The splendor of the home European Championships was followed by a setback: with Timo Eder, only one German gymnast reached a final at the World Championships. But there are reasons for this.
The German gymnasts, led by double European champion Karina Schönmaier, celebrated a convincing debut at the World Championships in Jakarta. After three of a total of ten preliminary groups, the 20-year-old from Bremen was in third place in the all-around with 52.131 points and can have legitimate hopes for the final on Thursday.
Silja Stöhr from Heddesheim, who had already won silver with the team at the home European Championships in Leipzig at the end of May, was in seventh place with 50.731 points. 15-year-old Jesenia Schäfer (Chemnitz) ranked eighth with 49.365 points, also among the top ten in the intermediate rankings.
Schönmaier just on the ground with problems
As currently second place in her flagship discipline, jumping, European champion Schönmaier has a very good chance of winning the medal among the top eight. The decision on possible participation in the final will be made on Tuesday when the remaining groups have completed their qualifications.
“On the whole, I’m very, very satisfied,” said Schönmaier. She showed two stable jumps, was very happy that she was stable on the balance beam and the exercise on the uneven bars was also very good. The 20-year-old only struggled with her shaky appearance on the ground.
Only Timo Eder in the men’s final
Among the men, only Timo Eder had reason to laugh. The 20-year-old from Ludwigsburg is clever the ice box temperatures in the IMS Arena defied himself and made it to the all-around final on his World Cup debut. The mixed European champion explained that he was really warming up and that was very important to him. “And as long as your hands aren’t cold, you can get through it relatively well.”
With 78.265 points for his presentations on pommel horse, rings, vault, parallel bars, horizontal bar and floor, the German all-around champion reached the final on Wednesday (1:30 p.m., in the live stream) came 13th and was the only one of the four German gymnasts to meet the demands of men’s national coach Jens Milbradt.
Stuttgarter Eichhorn also missed the individual final
One day after his own qualifying performance on Sunday, European parallel bars champion Nils Dunkel was worried about his chance at the final together with his teammates in a thick hoodie and with a hood on his head. In the stands he saw how the competitors passed him in the final two preliminary groups and pushed him out of the field of 24 starters in the all-around final. In the end, 75,098 points were only enough for 26th place, which makes him second place if two gymnasts placed in front of him drop out.
“This is definitely a disappointment. I opened the door for countries that should normally stay behind me,” confessed the 28-year-old from Halle/Saale. The World Cup novices Gabriel Eichhorn (Stuttgart) on parallel bars and horizontal bars and Artur Sahakyan (Mühlheim/Ruhr) on the rings missed the individual finals on Friday and Saturday, as did Eder and Dunkel.
Broadcast on Monday, October 20, 2025 at 3:00 p.m., SWR Aktuell in the afternoon, SWR Aktuell
