked Anna Dogonadze to win the gold medal, for she had the more beautiful and qualitative better routine! Her chance was enormous, for Irina Karavaeva had not been not in the best mood all week. But at the end the decision was made in favour of the Russian because her routine was six tenths more difficult. Co-favourite Oksana Tsyguleva had a break off alrady after the fourth jump, Caren Cockburn could not (yet) convert her strong training impression and her huge potential successfully, Olena Movchan made a boob at the end of her routine.  (Watch out: Please note change after miscalculation)

The more difficult routine: Irina Karavayeva >>

Russia won both tumbling team competitions and also decided the women’s team category on double mini tramp to their favour. With already five gold medals after the second day is Russia heading to become the most successful nation of these WCh.

The Portugueses demonstrated again their excellent abilities after the strong preliminary. They won their first team gold on double mini tramp.     After the DMT debacle of the Germans, at least the synchronized pair Dogonadze- Lilkendey / Ludwig justified its favourite-role in the preliminary and placed first. The second German pair Irmgard Ertl/Nicole Maintz presented themselves well, too.

Gold for Portugal's DMT men

    Russia is leading in the men's competition. Sensationally, the German "emergency pair" Michael Serth/Henrik Stehlik placed on rank 4, even though it was the first time they had jumped together. All they had was one hour during training to get synchronised. The very first international performance of the brothers Kubicka ought to get appreciated highly, too (rank 5). 

    In the morning the strong Portuguese finished the preliminary in DMT-competition with a result of 190,60 on top of the qualification field. The DMT-Top-nation was the most well-balanced one. Canada followed on rank 2 (189,60), Chris Mitruck received the highest score (32,39). The USA (189,20) became third, even though they had started with four completely new men. New Zealand and Spain qualified for the final as team 4 and 5, respectively. Then Brasilia and Australia. The disappointed vice-world champion of Sun City, Germany (177,00), placed as penultimate in front of Bulgaria...!  finished the preliminary in DMT-competition with a result of 190,60 on top of the qualification field. The DMT-Top-nation was the most well-balanced one. Canada followed on rank 2 (189,60), Chris Mitruck received the highest score (32,39). The USA (189,20) became third, even though they had started with four completely new men. New Zealand and Spain qualified for the final as team 4 and 5, respectively. Then Brasilia and Australia. The disappointed vice-world champion of Sun City, Germany (177,00), placed as penultimate in front of Bulgaria...!            detailed results

Catastrophic performance of German men
The team competition had started with an excellent success: Two silver medals were won. But this was followed by a complete break in. Martin Gromowski immediately broke off in the first round. Jörg Gehrke had already his problems prior to the WCh and became as best athlete of DTB only 26th. Due to his hurting back Dennis Luxon did not manage to perform well. Additionally, he hurt himself during the first round so that national coach Michael Kuhn had to make a decision after the last synchronized test: he will not start in the afternoon and will be replaced by Michael Serth as synchronized partner of Markus Kubicka. The team reached 8th place and did not manage to qualify for the team final of the best five. After Uwe Marquardt made a boob with his last jump, there will neither be a German athlete in the individual final of the best eight. For years there had not been such a performance in the area of the double-mini-tramp. “We feel sorry for our coach Jörg Hohenstein....", so the unanimous tenor of the members of the team.
Twice Ukraine, Russia and the USA and once each Great Britain and France, that is the formation of the women’s DTM-preliminary:    detailed results

  Training even at the morning of the opening day:
Highly improved and in good competition form are both Belarus’ ladies around Galina Lebedjeva and Olympic athlete Natalia Karpenkova as well as the gentlemen with Poliarush, Kazak, Kakorkin and Beliaev. All of them are medal aspirants. Everybody seems to have got used to the light conditions. In general the organisators offer optimal competition conditions.
The welcome of the participants was especially warm and original. For it took place in the zoological garden of Odense, included a tour and finished with a BBQ on the lawn.

The back problems of German gymnast Dennis Luxon are not geklaertdefinitly/finally. A good and intensive care by Mrs Dr. Ahrens from Frankfurt and physiotherapist Gerald Fick (ex-gymnasts from Siegen) led to wesentlichen improvements and enabled Luxon to train on the DMT this morning. Then a decision about the concrete Einsatz will be made.

This evening the 22nd world championships will be opened solemnly in Odense's sports centre...

These 22nd Trampoline World Championships prove already during the arrival that there has been set a strong attraction due to the integration into the Olympic programme last year:
On the fairy-tale island Fünen, in the WCh town Odense the highest number of participants is expected then ever before: In the men’s category alone are starting more than 90 gymnasts from 34 nations. The arrival is still in full swing. The German team arrived already on Sunday.

Official supplier of these world championships is world-renowned producer of trampolines EUROTRAMP from Weilheim-Teck as well as acclaimed producer of apparatusses SPIETH Gymnastics from Esslingen (both from Germany) who produced the complete tumbling track, for instance. Both companies - anyhow long-term online-partners of GYMmedia - did the title sponsoring of these world championships and secured this way daily new reports about this event.

Official training is planned for Wednesday morning at 7.30 a.m. Possibilities for training already exist earlier. The opening ceremony takes place on Wednesday evening.

dtb-info: "   ...The trampoline gymnasts are hoping for an increased popularity of their sport after the Olympic premier (individual competition) in Sydney.”
German head coach Michael Kuhn (Stuttgart) nominated following gymnasts:
Anna Dogonadze-Lilkendey (MTV Bad Kreuznach), Tina Ludwig (TuRa Melle), Nicole Maintz (MTV Bad Kreuznach) and Irmgard Erl (SV Brackwede).
Kathrin Deuner (TV Wetter) and Christina Jansen (VfL Pinneberg) are going to start in the double mini tramp competition.
The men's team consists of Henrik Stehlik (TGJ Salzgitter), Michael Serth (TV Schaafheim) and the twins Markus and Michael Kubicka (both SG Frankfurt-Nied).
The double-mini-team is formed of Dennis Luxon (TGJ Salzgitter), Uwe Marquardt (SC Cottbus) and Martin Gromowski (MTV Bad Kreuznach). In an internal qualification Jörg Gehrke (MTV Bad Kreuznach) secured himself the fourth starting place in Frankfurt on 21 July.
In the women's team competition the minimum aim is a participation in the final of the best five teams. In the individual competition Kuhn is confident that vice-European Champion Anna Dogonadze-Lilkendey heads for a medal. A second placement in a final of the best eight gymnasts by Tina Ludwig will be "very, very difficult" according to Kuhn. In the synchronized competition Ludwig and Dogonadze-Lilkendey start with realistic medal hopes, for they are current vice-World and European Champions.
In the double-mini-competition Kathrin Deuner as well as Christina Jansen belong to the circle of final candidates.

„In the men's category we expect the team being current vice-world champion to win a medal. For all four gymnasts do have a great potential“, so Kuhn. "Even though we are aiming for final placements in the individual competition, we are aware that it will be as difficult to realise as it is in the women's category."

The two newly formed pairs Kubicka/Kubicka and Stehlik/Luxon will take part in the synchronized competition, because Stefan Reithofer (Bad Kreuznach), synchronized partner of Michael Serth, did not qualify for these title matches. Kuhn is still optimistic that at least one pair taking part in the synchronized competition will manage to place among the top five.
In the double-mini-competition German gymnasts belong traditionally to the medal candidates - in the team competition as well as in the individual one – and are starting as present vice-World and European Champions.

(Translation: Florian Schmid-Sorg)