World Cup in Antwerp
German gymnasts can plan for the Olympics in Paris
Showed a strong performance with Germany’s gymnastics: Lukas Dauser. photo
© Virginia Mayo/AP/dpa
The Olympic Games are almost certain, now the German gymnasts are hoping for more. At the World Cup in Antwerp, Lukas Dauser and his colleagues made a strong final spurt.
The German gymnasts can plan for the Olympic Games in Paris. The team of national coach Valeri Belenki took part in the World Championships on Saturday Antwerp scored 248.862 points in the team all-around qualification.
The team from the German Gymnastics Federation (DTB) took fourth place in the interim rankings after four of six elimination rounds.
Olympics almost certain
Since only eight nations are starting in the final two rounds on Sunday, the German team can no longer take the place it needs for Olympic qualification. However, instead of twelfth place, eleventh place could be necessary because the Chinese who have already qualified are behind the DTB ranks.
“I’m relieved. That was an extraordinary performance today,” said Belenki, “I’m honestly calm about the Olympics now. But we’ll just wait and see tomorrow.” Furthermore, his quintet can hope to reach the team final on Tuesday.
The German team with Lukas Dauser (Unterhaching), Pascal Brendel (Wetzlar), Nils Dunkel and Nick Klessing (both Halle/Saale) as well as Lucas Kochan (Cottbus) started solidly on the horizontal bar and on the floor, but without any highlights. After a masterful exercise on Dunkel’s pommel horse, the team improved on the rings, the vault and Dauser’s exercise on the parallel bars, where the Olympic silver medalist showed the best performance of all gymnasts on the first day with 15.300 points.