Running on water will soon be an Olympic sport. These days, this seemingly miraculous discipline, called coastal rowing, can be seen at the “Finals”: the combined championships of 24 sports in Hanover. On the Steinhuder Meer, the rowers sprint into the boat and, after a slalom course, return to land to the finish. Beach volleyball is played in front of the opera, and the rugby players determine their champion in the 7s variant.
And in the all-around artistic gymnastics competition, Andreas Toba – in a classic way – took third place again at the age of 35 in his hometown of Hanover.
For more than twenty years, Andreas Toba from TK Hannover was one of the best gymnasts in the country and took part in the Olympic Games four times. In 2016 in Rio de Janeiro he tore his cruciate ligament and still took part in his exercise on the pommel horse to secure the team result. He has been working as a national coach since his last international competition in 2025 at the World Cup in Leipzig. “Considering that I’m actually retired and only do gymnastics as a hobby, I think it’s nice to see that if you do things with passion, it can turn out well,” he said. This time Radomyr Stelmakh from SC Cottbus became the German all-around champion in Hanover.