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8th friendly meet of the women Germany - USA
 - Muelheim, RWE Rhein-Ruhr Hall, 2nd of May 2009 -
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The victory of the USA did not really surprise anyone especially not the ones that watched the training camp before the competition. However did the US girls not outmatch the Germany to the extend that was expected. They also had their instabilities on the balance beam where the Germans only gave 1.65 points away.
Bridget SLOAN showed an outstanding performance on all apparatus. The member of the Olympic silver team in Beijing obtained in the competition impressive 59.550 points.
Just behind her on rank 2 was her team mate, the 17 year old Corrie LOTHROP with quite a big difference (56.500 points). She was followed by Mackenzie CAQUATTO 56.400 and  Olivia COURTNEY (55.950).
Best German was Kim BUI with 55.750 points on rank 6, though she left the apparatus once. Anja BRINKER became eighth with 55.250 points.

Despite the great difference of 12.7 points in the team results you could see rather satisfied faces in the German squad. So did the still young national competition debutants, Désirée Baumert ad Katja Roll tap their momentary potential and also Susann HERBST justified her nomination with a nearly mistake free performance on all apparatus. If it will be enough in future to work individually on contents is still to be seen. This competition was also a comparison between the different systems of competitive sports in the USA and Germany, which in this case showed that the USA is leading not only due to their still young but also performance orientated athletes in the squad.
* E. Herholz

* Course of the competition...:
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* 1st Rotation:
* GERMANY - balance beam
- D. Baumert    (4.2)  - 12,200 (a.k.)
- K. Roll                       - 12,150
- S. Herbst                  - 13,150
- E. Seitz           (5.8)  - 13,950
- Anja Brinker   (6.1)  - 14,500
- K. Bui              (5.9)  - 14,550
                 ** Germany: 56.000 (2.)
* U S A  - vault
- K. Hunter                  - 14,300 (a.k.)
- M Larson        (5.8)  - 14,600
- O. Courtney    (5.8)  - 14,500
- C. Lothrop      (5.8)  - 14,300
- B. Caquatto   (5.8)  - 15,050
- M. Caquatto            -  14,850
- B. Sloan         (5.8)  - 15,350
                         ** USA: 59,750 (1.)

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3rd Rotation
* GERMANY - floor exercise
- K. Roll          (4.7)   - 12,850
- A. Brinker               - 13,751
- S. Herbst      (4.9)  - 13,150
- D. Baumert  (4.7)  - 13,450
- E. Seitz         (5.2)  - 13,350
- Kim Bui        (5.4)  - 14,250
   ** GERMANY:  - 54,750  = 163,75 (2.)
* U S A  - balance beam
- O. Courtney             - 13,650
- S. Vega                    - 14,357
- B. Caquatto   (5.7) - 13,450  ( ... fall after  jump with 1/4-twist)
- C. Lothrop    (5.8)  -  13,300  (... fall after 2/1-twist)
- B. Sloan        (5.5)  - 14,000
- M. Caquatto  (5.4)  - 13,000  (... fall after jump with 1/2-twist)
- M. Larson      (5.6)  - 13,950
                      ** USA:   54,650  = 172,750  (1.)

** Official & detailed results:

> Team Results     >> Individual All-around

... a short come of training impeded participations of competition as for example qualification of the European Championships in Milan. She was only able to prepare herself one and a half weeks for this Europeans. She was furthermore disapointed that she was not nominated for the World Cup in Cottbus. Water under the bridge now!
She was able to train properly the last few weeks, felt good and proved this with a strong performance and mistake free all-around at the beginning of the Bundesliga in Hamburg.
"The girl should not pressure herself too much at her first national competition: If she shows that it was justified to nominate her and that she is enjoying gymnastics, then i am counting with an increased motivation!" said Gaby Frehse, her coach in Chemnitz. She also thinks of her trainee as an important part for the new and young national squad.

Beside  Bridget SLOAN in the US-team - has the Germany  Anja BRINKER the most competition experiences in this coming friendly meet. Despite the extra physical exertion and a lot of distraction after the Olympic games did she find quickly find her way back into the field of competitive sport. She proved his not only with her impressive eighth rank in all-around at the European Championships in Milan and her bronze medal in the parallel bars - the first German bronze medal on this apparatus since nearly two decades.
Since Milan, her training is dominated by a phase of learn training.
"Let´s see if we will try  the ducked swing 1 1/2 turns as one of the drills on the parallel bars." considered her coach Oleg CHEKMAREV this week, because during the training on wednesday, this new difficulty worked well. With this would Brinker increase her level of difficulty to 6.4 and for the German Championships in June and the World Championships in London (October) are further increases planned...!
On Saturday will she offer her Europeans program on the vault (Jurtschenko 1/1), floor exercise and balance beam - as mentioned: she is in the middle of a phase of learn training and furthermore on a good way to develop into a leading personality in the young team not only because of her high motivation that was boosted after her Olympic participation.
* E. Herholz

When the German girls joined the training the gymnasts from the USA were already in their third training´s session since their arrival on the day before. On this Wednesday afternoon was a very intensive working atmosphere in the RTB gymnastic centre.
Mutual learning is one of the main focus of a co-operation of this kind. Both teams benefit from the parallel training and can adopt a few details.
The youngest member of the German team is Katja ROLL who will celebrate her 14th birthday in summer but will before participate in her first official national competition. And this will be against the silver team from Beijing even though it is consisting mainly of new faces who just joined the elite level. Nevertheless it is a good opportunity to watch the favourites of the upcoming competition and to and to adopt things...
(- as seen in the foto on the right >)
"Katja is still quite airily and has a shortcoming on the parallel bars but i am curious how she will perorm on her strong apparatus, the floor exercise", - said the national coach.

Anja BRINKER developed more and more into a leading personality, as seen today on her concentrated and mellow attitude. She posed without problems for the journalists to turn straight towards her training again.
Her trainer, Oleg Chekmarev said once about her: "...it is a joy and happiness to work with her!" What a nice compliment!
And of course is everyone expected another prove for her performance development after the eigth rank in the European Championships.

Kim BUI underwent a similar process of maturation: She seemed to grow stronger after her position as the substitute at the Olympic games in Beijing and seems more motivated. She is thus developing into strong performance personality.
She only arrived after today´s training and will join the rest for the last o preparation days for the competition against the USA this Saturday.

* E. Herholz reporting from Bergisch Gladbach

Development of good contacts
Though this is the first national competition between German and American gymnasts since nearly two decades: Excellent relations were always to find but these developed further in the last Olympic cycle:
after the shared training camp after the American Cup 2008 that was followed by a training camp of the German athletes in Plano/USA at the beginning of this year.
Thanks to the German coaches and married couple Ulla and Dieter Koch this national competition was pushed forward in this phase of the strengthening of artistic gymnastics. Furthermore likes Ulla Koch the „American system“, „...because of their way of organising gymnastics, of motivating the girls and their way to promote the sport due to good performance to the public“!

The Olympic bronze medal winner of the Chinese team on 1984 (Los Angeles), WU, Jiani is coaching the two sisters Mackenzie and Bridgette CAQUATTO. Their trainer at home in the Naperville Gymnastics Club is also a former Chinese Star Li, Yueji and he is the husband of WU, Jiani.

...and the former Soviet team and vault world champion from the early 80´s, Artur AKOPYAN is coaching one of the most talented girls on this tour: Matti LARSON, whose family name is from her Swedish father, an immigrant.

The German Coach Ulla Koch thinks much of her. In the beginning of 2009 won LARSON for example the first world Cup event of thisyear, Gymnix in Montreal.