The start of the World Cup competitions in Doha for 22-year-old Selina Kickinger from Sportunion Böheimkirchen was the competition on her favorite piece of equipment, the uneven bars. But for Kickinger, who is training at the national base in Linz, the exercise did not go well and she had to settle for 15th place. “I got through my training, it was okay, but it wasn’t perfect for a long time, it could be cleaner,” she said, and as for the European Championships, she knows: “It’s I can definitely do better! “
According to Kickinger, the exercise was also adversely affected from the outside, as her competition would have been more than an hour earlier. “I had to wait a long time and a Korean woman in front of me did gymnastics without high bar leather, but she used a lot of honey and water, so it was very slippery. ” Kickinger also complains that she did not have time to close the parallel bars before preparing her performance because the gymnast who would have been ahead of her was accidentally suspended. “A lot of things didn’t go as planned, but I managed it really well,” said Kickinger, who isn’t complaining at all. “It was definitely a good rehearsal and now I think I’m more prepared for any eventualities!
Kickinger then entered three new combinations for the first time on the balance beam, one of which failed and the fall dropped her back to 23rd place. “The behavior will stop,” she now beeps the oops on her “anxiety machine” with anxiety. “The exercise always goes well in training, but unfortunately I have never been able to present it so perfectly in competition. There’s always a bit of a worm! This time it was the acrobatic sequence again, which is really not easy. It’s not for nothing that few people do gymnastics and there’s even an extra two-tenths bonus.” The series would be worth 1.4 points in total if successful. “Her everyone tells me that I need to be a little patient, but I’ve never been known for my great patience, and if I want to go to Paris, the beam exercise at the European Championships next week has to work,” says Kickinger , who already knows what the training week is like. “I’m going to use, use and use on the seam!”
On the floor, Kickinger performed her routine for the first time with the 2.5-fold screw at the end, which was almost enough for a second Austrian in the final with Charlize Mörz, and in the end she came in the eleventh place. “It worked very well,” said Kickinger, satisfied, as she was able to increase her difficulty by three tenths. “There were a lot of really good things in the workout and I got a good final score.” Kickinger was able to do the new acro sequence with the 2.5-fold screw at the end perfectly, which gave her another two-tenths bonus on because of the D coming down. But she is even more happy with how the exercise was received in the hall. “I was praised by the judges and the moderator in the hall because of my art and to special because it’s a really interesting exercise you don’t hear that every day!” However, there is still room for improvement at the European Championships. “Although all my athletic elements were very good, I can land a little bit better,” he said. that’s what she plans to do at the European Championships in Rimini.
For Kickinger, this is the third European Championship in which she was able to participate. It starts on the 28th of April and the qualification will take place on the 2nd of May. “I’m very excited,” says Kickinger, “Now we just have to do the final touches and then we can start.”
The four World Cups in Cairo, Cottbus, Baku and Doha were the last Olympic qualification opportunities for two starting places for each machine. Only gymnasts who had not yet qualified for Paris personally or through their country were included in the Olympic rankings. Here Charlize Mörz could no longer challenge the quota place and she kept the top position even after Doha, even if the Burgenlander did not have the best day.
