Volcano ash delays the beginning of the gymnastics European Championship

DELAY for 1 day !!

Crisis management met at the GYMnastics-European Championships in Bremen
On Sunday the official training for the Gymnastics European Championship- Mens should have started in Birmingham. But the ash of the volcano Eyjafjalla hasn't only delayed flight. It also delayed the punctual arrival of 38 national teams in England. So the European Championship start has been delayed for a day!

Bus instead of plane:
30 instead of two hours of travel for Austrias National Team
Austria and Slowakia will be travelling with the bus, together and will take between 24 and 30 hours instead of two...Very unfortunate also for the Russians and Ukrainians - just to name two countries - whose travels to get to the European Championships will be extremely inconvenient.

Austrias Routinier Marco Baldauf, who is hoping to have good chances on the highbar comments:
„I would rather fly a few days later - if necessary directly to the competition, but unfortunately we cannot tell when the airports will be open again. So we have to use the transport that will get us to the championship on time for sure.“
Austrias state master Fabian Leimlehner has good chances to go far in the European Championships all-around competition and looks ahead: „An endless bus trip to the highlight of the season is really uncomfortable, but I must not let it get me down. I will surely still achieve“.
Before the actual European Championship start - now postponed to Thursday the 22.April - the compulsory two day podium trainings have to take place...
* Source: ÖFT, UEG

** The UEG informed:
In Birmingham, the organisers, in agreement with the UEG, have already modified the programme.
The beginning of the men’s competition was postponed by one day
>> to Thursday April 22nd, 2010 in order to enable the delegations, as far as possible, to arrive with good conditions in Birmingham.

Additional training halls have been prepared.
The competition will end Sunday as scheduled.
A positive information: the Swiss Timing material necessary for the scoring system arrived on site by busses and the ferry boat.

* ECh TRampoline & Tumbling: In Varna, the technical committee is not yet on site but is in permanent contact with the organisers.
* Source: u e g

* The GYMmedia-Website "Gymnastics-European Championships, Mens", will go online on Monday, the 19. April !

Also GYMnastics-European Championship-Federation with crisis management ...
Departure of the delegations after the volcano eruption problematic
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Due to the difficult situation on the European airports and the current transport problems following the volcano ash cloud over Europe, the organising committee (OK) of the European Championships of Rhythmic Gymnastics has formed a crisis management team. „Wir have to think about what to do when the many hundred actives and their supervisors cannot depart on Monday due to cancelled flights“, said Organising Committee-member Matthias Wiatrek.
At the moment the capacity of the partner hotels is beging checked for the beginning of the coming week aswell as travel alternatives for instance with the train or ferry.
„We are observing the situation every minute“, said Wiatrek.
One has to think about emergency accomodation.
Bremens Organising Committee boss Horst Neumann encouraged the teams to think about travel alternatives and if necessary to make changes.
For the European Championships that were opened on Friday there are currently 600 delegation members from 35 countries in the city.
The competitions had their first highlights with the openeing ceremony and the senior single with the Olympic winner Evgenia Kanaeva from Russland.
* Source: EM-OK, Bremen
* ... more on the > GYMmedia-Event-Website