The home team from Germany defeated the Russian team by two points at the DTB Team Challenge held alongside the World Cup in Stuttgart, Germany. Switzerland brought home the bronze medal, while the German gymnasts representing the Swabian region placed fourth.

The Germans got off to a good start on vault, with a lovely handspring layout half from Pauline Schäfer earning a 14.733. Michelle Timm competed the same vault, but looked a bit piked and came in short on her landing, finishing with her chest down.

On bars, Timm fell twice on her shaposh, slipping off the first time and then after catching it the second time. Schäfer hit her routine, and then Sophie Scheder had a fantastic exercise, finishing with the highest score on the event. Scheder also had a smooth beam routine, with no major issues; she also hit a lovely aerial and layout gainer off the end of the beam. Schäfer was best on beam for the day, hitting a nice bhs loso, a front aerial to side somi combination with a slight wobble, and nailing her side somi half before hitting her gainer layout dismount. With these two strong routines, it didn’t matter that Timm’s routine was a bit shaky, including a fall on her roundoff layout series.

Nadja Schulze got things started on floor, nearly falling on her opening pass and then putting her hands down on her double tuck at the end. Timm had no major mistakes in her exercise, bringing in a 12.7 for a routine that included a solid double full and a triple full with a step. Schäfer was best among the Germans here; though her front handspring to double front didn’t get quite the punch she normally gets, she landed it without a problem and also hit her double tuck and double pike.

Since the meet featured a three-up, two-count format, Russia was at a disadvantage coming into the challenge, as they fielded only three athletes. Because Ksenia Afanasyeva was only able to compete on vault and floor, her teammates Polina Fedorova and Ekaterina Kramarenko couldn’t afford any mistakes on bars and beam. Unfortunately, issues on beam led to their downfall.

In her comeback performance, Afanasyeva managed the top scores on both of her events – a 15.0 on vault, where she performed a DTY, and a 14.033 on floor, which included a triple full, double pike, and a 2.5. Though it was quite a bit easier than what fans are used to seeing, she performed it very well.

Kramarenko began her day with a hit bar routine, showing a nice stalder full to Chow half, Jaeger, pak to stalder to van Leeuwen, and full out with a hop. She had a fall on beam, though hit floor and showed a very clean FTY on vault. Fedorova also started out with a nice routine on bars, including a stalder hecht, Jaeger, stalder full to pak, and stalder half to Ray. She hit her beam routine, albeit with some wobbles, and also hit floor and her handspring tuck half on vault.

The young Swiss team performed decently without leader Giulia Steingruber, though didn’t have the difficulty needed to challenge and are still a bit inexperienced on an international stage. They finished with a 105.097, nearly six points behind the Russians.

Jessica Diacci, Ilaria Käslin, and Nicole Hitz each showed decent vaults, with Käslin’s clean FTY the standout. There were big mistakes on bars and beam, though Käslin showed a relatively difficult and lovely beam routine, and also looked good on floor, as did Diacci and Stefanie Siegenthaler, for the most part.

The team from Swabia, the southwestern region of Germany that is home to host city Stuttgart, was comprised of some of the lower-ranked Germans who hail from the area. They were quite far behind in their skill level, though nevertheless showed some polish in their routines.

Beginning on bars, Sarina Maier had the most difficult routine but unfortunately fell on a toe-on after botching the handstand after her bail. She had a great save, basically going into a stag before getting back in control, though she lost it again after casting up from the toe-on. She showed a nice Maloney and lovely Jaeger, though sat her double arabian dismount.

Her teammates were a bit messy and had difficulty in the 2.0 range (with no releases performed), but Nicole Fritz had a cool toe front half out dismount and Dorothee Henzler held onto a gorgeous handstand for several seconds before dismounting with a double tuck.

Only Maier and Henzler performed on beam, floor, and vault. Both had quite a few beam errors, including two falls in Henzler’s routine. On floor, Maier hit her double tuck and front 1.5 while Henzler showed her excellence as a performer, getting everyone in the arena to clap along. Maier then hit her handspring front tuck quite well, and Henzler performed a handspring front pike to finish things up for the Swabian gymnasts.

