DTB Pokal Team Challenge : gold medal for Team Belgium!

This weekend, Stuttgart held its annual DTB Pokal Team Challenge, a team competition happening as Stuttgart also hosts an individual World Cup event. Belgium was represented by two teams, a men and a women's team. Recap!

Credit: Mazarine Brassart

Qualifications were held on Friday. In the morning session, our women's team, composed of Rune Hermans, Nina Derwael, Maellyse Brassart, Axelle Klinckaert and Senna Deriks placed 1st, 5 points over 2nd and 3rd qualifiers, Japan and Germany.

Nina Derwael particularly impressed on bars, where she showed upgrades to score 14.900. Rune Hermans was steady on beam to score 13.200, while Axelle Klinckaert delivered a brand new routine on floor. Together with Japan, Germany and Switzerland, Belgium advanced to the final.

Still on Friday, the men's team competed in the 1st out of 2 sessions. Belgium was represented by Dennis Goossens, Noah Kuavita, Takumi Onoshima, Jimmy Verbaeys and Luka Van den Keybus. They had a pretty good competition, with high scores from Dennis on rings (14.600), Takumi on parallel bars and vault (13.350 and 13.650), while Jimmy and Luka looked sharp on pommel horse and horizontal bar.

With a total score of 233.500, they placed 8th in a strong field. Japan placed 1st in qualifications, ahead of Russia and Brazil. The top 6 advanced to the final. If the men's team missed the final, this result is still a good one, as the selection procedure for European Championships started for them. Next weekend, Takumi Onoshima, Dennis Goossens and Noah Kuavita will compete in another World Cup, this time in Doha.

This Saturday, in the team final, our women's team started on vault, with three strong Yurchenko full twist from Axelle, Senna and Maellyse (who got the highest score with 13.666). Moving on to the uneven bars, Senna Deriks unfortunately fell on her piked Jaeger but had a clean routine otherwise. She was followed by Rune Hermans and Nina Derwael. The European Champion and Worlds bronze medalist showed an intricate routine to score the highest score of the weekend, with a massive 15.033 ! 

After two rotations, Belgium was in the lead by a little over than 1.5 point. On beam, Rune and Axelle showed great combinations, with a few wobbles here and there, but clean work. Nina started really well and showed a nice triple wolf turn but unfortunately fell on her side aerial.

Germany had taken the lead after three events, but Belgium was right behind. On floor, Nina once again got the highest score for Team Belgium with a routine that included a double tuck, one and a half twist to front twist and a double twist (13.000). Rune also went clean, despite landing out of bounds on one of her passes. But the highlight on floor came from Axelle Klinckaert. Displaying a brand new Harry Potter routine, she showed a lot of expressivness and good execution.

Those three stellar routines were enough to secure Belgium the team gold medal, with a total score of 156.463. Switzerland and Japan took the silver and the bronze medal, while Germany, after a particularly rough rotation on beam, placed 4th.

Team final standings:

1. Belgium 156.463

2. Switzerland 153.129

3. Japan 151.663

4. Germany 151.462

Nina, Rune and Axelle will also compete in Doha next week.

Stuttgart's results here