Wroclaw, Poland, hosted the 1st Wroclaw Cup on December 1-2, 2006.  The competition was originally named International Trampoline and Tumbling Competition of Friendship.  The name change may have been caused by the risk of confusion with the International Friendship Cup that has been held annually in the Czech Republic for 34 years now.

This 1st Wroclaw Cup featured trampolinists from Poland, Russia, Portugal and Hungary.  A senior and a junior competition were held. 

In the men's trampoline event, the competition was of a pretty high level with the participation of some of the best Russian trampolinists such as 2004 Russian Champion Yuri Koziakov (pictured on the right), 2002 European Youth silver medalist and 2003 DMT World Champion Alexei Ilichev, and Anton Gonakov, the winner of the individual competition at the 2006 Russian Team Championship.  All three have competed routines of more than 16.00 pts this year.  In the preliminaries, most trampolinists competed routines with a safer degree of difficulty.  Yuri Koziakov took the lead with 65.50 pts, followed by Anton Gonakov (64.90 pts thanks to a 37.60 pt routine), and Alexei Ilichev (64.40 pts).  They were joined in the final by Dawid Ciesielski (POL - 63.30 pts with a 14.90 pt tariff), Evgeni Chernoivanov (RUS - 63.10 pts), Sergei Kovalev (RUS - 62.50 pts), Arkadiusz Pilch (POL - 62.40 pts), and Lukasz Tomaszewski (POL - 62.30 pts).  Polish international Radoslaw Barc barely missed the final.  Amadeu Neves (POR) and Bruno Nobre (POR) both crashed in the preliminaries.  Polish internationals Pawel Dziki and Tomasz Adamczyk suffered the same fate. 

In the final, Sergei Kovalev (pictured on the left) surprised most by competing a new 15.00 pt tariff with the best execution of the final.  Kovalev obtained a score of 37.30 pts.  Kovalev, who is from Taganrog, was finalist at the Russian Championship last week, where he crashed in the final.  In the final in Wroclaw, Kovalev edged Yuri Koziakov.  Koziakov may have played it a little too safe, competing a 15.20 pt tariff.  Koziakov finished with 37.20 pts, just 0.10 pt off Kovalev.  Despite competing first, 2006 Polish Champion Lukasz Tomoszewski, who was competing in front of his Wroclaw home crowd, stepped up to the plate in the final.  Tomaszewski competed a 15.30 pt routine for the first time.  Tomaszewski obtained 37.10 pts, 0.20 pts off Kovalev and 0.10 pts off Koziakov.  Tomaszewski won the bronze medal.  Anton Gonakov, who is from Krasnodar, competed a 15.50 pt routine, but struggled.  Gonakov finished in 4th place with 36.80 pts.  Ilichev also significantly struggled in the final.  Ilichev took the 6th place with 34.30 pts despite competing a 15.60 pt tariff.  Pilch took the 5th place with 35.90 pts.  Chernoivanov and Ciesielski struggled and took the last two places of the final.

In the women's, the competition ended up being mostly limited to a face off between 2006 Polish Champion Agnieszka Stanek and the four Russian ladies as the promising Emilia Zawadzka (POL) and Ana Pires (POR) crashed in the preliminaries.  Stanek qualified to the final with the lead.  In the final, Stanek held on to her lead, obtaining the gold medal thanks to a 13.00 pt routine.  Stanek obtained a score of 35.70 pts.  Alina Khametzanova (RUS - 34.30 pts with a 12.30 pt routine) and Viktoria Voronina (RUS - 33.50 pts with a 12.40 pt routine) joined Stanek at the award ceremony.  Nadezhda Shevchenko (RUS), who is coming back after a long break after giving birth, took the 4th place with 33.00 pts (11.20 pt tariff).  Anastasia Velichko (RUS), who was in 2nd place after the preliminaries, crashed in the final.  Joanna Pyznar (POL) and Viktoria Bata (HUN) took the 5th and 6th place of the final.  

In the junior competition, the two best Polish prospects took the top 2 places.  Walter Pinto delivered a 14.00 pt routine that obtained 34.50 pts, good for the gold medal.  Boleslaw Guzek (POL) took the silver medal with 33.80 pts.  Bartosz Ciesielski (POL) finished 3rd.  In the women's, junior competition, Irina Ilicheva (RUS) had the lead after the preliminaries.  In the final, she was upset by Marzena Zelazna (POL), who obtained 31.40 pts, the same score as Ilicheva, but with better execution marks.  Natalia Pietrucha (POL) took the bronze medal.  

The synchro competition was won by Viktoria Voronina-Anastasia Velichko (RUS - 45.30 pts) over Agnieszka Stanek-Emilia Zawadzka (POL - 43.00 pts) and Alina Khametzanova-Nadezhda Shevchenko (RUS - 42.50 pts) in the women's.  Yuri Koziakov-Anton Gonakov easily won in the men's with 48.70 pts. 

AcrobaticSports.com would like to thank Konrad Bojakowski for his input and for sending the pictures of the event. 

Link to the detailed results

Link to the official Wroclaw Cup website