The Swiss Cup took place this afternoon at the Hallenstadion in Zurich. The competition followed its usual format, which is two initial rounds in which ten teams made up of two gymnasts each compete on their chosen apparatus. The total scores from the first two rounds are then taken into account to decide the top six teams which will advance to the third round, then the final round consists of the three final teams battling it out for gold, silver and bronze medals.
The winners of the competition were Germany’s Marcel Nguyen and Elisabeth Seitz, with a total of 29.750 points in the final. Seitz chose to compete on uneven bars and Nguyen on parallel bars and both went clean, resulting in a well-deserved gold medal. The silver medal was won by Angelina Melnikova and Nikita Nagornyy from Russia, with a total of 29.575 points, and the Pan-America team made up of Canada’s Cory Paterson and Brazil’s Jade Barbosa won bronze with 28.075 points. Ukraine just missed out on a podium place, coming fourth by a few tenths, an impressive feat considering Verniaiev recently injured both ankles and is just back from time out with injury.
Having been part of last year’s winning team, Pablo Braegger (who then competed with Giulia Steingruber) came tenth this year, paired with new senior Leonie Meier. Both gymnasts performed well, but tiredness seemed to take its toll after a long year of training and competition and they weren’t able to quite reach their potential. Sadly, the other Swiss pair, Oliver Hegi and Ilaria Kaeslin, who won bronze last year, did not advance past the second round either, just missing out on the semi-final by one place. Team Legends, Oksana Chusovitina and Marian Dragulescu, came in fifth and the Brazilian pair, Flavia Saraiva and Arthur Mariano finished in sixth place after a few mistakes. Mélanie De Jesus dos Santos had some uncharacteristic falls which led to a a ninth place finish for her and partner Julien Gobaux, and Eythora Thorsdottir and Bart Deurloo came in eighth. Full results and scores can be found on the Swiss Cup website.
The European Gymnastics Blog 