Horst Kunze - taking stock and looking ahead

Between writing reports, giving instructions and making final checks before World Age Group Competitions begin this week in Sofia (BUL) Kunze graciously allocated some time to speak about the two world events. He stressed the fact that the introduction of semifinals (whittling the top 24 from the qualification round down to eight for the final) in the Individual Trampoline event proved to be an entirely positive amendment. It gives the participating nations a new, inspiring and motivating goal to strive for: finishing among the top 24!

Kunze also underlined that the most important consequence of the introduction of the time of flight: the avoidance of ties. Since the time of flight score provides a very exact score, the chance of their occurrence is now reduced to the minimum. During the senior World Championships in Sofia, the time of flight score made the difference on several occasions, notably in the men’s individual trampoline final, where eventual gold medallist Dong Dong (CHN) received the same difficulty and execution scores as teammate and runner up Tu Xiao.

Kunze emphasized that judges’ work at the World Championships was outstanding.  The difficulty judges in particular did an excellent job, he said. A remarkable phenomenon was the low number of inquiries. There was just one, in fact, and the contested result was immediately amended.
The victories of the Olympic Champions Dong Dong and Rosie McLennan (CAN) in Sofia were no surprise, he noted. The 25-year-old Canadian added the Individual World Trampoline title to her Olympic gold, while Dong achieved a successful hat-trick in spite of being strongly challenged by teammate Tu.
Speaking of surprises – the greatest one according to Kunze came in the men’s Tumbling where Kristof Willerton (GBR) won the individual title ahead of strong challengers from China and Russia.
Concerning the organisation of the World Championships, Kunze praised it as perfect, noting that the transport especially was beyond reproach. The scheduling could not generate any criticism either. The only weakness was the low level of attendance, though that it was due to factors beyond the control of the hosts.