French Victory at the International Junior Team Cup

Winner: The French Juniors!

The French National Junior Team was the winner of the 10th INTERNATIONAL JUNIOR TEAM CUP 2005 (former OBI-Team-Cup) in the German capital Berlin.
With a score of 153.200 they reached the victory with 6 tenth in front of team BERLIN I which was followed by a strong Greek team from Athens on rank 3 (152.250).
The best all-arounder in the age-group 17/18 (year of birth 87/88) was Hamilton Sabot (52.100) from France, followed by the German champion from Berlin Brian Gladow (51.550) and Max Finzel (50.550) from Chemnitz (GER).

In the age group of the 15/16- year-old boys Xenofon Kosmidis from Greece won the all-around followed by Vladimir Verbavitski (BLR) and Andreas Bretschneider (GER).

The all-around of the youngsters (14 years and younger) was won by Paolo Lando from the team of the Berlin' hosts with the score of 50.950...

Team results: BERLIN I (2nd) - France (1st) - Greece (3rd)
4th GER-Mix; 5th SUI; 6th BLR

International Junior Highlight in Berlin
The 10th International Junior Team cup (formerly named OBI-Team-Cup) has again been a very interesting junior event in men's gymnastics. The audience got to see some great performances from teams from all over the world and the gymnasts had the opportunity to compete in a nice atmoshpere in the venue 'Lilli-Henoch-Halle' in Berlin. br>

In the first competition group during the early afternoon the team from Greece presented itself strongly. The 4 boys from the Olympic city Athens, who are also the junior national team of their country, set high marks with the team score of 152.250. Overall they were the best team on pommel horse and vault and in the end reached rank 3.

A very convincing performance in the second competition group in the late afternoon was then presented by the team from France of which 3 gymnasts belong to the French junior national team. Their best gymnast Hamilton Sabot was especially strong on pommel horse (9.100, highest score of the day) and bars (9.000) and won the all-around of his age-group.
Compared to last year's event the French team as well as the teams from Switzerland and Greece presented a stronger content in their routines. This was also noted by the head coach of Germany's junior national team Jens Milbradt: 'We have to take care that we catch up with this, but overall I'm happy with the performance of our boys.'

Brian Gladow with a strong performance in Berlin

Brian Gladow from the host team of Berlin presented a strong competition which secured him the second place in the all-around of his age-group.
Also in the team ranking he reached the 2nd place with his team BERLIN I.
A positive impression was left by the Swiss team (rank 5) which gets stronger every year.

Maybe the overall level of performance of the 10th International Junior Team Cup was not as high as the one of last year’s OBI-Team-Cup due to short-notice withdrawals of teams like Great Britain and Ukraine but nonetheless this event in Berlin is one of the most important junior competitions in men’s gymnastics worldwide.

Paolo Lando - winner in the youngest age-group

A lot of cheers from the audience could be heard after the victory of Paolo Lando from Berlin in the all-around of the youngest age-group (14-years and younger). Jackson Payn from Canada followed him on rank 2.

The age-group of the 15/16-year old gymnasts was clearly dominated by Xenofon Kosmidis from Greece. With the score of 51.900 he in the end had 1.50 points more than the second-ranked Vladimir Verbavitski from Belarus. Andreas Brettschneider (team Germany mix) ended up on rank 3 (50.30).