3:03 p.m. Stuttgart time: The men's team and all-around final was hyped on the premise, given out by the FIG in promoting the World Cup series, that the points winner of the men's all-around over the four World Cup all-around meets would walk away 50,000 Swiss francs richer (that's about $65,000 U.S., not a bad deal by anybody's standards.)
But apparently this cash prize is not actually going to be offered, much to the chagrin of many of the guys, who are in their 20s and trying to earn a living doing this gymnastics thing.
"Why is there no jackpot?" men's all-around favorite Philipp Boy asked during a press conference. "I am very surprised. It was going to get great media coverage, we would have the chance to become millionaires, and now this?" Boy reassured the media that he would still compete, but reiterated his disappointment.
The FIG has confirmed that the cash prize will be available next year, however.
Anyways, team prelims went very well for the Russian group of Dennis Ablyazin, David Belyavskiy and Emin Garabov, who all competed for Russia at Worlds. Their team sits in first place, followed by Great Britain (Daniel Keatings, Ruslan Panteleymonov, Max Whitlock and Kristian Thomas) and Germany (Sebastian Krimmer, Thomas Taranu and Andreas Toba).
5:50 p.m.: The live stream of the men's meet was from the show "Sport Extra," which first showed the top three women's routines on each event (plus Nadine Jarosch) and did an interview with Kim Bui. This is what they showed of the men's team final:
Sebastian Krimmer, pommel horse: As an unlikely accompaniment to this routine, Marc Cohn's "Walking in Memphis" is piped over the arena loudspeakers. Krimmer hits a great routine and happily goes to hang out with Eugen Spiridonov in the kiss and cry. Valeri Belenki loves it too. 14.55/6.0.
Thomas Taranu, rings: Nice Yamawaki to inverted cross. Full twisting double layout with some bent legs but just a small hop. 14.9/6.3.
Ruslan Panteleymonov, rings: The Ukrainian-turned-Brit great doing the two elements they showed him do.
Claudio Capelli, vault: Sits his handspring double front. In the air, it was either going to be really well landed or sat..and he sat.14.75/6.6.
Denis Ablyazin, vault: Tsuk double pike, WOW! So beautiful and easy. Small hop. He doesn't even land hard doing this, which is amazing. 16.2/7.0.
Andreas Toba, vault: Tsuk double full.
Sebastian Krimmer, high bar: Stalder to Tkatchev half, nicely done. Tkatchev. Stalder blind to Endo in el-grip, stalder, giants, full twisting double layout, stuck. 14.55/5.9.
Kristian Thomas: Front double full to front 1 3/4. Arabian double pike, STUCK. 2.5 to front tuck full. Russians. I recognize the German term for "absolute disaster" among the commentary (it sounds similar to English) and figure they must be talking about the British men not qualifying to the Olympics as a team in Tokyo. Arabian double fron with a hop forward. Very good routine for Thomas.
...and the Russians win the meet. The Germans, third, shake hands with the Russians. Great Britian finishes second.
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