Lucas Kochan misses European Gymnastics Championships due to cruciate ligament rupture

Lucas Kochan will miss the European Gymnastics Championships due to a cruciate ligament rupture. The 23-year-old suffered the knee injury a few days after being nominated by head coach Valeri Belenki at the training camp in Kienbaum while landing on the vault, as the German Gymnastics Federation announced on Tuesday. "It's bitter, I was in a very good mood and was looking forward to taking part in the European Championships," said Kochan, who is now facing a long forced break. "I didn't think the injury was that bad at first and even wanted to continue training. Now it's clear that neither the European Championships nor the Olympics are an option for me."

The absence of the Cottbus native means that the previous individual starter Milan Hosseini from TG Böckingen has been promoted to the German team for the title fights in Rimini, Italy. The vacant place in the singles will be taken by 18-year-old European Championship debutant Gabriel Eichhorn from MTV Stuttgart.