Olympians Oksana Chusovitina (UZB) and Olga Roschupkina (UKR) were among the foreign stars to compete in the first round of the German women's club champions, the Bundesliga, held in Schorndorf near Stuttgart, June 9-10.

25-year-old Chusovitina not only lead her team TTT Cologne to a convincing win over TV Baumbach (136,250 : 132,075) but also scored an impressive 37,10 to top the unofficial AA rankings ahead of Ukrainian Olga Roschupkina. Roschupkina notched up 35,50 points to help her guest club TV Baumbach upset last year's winners SC Berlin.

Chusovitina had competed for Cologne in past club championships and will remain in Germany for the entire month of June with her coach Svetlana Kuznetsova. The 17-year-old from Zaporozhe was a new edition for TV Baumbach, which in the past had relied on Romanian stars - Ioanela Loaies, Andreea Isarescu and Silvia Stroescu - to boost their rankings.

Other notable stars competing were Czech Jana Komrskova (for TG Frankfurt) and 1996 Russian Olympian Elena Dolgopolova, who scored 34,550 for the SG Schorndorf, which won the second division. Dolgopolova, who retired after the 2000 Olympics, will return home to Russia at the end of June when her German visa expires. "My body just can't take it anymore, and I'm tired."

Making a comeback after a long lay off due to a back injury was 1999 World Championships competitor Dagmar Fehrenschild. Cologne had to do without Lisa Brueggemann, who injured herself before the competition. Brueggemann's teammate Birgit Schweigert, who lives in England and had originally not planned to compete in prelims, was flown in at short notice. Schweigert is coached by Vladimir Aksonov when in Great Britain and recently competed in the British Club Championships.

Bundesliga Prelims

First Division

The first four teams will compete for the title of German champion in the finals.

Second Division

Ötzi