Olympians Elisabeth Seitz and Fabian Hambüchen successfully defended their national crowns Sunday as the 2013 German Gymnastics Championships began in Mannheim.
Olympians Elisabeth Seitz and Fabian Hambüchen successfully defended their national crowns Sunday as the 2013 German Gymnastics Championships began in Mannheim.
Seitz, who competes for Turngemeinschaft Mannheim topped Lisa Katharina Hill and Kim Bui (both of MTV 1843 Stuttgart) to win her fourth consecutive title.
Hambüchen (TSG Niedergirmes 1903) clinched his title on the final event, earning 15.250 on high bar to eclipse Andreas Toba (Turn-Klubb zu Hannover 1) by less than half a point. Philip Sorrer (Sportclub Berlin e.V.) won the bronze.
Hambüchen has won seven German all-around titles since 2005, putting him in a tie with the legendary Eberhard Gienger. Gienger, inventor of the famous flyaway release move that bears his name, won his seven titles between 1972 and 1977 while competing at the West German championships.
A hand injury sustained in March limited his training for last month's European championships in Moscow, where he competed a few events only. Hambüchen, 25, told IG he is still adding more content to his routines as he trains for this fall's world championships.
"I'm very happy about my all-around title and how I did," he said. "It was a good competition, but I can do a lot more for worlds. I will raise up my D-score on floor and high bar for the apparatus finals. I think it will be fun!"
This year's German championships are held in conjunction with the "Turn-Fest," a massive gymnastics festival expected to attract more than 80,000 participants. Events at the Turn-Fest — whose slogan is "Life in Motion" — include competitions, group performances, games, exhibitions and a summer camp.
Competition continues Tuesday with the first day of apparatus finals.
Andreea E. Munteanu (Romania) and Christian Baumann (Switzerland) won the all-around titles at the 10th City of Lugano Trophy, a junior competition held Saturday in southern Switzerland.
Andreea E. Munteanu (Romania) and Christian Baumann (Switzerland) won the all-around titles at the 10th City of Lugano Trophy, a junior competition held Saturday in southern Switzerland.
This year's event attracted 35 gymnasts from nine European nations, with females born 1998-2000 and male gymnasts born 1995-1999. The competition is held every two years.
Munteanu succeeded 2011 champion Elisa Menghini (Italy), bringing the trophy back to Romania following victories from Cerasela Patrascu in 2007 and Amelia Racea in 2009.
Munteanu had the top score on vault (14.30), balance beam (switch leap, back tuck; ff, nailed tuck full, punch front; switch half side somi; ff, ff, 2 1/2; 13.85) and floor exercise (tucked full-in; triple twist; 2 1/2, punch front; double tuck; 14.10).
Russian junior champion Maria Bondareva finished second, with the best mark on bars (13.50). Anastasia Dmitrieva, who was second to Bondareva at last month's Russian nationals, won the bronze, just .05 behind Bondareva.
Stefanie Siegenthaler (TV Hinwil) was the top Swiss gymnast in eighth.
Baumann brought the Swiss men their fifth victory in Lugano, following Andreas Schweizer (2003), Roman Gisi (2005), Niki Böschenstein (2009) and Oliver Hegi (2011).
Baumman just edged Russia's Valentin Starikov, 82.50-82.35. Another Swiss gymnast, Beni Gischard, finished third (79.70).
Yao Jinnan and Liu Rongbing won the all-around titles at the 2013 Chinese National Championships, which concluded Sunday in Dalian, Liaoning Province.
The competition is also a qualification and testing event for the quadrennial National Games this fall, a multisport event featuring all Olympic sports. All the top 12 teams and individual finalists have earned their berths to the Games.
2013 Chinese champion Yao Jinnan
Yao, China's youngest London Olympian, finally managed to claim a national all-around title on her third shot despite a fall on beam, after major misses in the previous two years.
"It was so hard to recover from it," admits the 18-year-old Yao, referring to the thigh injury during the 2012 Olympics last year that cost her a berth in the all-around final. "I'm only at 70-80 percent right now, but I will be better this fall as my immediate goal is the National Games instead of the Rio Olympics."
All the other 2012 Olympians, though, are in their 20s and plan to retire and go to school after the fall Games. Olympic beam gold medalist Deng Linlin has committed to Beijing University and silver medalist Sui Lu to Shanghai Jiaotong University. Huang Qiushuang and He Kexin have not set a certain college to go to yet but are definitely retiring. Currently the oldest member of the women's National Team, 2008 Olympian and London alternate Jiang Yuyuan, 22, is already in her third year of sports management studies at Zhejiang University.
The top 12 of women's all-around final was dominated by youngsters except Huang Qiushuang and 2011 University Games all-around champion Xiao Kangjun. Second on the podium was 17-year-old Shang Chunsong, who told the media her dream is to win an Olympic all-around title, "because no Chinese woman has ever done that before." She also admits that she needs to clean up her routines, add some difficulty, and especially manage to ready her double-twisting Yurchenko vault for competition. She went on to win beam and floor titles at the championships. She threw an aggressive uneven bars routine that included a piked Hindorff into Pak and a Tkatchev into Gienger.
Surprising everyone, including herself, 14-year-old Yuan Xiaoyang of Zhejiang won the vault final with her piked barani (5.0 Difficulty) and Tsukahara full (5.2 D). While a thrilling achievement for Yuan herself, the low difficulty level reveals the problem the Chinese women are facing on vault.
