THE BRITISH MEN FOCUS ON THE WORLDS
The British men's team returned on Sunday 17 September from
a successful training camp and two-way international competition
in Tata, Hungary. The Technical Director, Eddie Van Hoof and
the National Coach, Andrei Popov were both pleased with the
way the men trained and were happy with the marginal victory
over Hungary, (0.600 points) in the friendly international
on Saturday 16 September.
Danny Lawrence was the highest placed Brit, just 0.90 behind
the Hungarian, Hetrovis (87.25), with team anchor man Ross
Brewer scoring 85.25.
"...Clearly there were some errors but this gives us
scope for improvement over the coming weeks..." were
the general comments from the coaching team. This sets the
scene for the World Championships in Aarhus, Denmark, 14-21
October. The six gymnasts and the first reserve will attend
a final pre-Worlds training camp at Lilleshall N.S.C. (1st
- 6th October), prior to the six man teams departure for Denmark
(Sunday 8 October).
Sam Hunters inclusion marks his debut at senior major championships;
this follows his contribution to the Junior European Team
who achieved a landmark 4th place in Volos, Greece in May.
Men's World Championships Team, 2006 (Team GBR)
Gymnasts Club Personal Coach
Ryan Bradley, Earls, Lee Woolls
Ross Brewer, Sutton S.G., Simon Moore
Adam Cox, City of Leeds, Lajos Sovago
Luke Folwell, Huntingdon, Paul Hall
Sam Hunter, Nottingham, Barry Winch
Danny Lawrence, South Essex, Jeff Davis
1st reserve (non travelling) Oliver Kneen City of Leeds Lajos
Sovago ? 2nd reserve (non travelling) Steven Jehu City of
Leeds Lajos Sovago
The men's qualifications in Aarhus will start at 09:00 hrs
local time on Saturday, 14th October and finish the next day,
Sunday, 15th October at 21:45 hrs with a total of nine subdivisions.
Approximately 56 countries will take part in the men's event,
of which approximately 44 have a team entry. The GBR team
will compete in Subdivision 3 (together with Portugal, Algeria
and Kazakhstan), at 14:30 - 16:45 hrs local time, Saturday
14th October, starting on parallel bars.
FIG reports that over 1400 delegates from 70 nations from
five continents have made a provisional registration to the
Championships.
36 countries are arriving with full teams for both men and
women: Australia, Austria, Belarus, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada,
China, Cuba, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany,
Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Japan, Korea,
Mexico, Norway, Poland, North Korea, Romania, Russia, Switzerland,
Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, The Netherlands, Taiwan,
Ukraine, USA, and Venezuela. The 39th World Championships
is the first Worlds to be judged on the new FIG Code of Points.
(The last World Championships (Individual / Apparatus), in
Melbourne in November 2005, were judged on the former Code).
These Championships will act as the precursor qualification
for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games with the top 24 teams progressing
from Aarhus to Stuttgart (GER) in September 2007 and the top
12 teams in Stuttgart qualifying to compete in Beijing.
The British Men will be planning on moving their current
World ranking in the right direction to target a qualification
in London 2012. They will also be hoping to qualify as individual
gymnasts for Beijing. The BBC will be sending a crew to cover
the World Championships and we hope that this time the gymnastics
fans in the country will see increased coverage compared to
the previous years.
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