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EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS QUALIFIERS 3 JUNE 2005 DRAGULESCU DECIDES NOT TO DEFEND ALL AROUND TITLE
In a surprise announcement just before the start of the qualifying events, Marian Dragulescu will not defend his Individual All Around European Champion Title this year, and instead will concentrate on Floor and Vault.
The absence of the Olympic and European Champion on Rings Dimosthenis Tampakos from Greece who felt his preparation was not quite ready at this stage of the season, opens up opportunities for new names to emerge in Debrecen. The Rings qualifiers were very closely fought as Alexander Safoshkin from Russia led with 9.712, followed by in form Yuri Van Gelder from the Netherlands with 9.675 and Jordan Jovtchev Bulgaria in 3rd place with 9.575.
Rafael Martinez from Spain performed consistently across all 6 pieces to lead the Individual All Around qualifying event, ahead of Razvan Selariu and Ioan Suciu from Romania.
Marius Urzica had a great performance on pommel horse scoring 9.725, with Team Mate Ilie Popescu scoring 9.612. Marian Dragulescu produced a fine performance on Floor scoring 9.675, but he failed to qualify for the Vault Final on Sunday after an excellent first vault of 9.750 but over-rotated on the second vault to score 9.037.
Great Britain’s Ross Brewer qualified for the All Around Finals scoring 50.737 producing his highest score of 8.900 on Vault.
The results of the Men’s Qualifying Events produced some surprises ahead of tomorrow’s Finals and what promises to be a great competition.
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