The German team between Brinker and Herbst

Anja Brinker, Susann Herbst

In fact have these two only 1 year difference in age:
One, Anja BRINKER (18) already gained since 5 years (JEM 2004) international experiences, was in the World Championship team 2007, in the Olympic squad 2008 and reached the top ten ranks in the European Championship in Milan - while the other 17 year old Susann HERBST will finally stand before her first international participation. It is about time, did she not lack a bit confidence at times. "At last I also managed something" was her laconic comment to her nomination for the competition of the friendly meet between USA and Germany. Before she was injured a few times or...

... a short come of training impeded participations of competition as for example qualification of the European Championships in Milan. She was only able to prepare herself one and a half weeks for this Europeans. She was furthermore disapointed that she was not nominated for the World Cup in Cottbus. Water under the bridge now!
She was able to train properly the last few weeks, felt good and proved this with a strong performance and mistake free all-around at the beginning of the Bundesliga in Hamburg.
"The girl should not pressure herself too much at her first national competition: If she shows that it was justified to nominate her and that she is enjoying gymnastics, then i am counting with an increased motivation!" said Gaby Frehse, her coach in Chemnitz. She also thinks of her trainee as an important part for the new and young national squad.

- Though of the twenty year old Kim Bui - has the team an age average of 16.4 years. Only BUI and BRINKER had already gained former international experiences in the elite level. The other four athl

Anja BRINKER: highly motivated not only since Beijing!

Beside Bridget SLOAN in the US-team - has the Germany Anja BRINKER the most competition experiences in this coming friendly meet. Despite the extra physical exertion and a lot of distraction after the Olympic games did she find quickly find her way back into the field of competitive sport. She proved his not only with her impressive eighth rank in all-around at the European Championships in Milan and her bronze medal in the parallel bars - the first German bronze medal on this apparatus since nearly two decades.
Since Milan, her training is dominated by a phase of learn training.
"Let´s see if we will try the ducked swing 1 1/2 turns as one of the drills on the parallel bars." considered her coach Oleg CHEKMAREV this week, because during the training on wednesday, this new difficulty worked well. With this would Brinker increase her level of difficulty to 6.4 and for the German Championships in June and the World Championships in London (October) are further increases planned...!
On Saturday will she offer her Europeans program on the vault (Jurtschenko 1/1), floor exercise and balance beam - as mentioned: she is in the middle of a phase of learn training and furthermore on a good way to develop into a leading personality in the young team not only because of her high motivation that was boosted after her Olympic participation.
* E. Herholz