German junior Kim Janas was one of three winners at the Pre-Olympic-Youth Cup, held Friday and Saturday in Bergisch-Gladbach, Germany. Pictured: Janas, 13, performs on beam
German junior Kim Janas was one of three winners at the Pre-Olympic-Youth Cup, held Friday and Saturday in Bergisch-Gladbach, Germany.
The sixth annual event attracted three dozen gymnasts from seven countries, including Argentina, Russia, Sweden and Ukraine. The junior event included competition in three age groups: ages 14-15, 13 and 12.
Six-time Olympian Oksana Chusovitina, who represented Germany at the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games, served as event host.
Janas, who turns 14 in December, won the 14-15 age group by more than 5 points. She earned the top score on every event, including a 14.50 on vault (9.50 Execution). Janas trains at SV Halle under coach Katrin Kaltenborn. Her father, Vietnamese-born Chu Tan Cuong, is a world-record holding kung fu master.
Ukraine's Alyona Seleznova won the silver medal ahead of Germany's Nadja Schulze (TuG Leipzig).
In the 13-year-old age group, Sweden's Ellen Haavisto and Emmy Haavisto finished 1-2. Both gymnasts train at the Eskilstuna Gymnastics Club. Muscovite Anastasia Frolova (CSKA Moscow) was third.
Dutch gymnast Marisa Koedoot won the 12-year-old age group over Germans Maja Schott and Jennifer Preis.
2013 Pre-Olympic-Youth Cup April 27-28, Bergisch-Gladbach, Germany
Greek gymnasts picked up two of three men's titles on Saturday in the first day of finals at the Ljubljana World Challenge Cup in Slovenia. Pictured: Still rings champion Eleftherios Petrounias
Greek gymnasts picked up two titles on Saturday in the first day of finals at the Ljubljana World Challenge Cup in Slovenia.
2010 world champion Eleftherios Kosmidis claimed the floor exercise gold medal with tumbling runs of 1 1/2, punch double front; tucked double-double; double-twisting front to barani, 2 1/2 to punch front full; layout Thomas; tucked full-in.
Teammate Eleftherios Petrounias won the still rings gold with the high score of the day (15.650/6.9 Difficulty), taking the title by nearly a full point. The victory is his third FIG World Cup victory this year after gold medals in Cottbus and La Roche-Sur-Yon in March.
Slovenia's Sašo Bertoncelj won a strong pommel horse final, with seven out of eight gymnasts hitting.
American Alex Naddour was the most successful gymnast of the day, with medals in all three men's finals. Naddour, an alternate to the U.S. Olympic team in 2012, was second on floor and third on pommel horse and still rings.
Canada's Ellie Black, who led three events in Friday's qualification, won the women's vault title. South Africa's Kirsten Beckett won the silver over Vietnam's Phan Thi Ha Thanh, who crashed her layout Rudi second vault.
On uneven bars, two-time Czech Olympian Kristýna Pálešová (Stalder-blind to Jaeger; bail, Stalder-full to Stalder shoot to high; Tkatchev; double layout) earned a narrow victory over Hungary's Noémi Makra, 13.850-13.825. Makra, a first-year senior, impressed with beautiful body line (Maloney; high Jaeger; toe-on, toe-on Tkatchev; double layout).
Competition concludes Sunday with the remaining finals.
2013 Ljubljana World Challenge Cup April 27, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Maria Bondareva and Vladislav Polyashov won all-around tiles in the Master of Sport category at the 2013 Russian Junior Championships, held this week in Penza. Pictured: Bondareva took her high score on beam
Maria Bondareva (Fryazino) and Vladislav Polyashov (Cheboksary) won all-around tiles in the Master of Sport category at the 2013 Russian Junior Championships, held this week in Penza.
Held at Penza's Burtasy Sports Palace, the competition roster included 55 female gymnasts (born 1998-2000) and 64 male gymnasts (born 1994-1997) from 50 regions of Russia.
Moscow won the women's team competition, followed by Volga and Central. Volga triumphed over Moscow and Siberia in the men's team competition, which included scores from two days of competition.
Only third in Wednesday's qualification, Bondareva improved her score by more than 2 points to defend her title in Friday's all-around final. She had the high scores on balance beam (14.534) and vault (14.200). Coached by Yuri Bachurin, Bondareva turns 14 on Nov. 28.
Top qualifier Viktoria Kuzmina (Moscow) won the all-around silver, earning the top score of the competition, 14.867, on uneven bars. Kuzmina was a double medalist at the 2012 Junior Europeans, winning gold with the Russian team and silver on uneven bars. She's eligible for senior competition in 2014 and trains under Marina Ulyankina, who coaches Olympic medalist Maria Paseka.
Moscow's Yevgenia Zhukova won the all-around bronze, earning the top score on floor exercise (13.800) and tying Bondareva for the best score on vault.
Seda Tutkhalyan won the all-around gold in the Candidate for Master of Sport category. Tutkhalyan had top scores of the women's competition with 15.100 on vault and 15.234 on beam, where she landed her layout full. Tutkhalyan, who turns 14 in July, is also coached by Ulyankina.
Anastasia Dmitriyeva (Tolyatti) took second with the top score on floor exercise (14.100). Moscow's Daria Mikhailova, now coached by Viktor Razumovsky and Irina Razumovskaya, won the bronze. All three medalists were born in 1999 and are thus eligible for senior events in 2015.
