By Moll Mannix
The reigning balance beam world champion Pauline Shäfer announced that will miss this year’s World Championships in Doha, Qatar after an injury to her ankle has not improved in the past few months. Leah Grießer will take her place on the German Worlds team.
Shäfer sustained a bone marrow edema to her left foot on the 15th of September during the first stages of the World Championships qualifications. At German Championships at the end of the month, she only competed on uneven bars due to this injury.
If she could have completed her bars routine perfectly, Shäfer would have been in medal contention for this event. As she is not able to compete her best events, she made the decision with her coaches to not attempt to defend her title of beam world champion, and instead focus on next year’s World Championships in Stuttgart.
The German Worlds team now consists of Elisabeth Seitz, Kim Bui, Sophie Scheder, Sarah Voss and Leah Grießer. Carina Kröll is the alternate.
