28. Mai 2025  
Leipzig, GER  
Artistic Gymnastics

ECh Premiere MIXED GYM TEAM FINALS

First historical ECh Mixed Team-Gold for Germany!

For the first time in the history of the European Championships, the title of ‘European Artistic Gymnastics MIXED TEAM CHAMPIONS’ will be contested at the 2025 European Gymnastics Championships in Leipzig. Today, the 16 best teams competed, each consisting of one male and one female gymnast from the same nation, who competed on three selected apparatus: men on floor, parallel bars and high bar; women on vault, beam and floor.
♦ And after the surprise silver medal won by the German women's team on Monday, today saw a historic gold medal for Germany in the first mixed team final at a European Championships: two 19-year-olds, Karina Schönmaier (Chemnitz) and Timo Eder (Stuttgart), relegated the favourites from Great Britain (Jarman/Evens) and the Italian duo (Esposito/Casali) to the medal positions... Amazing!!

♦ M O D E :
* The national bests on the three optional apparatus in the qualifying round qualified for this first European Mixed Team Final. In Hall 1 of the Leipzig Exhibition Centre, the Italian pair Lorenzo Minh CASALI and the current European all-around champion Manila ESPOSITO were the clear favourites going into this European Championship mixed premiere with a preliminary score of 81.723 points.
Close behind in the preliminary scores were the British pair Jake JARMAN / Ruby EVENS, the French duo Anthony MANSARD / Morgane OSSYSSEK-REIMER, the Hungarian pair Krisztofer MESZAROS / Greta MAYER, and Germany's mixed team Timo EDER / Karina SCHOENMAIER, all of whom wanted to and will make it really difficult for the supposed Italian favourites with preliminary round differences of less than two tenths of a point.
Absolute excitement was guaranteed, because the medal colour will be decided by the form on the day with the lowest error rate...!
* The points added up by the pairs determine the winning team in three rounds – a first that demands team spirit and versatility. 
 ► List of qualifiers
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♦ The Mixed Competition
♦ In round 1, the field of 16 starters was already halved.
   ► Mixed- Round 1

♦ In round 2, the best 8 pairs competed with their second apparatus of their choice, with the scoring starting again from zero.
The aim was to find the best four duos, with the pairs in fourth and third place in the final round already competing for bronze and the leading duo from round 2 battling it out for the first European Mixed Gold:
Switzerland had been in the lead in round 1 with Noe Seifert / Anny Wu, but they completely messed up their second apparatus and dropped out of the scoring.
Great Britain, with Jake Jarman/Ruby Evens, ahead of Italy with the best all-around performer Manila Esposito / Lorenzo Minh Casali, as well as France (Anthony Mansard/Morgane Osyssek-Reimer) and behind the Spanish duo, Germany's Timo Eder / Karina Schoenmaier came sixth, thus safely advancing to the semi-finals of the best eight teams.
And this is where the preliminary decision was made, so to speak, because the first and second places in this round already advanced to the final for gold, while the third and fourth places then competed for bronze.
Timo Eder excelled in round 2 with a clean parallel bars routine (13.033), while Karina Schoenmaier from Chemnitz shone on her best apparatus, the vault, with the same score, which was only surpassed in this competition by one of her competitors, Ruby Evens from Great Britain (13.966). Thus, Great Britain overtook the German pair after Jake Jarman's highest score of the day on the floor (14.400), but no one else did.
 ► Mixed- Round 2

→ Battle for Bronze - : Italy in third place and France in fourth place competed in the small final for bronze and finished in that order, as Manila Esposita shone on the beam with the day's highest score of 14.266.
 ► Mixed- Round 3

→ Battle for Gold -: Who would have thought that the two 19-year-old Germans would be competing for the historic first European Mixed Title...?
Youngster Eder and the already experienced British champion Jake Jarman fought neck and neck on the high bar: both tied with 12.333 points! The decision was postponed once again...
All eyes were now on the young ladies' scores: Karina Schoenmaier performed with concentration on the beam, including tiny instabilities – score 12.233.
Then Ruby Evens with the all-important response on the 10 cm wide beam – visually with a greater degree of uncertainty than Karina, and indeed: 12.133 points decided with a difference of + 0.1 for Karina SCHOENMAIER – and the German pair with Timo EDER, meaning Gold for Germany!

♦ 1th ECh-MIXED TEAM FINAL
1. GER (Karina Schönmaier/Timo Eder)                   -  25,566
2. GBR (Ruby Evens / Jake Jarman)                          - 25,466
3. ITA  (Manila Esposito / Lorenzo M. Casali)            - 27,966
4. FRA (Morgane Osyssek-Reimer / Anthony Mansard) - 25,699
        ►►  Mixed- Final round 4
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The approximately 6,000 spectators went wild with joy, and the German coaches Anatol Ashurkou and Thomas Andergassen happily embraced the national coaches and athletes. After the women's unexpected team silver on the first day of the European Championships and today's equally surprising mixed gold... what a balm for the currently battered, dedicated artistic gymnastics souls in Germany!
* gymmedia / Eckhard W. Herholz
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