Aachen, August 27th, 2006

7,000 spectators celebrate the German World Champions

Germany secured the World Championship gold medal in team vaulting for the eighth time in front of 7,000 spectators in the Deutsche Bank Stadium. It is the fifth time that the group from RSV Neuss-Grimlinghausen have taken the title. The team lead by lunger, Jessica Schmitz, already underlined its supremacy in the first classification competition. With a score of 8.189 points after the freestyle round, the Germans lay just ahead of the US American group F.A.M.E. (8.161) and the Austrian team RV Wildegg (8.152).

The spectators enjoyed an exciting final. The best performances were rewarded with standing ovations. Although the vaulters from Neuss-Grimlinghausen had to dismount once during their freestyle routine, the score achieved sufficed for the victory. As many spectators observed, the level of the vaulters participating at these Championships was higher than ever before. In the freestyle competition the best groups showed extremely difficult movements one after the other. To an extent this is due to the fact that the age limit has been abolished. From this year onwards the group members can also be over 18 years old, which meant that many nations integrated older, experienced vaulters into their teams.

Kai Vorberg defends his World Champion title

The new and old World Champion, Kai Vorberg, freestyle performance ran under the motto "Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart". "After all it is Mozart Year," is how the 25-year-old from Cologne justified his choice of music a mixture between Mozart and Falko ("Rock me Amadeus"). The student does not just perform vaulting exercises - he celebrates artistic movements on his horse Pferd Picasso, supported by lunger Kirsten Graf. With an end result of 8.524 points, he had a clear winning margin over his competitors. Gero Meyer from Hildesheim was able to notedly better his result. Ranking fourth after the first classification, his performance improved in the finals, so that he was actually able to claim the silver medal (8.161). The Slovakian, Ladislav Majdlen, who had already drawn attention to himself this summer after being placed several times in international competitions, for instance in Mannheim and Saumur (France), took bronze (8.150), which came as a surprise for many spectators.
In the men's individual competition, Matthias Lang, the World Champion 2000 and 2002 from France was particularly unlucky. The Championships were full of ups and downs for him. Leading after the initial compulsory competition, he fell from the horse in the freestyle and only just managed to reach the final round attaining 15th place. Then after giving the third best performance in the technical programme he shot up to third place. However, unfortunately he left the horse again in the concluding freestyle programme, which pushed him back to 13th place in the overall result.


American victory for the ladies

In the Ladies Individual Vaulting World Championships, the German participants have been dethroned. For the first time in the 20-year history of the Championships, there wasn't a German competitor on the winning podium. Megan Benjamin from the USA claimed the gold medal in the competition (8.421). She had already won the first classification and was favourite to take the title. The Austrians proved to be very strong. Katharina Faltin, who is not yet very well known on the international scene, surprised everyone with strong freestyle routines and safely secured the silver medal with a score of 8.311 points. Sissi Jarz, who won the CVI Munich a few weeks previously, ranked third with 8.254 points.

The German vaulters, Nicola Ströh, Ines Jückstock and Anja Barwick came fourth, fifth and sixth respectively.