Team Final Results

Rank	Nation	VT	UB	BB	FX	Total
1	GERMANY	28.966	28.466	28.566	26.700	112.698
	Pauline Schäfer	14.733	13.333	14.600	14.000
	Sophie Scheder	——	15.133	13.966	——
	Nadja Schulze	13.333	——	——	11.200
	Michelle Timm	14.233	9.900	12.000	12.700
2	RUSSIA	29.166	28.133	25.966	27.566	110.831
	Ksenia Afanasyeva	15.000	——	——	14.033
	Polina Fedorova	13.600	13.533	13.133	13.533
	Ekaterina Kramarenko	14.166	14.600	12.833	13.433
3	SWITZERLAND	27.432	24.666	26.566	26.433	105.097
	Jessica Diacci	13.133	12.100	12.600	12.833
	Nicole Hitz	13.266	——	——	——
	Ilaria Käslin	14.166	12.000	13.766	13.600
	Stefanie Siegenthaler	——	12.566	12.800	12.533
4	SWABIA	26.566	20.632	21.400	24.800	93.398
	Nicole Fritz	——	10.366	——	——
	Dorothee Henzler	13.333	10.066	10.600	12.600
	Sarina Maier	13.233	10.266	10.800	12.200

Team Qualification Results

Rank	Nation	VT	UB	BB	FX	Total
1	GERMANY	28.300	28.500	28.700	26.750	112.250
	Pauline Schäfer	14.350	13.400	14.700	13.900
	Sophie Scheder	——	15.100	14.000	——
	Nadja Schulze	——	——	——	12.850
	Michelle Timm	13.950	——	——	——
2	RUSSIA	28.650	26.250	26.900	27.050	108.850
	Ksenia Afanasyeva	14.550	——	——	13.550
	Polina Fedorova	——	11.600	14.050	13.500
	Ekaterina Kramarenko	14.100	14.650	12.850	——
3	SWITZERLAND	26.700	25.350	25.850	25.800	103.700
	Jessica Diacci	13.050	13.150	——	——
	Ilaria Käslin	13.650	——	13.350	13.450
	Stefanie Siegenthaler	——	12.200	12.500	12.350
4	SWABIA	26.650	24.550	25.900	25.450	102.550
	Lisa Ecker	13.700	11.600	13.300	13.100
	Dorothee Henzler	12.950	——	12.600	12.350
	Sarina Maier	——	12.950	——	——
5	AZERBAIJAN	27.000	23.450	25.350	21.100	96.900
	Marina Nekrasova	13.500	10.850	12.550	11.000
	Kristina Pravdina	——	12.600	12.800	——
	Mariia Smirnova	13.500	——	——	10.100

Individual Results

Rank	Athlete	Nation	VT	UB	BB	FX	AA
1	Pauline Schäfer	Germany	14.350	13.400	14.700	13.900	56.350
2	Lisa Ecker	Swabia	13.700	11.600	13.300	13.100	51.700
3	Marina Nekrasova	Azerbaijan	13.500	10.850	12.550	11.000	47.900
4	Ekaterina Kramarenko	Russia	14.100	14.650	12.850	——	41.600
5	Ilaria Käslin	Switzerland	13.650	——	13.350	13.450	40.450
6	Polina Fedorova	Russia	——	11.600	14.050	13.500	39.150
7	Dorothee Henzler	Swabia	12.950	——	12.600	12.350	37.900
8	Stefanie Siegenthaler	Switzerland	——	12.200	12.500	12.350	37.050
9	Sophie Scheder	Germany	——	15.100	14.000	——	29.100
10	Ksenia Afanasyeva	Russia	14.550	——	——	13.550	28.100
11	Jessica Diacci	Switzerland	13.050	13.150	——	——	26.200
12	Kristina Pravdina	Azerbaijan	——	12.600	12.800	——	25.400
13	Mariia Smirnova	Azerbaijan	13.500	——	——	10.100	23.600
14	Michelle Timm	Germany	13.950	——	——	——	13.950
15	Sarina Maier	Swabia	——	12.950	——	——	12.950
16	Nadja Schulze	Germany	——	——	——	12.850	12.850

Article by Lauren Hopkins