08. April 2008  
Cottbus / Germany  
Artistic Gymnastics

There will also be top-class lady visitors at the World Cup in Cottbus ...

Oksana Tschussovitina (32)
die 'Queen Mum' of gymnasticsgained gold on vault in the EuCh

Genuine Pre-Olympic contests...
About 70 young ladies from 32 countries are expected to come to the qualifications in Cottbus on Friday. More than one third of them  - 26 to be exact - just participated in the recent European Championships in Clermont-Ferrand.

Of course, the new German European Champion on vault Oksana TSCHUSSOVITINA will be welcomed happily in Cottbus - by the way for the 12th (!) time since  1990 - actually she could receive the honorary citizenship of Cottbus for this alone ... and she is on the second position with 8 victories in Cottbus behind legend Maxi Gnauck with 18 victories ...

For a EuCh-revenge, the lovely new European Champion on floor Sandra IZBASA from Romania will be there for example and has to compete with, among others, the energetic Ex-World Champion from Brasil Diane DOS SANTOS  ...

SPIETH Gymnastic
- has been supporting the GYMmedia Event Service from the Weltcup in Cottbus for years!

For the ladies, there is already top-class Chinese challenge in the Olympic year 2008:
No one else but Vice World Champion of Stuttgart LI, Shanshan will be there and meet with the Romanian experts on beam  IZBASA - who just became Europe's Vice in Clermont-Ferrand - and with her top-class compatriot Steliana NISTOR.

Pre-Olympic, Chinese quality test in Cottbus: Vice-World Champion LI, Shanshan

... the warm-up for the record in Olympic participations continues: Beijing would be Oksana Tschussovitina's fifth Olympic Games!

YANG, Yilin also comes from the Chinese WORLDS Silver-team; the winner of the bronze medal in the WORLDS will be a real test for Marie-Sophie HINDERMANN on uneven bars, who was in the same final back then as best German gymnast!
And since HE, Kexin and XIAO, Sha are from the same Chinese Vice World Champions team, the women's competition in Cottbus will be a genuine Pre-Olympic test for all!

The German hosts are are coming with their team of the EuCh, that is with the experienced gymnasts Oksana TSCHUSSOVITINA,  who wants to further prepare for her fifth (!) Olympic participation, and Katja ABEL,  Marie-Sophie HINDERMANN,

... whether Joeline MÖBIUS will have cured her foot injury is being awaited.

Russia - who has just been the most successful country in the EuCh with three gold medals - sends her European Champion on vault 2006 (Volos), 18-year-old Anna GRUDNO, who was third on vault in Amsterdam last year and who won the World Cup in Ghent; with her, the current EuCh-finalist on uneven bars Karina MIJASNIKOWA, Kristina GORJUNOWA and  Anna MYSDRIKOWA are coming, the latter ones representing two more super talents out of the seemingly unfailing reservoir of the school of Russian gymnastics ...

We can be sure that there will be another increase in quality in women's artistic gymnastics after the already top-class European Championships at this early point of time in the Olympic year. The special appeal of this 32nd "Turnier der Meister" will without any doubt be the competitions between top-class European gymnasts and top competitors from overseas. 
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