Swiss entries for the Olympic test event decided: Steingruber, Mulhauser, Bucher and Capelli to head to London in January
Unless some unfortunate accident strikes, it is final. Athletes Giulia Steingruber, Nadia Mulhauser, Pascal Bucher and Claudio Capelli are the chosen four to represent Switzerland in the Olympic test event in London, coming January.
In the 2011 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships staged in Tokyo, Switzerland was unable to secure itself any berth for the London 2012 Olympic Games. The Swiss gymnasts did not finish in the top eight.
Having missed the chance, the London test event is the last chance for Switzerland to earn its representation in the Olympic Games.
Now Switzerland is required to send in two gymnasts for each gender category, who will compete to attain two Olympic berths in all (one male gymnast and one female gymnast).
The test event, for which these four gymnasts have been selected, is scheduled for January 13, 2012.
Giulia Steingruber and Claudio Capelli are the winners of the 2011 Swiss Cup, held this November in Zurich. The Swiss Cup is the most well-renowned mixed pairs’ competition in the sport.
Capelli, the 25-years-old trains at the BTV Bern gymnastics club. His favourite apparatus is the pommel horse.
He earned three medals (two gold and one silver) at the Swiss Championships earlier this year, on still rings, floor exercise and parallel bars.
Initially, Capelli was supposed to compete for the chance to fly to London for the test event with fellow Swiss gymnast, Lucas Fischer.
A stroke of luck rendered Fischer to withdraw from this internal competition since he was continuously being troubled by health issues.
17-year-old Steingruber trains under Zoltan Jordanov. She is from Gossau, TZ Prince Country. In addition to her Swiss cup win, she is a World finalist on the vault.
Speculators expect her to fill Ariella Kaeslin’s shoes – a star gymnast who took retirement from the sport in the first half of this year.
Initially, Steingruber was to be accompanied to the test event by Jessica Diacci. Diacci, who trains at Villnachern, had been experiencing a persistent pain in the lower part of her left leg.
When Diacci got her pain inspected, it was discovered that the pain stemmed from a stress reaction of the tibia, rather than from a first order bone lesion, as was imagined.
The results advised her against participating in gymnastics for the next six to eight weeks, lest she lands herself a stress fracture.
With so many Swiss veterans retiring this year (Kaeslin, Daniel Groves, Roman Gisi, Niki Boschenstein, Jennifer Senn and Yasmin Zimmerman), the Swiss national gymnastics teams lacked the usual range of gymnasts to choose from.
Diacci was hence replaced by the 15-year-old, Nadia Mulhauser, who will mark the beginning of her career as an international elite gymnast with this test event.
Mulhauser’s favourite discipline is floor exercise and she has been a member of the Junior National team.
STV Wehntal’s Bucher was pretty much an undisputed selection for the test event. Just turned 22, Bucher has several national championships titles to his claim.
Switzerland has its fingers crossed and eyes tight shut as it hopes for its representatives to return victorious from the London test event.
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