Penza's own Natalia Kapitonova, reportedly suffering from a foot injury, led qualification but fell twice on beam to finish fifth.
Polyashov, who turned 18 on April 4, won the men's title by nearly a full point. Polyashov impressed with the high score of the men's competition, 14.900, on parallel bars, and had the top marks on pommel horse (14.166), vault (14.266) and high bar (13.900). Coached by Anatoly Vasilyev, Polyashov was also the top qualifier from the first day of competition.
Andrei Lagutov had the best score on floor exercise (14.333) en route to second all-around over Alexander Ruzhitsky (Moscow). Fifth-place Nikolai Kovinov had the best score on still rings (14.433) and matched Polyashov on vault.
Ivan Stretovich (Novosibirsk) defended his title in the Candidate for Master of Sport category for men, which also counted scores from compulsory exercises. Stretovich, 16, was seventh all-around at the 2012 Junior Europeans and is coached by Vladimir Kochnev.
Syzran's Valentin Starikov, also 16, took second over 17-year-old Kirill Potapov (Tomsk), who was fourth in 2012.
Competition continues Saturday with the first day of apparatus finals.
Canadian Olympian Ellie Black topped qualification in three of the four women's event Friday as the Ljubljana World Challenge Cup began in Slovenia.
Ellie Black (Canada)
Black, a finalist on vault at the 2012 Olympics, led the qualifying on vault, balance beam and floor exercise. She also qualified fourth to the final on uneven bars.
Black just edged Vietnamese world medalist Phan Thi Ha Thanh on vault, 14.375-14.300. South Africa's Kirsten Beckett qualified third. Egyptian gymnast Fadwa Mohamed attempted a rare handspring double front (7.0 Difficulty), but couldn't land her vaults cleanly enough to reach the final.
Czech veterans Kristýna Pálešová and Jana Šikulová qualified first and second on uneven bars.
Hungary's impressive Noémi Makra qualified second on balance beam and sixth on floor final. Portugal's Ana Filipa Martins qualified to three finals, finishing eighth on bars, third on beam and second on floor exercise.
The host nation qualified three gymnasts to finals: Teja Belak on vault and bars, Tjaša Kysselef on vault, and Olympian Saša Golob on floor exercise.
In the men's competition, Slovenia's specialists ruled with the best scores on half the events: Rok Klavora (floor exercise), Sašo Bertoncelj (pommel horse) and Mitja Petkovšek (parallel bars).
The 36-year-old Petkovšek had the highest score of the day with his 15.400 on parallel bars. Vietnam's Phuoc Hung Pham matched his 15.400, but a tie-break based on Petkovšek's higher Execution score (9.200) left him in second.
Greece's Eleftherios Petrounias led qualification on still rings (15.350). Poland's Marek Lyszczarz was first on vault and American Paul Ruggeri topped the standings on high bar.
Competition continues Saturday with the first day of finals.
Read "Black in Business" an interview with Ellie Black, in the November 2012 issue of International Gymnast Magazine. To subscribe or order back issues, click here.
2013 Ljubljana World Challenge Cup April 26, Ljubljana, Slovenia
This weekend's World Challenge Cup in Ljubljana is ready to honor Slovenian world champion Aljaž Pegan, who will mark his official retirement from competition.
The competition roster features more than 100 gymnasts from 28 nations as far away as Guatemala and Vietnam. World and Olympic medalists on the roster include Phan Thi Ha Thanh (Vietnam), Filip Ude (Croatia), Eleftherios Kosmidis (Greece), and Slovenia's own Mitja Petkovšek. 1996 Olympic floor exercise champion Ioannis Melissanidis of Greece, who turned 36 in March, is also on the roster for men's vault.
Other standouts in the lineup include Junior European champion Frank Baines (Great Britain), Greece's Eleftherios Petrounias, and American gymnasts Alex Naddour and Paul Ruggeri, as well as Olympians Ellie Black (Canada), Kristýna Pálešová (Czech Republic), Vasiliki Millousi (Greece), Ana Sofía Gómez (Guatemala), Dorina Böczögő (Hungary).
After eight years in Maribor, this year's FIG event will take place in the Slovenian capital. The event will be staged in Ljubljana to support the construction of a "Cerar, Pegan, Petkovšek" national gymnastics center named after Pegan and fellow Slovenian greats Petkovšek and Miroslav Cerar.
Pegan, who turns 38 in June, was a mainstay in international competition for two decades. An alternate to the Yugoslavian team at the 1989 World Championships in Stuttgart, Pegan went on to compete at 15 world championships (1991 to 2009) and 13 European championships (1991 to 2010).
Known as a specialist on high bar, Pegan pioneered the double-front half release move that was named after him. He won the 2005 World Championships, plus thee world championship silver medals (2002, 2006 and 2007). He won five European championship medals: two gold (1994 and 2004), one silver (2007) and two bronzes (2000 and 2008). His last major competition was the 2010 Europeans in Birmingham, where he finished eighth on high bar.
The eight previous FIG events were held as the Šalamunov Memorial, in honor of Maribor gymnast Ivan Šalamunov (1943-1961). This year's Šalamunov Memorial, the 46th edition, will instead be a junior competition that takes place May 25-26 in Maribor.
Read "Slovenian Stalwarts," a dual interview with Aljaž Pegan and Mitja Petkovšek, in the March 2010 issue of International Gymnast magazine. To order back issues, click here.
2013 Ljubljana World Challenge Cup April 26-28, Ljubljana, Slovenia
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