Gymmin' Miel!

The German pairing of Elisabeth Seitz and Fabian Hambuechen were triumphant at the 30th Swiss Cup which was held at on the 4th of November. Whilst hometown favorites Giulia Steingruber and Claudio Capelli narrowly holding on in the final round for second place. The second German team of Kim Bui and Marcel Nguyen finished third. As the format goes, after the first two rounds the two lowest scorers teams were eliminated with the top eight moving onto the Semi-Final. During the Semi Final, each member competes on another apparatus with their totals then being combined so that the top four teams move onto the final round where each member of the pair competes on another event (this time they are able to chose an apparatus they have already competed on) with the scores added to determine the winners. Poor Niamh Rippin had a bad day on the Floor Exercise crashing three of her four tumbling lines. Videos can be seen at RodolfoCrazyBrasil's Youtube channel here: http://www.youtube.com/user/rodolfocrazybrasil/videos?view=0. Thanks so much for uploading!!

RESULTS:

FINAL ROUND:

1. Elisabeth Seitz/Fabian Hambuechen (GER): 30.200 (Seitz - UB 14.350; Hambuechen - HB 15.850)
2. Giulia Steingruber/Claudio Capelli (SUI): 29.650 (Steingruber - VT 14.600; Capelli - PB 15.050)
3. Kim Bui/Marcel Nguyen (GER): 29.550 (Bui - UB 14.600; Nguyen - PB 14.950)
4. Nastassia Marachkouskaya/Andrey Likhovitskiy (BLR): 27.850 (Marachkouskaya - VT 13.200; Likhovitskiy - PB 14.650)

Yulia Belokobylskaya (RUSSIA) - Image by Thomas Schreyer for Intlgymnast.com 

(From 2011 DTB Team Cup. See here)

This year see the Swiss Cup head into it's 30th year. The competition will be held on the 4th of November, 2012 at the Hallstadion Zurich in Switzerland. The competition rounds out a busy four day programme which includes the Swiss Cup Kids Day and for the first time will see the 1st Junior Swiss Cup which will take place as a 3-nation tournament with Switzerland, Belgium and Netherlands sending participants.

For those unfamiliar with The Swiss Cup, it is a Pairs competition - usually with a MAG and WAG Gymnast from the same Nation, however in some cases it may be a WAG Gymnast from one Nation and a MAG Gymnast from another. All pairs compete in the first two rounds on two apparatuses of their choice, with the two gymnasts' scores combined at the end of the second round with the top eight pairs moving onto the Half-Final. Each Gymnast in the pair then competes on another apparatus of their choice (cannot be an apparatus they competed on in the first two rounds). At the conclusion of the round the scores from the Half-Final are added to the combined total from the first two rounds to receive a "Team All Around Score" with the four highest scoring teams moving onto the Finale. In the Finale, scores go back to zero with each member of the Pair competing on one apparatus of their choosing (can be an apparatus they have already competed on), with the two apparatus totals combined to come up with the winning pair.

ANNOUNCED PAIRS:

• TEAM SWITZERLAND 1: Giulia Steingruber, Claudio Capelli
• TEAM SWITZERLAND 2: Jessica Diacci, Nils Haller
• TEAM GERMANY 1: Elisabeth Seitz, Fabian Hambuechen
• TEAM GERMANY 2: Kim Bui; Marcel Nguyen
• TEAM KOREA: Ji Hye Sung; Yang Hak Seon
• TEAM RUSSIA: Yulia Belokobylskaya; Igor Pakhomenko
• TEAM UKRAINE: Mariya Livchikova; Oleg Stepko
• TEAM GREAT BRITAIN: Niamh Rippin; Sam Oldham
• TEAM ITALY: Carlotta Ferlito, Paolo Ottavi 
• TEAM BELARUS: Nastassia Marachkouskaya; Andrey Likhovitskiy