ZURICH -- Training for the Swiss Cup is happening in the town of Wallisellen, a postcard perfect little district 10 minutes from the center of Zurich by train. The competition itself will take place in the Hallenstadion, a multipurpose venue that has hosted everyone from the Dalai Lama to Coldplay.
I checked out the Hallenstadion this morning, and instead of finding a podium and the businesslike atmosphere of elite gymnastics training, I found Ariella Kaeslin in the middle of what seemed to be the Swiss version of "Ninja Warrior," if such a thing can be imagined.
The media people for that event, which features talented young Swiss athletes doing cool, "Ninja Warrior"-like things for delighted audiences, explained how to get to Wallisellen, and 20 minutes later I was there. Here are some observations from today's training, which was open to the public:
-- Worlds hangovers. I haven't seen footage of it, but some of the media reports from Wednesday night's Arthur Gander Memorial indicated that a few of the athletes seemed exhausted from the World Championships, which concluded less than seven days ago in Rotterdam. So I was curious to see who appeared to be fresh, and who appeared to have spent all their energy in Holland.
The Netherlands's Marlies Rijken takes several turns to warm up, but once she got going she did very well on bars and beam. Her bar routine ends with a giant blind, front giant, double front, and though she sat it down a few times I also saw one that was dead stuck. On beam, she worked through her difficulty well and did a few run throughs of her routine without the dismount.
-- Rijken's Swiss Cup partner Jeffrey Wammes trained today with young Amadeus Williams, an up-and-coming Dutch gymnast who nobody on the international circuit has heard of...yet. Williams looks so much like a mini-Jeffrey that I asked him if they were related. "People are always asking that!" he said with a big grin. The answer is no, they aren't related, he said, but they're close friends. Williams, though I didn't see many big skills from him, is obviously an elite, and emulates Wammes's clean, smooth work on all events. Watch for him in the future.
-- There has obviously been no break for French national champion Marine Brevet, who was in the gym today and training harder than anyone I saw. Brevet, who generally opens her floor routine with a 1.5 to 2.5 or triple full, worked a 1.5 to double tuck and something new: a full twisting double pike, which she did once by herself and once spotted by French coach Eric Demay. She then went to bars, where she did at least one full routine (Maloney to bail to Ray, blind to Jaeger, Arabian double front dismount) and a few half sets. I saw two complete routines (one with a dismount) on beam. No hangover there.
-- Demay, who used to coach in Switzerland, got a big hello, hugs and bisous from Swiss officials at the end of the day. Obviously there are no bad feelings between him and his former federation.
-- I did not see Yana Demyanchuk, who is listed as Ukraine's female representative here, but saw a lot of her partner Mykola Kuksenskov, who worked out on high bar, parallel bars, pommel horse and did a little bit on rings. Solid gymnast, looks worthy of being top 10 in the world, which is what he's been for the past two years. Kuksenskov seemed hungry more than anything else -- at the end of the training session he wandered to the table of fresh fruit and beverages three times!
-- Great Britain's Becky Downie is not here, but Imogen Cairns is. This seems to be the year she's the replacement for everyone -- and rocks every time she goes up. Watched and aided by former Canadian coach Carol-Angela Orchard, Cairns also did a lot of real training -- a couple tucked Omelianchiks on vault, her twisting passes on floor and a dance through on beam -- followed by the real routine. Cairns's partner, the tall, solid all-arounder Kristian Thomas, worked a little bit on vault, pommel horse, parallel bars and rings. No Worlds hangover there, either.
-- Yann Cucherat, who was unprepared for the World Championships because he was recovering from an injury, wore a very attractive tight white Addidas shirt in training and looked great on all events. He did the most on high bar (lots of inbar work and pirouettes) and never simply jumps down from the bar but seems to prefer falling out of handstand and landing on his backside.
Yann looked delighted to be back in competition -- lots of smiles and joking around with Brevet, who is almost literally half age, as they stretched out. He found the Dutch gymnasts and shook hands with them at the door before they began their workout. There is obviously something to be said for being a gymnast in one's 30s -- you know your body so well, how to prepare it, when to push it and when to let up, and when to just let it do the routines, and that was Yann Cucherat today. There was no pressure on his face, as there was on Kuksenskov's. He looked the most relaxed -- and the most prepared, perhaps -- of the guys I saw work out today.
-- Since I arrived in the afternoon, I did not see the Romanians train, nor did I see any of the Swiss gymnasts. Nor Vanessa Ferrari and partner Matteo Morandi, nor Mexicans Elsa Garcia and Daniel Corral.
I did get to watch the entire training session of Zhang Yelinzi and Huang Yuguo, both of whom were eligible for the World Championships but neither of whom were selected to go. Zhang, who was very competitive as a junior, has a beam routine jammed with difficulty (two two-footed back handsprings to a two footed layout to immediate back handspring swingdown, a front tuck half, a switch ring, a switch leap, back tuck combo, and a double pike dismount). On vault, she worked a handspring front half and did several Yurchenko layouts that I assume were timers.
Zhang does not look powerful on floor, though she does double tucks and double pikes fairly easily. She did several timers for a whip to immediate Arabian double front but in my opinion does not have the necessary height to get the double Arabian around. Huang did one overrotated Tsuk double pike on vault and some high bar work, mostly timers, no dismounts, as well as parallel bars and floor (again, mostly timers, nothing hard).
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