The largest ever 35th Tournament of Masters and F.I.G. Challenger World Cup took place in Cottbus, Germany at the Lausitz-Arena on March 11 – 13, 2011. Qualifications took all day Friday and the men’s and women’s event finals on all ten apparatus were split between Saturday and Sunday.

Olympic champions, World Championship and Continental champions were in the field of the 227 gymnasts that included 151 men and 76 women from 46 different countries.

The format of the World Cup meets is that only two gymnasts per country may try to qualify on each individual apparatus for the finals. These gymnasts will compete “Turnier der Meister” which means they will compete on all four events, but there’s no all-around competition.

The format of this meet normally means only four gymnasts compete for the three medals and the approximately $2700 prize money per event. Because of the large number of gymnasts (220 gymnasts) competing, the individual event finals will include eight competitors.

There are no gymnasts competing from the United States, Italy or Romania. Romania complained about the lack of podium training time they would have and chose not to compete. It is not uncommon for gymnasts and countries to skip World cup competitions because it does not fit in their training schedule, injury or for other strategic reasons.

There are two formats for World Cup competitions. As of now there are four A-World Cup meets in which an invitation to a limited number of the world’s best gymnasts.
1. American Cup – March 5, 2011, in Jacksonville,FL., USA
2. Grand Prix – April 16 2011, in Glasgow, Great Britain
3. DTB Cup – Nov. 12-13, 2011 in Stuttgart, Germany
4. World Cup – November 26-27, 2011 in Tokyo, Japan

The meets in the former World Cup-B series Challenger Cup format use the old pattern of competition and are open to a wider range of gymnasts.
The new B Cup series competitions include:
1. March 11-13, 2011 in Cottbus, Germany
2. March 20-21, 2011 in Doha, Quatar
3. September 3-4, 2011 in Ghent, Belgium
4. September 23-24, 2011in Maribor, Slovenia
5. November 4-5, 2011 in Osijek, Croatia
6. November 18-19, 2011 in Ostrava, Czech Republic