The German gymnasts can plan for the Olympic Games in Paris. The team of national coach Valeri Belenki scored 248.862 points in the qualification for the team all-around competition at the World Championships in Antwerp on Saturday.
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.
