The Arthur Gander Memorial competition is designed to ponder the question: "If a gymnast could compete on only their best events, who would win?"
The 10 gymnast field that competed in Chiasso, Switzerland Wednesday night didn't have the depth of the recently ended World Championships. But the best on three events in Switzerland was the home country's own Ariella Kaeslin, who defeated fellow Worlds event finalists Sandra Izbasa and Vanessa Ferrari to win the Gander Memorial.
Kaeslin scored 42.5 on her top three events, while Izbasa, who no longer competes bars, tallied 42.1. Ferrari had 41.95.
Koczi, who would probably challenge the best all-arounders in the world in the all-around if he were better on high bar, defeated the Netherlands's Jeffrey Wammes and Maxim Devyatovskiy of Russia for the title in Chiasso. (The men competed only on four events of their choice.) Devyatovskiy, though a solid competitor on all six events together, is not regarded as much of a specialist.
Koczi's final total was 59.55, compared to 59.4 for Wammes and 58.8 for Devyatovskiy.
Like a true all-arounder, Devyatovskiy a jack of all trades, master of none. Wammes, meanwhile, excels on floor, vault and high bar. Koczi is world class on floor, vault and pommel horse.
Chinese newcomer Zhang Yelinzi was fourth in the women's competition, followed by French national champion Marine Brevet, Ukraine's Anastasia Koval, Germany's Lisa Katharina Hill and Marlies Rijken of the Netherlands.
Ringman Matteo Morandi of Italy, who won bronze on his specialty at the World Championships, finished fourth all-around in Chiasso, followed by Bulgaria's Jordan Jovtchev, China's Huang Yuguo, Germany's Philipp Boy, Ukraine's Mykola Kuksenskov, France's Yann Cucherat and Switzerland's Mark Ramseier.
Many of the same gymnasts (Zhang and Huang, for example) will pair up for this weekend's Swiss Cup, a partner competition to be held in Zurich. The German teams of Kim Bui and Matthias Fahrig and Elisabeth Seitz and Thomas Taranu dominated last year's Swiss Cup finals.
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