24. März 2006  
Cottbus / Germany  
Artistic Gymnastics

World Cup TOURNAMENT OF MASTERS in Cottbus: The Qualification Rounds....

Oksana Chusovitina (UZB) once again in her long career reached the 1st place on vault. On uneven bars China’s Li Ya clearly dominated the field with her spectacular routine.
Irina Iseava (RUS won the qualification on floor, Jana Bieger (USA) was the best gymnast on beam.

In the men’s field Diego Hypolitho (BRA) won the qualification on floor and also on vault. Daniel Popescu from Romania took the lead on pommel horse and Russia’s Alexander Safoshkin is on the 1st place on rings.

Mitja Petkovsek (SLO) took the lead on parallel bars and Christoph Schärer from Switzerland won the qualification on high bar.


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Qualification women vault
The entry field on vault was the smallest one in the women’s qualification at the 30th Tournament of Masters today.
Oksana Chusovitina (UZB) once again presented a good performance with her handspring – somersault fwd. 1/1 turn and Tsukahara 11/2 turns. With this she reached the 1st place and clearly made it into tomorrow’s final.
The first visit in Germany after having moved to the USA with her family when she still was a small child started well for Jana Bieger (USA). She presented two strong vaults with Yurchenko 11/2 twists and Barani and ended up on rank 2.
With Jana Komroskova from Czech Republic another very experienced gymnast reached the final with the 3rd place in today's qualification. Behind her on the 4th place followed the young Brazilian Talent Lais Souza.
Germany’s Katja Abel started well in her first World Cup tournament after a long injury break. With two good vaults (Yurchenko 1 1/2 twists & handspring – somersault fw. piked) and stuck landings she reached the 5th place.
Following on ranks 6 – 8 are Joanna Skowronska from Poland, the fan’s favourite Veronika Wagner from Sweden and the young Belorussian talent Nastassia Marachkouskaya.

Li, Ya (CHN) - the best gymnast on uneven bars today

Qualification men floor
32 gymnasts took part in the qualification on floor. It could be noticed that many gymnasts tried to present an especially high-valued element at the end of their routines. Like already during the last years combined acrobatic series consisting of fwd. and bwd. acrobatic elements are still dominating at the men’s floor. The following versions could be seen quite often today:
- 2 1/2 twist bwd. – layout fwd. 1 1/2 somersault fwd. to roll fwd.
- 1 1/2 twists bwd. – layout fwd. with 1/1 turn – somersault fwd. 1 1/2 twists
Qualification men rings
The strength elements are of course still clearly dominating the field on rings. However, due to their higher value in the new CoP an increase of swinging elements could also be noticed today.
Japan's Nakase e.g. presented Jonasson piked directly followed by Jonasson tucked.
Also quite a few other gymnasts presented that kind of swinging elements in their routines. Unfortuntately the different Guczoghi- variations were still presented only rarely.
Yuri van Gelder as usual presented himself with a large amount of strength elements. However, in today's qualification Russia's A. Safoshkin and C. Yibing from China managed to get ahead of him. Thomas Andergassen (GER) presented a solid routine and also managed to reach tomorrow's final.
Despite of an increased amount of swinging elements, the strength elements are still the decisive elements to make the differences in the A-score on rings.

Young gymnast Jenny Brunner (GER)

Qualification women floor
Quite a few good and beautiful routines were presented on floor. The young Russian talent Irina Isayeva won this qualification with an elegant routine includine a tucked full-in, 2 1/2 twist – layout fwd. and triple twist. Although due to her young age her routine still lacked a bit of expression, wich she certainly will still gain in future, she presented a beautiful 'ballet-style' routine.
Lenika de Simone from Spain reached rank 2. She presented a speedy routine including a piked full-in, the combination of whip – whip – ff – ff – double twist and a double somersault bwd. piked in the end.
The funky presentation by Marta Pihan (POL) was well-liked by the audience. She ended up on rank 3 with her routine including a very nice double somersault fwd. tucked.
On the remaining final ranks followed Lais Souza, Catalina Ponor, Laura Gombas, Tania Gener and Germanys Jenny Brunner.
Jana Bieger withdrew from this floor qualification shortly before it started.
Qualification men parallel bars
The highest amount of participants in the men's field started on parallel bars (33 participants).
Slovenia's Petkovsek presented a very clean routine and reached rank 1 in this qualification.
It could be seen in this final that the double somersault fwd. dismount has a higher value now. It was shown more often. The Healy from one bar was not presented as often as before anymore.
V. Tsolakiosis (GRE) presented an interesting routine with shoot to handstand – Makuz – Diamidov, double somersault fwd. landed on the upper arms. In his routine he managed to combine difficulty with a good execution.
A promising candidate for the front ranks in the final will also be Zhe Feng from China.