10. Juni 2005  
Moscow / Russia  
Rhythmic Gymnastics

XXI. European Championships of RG - qualifications/ Will Kabaeva return?

The European Championships of Rhythmic Gymnastics began today with the first part of the team competition (groups C and B) and the qualification of the junior groups competition in Moscow.
The team of Czech Republic was the best today in front of Turkey and Slovenia .
Russia won the junior group qualification in front of Belarus and Bulgaria.
On the verge of these European Championships Russia's head coach Irina Viner announced a possible comeback of Olympic Champion Alina Kabaeva who will take part in Sunday's gala.

>> Reporting from Moscow
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Dominika Cervenkova (CZE) was the best gymnast today

The best of the individual qualifications with each apparatus were today Dominika Cervenkova (ball and ribbon), Irina Kikkas (EST, clubs) and Mojca Rode (SLO, rope).

Results qualifikation rope, 1st part of groups B and C
Results qualifikation ball, 1st part of groups B and C
Results qualifikation clubs, 1st part of groups B and C
Results qualifikation ribbon, 1st part of groups B and C

The junior group from Russia won the qualification today

Russia won the junior group qualification in front of Belarus and Bulgaria.
The other finalists are:
ESP, GRE, HUN, UKR, ISR
The junior groups present only one routine with 5 balls at these championships.

Results of junior groups qualification

plans he comeback - Olympic Champion Alina Kabaeva

The favourites for the competition
High aims for the titles per apparatus at these individual European Championships have Irina Tchachina and the 3rd- ranked from the Olympic Games Anna Bessonova. Both dominated the recent top- events this spring, although Bessonova in the meantime had problems with a minor injury.
But also the two other Russian competitors Olga Kapranova and Vera Sessina will have good chances to win medals in front of their home crowd. They managed to beat their team-mate Irina Tchachina already this year at the beginning of May in Baku.
Other favourits for medals are Bulgaria's Simona Peycheva, Natalia Godunko (UKR), Alya Yusupova (KAZ) and Inna Zhukova (BLR).

Olympic competitor Lisa Ingildeeva - not good enough for other international competitions...?



Austria’s No. 1 Caroline WEBER wants to reach the top-20 at these European Championships but mainly thinks about the result for her team: 'The most important thing is the team- competition. Austria was on rank 18 last year. We want to keep this rank in order to remain in the 2nd- best of the 3 groups”, - mentioned the 19-year-old gymnast from Dornbirn.
Eckhard Herholz, gymmedia