36^th MEN's EUROPEANS of Artistic Gymnastics
        - Sofia / Bulgaria; Armeec-Arena
___________________________
2014, Thursday, May 22 - Qualification, ELITE (Comp. I)
    ⇒ S t a r t  l i s t  (+ Indivuduals)

* 10:00 – 12:40 SUBDIVISION I
   (NOR, CZE, SLO, HUN, AUT, IRL, SVK, SWE, ISL, NED, SRB; + Einzel AZE)
Of course the top team result in this group came from the men of the NETHERLANDS (= 258,661):
Best of them was the Dutch champion Bart DEURLOO, who scored 85,098), but also their star Epke ZONDERLAND on parallel bars and high bar with the best scores of the day: 15,600 and 15,866 !! ... Hungary follows as next nation with a different of nearly -15 points, than Ireland and Austria
   ⇒ Intermediate Results (- after SUB I )

14:00 – 16:15 SUBDIVISION II    (... n e x t ! )
 (LAT. FIN, POL, BEL, LTU, CRO, GEO, CYP, BUL, DEN, GRE, TUR; + MON, MKD)
The strong Dutch result from subdivision I had endure also even after the second subdivision. Between the Dutch and the Hungary pushed Belgium  (- 6 points back), Finland (- 11) and Greece (significant - 13 points back), but whether the Dutch reach the round of the last eight, remains to be seen. With their juniors they were at the last two Europeans each on 9th place and yesterday with the Junior on 11, behind Germany and Ukraine ...
The main decision will be after the today's last subdivision ...
   ⇒Intermediate results  (- after SUB II)
 
18:00 – 20:15 SUBDIVISION III - ... the Favorites!   (⇒ S t a r t  l i s t III)
(ROU, ITA, ESP, BLR, POR, RUS, GER, UKR, ARM, GBR, FRA, SUI)

Britain’s senior men’s gymnastics team have qualified through to Saturday’s European Championship team final in style. The experienced team of Sam Oldham, Dan Keatings, Dan Purvis, Max Whitlock and Kristian Thomas finished top of the standings scoring 267.076 points and will now be aiming to repeat their performance as they look to defend their team title.
Competing in the final qualifying round alongside other strong nations such as Germany, Russia and Ukraine the British boy’s routines stood out as combining high difficulty with great control, their big competition experience– each gymnast an Olympian – being a key feature of the team. In the end the British boys total was well above second placed Russia (264.304) and third placed Ukraine (261.277). The format of the event meant that three of the five strong team competed on each of the six pieces of men’s apparatus with every score counting to the teams total, consistency, confidence and composure being key. Max Whitlock was the stand out performer for the team but all of the boys competed well and it was true team effort that will need to be repeated in order to top the medal podium in the final.

As well as aiming to reach the team final the boys were also looking for top 8 places on each piece to make Sunday’s individual apparatus finals. Olympic pommel bronze medal winner Max Whitlock posted the top qualification score, ahead of the Olympic champion Kristian Berki and will be high on confidence going in to that final, Max also qualifying in top spot for the floor where he will be joined by second placed qualifier Daniel Purvis. Reigning European silver medallist Sam Oldham qualified in 4th on high bar and is joined by Kristian Thomas in the final.
Max said afterwards: “It’s a great as team that we’ve topped the standings and continue our form from when we took the gold last time. We try not to the think about the pressure or expectation going in to it, each of us knows what we are capable of and knows how hard we work in the gym every day for competitions like this and the aim is always to go out and put all that hard work into the routines on the day. Personally of course I’m really happy with my performance and looking forward to the apparatus finals but the main target for this event is the team and we have only completed part of the job, we now need to focus ready for the final.”
* source: British Gymnastics

► Qualification, Teams    ► Qualifiers App. Finals
►  Individial all-around
     ►►  RESULTS, all