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 Chemnitz 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. The 15-year-old selection newcomer 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 second in her flagship discipline of 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 this Tuesday when the remaining seven 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 has a dash of cleverness the ice box temperatures in the IMS Arena defied himself and made it to the all-around final in Jakarta on his World Championships 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 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.
We deliberately chose a rocky path for the future
After the brilliant performance at the home European Championships in Leipzig at the end of May with the titles for Dunkel and Eder as well as horizontal bar silver for the retired Andreas Toba and another parallel bars bronze for Eder, the German gymnasts in Jakarta have to bake smaller cakes. “Not everything worked as we had imagined,” said the national coach. They “did not achieve the quality and stability as at the European Championships”.
However, the German gymnasts consciously took the rocky path that the first World Championships in the new Olympic cycle could end with sobering results. The 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles are the benchmark. But everyone has built greater difficulties into their exercises. “Unfortunately the risk didn’t pay off,” said Dunkel in his capacity as athlete spokesman. It’s not about this World Cup, but about the entire cycle. “That’s why it’s definitely the right path we’ve taken.”
Everything is set for the future
Under Milbradt, who is taking part in his first World Cup as men’s national coach as Valeri Belenki’s successor, everything is systematically geared towards the future. They tried to develop whatever was the focus. The key point is to make gymnastics more difficult. “We have to step up if we want to be internationally competitive. From that point of view, we have to accept the occasional bad result at a World Cup like this, even if it isn’t pretty and hurts,” emphasized the 56-year-old.
Broadcast on Monday, October 20, 2025 at 3:00 p.m., SWR Aktuell in the afternoon, SWR Aktuell
