The official nomination is still pending. But the German gymnastics squads for the World Championships from October 29th to November 6th in Liverpool have already crystallized during the second qualification in Rüsselsheim.
National coach Gerben Wiersma has little choice for women. Of the quintet, which surprisingly won team bronze at the European Championships in Munich in August, only balance beam European champion Emma Malewski offered a complete four-way battle in the second and final test before the final course in Frankfurt, which began on Thursday, and decided the competition in the with 1800 spectators sold out large sports hall of the southern Hessian city with 50.332 points for themselves. "It wasn't a perfect competition," said the 18-year-old. But she was "very happy" that things went so well for her after her toe injury, which prevented her from starting in the first qualification two weeks ago in Ketsch.
World Cup runner-up Pauline Schäfer-Betz (Chemnitz) and European Uneven Bars Champion Elisabeth Seitz did not show up on all devices. Seitz contracted the corona virus three weeks ago and lay flat for two weeks. Sarah Voss from Cologne had to withdraw from the title fights in Great Britain early on due to injury, Kim Bui from Stuttgart ended her long career in the gymnastics circuit after the European Championships in the summer.
Dauser with a free ticket for the World Cup
"We saw very clean practices today," said Wiersma. "But we have to get as close as possible to the grades we showed at the European Championship in terms of difficulties before the World Cup." He had to supplement the trio of Malewski, Seitz and Schäfer-Betz with internationally inexperienced gymnasts to form a team of five. Possible candidates are Karina Schönmaier (Buchholz), who won the first qualification and was third this time with 49.70 points, Anna-Lena König (Bodersweier/49.866), who was second in Rüsselsheim, and Lea Quaas (Chemnitz).
For the men, national coach Valeri Belenki had already given the Olympic silver medalist on parallel bars, Lukas Dauser (Unterhaching), a free ticket for the World Championships after the first qualification. The man from Unterhaching also won the second performance test on Saturday with 82.732 points, just ahead of Nils Dunkel (Halle/82.632), third in the European Championships on the pommel horse, Lucas Kochan from Cottbus (79.398) and Glenn Trebing from Hanover (78.165). The quartet wants to propose Belenki for the trip to Great Britain together with Andreas Toba (Hannover), who finished second at the European Championships in 2021, who only competed on four devices. "I can't get past him," said Belenki. "He's been around for so long and it's hard to replace."
"The first qualification went well," said Dauser. "I took today's as a test and did gymnastics out of full training. I did really well and had a lot of fun." The silver medalist at the Tokyo Games scored 15,266 points and a difficulty grade of 6.6 on his flagship device, parallel bars.
Eight gymnasts are scheduled to come to Kienbaum next week, where the men will complete the last part of the preparation for the World Championships. "I can't anticipate the steering committee," said Belenki. But the line-up is already fixed in his head.
