29th DTB-CUP 2011: Nogomura (JPN) wins men s World Cup / Russia with a victory in the women s team final

The 29th DTB-Pokal 2011 today presented its' highlight: In the World Cup tournament of the men the title suprisingly went to the Japanese "newcomer" Shogo Nogomura. With the score of 88.431 he narrowly remained in front of Germany's Marcel Nguyen (88.332) and Daniel Purvis (GBR / 87.931).
On the remaining ranks 4 - 8 followed Mykola Kuksenkov (UKR), Emin Garibov (RUS), Rafael Martinez (ESP), Samuel Hunter (GBR) and Germany's Philipp Boy.

Philipp Boy, the two-time all-around Vice-World-Champion and top-favourite for the title in Stuttgart, lost all chances on a medal with a fall on high-bar after which he could not finish his routine. Luckily, however, he seems to have remained without a serious injury.

After the World Cup of the men followed the women's team final. The victory went to the team from Russia in front of Australia and Germany and the fourth place was reached by the Netherlands.

The course of the competition:
The competition started on floor in an order which could be expected. Purvis (15.166) in front of Boy (14.800) and Nguyen (14.400). However, it then continued differently, the expected European battle between the European Champion and Vice- World Champion Philipp Boy, the leading gymnast in the World Cup- ranking and European Championships- bronze medalist Mykola Kuksenkov, Vice- European Champion Daniel Purvis and Marcel Nguyen got mixed-up:
On pommel horse it started well for Marcel Nguyen. However, then Philipp Boy followed with a fall and also for Mykola Kuksenkov it didn't work much better. He remained on the apparatus but showed several major insecurities during his routine. Also Daniel Purvis - on his 21st birthday - didn't manage to get through his routine without a fall!
The youngest competitor in the field, 18-year old Shogo Nonomura, the Japanese gymnast from the city Chiba, took the chance. In the first half of the competition he managed to climb from the third place via the second rank to the top after rotation three on rings. Technical elegance has always been a trademark of Japanese gymnastics and in many ways this young gymnast already reminds of Kohei Uchimura.
On vault Marcel Nguyen managed to continue his good competition with a Kasamatsu with 1 1/2 twists. He remained on the second place behind Nonomura. However, Philipp Boy fell back further in the ranking due to a fall on the landing of his handspring - double somersault fwd. Also on parallel bars he had to fight through his routine (14.833) and didn't manage to get higher than the 7th place before the last rotation. Marcel Nguyen showed all of his experience in his routine on parallel bars - although it was clearly audible that he touched the bar with his foot on a giant it could hardly be seen and he managed to continue with his routine well and to present his remarkable full-in dismount!

This was a moment of shock for the audience in Stuttgart! It took a moment but then Philipp Boy managed to slowly get up and shortly afterwards it was published that it doesn't seem to be a serious injury. This situation showed once again that gymnastics is a risky kind of sports!

In the end Daniel Purvis managed to secure himself the bronze medal with 14.533 on high-bar narrowly in front of Mykola Kuksenkov. Germany's Marcel Nguyen kept his nerves together and managed to get through his high bar routine without major mistakes, though with insecurities in the execution (14.733). After his routine he was celebrated by the audience in Stuttgart for his second place!

Finally the 18-year-old Shogo Nonomura from Japan put his first exclamation point in his international career on the senior level. In a close decision (one tenth ahead of the silver medalist Nguyen) he managed to win this World Cup tournament!

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*Women's team final

Final team results
1. Russia        111.200
2. Australia    109.750
3. Germany    108.000
4. Netherlands 106.200
>> Detailed results

With Aliya Mustafina missing - she has travelled to Stuttgart but still is battling with her injury and so in the end could not take part in the competition - Russia's head coach Alexander Alexandrov entered Yulia Belokobyliskaya and Yulia Inshina into this team competition. And these two young gymnasts managed to reach the top in the all-around ranking with Belokobyliskaya winning the individual ranking (55.800) and Inshina getting second (55.250). The Russian team was completed by Alena Polyan who showed her routines on three apparatus, vault, beam and floor.

The third place in the all-around ranking was reached by Germany's Lisa-Katharina Hill. However, in the team ranking the German team remained behind the Australians on the fourth place.

Australia's star, the floor World Champion from Rotterdam 2010, Lauren Mitchell, reached the highest scores on her specialist apparatus (14.550) as well as on beam (14.100). The highest score on vault was as expected reached by Oksana Chusovitina (14.550) and her team-mate Lisa-Katharina Hill was the best on uneven bars (14.600).

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The situation before the Men's World Cup:
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TOP-8-Entry field - men inStuttgart
(in brackets: the all-around ranking of the last two World Championships:
 Rotterdam 2010 / Tokyo 2011)
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Philipp BOY (GER) (2. / 2. )

Daniel PURVIS (GBR) (5. / 4. )

Mykola KUKSENKOV (UKR) (4. / 7. )

Marcel NGUYEN (GER) ( - / 8.)

Emin GARIBOV (RUS) ( - / 15. )

Rafael MARTINEZ (ESP) ( - / 10. )

Samuel HUNTER (GBR) (9. / - )

Shogo NONOMURA (JPN) ( - / - )