2009 World Championships Draw

23 July 2009

Three months before the 2009 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships to be held in October in London (GBR), the Drawing of lots for the competition was held at the FIG Headquarters in Lausanne (SUI), on Friday 17 July.

The Draw was conducted in the presence of the FIG Men's Technical Committee President Adrian Stoica (ROU), the FIG Women's Technical Committee delegate Donatella Sacchi (ITA) and the FIG Competition Manager for Artistic Gymnastics Céline Cachemaille (SUI).

As planned, the Draw followed the deadline for the Definitive registration which shows a very impressive participation of 457 gymnasts who will represent 75 countries.

The Draw divided the 283 men into 3 Subdivisions and the 174 women into 5 Subdivisions.

"We are absolutely delighted by the size of the field of the World Championships and now that we have had the Draw in Lausanne, the planning for the Training sessions of the gymnasts before the competition can begin”, said World Championships Event Director Matthew Greenwood.

"It is clear that the judges will have two very long Qualification days, but I am sure they will do a wonderful job and will qualify the best gymnasts to compete in the All-around and the Apparatus Finals. As for the organisation of this big event, we had out detailed plans already in place and now we can start the fine tuning of these plans, so that we are fully ready for October”, concluded Matthew Greenwood.

The competition which will be held in the spectacular O2 Arena, is obviously one of the key sporting events of the year not only for the gymnasts, but also for the Media- 120 press reporters and journalists have already been granted official accreditation by the FIG, while the Host Broadcaster BBC is preparing the event.

No secret about this surge of Media interest - the Gymnastics tournament in London 2012 will be held under the same roof, as in October, The O2 Arena will be the first to identify the new pretenders for Olympic glory who will challenge the present reigning gym-stars.

The names of the gymnasts who will compete in the World Championships will be known after the deadline for the Nominative registration, September 9, 2009.

Tickets are available on our tickets page and from www.theo2.co.uk now. Official Travel Packages are also available from thomsonsport.com.

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