28. Februar 2008  
Berlin, Germany  
Artistic Gymnastics

GYMmedia Eventservice:Japanese victory at the 14th International Junior Team Cup

...and again the Japanese team is unbeatable!
For the fourth time in a row the team of JAPAN won the 14th International Junior Team Cup 2009 team cup in Berlin with 247.800 in front of the teams from Switzerland (239.800) and Lithuania (237.250). althought they started with three athletes only, after that one of the boys injured in training.
The best German team were the hosts of the club SC Berlin on the 7th place behind Pôle France Lyon, the Netherlands and Belgium.

Also in the individual rankings nobody managed to get ahead of the Japanese gymnasts. With the victories of Sho YOKOYAMA (age group 17/18), Hiroki HOSHIJIMA (age group 15/16) and Hiroko KONDO (age group 14 & younger) they won all gold medals.

Bänfer GmbH
- reliable partner of competition organizers and gymnastics clubs
- presents The INTERNATIONAL JUNIOR TEAM CUP 2009

Sho YOKOYAMA, today the
number one of the juniors

14. INTERNATIONAL JUNIOR TEAM CUP 2009
   - Berlin, February 28th 2009 -
____________________________________________

Japese domination
Although 15-year-old Tomomasa HASEGAWA injured himself during training and couldnt' compete, the remaining three gymnasts won the team competition  - with all their scores counting for the team result! - about eight points ahead of Switzerland. Also the titles in the individual ranking in the three different age groups went to Japan
Berlins head coach Jens MILBRADT was impressed: " ...It wasn't really the super difficult content in their routines but more the way in which they presented their routines technically clean. They showed very aesthetic presentations and were very concentrated until the end to stick their landings.
With this solid technique the Japanese gymnasts were role models for all other competitors and they impressed everyone with their high level of performance on the junior level!"

This only works with high efforts and qualified coaches: The four gymnasts came to Berlin with four coaches.

More than 80 boys in the age betw. 12 and 18 years, starting in 19 teams,
representing 14 different nations


In the junior category (age 17/18) and overall the Swiss team confirmed their improvement of the last years. Despite of a few injured gymnasts at home they managed to reach the second place - being the best European team behind the Japanese gymnasts. This was a a good result for Rolf Dahlmann in his first competition as Switzerland's head coach for the juniors.GYMmedia Admin

The new Swiss head coach for juniors Rolf Dahlmann and his boys,
happy about the second place!

Not suprising for the 'insiders' was the third place for the Lithuanian team of Kauno CSM, which they managed to reach despite of competing already in the first competition group in the morning.
Rokas GUSCINAS and Patrikas PRUSINSKAS reached the places 4 and 4 in the junior category and with this manged to continue their good development of the last years.


In the age group 15/16  Switzerland's Christopher TOMCIK was the best European gymnast with his second place - four points behind the winner Hiroki HOSHIJIMA. In Belgium the investment in a new, very modern gymnastics center in Gent which was opened in 2001 now seems to pay off. Thomas NEUTELEERS ended his competition on the third place.
A good development could also be seen at Thao HOANG VIET from the hosts SC Berlin. He reached the third place.
The Berlin coaches were also satisfied with the 7th place of a meanwhile very athletic Paolo LANDO (<< photo on the left) in the age group 17/18. This competition was his first full all-around after a two-year-long break!
In the category of the 15-year old gymnasts (and younger) the second place went to Toby SHOULS from Nottinghamshire/ Great Britain. The Lithuanians managed to reach another good result with the third place of Thomas KUZMIKAS.
For the first time Bulgaria took part in this competition. They came only with two individual competitors, the brothers Veliko (4th) and Vladimir Tushev. This shows that Bulgaria now in the junior field restarts with old traditions in order to reach the best level of the world again.


* Detailed Results
> TEAM CUP RESULTS  2009

* individual all-around:
> Juniors (age group 17/18)
> Youth (age group 15/16)
> Pupils (age group 14 & younger)
* Conclusion:
After longtime head coach of Berlin and "maker" of the International Junior Team Cup  Siegfried Wuestemann and his wife Barbara recently moved to Austria, the team around Berlin's new head coach Jens Milbradt manged to continue with the tradition of this valuable and high-quality international competition.

The tasks were pooled, whereas Lisa WORTHMANN (Foto, left) pulled the strings in the preparations, Jens DEBRAY, as head of the gymnastics section of the club SC Berlin, and head coach Jens Milbradt helped with many tasks and also the Berlin Gymnastics Federation took a lot of responsibilities for the event this year.



With this, also Siegfried Wüstemann in Austria should be relieved that his "works" is being continued in a good way. The e-mail greetings from him and his wife Barbara with their "keeping their fingers crossed for a smooth running of the event" reached his former team and were succesfully realised!

...Let's try again!
Everyone can be excited for the 15th International Junior Team Cup in 2010, the year of the next Junior European Championships!
* Eckhard HERHOLZ, GYMmedia INTERNATIONAL

** ... more about the  International Junior Team Cup
         also in our  >> GYMmedia-preview

** ... and the Berlin's organizer offers
         >> Photo IMPRESSIONS 2009