Expected Japanese victory in Berlin GYM family Event 2006

The winners from Japan!

In a very high-quality entry field at the '11th INTERNATIONAL JUNIOR-TEAM-CUP' in Berlin the favourites from Japan clearly won the team competition with a score of 255.40. 10 points behind the winning team followed the club KTV Chemnitz/ GER (245.250) on rank 2 and the 3rd place was reached by the team from Switzerland (244.60), closely behind them followed the teams from Spain, Berlin/ GER and Belarus.
Sergio Munoz from Spain won the individual all-around ranking in the age-group 17/18 years with the remarkable score of 85.00. The individual all-around ranking in the age-group 15/16 years was won by Lukas Fischer from Switzerland (80.80) and Reece Pearson from Great Britain (83.75) was the best in the all-around ranking of the youngest gymnasts (14 years and younger)…

11th INTERNATIONAL JUNIOR TEAM CUP 2006 – a true international highlight!
... see also GYMmedia-preview

The winners in the same venue in 1969:
Akinori Nakayama in front of Matthias Brehme and Klaus Köste, in the background Shigeru Kasamatsu and coaching- legend Yukio Endo

A true competition highlight!
Gymnastics history had already been written in this venue where now at the International Junior-Team-Cup competed 22 junior teams from 17 countries of 4 different continents. E.g. in 1969 there was a dual-meet between Japan and the GDR in which competed such great gymnasts like Akinori Nakayama, Mitsuo Tsukahara and Shigeru Kasamatsu for Japan and Köste and Brehme for the GDR. During that time already Japan was the leading nation in men’s artistic gymnastics, becoming team world champions in a row between 1962 and 1978.

Japanese politeness after a perfect routine on high-bar

37 years later:
Again Japanese 'Ultra Shi' in Berlin...
The junior gymnasts Yusuke Tanaka, Takuya Inatera, Yusuke Saito and Kazuaki Koizumi from the 2004 team Olympic Champion Japan now also presented great performances at the International Junior Team Cup.
Although these gymnasts are only from the “second row” of Japan’s juniors they presented a fireworks of gymnastics with a lot of great routines.

Germany’s junior head coach Jens Milbradt mentioned 'The strength of the Japanese team here in Berlin was based on the good balance of content, execution, stuck landings of the dismounts, everything was top!” In addition to this he also recognized the remarkable progress of the teams from Spain, Switzerland and Belarus.

Max Finzel: ... fortunately not a serious injury!

'About eight weeks before the Junior European Championships in Volos (Greece) this event has been a very important evaluation for us!' said Jens Milbradt. His gymnast Brian Gladow from the team of the host club SC Berlin certainly had a chance on winning the all-around ranking of the age-group 17/18 years but made a series of mistakes on floor, pommel horse and high-bar and also showed an easier vault than planned. In an internal control competition of the German junior team only a few days ago he had reached more than 87 points – now at the International Junior-Team-Cup he ended up on the 3rd place with a score of 83.15.
Max Finzel of the team from Chemnitz/ GER had bad luck on high-bar where he fell on the double-double dismount and somehow injured his head with his own hand. Fortunately it turned out that it wasn’t a serious injury and he would recover quickly. With his team he reached a well-deserved 2nd place in front of the strong junior teams from Switzerland and Spain.

Siegfried Wüstemann and Ronny Ziesmer

Ronny Ziesmer, who just has been appointed as ambassador for the World-Cup “Tournament of Masters” which will take place in Cottbus/ Germany at the end of March, greeted the gymnasts and figuratively “invited” them to compete at the Tournament of Masters in Cottbus in future years.

A lot of former gymnasts like Olympic Champion Maxi Gnauck, former World Champion Sylvio Kroll and many more national team members could be spotted in the audience. Also another athlete, former pairs figure skater Alexander König, came to watch this event and commented it with “Wow, these were absolutely World-class performances here and I’m really happy that I came to watch this event today!'
In addition to the guests unfortunately only about 120 paying visitors came to watch this junior event of men’s artistic gymnastics.

Sergio MUNOZ (ESP):
85 points!

This however doesn't derogate the class and quality of the competition and its' environment. The International Junior-Team-Cup is one of the largest international junior competitions in men's artistic gymnastics and already has quite a remarkable tradition created by head organiser Siegfried Wüsteman and his team.
- ehe -

RESULTS:
>> team results 2006
>> individual all-around 17/18 years
>> individual all-around 15/16 years
>> individual all-around 14 years and younger

Best of Age Groups, All-around:
* JUNIORS, 17/18 years
1. Sergio Munoz (ESP) 85,000
2. Kazuaki Koizuma (JPN) 83,700
3. Brian Gladow (GER/SC Berlin) 83,150

* YOUTH, 15/16 years
1. Lukas Fischer (SUI) 80,800
2. Christian Bazan (ESP) 80,350
3. Gabriel Rossi (AUT) 79,700

* YOUTH, 14 years and younger...
1. Reece Pearson (GBR) 83,750 (!!)
2. Arminas Grinius (LTU) 73,000
3. Severin Sollberger (SUI/NKL Liestal) 70,800

♦♦♦