Podium Training
ST PETERSBURG (RUS), FIG Office, November 10, 2009: Today, participants of the 26th Trampoline Gymnastics World Championships took advantage of the last full day of Podium Training in St Petersburg’s Sport and Concert Complex.
We had a chance to meet with some of the contenders before the competition gets underway tomorrow. Here’s what they had to say!
Men’s Trampoline
French Synchro Pair Sébastien Martiny and Grégoire Pennes have fond memories of St Petersburg, where they won their first medal in the senior Trampoline circuit, placing second at the 2007 World Cup. In 2002, Martiny won Individual Bronze at the European Junior Championships in Russia’s sports capital. The duo will be taking certain risks in terms of difficulty at these championships, building up and preparing their routines for the 2012 Olympic Games. However, their aim is a spot in the Finals and they mean to do it up right: Individual, Synchronised and the Team competition all three!
Fifth in Beijing and third on the world ranking Yuri Nikitin from Ukraine is competing in Individual, as well as with his partner Oleksandr Chernonos in Synchro. He’s hoping for the Finals, and when asked about what chances he thinks the Ukrainian Team has of winning, he responded with a whimsical smile “A little lower than for the Chinese!”
It will be exciting to watch Japan’s world class Trampoline gymnasts. At the last two world championships, Tetsuya Sotomura and Yasuhiro Ueyama medalled in Individual as well as Synchronised Trampoline, topping by their joint Gold in 2007. More recently, their team-mates Shusuke Nagasaki and Masaki Ito won this year’s World Games and the 2009 World Cup season in Synchro. And no matter who wins the race in St Petersburg, these four gymnasts make a hell of a team!
Women’s Trampoline
Winner of the 2009 World Cup Series in Individual Trampoline, Olena Movchan from Ukraine loves St Petersburg, one of her favourite cities! She competed in the same venue in 2002 at the European Championships and at the 2007 World Cup. Not yet quite ready after today’s training, but promising to be at her best by the time competition rolls around, Movchan will be going all out here in St Petersburg. Everyone competing at these championships is in good shape and has a chance to win, she explained. Tragically, Movchan’s Synchro partner Yulia Domchevska, with whom she won this year’s World Games and the World Cup Series, was injured while training yesterday. Unfortunately, the injury will keep her from competing in St Petersburg and the Pair had to withdraw from the tournament.
Canada’s Karen Cockburn and Rosannagh MacLennan will be competing in the Individual event as well as in Synchro. The reigning World Champions and winners of the 2007 World Cup in St Petersburg in Synchro find it helpful to have competed in the Sport and Concert Complex before. They feel well prepared for these championships, having conducted a training camp only a month ago where they worked intensively on their routines. For thrice Olympic medallist Cockburn, St Petersburg is the eighth world championships and the first big competition after the Beijing Games. Looking relaxed, the experienced gymnast is glad to be back in competition. MacLennan has three world championships on her record and together with Cockburn and the two newcomers to the Canadian Team she aims to qualify for the Team Final.
The Chinese women won Team Gold in 2005 and 2007. Olympic Champion He Wenna and 2007 World runner-up Huang Shanshan are leading a strong team in St Petersburg, a sure aspirant for the title. He Wenna loves competition time; it gives her an opportunity to show off what she’s been working hard for each day and what she is capable of doing. Focusing on her performance and recalling the hints she gets from her coach usually helps her to handle the pressure that goes along with the competition. When China started building up competitive Trampoline Gymnastics in the country in 1998, He, at that time an artistic gymnast, was selected for the new discipline; because of her success she never regretted the change.
Huang Shanshan likes the competition hall in St Petersburg, though she is used to a much smaller venue in her home country, one that is likely decidedly warmer. With the Team of her province, Huang won Gold at the recent Chinese National Games and she’s satisfied with the performance that brought her the Bronze in Individual as well. Having focused mainly on the national tournament, she now feels the brunt of her work; not at her personal best she has grown tired and doesn’t expect too much from herself at the upcoming events. Despite that, she will be doing her best to help the Chinese Team win a much-expected medal.
Men’s Tumbling
At the young age of 21, Michael Barnes (GBR) will retire after these championships and four years in the senior Tumbling circuit. He was spotted in connection with the UK Sport & English Institute of Sport (EIS) Talent Transfer Programme and will join up with his team-mate Charlie Burrows for 10m Synchronised Diving, with his sights set on the 2012 Olympic Games. Barnes first competed internationally in Tumbling at the 2003 World Age Group competitions in Hanover (GER) and had his best Individual performance at the World Games earlier this year, where he won Silver. Finishing 4th, the British Team just skimmed a medal at the 2007 Worlds, and this time around the podium is what they want. In the Individual competition, Barnes is looking to treat himself to a going away gift in the form of a World medal.
Bad luck for the Polish Men’s Tumbling Team: three tumblers were injured during today’s training and had to withdraw from the competition. Last man standing is Jacek Czerniak.
Women’s Tumbling
South African Karen Wilson completed a successful World Cup season this year, her first in senior’s, finishing third of the ranking. For lack of a national training centre, Wilson practices in her home town Johannesburg, where she also studies first-year Sport Psychology. While there are few international tournaments to be had in Tumbling, it can be tough to travel overseas each time, especially while keeping up on her studies, reveals the 20-year-old. She appreciates the annual meet with the French Tumbling team in South Africa that gives her an extra bit of international experience in the sport, since not many women practice Tumbling in her country. In St Petersburg, Bianca Budler is the only other female tumbler representing South Africa. As far as Wilson is concerned, she’s thrilled about getting a chance to participate at her first world championships here in St Petersburg; it’s a bit nerve-racking, she admits, to consider the high level of the other contenders.
Men’s Double Mini-Trampoline
After Timo Rass was injured, the German Double Mini-Trampoline Men’s Team was left with three competitors, led by the experienced Nico Gaertner. Having qualified internally at the Frivolten Cup, the national championships and the Kiepenkerl-Cup, newcomers Laszlo Pobloth and Daniel Schmidt made the team for St Petersburg. The Team event and qualification for the Final is priority for these gymnasts, performing as they are for the first time in seniors on the world stage. 28 year old Gaertner has been a part of the German National Team since 1998, but due to a patella fracture was forced to cease training from 2005-2007. A strong will and a passion for the sport brought Gaertner, who regularly medalled at international events, back to the field of play. The 2009 World Games Bronze medallist feels more pressure at a world championship event than at the World Games; the competition is open to all countries, and everyone is trying their best to make it to the Finals. And the level of Double Mini-Trampoline has been raised drastically over recent years, feels Gaertner, who is employed by Vattenfall and supported by his club SC Cottbus.
Women’s Double Mini-Trampoline
Sarah Prosen and Aubree Balkan triumphed in Women’s Double Mini-Trampoline at the World Games in Kaohsiung (TPE) this summer, where they took off with the Silver and Bronze respectively for the USA. In St Petersburg, their focus lies on the Team event and they are optimistically aiming for a medal together with their team-mate Sarah Gandy. The two 20 year olds look to Canada and Russia as their primary competitors. Either would be happy to reach the Final in Individuals; both gymnasts participated at the 2008 Pan American Games and placed among the top (Balkan 2nd; Prosen 4th). The 2007 Worlds in Québec and the 2008 World Games Test Events were Balkan’s most recent competitions, whereas Prosen started at the Canada Cup in Calgary this July. Juniors in their studies, Prosen and Balkan are both members of their college’s Artistic Gymnastics team.
Consult all official participant lists, start lists and team composition lists as well as the judges’ assignments online and check out our photo gallery for today’s updates!
