Fantastic start to a complicated home European Championship: The German artists grew the silver medal in the team competition at the European Championships in Leipzig.
Led by Hoffnücker Helen Kevric (17), the replacement weakened selection of the German Gymnastics Association (DTB) only had to give up to the new European champions from Italy after a very strong performance.
Kevric, Lea Quaas (19), Janoah Müller (17), Karina Schönmaier (19) and Silja Stöhr (17) convinced on Monday evening in a well-attended Leipzig Arena and won the second EM team medal in the history of the Federal Republic with a total number of points of 158.396. The gap by the German ranks to Italy was 3.534 points. The French were third with 156,728 points.
In the months before the title fights, both the German record champion Elisabeth Seitz (shoulder injury) and ex-world champion Pauline Schäfer-Betz (after hip surgery) and the former European champion Emma Malewski (after a long injury break) had canceled their participation-but the young generation jumped into the breach with flying colors. National coach Gerben Wiersma, who had given a top five-placement as the goal, saw an impressively low-error performance.
In addition to the medal, there was another reason to be happy. Kevric qualified with the best performance of all gymnasts on the uneven bars for the device finals at the end of the week. The same was for Schönmaier on the jump. The 19-year-old also made it into the final fight on the ground, and, like Kevric, she can also start in the all-around.
It is the conciliatory start in a difficult European Championship. The DTB has been struggling with a severe crisis since the turn of the year because former and active gymnasts had denounced “physical and mental abuse” at the federal base points in Stuttgart and Mannheim. “Of course, it is a very special EM from many ways,” said DTB sports director Thomas Gutekunst in the SID conversation.
The men’s team competition is on the program on Tuesday, and in addition to the team medals, the final places in the device end battles will also be done. The focus is primarily on Andreas Toba at the DTB team. The veteran, who was in the hearts of sports fans at Rio’s games, ended his career after the title fights in Leipzig at the age of 34.