Gymmin' Miel!

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 

The official draw for the pairs at the 2nd Abierto Mexicana de Gimnasia has been completed. The competition which is set to get underway RIGHT NOW! (11th of October, Acapulco local time) with the 1st Copa Juvenil de Gimnasia, gets exciting on the 12th with the first of the two days the All Around competition. Colombian Jessica Gil Ortiz is the lucky gymnast who gets to be paired with 2 different MAG Competitors. 

PAIRS:

The drawing of Pairs for the Couple component of the All Around competition at the Abierto de Gimnasia took place yesterday. The draw was attended by Estela de la Torre who is the General Manager of Abierto, alonf with special guests, Mexican Rhythmic Gymnastics superstar Cynthia Valdez Perez and the great Nadia Comaneci. With the withdrawals of TAN Sixin of China, and Mexico's own Alexa Citlali Moreno Medina, the number of Female gymnasts came down to seven, with there being nine Male competitors - this means that as a result of the pairing, both Australian gymnast Emily Little and Colombian gymnast Catalina Elena Escobar will partner two gymnasts each. 

PAIRS: