November 27, 2008

One More Reason Why We're Getting Less and Less Excited about the World Cup Final

According to the DTB site, Fabian Hambüchen will give the World Cup Final in Madrid a miss. Instead, the world champion on high bar will compete for his club, KTV Straubenhardt, in the Bundesliga Final, which will be held in Heidelberg on the same weekend (December 13).

It is rumored that Hambüchen is passing up on the World Cup Final because his club will reward him handsomely for taking part in the Bundesliga Final and make it more rewarding for him to stay in Germany than to go to Spain. However, officially he's staying at home because of a torn tendon in the little finger of his left hand, which has been bothering him ever since the Olympics. He's slated to go under the knife at the end of the year, and is expected to be out of action for 6 weeks.

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(Photo: Eurosport)

"In order to compete in a World Cup Final, I must be able to prepare well," the German champion was quoted as saying by the DTB site. "At the moment that's impossible, but for my teammates at KTV Straubenhardt I'll grit my teeth and hope that I can contribute to a good result in Heidelberg."

The good news for Hambüchen is that his club stands an excellent chance of winning the Bundesliga Final. The Straubenhardt team, which boasts Romanian world champ Marian Drăgulescu, 1988 Olympic floor champ Sergei Kharkov (aged 38!), 1992 Russian national junior champ Alexei Grigoriev and Hungary's Robert Gal among its members, is leading the standings after 6 competition days and is the great favorite to win the title.

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