31. TURNIER DER MEISTER 2007 >> MEN s Qualification rounds

Impressive field of top participants!

Altogether 100 athletes representing 39 nations took part in Friday's qualification rounds of the World Cup in the Lausitz Arena of Cottbus! It was a qualification marathone from 1 to 8 p.m. - this modus is not an act of advertisement for modern gymnastics!

The biggest rush was seen seen on pommel horse: 54 gymnasts were on the start lists there, 53 on parallel bars - and only eight spots for the final were available...!

Meanwhile the long qualification day has ended. Especially convincing were the performances on vault where a lot of very difficult vaults were presented!

*Boden / FLOOR
40 gymnasts participated in the qualification on floor. Overall a lot of instabilities could be seen. Especially the requirement to finish the routine with a D-element seemed to be a problem for many of the gymnasts. Dismounts like double Arabian tucked, triple twist, full-in or 2 ½ twists quite often led to problems with the landing or even falls. This was also the case during the routines of J. Wammes (NED) and Du Wie (CHN) who certainly were contenders for a spot in the final.
Many combined acrobatic series were presented. One of the most frequently presented ones was 1 ½ twists bwd. – layout 1/1 turn fwd. – layout 1 ½ twists fwd. Only rarely presented today was a double somersault fwd. tucked. A large amount of gymnasts also presented Thomas- circles which gives them a good opportunity to increase the SV of their routines.
Qualified fort he final are:
R. Selariu (ROU), G. da Silva (FRA), V. Rosa (BRA), S. Palgen (LUX), V. Kuvakin (UKR), E. Kosmidis (GRE), E. Pozzo (ITA) and M. Fahrig (GER)).
>> Qualification results Floor exercises / Boden

*Pauschenpferd / POMMELHORSE
The entry field on pommel horse was even bigger than on floor. 48 gymnasts tried to earn one of the 8 spots for the final.
One of the first favourites on this apparatus who participated in this final was the Vice World Champion of last year,  P. Sellathurai from Australia. He started strongly but then fell down on a flop. Nonetheless with his score of 14.95 he could hope for a spot in the final for quite a while since many other gymnasts also had difficulties. However, when the 38th gymnast in this field had ended his routine without mistakes it was clear that the dream of the final was over for Sellathurai.
Other favourites in this field like Teng. H (CHN), D. Popescu (ROU) and N. Kriukov (RUS) presented themselves confidently and showed that they are among the best gymnasts in the world on this apparatus. Krisztian Berki (HUN) also managed to qualify for the final. As usual he thrilled everyone with the great technique of his scissors.
Qualified for the final are:
Teng Haibin (CHN), Krisztian Berki (HUN), Daniel Popescu (ROM), Nikolai Kriukov (RUS), Kazuki Mizutori (JPN), Anton Fokin (UZB), J. Fuentes (VEN) and J. Giraldo (COL)
>> Qualification Pommel horse

*Ringe / RINGS
The audience couldn't believe it when Yuri van Gelder unfortunately fell on his dismount double somersault fwd. piked after an otherwise great routine full of perfect strength elements. Nonetheless he reached a SV of 17.2 and final score of 15.7 for his routine and qualified for tomorrow’s final on the second place.
The new judging regulations led to a greater variety of dismounts and more swinging elements were presented. In addition to the often performed layout full-in or double layout now also triple somersaults or double somersault fwd. were shown.
A few of the gymnasts also had the Guzconghi again in their program. A quite popular combination was Jonasson – Yamawaki – Honma uprise or giant. Nonetheless the strength elements are still dominating on rings and in the cases where any swinging elements were shown quite often technical insecurities could be seen.
Qualified for the final are:
Regulo Carmona (VEN), Yuri van Gelder (NED), A. Coppolino (ITA), A. Balandin (RUS), G. Irodotos (CYP), A. Vorobyov (UKR) und Yuto Hayamy (JPN)
>> Qualification results Still rings

* Barren / PARALLEL BARS
46 gymnasts fighted for a spot in the final. Very strong were the Chinese gymnasts, both gymnasts made it into the final. Remarkable was the performance of H. Teng. With 4 flight elements – giant – double somersault piked, giant - double somersault tucked, double somersault bwd. piked and 1 ½ somersault fwd. to support – and on top of that shoot-up to handstand and directly giant 1/1 turn he set a high limit for his fellow competitors! Only N. Kriukov (RUS) and V. Goncharov (UKR) managed to come close to his score of 16.00.
It’s great for the German hosts that Marcel  Nguyen managed to finish his routine with the very difficult full-in dismount securely and with this to reach the final as 6th. No other gymnast showed a dismount of a similar difficulty.
It 's still the case that there isn’t too much variety in the dismounts, only very few gymnasts take the risk of a double somersault fwd.. Quite popular combinations are shoot-up – handstand – giant double somersault piked and giant 1/1 turn followed by double somersault.
>> Qualification results Parallel bars