13. Januar 2008  
Frankfurt/M./Germany  
Artistic Gymnastics

Gunter Schönherr - new coach for the German junior team

Gunter Schönherr (DTB)

The Deutsche Turner-Bund reports that from the start of 2009 the ex-Cottbus coach Gunter SCHÖNHERR has taken over as senior coach for the national junior artistic gymnastics squad (men).
The post had been vacant since last spring, shortly before the Junior European Championships in Lausanne, when the DTB unexpectedly dismissed his prededessor Siegfried Wüstemann (Berlin).

Gunter Schönherr
performing on high bar (1976)

So now Gunter Schönherr (53) will be responsible for the national junior team in the new Olympic cycle.

In GDR times Schönherr was himself one of the best gymnasts in the Spartakiade competitions, was a member of the junior and GDR elite squads and trained for some time with Rainer Hanschke at the club then known as SC Chemie Halle  (photo, right >)

As one of Germany's most successful gymnastics coaches, he guided gymnasts such as Sylvio Kroll, Karsten Oelsch, Ronny Ziesmer and Robert Juckel to the top international level and along with the senior coaches he looked after the German teams at World and European Championships and most recently at the Olympics in Beijing. 
Until 2003 Schönherr was also responsible for the team of SC Cottbus, multiple winners of the German team championships.

Andreas Hirsch, Gunter Schönherr: ... Team work required!

As part of the DTB's consolidation endeavours, he moved to Stuttgart in 2003 where he worked with the national team gymnasts Thomas Andergassen, Robert Juckel and Marcel Nguyen, among others. In the future he will continue to focus on close collaboration with the German senior team coach Andreas Hirsch.
It is intended that Schönherr, a native of Pockau, will initially hold the position of coach for the junior team until the end of 2012.
The Junior Olympics in Singapore and the Junior Europeans in Birmingham in 2010 will be among the main focal points of his work in this area.
* GYMmedia INTERNATIONAL