"Coach Huang Yubin from the men's team has been leading us to find a way out of this situation, and we may select national coaches based on their abilities to teach vault," said Wang Qunce, coach of Yao, Yuan, Sui and Huang – all the women's gold medalists at the championships except Shang Chunsong.
Youngsters dominated the podium on the men's side as well. Liu Rongbing, 22, captured the all-around title by hitting all six of his routines. Four of the 2012 Olympians – Guo Weiyang, Feng Zhe, Zhang Chenglong and Zou Kai did compete in the prelims, but withdrew in the finals after having secured (or lost) team berths to the National Games for their teams.
Chen Yibing is the only 2012 Olympian who did not show up due to injuries and lack of readiness. The London Olympic alternates, Yan Mingyong and Teng Haibin, did qualify to some apparatus finals, and Yan won rings.
Teng — who crashed his team final routines in the Athens Olympics to cost the Chinese team a medal and won the pommel horse title at the same games at the age of 18 — waited eight years to be selected to the London Olympic again, only to be pulled off after the podium training because of an arm injury. However, now a recovered Teng is happily living with his girlfriend, fellow Athens Olympian and women's all-around bronze medalist Zhang Nan, an preparing to get married after the fall Games.
The National Games will be held Sept. 1-8 at the very same arena in Dalian.
World and Olympic vault champion Yang Hak-Seon attempted a new vault at South Korea's national trials.
World and Olympic vault gold medalist Yang Hak-Seon won his best event with 15.700 at the South Korean National Trials, held Saturday at the Taeneung National Training Center in Seoul.
The competition serves as the first qualifier for this fall's world championships in Antwerp, Belgium, and determines the team to July's University Games in Kazan, Russia.
Yang landed his namesake vault (triple-twisting handspring front layout, 6.4 Difficulty) with just one step, but fell on an extremely difficult second vault of Tsukahara with 3.5 twists. The vault is not yet in the Code of Points, but a Tsukahara with a triple twist (Lopez) without the extra half twist is worth 6.0 points in the current Code.
The 21-year-old Yang is hoping to have this new vault named after him as "Yang 2" at the 2013 Worlds, en route to another vault gold. He told the media that his biggest competition comes from Ri Se Gwang, the 28-year-old North Korean who vaults a piked Dragulescu (front double pike with a half twist) and a Tsukahara full-in, both with 6.4 values.
Kim Hee Hoon (82.270) and Park Minsoo (81.634) took first and second in all-around, respectively, while Yang (81.334) placed third. Names of other Universiade qualifiers were not yet available.
Women’s Universiade qualifiers are Eum Eunhui (49.625), Heo Seon Mi (49.225), Park Ji Yeon (45.025), Moon Eun Mee (44.325) and Park Do Eun (43.975).
Natsumi Sasada and Kohei Uchimura scored victories at the 67th Japanese Gymnastics Championships, held Saturday and Sunday in Tokyo.
Natsumi Sasada won her first title while Kohei Uchimura took his sixth at the 67th Japanese Gymnastics Championships, held Saturday and Sunday in Tokyo.
Sasada had her top scores of 14.050 on uneven bars and 14.000 on balance beam (nailed beam mount of round-off, layout full). She scored 13.800 for a Yurchenko full vault and 13.650 on floor exercise (triple twist; 1 1/2 front full; 2 1/2; double pike).
Sasada, a 2010 Youth Olympian, previously had trained under Viktor Razumovsky and Irina Razumovskaya, who returned to their native Russia in 2012. She now training under her mother, Yayoi Kano Sasada, herself a former national champion and a five-time world team member for Japan. An injury in 2012 kept her from challenging for a spot on Japan's Olympic team in London.
2012 Olympian Yu Minobe finished second, with the the top score on balance beam (14.350). Former junior sensation Mai Murakami was third, with highs of 15.100 for her double-twisting Yurchenko vault and 14.500 for a spectacular floor exercise (double layout; double-double to stag jump; 1 1/2 to front full; quad turn; triple twist; 6.2 Difficulty). An 11.800 on balance beam, however, cost her the overall title.
Asuka Teramoto, who won the Tokyo World Cup last month, was fourth after a 12.300 on floor. She had the high mark on uneven bars with 14.900 (inside Stalder-full to Gienger between the bars; inside Stalder blind to Jaeger; double front).
Defending women's champion Rie Tanaka reportedly was out of the competition with a back injury.
Uchimura, the world and Olympic all-around champion, claimed his sixth overall title in the men's competition, which was held over two days. Uchimura showed no signs of the ankle and shoulder injuries that have plagued him since London, hitting 11 of 12 routines. His only scores below 15 were a 14.900 on still rings on Saturday and 13.800 for a missed pommel horse routine on Sunday. His top score came Sunday with a 15.900 on high bar (Cassina; half-Tak to Kolman; layout double-double; 7.0 D). He mounted with a 3 1/2 twist on floor exercise and vaulted a near perfect Yurchenko 2 1/2 (small hop).
Uchimura, who was married last fall, announced last week that he and his wife welcomed a baby daughter born in April.
2012 Olympian Ryohei Kato, who was second at the Tokyo World Cup, finished second again, 3.5 points behind Uchimura. Another Olympian, Yusuke Tanaka, was third.
The competition also served as Japan's trials for this summer's University Games in Kazan, Russia. The women's team will be Minobe, Mizuhi Nagai, Noda Sakura, Arisa Tominaga, Shizkuka Tozawa and Otaki Chinami. The men will be represented by Kato, Tanaka, Shogo Nonomura, Chihiro Yoshioka and Daiki Ishikawa.
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