Day 1

Mens and Ladies Trampoline

Having watched what was offered in warm ups and training, the first day of competition promises to be filled with some very exciting, some very good, and some simply very odd routines.  Hopes are high for Team GB:  Mens Tumbling Charlie Burrows, Michael Barnes, Robert Small, Damien Walters;  Womens Tumbling Sarah Bellis, Zoë Maclean, Samantha Palmer, Donna Maclean;  Mens DMT Philip Dodson, Jason Plowman, Michael Scott-Beaulieu, Chris Fordham;  Womens DMT Nicola Pugh, Asha Bayliss, Nicola Petitt;  Mens Trampoline Simon Milnes, Gary Short, Gary Smith, Mark Alexander; and finally Womens Trampoline Claire Wright, Jaime Moore, Katherine Driscoll and Hannah Lewis.  Unfortunately Hannah picked up an injury and has been replaced by reserve Natalie O'Connor.

This being the major championships since the introduction of the rule that allows difficulty in the first routine it would be interesting to see how the different nations approached this rule.

MEN

Konstantin Miroshnikov (ISR) started the event in the Mens group. Much was expected having seen multiple twisting triples in the training area, however on the second move he touched the end pad having done no triples at all. In his second routine he completed five triples. Of note in the first group were the team from Belarus who looked strong, Nikolai Kazak scoring 29.8 in his first routine, however his second routine was not to his best, putting in double piked back as last move. His two round score of 65.1 was only good enough for second, his team mate Vladimir Kakorko took the lead with 67.9

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stuart Harper

German Knytchev

Alexander Rusakov

Simon Milnes

Yuri Nikitin

Shuai Ye

The Irish men were in the second group and all of them completed their routines well (Stuart Harper Pictured). The French were strong with two of the team competing three triples in their second routines. Sébastien Laifa scoring 67.1 was the best of them going into second after the second group.

The third Mens group saw the Russian team, German Knytchev the first in the event to score 30.0, Alexander Rusakov the last member of the Russian team then got on to better that with 30.1, using a difficulty of 3.5. In the second routine Alexander Leven touched the side, and Dimitri Ushakov only completed one move. This would put most teams out of the team final event. However the two remaining team members produced such outstanding routines that they made the final in 3rd place! Knytchev took a temporary lead with a score of 68.4, then Alexander Rusakov completed a very good second routine, and took a massive lead with a two round score of 70.1. Sure to make the final and a strong contender for the title!

The 4th group of men saw some of the best compulsories of the competition so far from Canada and Japan in particular. Two Canadian's, Charles Thibault (29.7) and Jason Burnett (29.4) blew out in the 2nd round.  Tetsuya Sotomura from Japan scored 29.4 in the 1st round and finished with a staggering total of 70.3! The Japanese would also be in first place in the team final almost three marks in front. With the scores returning to zero that team finals will be tough to win!

The Chinese featured in group 5 but were disappointing.  Yong-Feng Mu showed promise with a 1st round score 29.9 but incompletes his 2nd round routine.  Qipeng Liu opened his 2nd routine with a 4 Triple start, a ten bounce routine tariff at 16.5.  He finished with a total of 67.8.

Group 6 featured the Swiss, Ukraine and the Danish.  Michael Boillet (Switzerland) scored a good 28.3 1st round score, then went on to start a 3 Triple 2nd round routine and finished with 67.2.  Peter Jensen (Denmark) looked strong scoring a very respectable 29.1 in the sit routine and finishing with a two round total 68.9.  Surprise came from the Ukraine with their top two performers (Denis Vrazhkin and Yuri Nikitin) failing to complete their 2nd round routines.  A big shock for the team competition.

The Men's Team from Great Britain finally featured in the last group, group 7 of the day.  Simon Milnes was first up and scored a good 28.8.  Gary Short followed with 27.7.  Gary Smith then competed a nice routine, scoring 28.7.  Mark Alexander was our 4th competitor to jump, achieving 27.9.  In the 2nd round, Simon competed a steady routine with 38.1 and total 66.9.  Unlucky for Gary Short, he clipped the side padding half way through and only scored 13.5.  Gary Smith managed to achieve 66.1 after scoring 37.4 for his 2nd round routine with a 2 Triple start.  Mark also finished his routine successfully, scoring 37.1 and 65.0 over all.  The Germans were also in this group.  A well deserved 30.4 was gained by Markus Kubicka although having performed a 3 Triple start was unable to complete his 2nd round routine.  Adam Goetz scored 28.7.  He followed this up with a fantastic 2nd routine, scoring 39.6 and a total 68.3.  The best performance by far was Henrik Stehlik (also Germany).  His 1st round score of 29.6 was then followed up by a 40.2 2nd round, giving him a total 69.8.

The British Finished; Simon Milnes 17th, (66.9), 22nd Gary Smith (66.1), 27th Mark Alexander (65.0), 72nd Gary Short (41.2) The team are 4th Team finals are Friday Evening.

 

WOMEN

Andrea Lenders was well supported by her home crowd, and completed two clean routines to score 68.1 to take second place after the first group. Aquieszka Stanek (POL) was the first female to do a routine with two triples in it, however it was not enough to match the grace of Olena Movchan (UKR) who took an early lead with a two round score of 67.6

Olena Movchan Andrea Lenders Natalia Chernova Shanshan Huang
Katherine Driscoll Jaime Moore Hiroi Tokuma

The Chinese Ladies dominated the second group shining over the Brazilians and the Georgian. Shanshan Huang scoring 65.9 to go into second place.

Irina Karavaeva (RUS) performed a stunning first routine scoring 30.3, narrowly ahead of Natalia Chernova on 29.7, but Irina proved to be the better in the second routine performing two triples, with a total of 69.3 took a 1.7 lead.

The 4th group of ladies featured the team from Canada.  Karen Cockburn scored the highest, 29.1 for her 1st round and a 2 round total of a very respectable 66.2.

Great Britain came out to compete in the 5th group with the Japanese Team along side.  Jaime was first, and set the standard scoring a superb 29.3.  Katherine Driscoll was next to compete, achieving 27.6.  Claire Wright then scored 0.1 better than Jaime, with 29.4.  Natalie O'Connor then scored 25.8 having been rushed in at the last minute as reserve.  Hiromi Hanmoto scored best for the Japanese with a 1st round score of 29.4 and 2 rounds 64.7.  In the 2nd round, Jaime scored 35.0 finishing on 64.3.  Katherine performed an excellent 2nd round with 36.7 taking her up to 64.1.  Claire Wright was unlucky not to complete her 2nd round only scoring 13.0 and a disappointing total of 42.7  Natalie O'Connor finished well with 32.0 and a 2 round score of 57.8.

In the final group, group 6 were the Germans.  All eyes were on Olympic Champion Anna Dogonadze.  She scored the highest 1st round score of the day with a massive 30.5.  Her 2nd round was consistent scoring 38.0 giving her a total of 68.5 in 2nd behind Karavaeva.

The British finished 14th Jaime Moore 64.3, 17th Katherine Driscoll 64.1, 46th Natalie O'Connor 57.8, 54th Claire Wright 42.7. The team finished in 6th 0.1 behind the Ukraine team in 5th.