The third World Cup of the 2009 World Cup Series will take place on August 28-29, in Ostend, Belgium.  The event will be held in connection with the Flanders Fliffis Cup.

The first World Cup of this cycle took place in Loule, Portugal, on September 28-29, 2008.  The second World Cup of the 2009 World Cup Series took place in Sofia, Bulgaria, on April 22-24, 2009.  The last two World Cups of the Series will immediately follow this Ostend World Cup: in Zielona Gora, Poland, on September 4-5, 2009, and in Salzgitter, Germany, on September 11-12.  

As a reminder, the World Cup cycles are now held on an annual basis, rather than on a bi-annual basis like in the previous series.  No World Cup Final will be held at the end of the World Cup Series.  Instead, the winners of the World Cup Series will be determined solely based on the World Cup Series Rankings.  The World Cup Series Rankinsg are based solely on the points earned during all World Cups of the annual World Cup Series.  The best results from a maximum of four World Cups will be taken into account for each athlete to determine the final rankings.

The current World Cup Series Rankings are led by Masaki Ito (JPN - 90 pts) over Jason Burnett (CAN - 75 pts), and Peter Jensen (DEN - 41 pts) in men's individual trampoline.  In women's individual trampoline, the leader is Elena Movchan (UKR - 63 pts), ahead of Tatiana Petrenia (BLR - 60 pts) and Rosannagh MacLennan (CAN - 50 pts), who is tied with Ekaterina Khilko (UZB) in 3rd place.  In men's synchronized trampoline, the frontrunners are Sebastien Martiny-Gregoire Pennes (FRA - 70 pts), Shunsuke Nagasaki-Masaki Ito (JPN - 64 pts), and Nuno Merino-Diogo Ganchinho (POR - 51 pts).  In women's synchronized trampoline, the early leaders after two World Cups are Yulia Domchevska-Elena Movchan (UKR - 80 pts), Tatiana Petrenia-Ekaterina Mironova (BLR - 63 pts), and Jiang Yiqi-Gu Qingwen (CHN - 50 pts).  The men's tumbling rankings are so far dominated by Andrei Krylov (RUS - 70 pts), Adrian Brylka (POL - 53 pts), and Wang Jiexu (CHN - 50 pts).  In women's tumbling, Anna Korobeynikova (RUS) has so far a perfect score of 100 pts as she won the first two World Cups of the 2009 World Cup Series.  She is followed by Elena Chabanenko (UKR - 80 pts) and Karen Wilson (RSA - 46 pts). 

Overall, this 2009 Ostend World Cup will feature 132 entries from 18 countries (Australia, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Denmark, Georgia, Great Britain, Israel, Japan, the Netherlands, Portugal, Qatar, Russia, South Africa, Spain, the Ukraine, and the United States) representing the five continents.  Some of the most noticeable countries skipping the event include China, Germany, France, Poland, Switzerland, Uzbekistan, and Italy.  44 trampolinists will compete in men's individual trampoline, and 29 in women's individual trampoline.  17 and 10 pairs will battle for the medals respectively in men's and women's synchronized trampoline.  15 male tumblers and 17 female tumblers will compete in the tumbling event of the World Cup. 

The Flanders Fliffis Cup, which will feature individual trampoline, synchronized trampoline, and tumbling events in junior and youth age groups, attracted a spectacular turnout with 228 gymnasts from 14 countries (Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Ireland, Israel, Japan, the Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, and Spain).  

The city of Ostend has been a regular host of the World Cup Series over the years, traditionally pairing the World Cup with the organization of the International Flanders Fliffis Cup.  This 2009 World Cup will be the fourth time that Ostend will host a World Cup event.  Each past event was organized with great success.  The last time Ostend hosted a World Cup competition was in June 2007.  It was won by Yuri Nikitin (UKR) and Irina Karavaeva (RUS) in trampoline, and Andrei Krylov (RUS) and Anna Korobeynikova (RUS) in tumbling.  In August 2005, the Ostend World Cup was won by Alexander Rusakov (RUS) and Irina Karavaeva (RUS)  in trampoline, and Damien Walters (GBR) and Yulyia Hall (USA) in tumbling.  The first Ostend World Cup held in August 2003 was won by Yuri Nikitin (UKR) and Natalia Chernova (RUS) in trampoline.  These three past Ostend World Cups were all held in connection with the Flanders Fliffis Cup.

Belgium hosted another trampoline World Cup in April 2006 in Ghent, which was won by Yasuhiro Ueyama (JPN) and Irina Karavaeva (RUS) in trampoline, and Wang Jiexu (CHN) and Anna Korobeynikova (RUS) in tumbling.  Belgium also hosted a tumbling World Cup in February 1998 in Deinze.  It was won by Daniel Avakian (RUS) and Elena Bluzhina (RUS).  The only other major international trampoline event held in Belgium was the 1971 European Championship in Ghent, which was won by Paul Luxon (GBR) and Margarete Duell (FRG).    

Link to the official website

Link to the detailed nominative entries of the World Cup

Link to the detailed nominative entries of the Flanders Fliffis Cup

Link to the final program and workplan

Link to the FIG World Cup Series Rankings

Link to the FIG Preview