09. Mai 2010  
Corbeil-Essones (FRA)  
Rhythmic Gymnastics

6th World Cup in Corbeil-Essones

From 7th to 9th May the world's best gymnasts compete at the World Cup in Corbeil-Essones, a smaller city not far from Paris.
At this 36th edition 66 gymnasts from 30 countries will fight to stand on the top of the podium. After finishing the first two routines the competition Russia´s Daria Kondakova is in the lead followed by Alina Maksymenko from the Ukraine, which is a quite big surprise because at the beginning of the year she hardly could place between the apparatus finalists. On third place is currently Silviya Miteva from Bulgaria ...

Daria KONDAKOVA (RUS)- Favourite in Corbeil-Essones
* Reporting from Corbeil-Essones: Dirk ZIMMERMANN (photos) and Esther TEIJEIRA


* SATURDAY, May 08:
On Saturday the all-around will be decided after the performances with ball and ribbon, and, if the first three don´t perform perfectly clean routines, Ganna Rizatdinova from Ukraine on fourth place and Delphine Ledoux  from France on fifth may have a chance to enter the podium.

Belarus, also one the big nations in rhythmic gymnastics, send their young hopes Aliaksandra Narkevich and Hanna Rabstava who will be strong competitors in the near future but currently still lack some experience to achieve high placements.


* SUNDAY, May 09:
On Sunday the apparatus finals will take place and, although it will be quite difficult for the gymnasts to beat Daria Kondakova, there might be some surprises like at today's general classification. Above all, the fights over the silver and bronze medals will be very interesting, promising some variety on the podium.
The groups from Russia, Italy, Spain and France were also in Corbeil, showing their exercises as a show programme to the public. One of the most emotive moments surely was when the Russian group coach held a speech in memorian of former Russian group gymnast and coach, Nataliya Lavrova, who died in a car crash a few weeks ago.

Russian group headcoach, Valentina Ivanitskaya (left) during a short speech in memoriam of Natalia Lavrova.

With this the 36th edition of the World Cup tournament came to an end and tomorrow the participants will leave to their home countries or directly to Marbella (Spain) where a Grand Prix competition will be held upcoming weekend.
* GYMmedia-Editor: E. Teijeira;
   Photos: Dirk Zimmermann