From 5th to 7th March, the traditional 'Tournament of Masters' - B World Cup Torunament - take place in Cottbus (GER). More than 170 athletes from 48 nations take part in this tournament.
Today, on the first world cup day the gigantically qualification rounds with more than 170 athletes took place in the 'Lausitz-Arena'.

More information on www.turnier-der-meister.de

The first World Cup Desicions of the Olympic Year

Today the first day of the important world cup desicions in Cottbus, five month before the Olympics: The men's floor, pommel horse and still rings and the women's vault and uneven bars took place .
GYMmedia reports from Cottbus on www.turnier-der-meister.de with the updates of results and the most important facts and stories.

In the Cottbus' tournament history  the Cuban athlets were traditional guests:
>> At the first 'Tournament of Masters' 1979 the first finalsts were Miguel Arroyo, Israel Sanchez and Jorge Cuervo.
>> In the Eighties came to Cottbus such gymnasts like Mario Castro, Francisco Ortega, Felix Roch?, Raul Menendez or Felix Aguilera. A legend of the tournament history is Casimiro Suarez, winner on highbar in 1989.
>> The last Cuban victory in Cottbus was the success of Charles Leon Tamayo, winner on vault 2002....

The technical equipment for producing the international signal will be provided by GYMmedia-TV – just like in the past two years – and will be coordinated by Eckhard Herholz, the long time German TV commentator for all gymnastics disziplines


Great TV commitment by TV Station RBB
Both days of the finals (6/7 March) are to be covered broadly by Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (RBB), for the first time following the merger between SFB and ORB. This may comprise up to 85 minutes on Sunday and is to be broadcast live to a large extent.

The two times winner of the American cup (2000, 2002), the Cuban Erik Lopez cancelled his participation at this event coming weekend in the Madison Square Garden of New York, IG publishes.
The reason: His coach Ernesto Izaguirre did not get a visa to enter the United States. Lopez commented: 'We are a team, we travel together to all competitions!'

But the vice-world champion on parallel bars of Ghent 2001 gave his announcement for coming to the first wold cup this year in Germany, the '28th Turnier der Meister' in Cottbus (March 5 - 7).

Germany vs Netherlands
The 'Royal Dutch Gyymnastics Federation' KNGU pronounced, that its women national team will meet against the Germans on April, the 10th.
Host will be the city Cologne, Germany
Both teams will use this meet as special preperations and last test for the coming European Championships in Amsterdam at the end of April.
The national Dutch qualification for Amsterdam take place on February 29th in Amersfoort.
>> ... more friendly meets.....

INDIANAPOLIS --- Chevron continues its support of the U.S. Men's National Team program in the Olympic year with the signing of 15 top athletes and coaches to Team Chevron....

ChevronTexaco, now in its sixth year of sponsorship of the Men's elite program, provides direct assistance to Team Chevron athletes to support their year-round training regimen. All six members of the 2003 World Championships silver medal-winning men's team are Team Chevron athletes. 'Everyone here at ChevronTexaco is proud to be the driving force behind these 15 men and their pursuit for Olympic Gold. We welcome them to Team Chevron,' Danny Roden, Vice President of North American Marketing.
'Without ChevronTexaco, there is little chance that I could have continued my gymnastics career at the elite level,' said Team Chevron member Brett McClure.
'ChevronTexaco has been a loyal supporter of gymnastics for many years, and it is truly an honor to wear the Chevron colors on the podium.'

Team Chevron Ohio - Columbus, Ohio
Miles Avery, coach
Raj Bhavsar 2003 World Team silver medalist, 2002 NCAA all-around champion
Jason Furr 2001 Goodwill Games Team; three-event medalist at 2001 U.S. Championships
Morgan Hamm, 2003 World Team silver medalist, two-time reigning U.S. floor exercise champion
Paul Hamm, 2003 World all-around champion, Team silver medalist, floor exercise champion
Blaine Wilson 2003 World Team silver medalist, still rings sixth, two-time Olympian

Team Chevron Houston - Houston, Texas
Kevin Mazeika, coach
Todd Thornton, 2002 Men's Winter Cup all-around champion; 2001 Word Team alternate

ChevronTexaco..
Based in San Ramon, Calif., ChevronTexaco is the second-largest U.S.-based energy company and the fifth largest in the world, based on market capitalization. More than 53,000 ChevronTexaco employees work in approximately 180 countries around the world, producing oil and natural gas, and marketing fuels and other energy products.
As a global energy company committed to world-class performance, ChevronTexaco is a proud partner of the U.S. Olympic Committee and sponsors the 2004 U.S. Olympic Team competing in the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, as well as 30 U.S. National Governing Bodies of Olympic Sports, including USA Gymnastics.
by Brian Eaton, USA Gymnastics

New World Cup Date 2004
Today the International Gymnastics Federation F.I.G. confirmed, that a second world cup of artistic gymnastics in this Olympic year will be held in South America:
After Rio de Janeiro (BRA) in spring ('Siegfried Fischer Trophy', April 2 - 4) a next world cup event (cat. B) will take place to the first time in Chile, from September 9 to 11 in the 'Coliseo' of the city La Serrena (CHI).
The official supplier of both South-american events will be the German company SPIETH Gymnastic.

The Hungarian Agn?s Keleti, four times Olympic champion at the 1952 Olympic Games in Helsinki and 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne, received the Trophy of Merit from the Hungarian National Olympic Committee.

Keleti won all together eight Olympic medals and was also World Champion on uneven bars in Roma (Foro Italico) in 1954.

An absolutly new World Cup Record!! Today the Cuban Gymnastics Federation announced, that the best Cuban athletes will also start at the European world cups in Cottbus (March 5 - 7) and one week later in Lyon (FRA).
It will be the two finalists of World Champs 2003 in Anaheim, Eric Lopez and Abel Drigg.

So the German organizers in Cottbus registered a new record of 50 participating nations (old record: 38).

>> Read more on www.turnier-der-meister.de