DTB-Cup Stuttgart: 2 victories for Romania and the Netherlands

Two Romanian, two Dutch and one Russian victory - this is the balance of the first finales’ day at the 22nd International DTB-Cup in Stuttgart.

Romania’s Razvan Selariu won on vault narrowly in front of the young German Matthias Fahrig. A second victory went to Romania on pommel horse where the finale once again was won by Marius Urzica. A strong performance secured Yuri van Gelder (NED) the victory on rings. His team mate Suzanne Harmes won the floor finale in the women’s field. Ludmila Ezhova from Russia reached the 1st rank in the uneven bars finale.

Men's vault finale

Yernar Yerimbetov KAZ – 9.375
the vault specialist with a small step on the landing of his 1st vault, 2nd: Handspring – double somersault fw. piked - again with slight problems on the landing;
Takuya Nakase JPN – 9.100
1st vault handspring - layout fw. with 1 1/2 twists – and he stuck it; 2nd: Yurchenko – with a fall on the landing…;
Razvan Selariu ROM – 9.443
layout Tsukahara with 2 1/2 twists – slight corrections on the landing; 2nd: handspring – layout fw. 2 1/2 twists – he had to support the landing with his hands…

Women's uneven bars finale

Laura van Leeuwen NED – 8.875
a well-presented routine but without spectacular highlights and she fell on the landing…;
Heike Gunne GER – 7.950
the second-ranked from the qualification with problems today, she got frighteningly narrow to the bar on her Gienger and then lost the rhythm in her routine which she ended with a full-in dismount;

Ezhova and Sikulova competed in the winners final.

Ezhova: 9.437
great routine with only a small step on the landing of the dismount;
Sikulova: 9.412
also a very good routine but she couldn’t top the technical perfection of Ezhova with it.

Alexander Artemev USA – 9.525
his father and coach once had been a great gymnast – and also the son did a good job today, he presented a spectacular routine but with slight technical insecurities;
Thomas Andergassen GER – 9.662
after two falls yesterday he competed a bit reluctantly today but got through the routine without mistakes and stuck the dismount;
Günther Couckhuyt BEL – 9.562
a good routine but without spectacular highlights and with problems on the dismount;

Women's floor finale

Suzanne Harmes NED – 9.412
a good performance of her sportive routine but she showed it a bit reluctantly today and with slight technical insecurities,
Elena Zamolodchikova RUS – 9.062
a stylish routine full of rhythm with interesting elements but also with a bit lack of difficulty today;
Lais Souza BRA – 8.362
the young 15-year old gymnast from Brazil certainly is a big talent but not yet ready for a perfect performance, today she fell on her double somersault;
Daria Bijak GER – 8.675
a powerful routine with a strong beginning, but the power then was missing a bit towards the end, slight insecurities and also the routine didn’t match the difficulty level of the others;
Alexandra Eremia ROM – 9.275
perfect Romanian gymnastics on floor which she presented with a great technique today;
Daiane dos Santos BRA – 9.175
The floor World Champion with a fireworks of acrobatics, slight insecurities here and there and problems with her triple twist, but nonetheless a great performance full of temper! A bit surprisingly she didn’t reach the winers final!

The winners final was reached by Harmes and Eremia.

Harmes: 9.462
a bit more powerful presentation compared to her first routine, but slight insecurities, however her difficulties like a piked full-in were presented perfeclty;
Eremia – 8.850
she presented the most difficult routine today – and almost without mistakes, the audience – and we – were a bit confused about the score…?


Men's rings finale

Matteo Morandi ITA – 9.675
the gymnast from Italy with perfect strength elements and a good double layout dismount of which he stuck the landing;
Takuya Nakase JPN – 9.442
slight insecurities with his inverted cross and a small step on the double layout dismount;
Eriks Revelinsh LAT – 9.475
the second-ranked from the qualification showed a technically perfect routine which thrilled the audience and a stuck double layout dismount at the end;
Yuri van Gelder, NED – 9.762
a difficult routine which he presented very well until the dismount with which he had very slight problems;
Levente Fekete HUN – 9.487
he started off very well but then had problems in the second part of his routine and also made a mistake on his double piked dismount;
Dmitri Savitski BLR – 9.525
a dynamic presentation at the end of this finale with a perfect double layout dismount.

In the winners final competed Morandi and van Gelder.

Morandi – 9,675
again a good and concentrated performance but with small problems on the dismount;
van Gelder – 9,812
a perfect presentation!


At the end of this first finales’ day a view on a future highlight was presented: The World Championships in artistic gymnastics 2007 in Stuttgart. The “World Championships- Team 2007” including rhythmic gymnasts Magdalena Brzeska and Lisa Ingildeeva presented a beautiful show to a nice choreography which included gymnasts from artistic gymnastics, rhythmic gymnastics and trampoline.