Olympic qualification barely done: German men's team also gymnastics in Tokyo

Scarce was hardly possible, but the German gymnasts qualified for the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2020. At the end of both qualification days at the World Championships in Stuttgart, the quintet with Andreas Toba, Lukas Dauser, Karim Rida, Philipp Herder and Nick Klessing just finished the necessary twelfth place among the 25 teams.

No one in the camp of the German Gymnastics Federation had expected the entry into the final of the best eight World Cup teams on Wednesday anyway. "It was pretty tight, but that's really cool, so when the Dutch did a bit of a go at the jump, it was a bit more relaxed," said Lukas Dauser after the jubilation.

Tom Weller / dpa

The gymnasts are looking forward to Tokyo

Also by coach Andreas Hirsch the pressure fell off. "In any case, this was an experience at the same time, something you do not really want to have again, we are happy and extremely relieved that it was enough for the Olympics qualification," he said. Previously, the women had already made the qualification for Tokyo.

Trembling for the twelfth place

In the end it had become dramatic for the German gymnasts, because they had slipped to eleventh place before the last round with the teams from Switzerland, the Netherlands and Romania. Only Switzerland was better, that was enough for the German Olympic tickets. The team was 0.5 points ahead of Italy, who finished 13th. Eight other teams compete for the team medals on Wednesday. The favorites are Russia (259,928), China (258,354) and Japan (258,026).

Andreas Toba moved into the all-around final on Friday. Dauser with his grandiose ingot exercise and the highest grade (15,033) turns in the equipment final for world championship gold.