Australia was head over heels! Gymnasts from Down Under were on top of the world at the DTB Cup held November 23-25, 2001 in Stuttgart, Southern Germany. Jacqui Dunn and Philippe Rizzo won the gold in the uneven bars and high bar final, proving their placing in Ghent was no fluke. Dunn's bars were one of two routines in the women's competition to start from a ten and she easily one prelims, the final and the head-to-head. (The DTB Cup adopted a unique format a few years ago with the best two gymnasts from the final going head-to-head again, their marks are kept secret. The two gymnasts are put on fork lift trucks with the winner being lifted up higher than the looser. This format is very popular with the audiance, a wonder that the Americans didn't copy it yet...).

Officially a qualifier for the World Cup, the competition drew a field that was considerably weaker than announced. Khorkina, the USA and Jordan Jovchev cancelled, others, like Carmen Ionescu, just never showed up. The Russian team arrived with no coaches; the Ukrainian team arrived with no women although Alyona Kvasha and Olga Roshchupkina had been on the roster. Still, veteran organisers Robert Baur remained cool: "I have been running this competition for so long and so many times the wrong gymnasts got off the plane, I'm no longer disappointed." But the audience, considerably smaller than in previous years, was.

Kvasha resurfaced in Marseille to compete in the Massilia Trophy, but Roshchupkina's whereabouts remained unknown. The Russian men turned to former World Champion Igor Korobchinski, now coach to Alexander Beresh and president of the Ukrainian Gymnastics Federation, for help while Elena Zamolodchikova was aided by Uzbek coach Svetlana Kuznetsova.

Some journalists had to result to hounding the Glühwein stalls down town to survive the unfriendly weather conditions and drown their sorrows over being locked up in a gloomy cellar room of a press centre. There were tense moments at the press conference when gymnasts couldn't be spotted but for the huge bouquets of flowers stuck in their faces, and a lack of interpreters made communication with non-German speaking athletes difficult.

The World Cup circuit itself remains clouded in mystery. Date and location of the final have yet to be made public as well as basic requirements such as age limit (Slovenians Maja Hribar and Taja Levic were forced to compete exhibition because they are only 15 whereas Britain's Beth Tweddle was eligible to score World Cup ranking points aged 15 last year) and competition format (one vault or two in the head-to-head; the decision on two vaults was the result of a five minute discussion between competitors, coaches and officials - DURING the competition).

Some of the competitors present showed great gymnastics -like Dunn, Rizzo and the amazing Oksana Chusovitina. Others were entertaining - like Russian hunk Alexei Nemov, who made the trip with his wife Galina and stayed with a friend. Rumour had it that Nemov's sluggish routines (they WERE better than in Ghent, though!) were the result of excessive partying at his hosts'… Some, like Elena Zamolodchikova, were painful to watch. When "Zamo" was told in the head-to-head on vault that she would have to vault a second time, she nearly cried and her heavily bandaged foot told the story.

Romanian Marian Dragulescu had a narrow escape when he landed on his neck on his double front with a half twist in the head-to-head, he was not able to complete his second vault and was taken to hospital for an MRI. Lucikly, there was no serious damage but Marian did have to withdraw from the floor final. DTB Cup does not have the finals in Olympic order.

nbb & Nora Schuler