Germany sends star athletes to Baku 2015

The German NOC, the DOSB, announced a list of almost 300 athletes, from which an expected 267 will make the trip to the Baku 2015 European Games. Some of the nominated players will not make the cut - in disciplines such as Canoe Sprint, Diving and Volleyball.

But Germany's team in Azerbaijan will feature some of the biggest names in their respective sports.

Table Tennis stars Dimitrij Ovtcharov and Timo Boll not only have five Olympic medals, eight World Championship silver medals and seven European Championship singles gold medals between them. The duo are also the top two ranked Europeans in Table Tennis, ranked sixth and seventh respectively.

And women's Table Tennis player Petrissa Solja is currently ranked 22nd in the world - but fourth-highest among the European women's players eligible to compete internationally.

Germany also have strong chances of winning medals in Canoe Sprint as their team includes Olympic and 13-time world champion Ronald Rauhe; Olympic and three-time world champion Sebastian Brendel; world champion Ronald Verch; Olympic and seven-time world champion Conny Waßmuth; and Olympic and three-time world champion Franziska Weber.

Another big name on the German team is the Horizontal Bar double Olympic medallist and former world champion Fabian Hambüchen, who skipped the 2015 European Artistic Gymnastics Championships to concentrate on Baku 2015.

"The focus of the first European Games will be the sports in which the athletes can qualify directly for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games," said the German Chef de Mission, Mr. Dirk Schimmelpfennig. "And those are Table Tennis, Shooting and Triathlon, in which the winners get their ticket for Rio."

"In addition, these European Games are of special meaning for all of the sports in which there are qualification spots or ranking points for qualification for Rio 2016."

Here is the German team:

Archery (will be cut to three men's and women's athletes): Florian Floto, Sven Herzig, Florian Kahllund, Simon Nesemann, Cedric Rieger, Eric Skoeries, Christian Weiss, Felix Wieser, Veronika Haidn-Tschalova, Elena Richter, Lisa Unruh, Karina Winter

Badminton: Raphael Beck, Dieter Domke, Andreas Heinz, Carola Bott, Fabienne Deprez, Jennifer Karnott, Kira Kattenbeck

Boxing: Serge Neumann (49kg), Hamza Touba (52kg), Edgar Walth (56kg), Atdhe Gashi (60kg), Kastriot Sopa (64kg), Abass Baraou (69kg), Denis Radovan (75kg), Igor Teziev (81kg), Albon Pervizaj (91kg), Max Keller (+91kg), Ornella Wahner (51kg), Azize Nimani (54kg), Tasheena Bugar (60kg), Cindy Rogge (64kg), Sarah Scheurich (75kg)

Canoe Sprint (20 of these 30 athletes will be chosen by the end of May)

- Canoe: Sebastian Brendel, Sebastian Hennig, Stefan Kiraj, Johann Kretschmer, Erik Leue, Michael Müller, Yul Oeltze, Ronald Verch

- Kayak: Jonas Ems, Marcus Groß, Max Hoff, Martin Hollstein, Max Lemke, Tom Liebscher, Paul Mittelstedt, Ronald Rauhe, Max Rendschmidt, Lukas Reuschenbach, David Schmude, Martin Schubert, Kai Spenner, Kostja Stroinski, Tina Dietze, Melanie Gebhardt, Verena Hantl, Sabrina Hering, Steffi Kriegerstein, Sabine Volz, Conny Waßmuth, Franziska Weber

Cycling BMX: Maik Baier, Luis Brethauer, Nadja Pries

Diving (two divers will be cut): Nico Herzog, Philipp Kaebsch, Cao Tri Le Nguyen, Carlo Leuchte, Lou Massenberg, Dennis Nothaft, Frithjof Seidel, Fränze Jahn, Saskia Oettinghaus, Jana Rother, Josefin Schneider, Louisa Stawczynski, Christina Wassen, Elena Wassen

Fencing: Jörg Fiedler (Épée), Georg Dörr (Foil), Alexander Kahl (Foil), Mark Perelmann (Foil), Niklas Uftring (Foil), Richard Hübers (Sabre), Björn Hübner (Sabre), Maximilian Kindler (Sabre), Robin Schrödter (Sabre), Britta Heidemann (Épée), Sandra Bingenheimer (Foil), Carolin Golubytskyi (Foil), Anne Sauer (Foil), Franziska Schmitz (Foil), Anna Limbach (Sabre)

Acrobatic Gymnastics: Katharina Bräunlich, Laura Jolitz, Flora Sochor, Sophie Brühmann, Nikolai Rein

Aerobic Gymnastics: Paul Engel, Antje Nowak

Artistic Gymnastics: Fabian Hambüchen, Sebastian Krimmer, Andreas Toba, Kim Janas, Sophie Scheder, Elisabeth Seitz

Rhythmic Gymnastics: Natalie Hermann, Anastasija Khmelnytska, Daniela Potapova, Dar’a Sajfutdinova, Sina Tkaltschewitsch, Rana Tokmak

Judo: Tobias Englmaier (60kg), Sebastian Seidl (66kg), Christopher Völk (73kg), Sven Maresch (81kg), Alexander Wieczerzak (81kg), Marc Odenthal (90kg), Karl-Richard Frey (100kg), Dimitri Peters (100kg), Andre Breitbarth (+100kg), Mareen Kräh (52kg), Miryam Roper (57kg), Viola Wächter (57kg), Martyna Trajdos (63kg), Szaundra Diedrich (70kg), Laura Vargas Koch (70kg), Luise Malzahn (78kg), Franziska Konitz (+78kg), Jasmin Külbs (+78 kg)

Blind Judo: Ramona Brussig (57kg)

Karate: Ricardo Giegler (67kg), Noah Bitsch (75kg), Jonathan Horne (+84kg), Jasmin Bleul (Kata), Duygu Bugur (50kg)

Shooting: Karsten Bindrich, Ralf Buchheim, Michael Goldbrunner, Andreas Löw, Daniel Brodmeier, Michael Janker, Henri Junghänel, Julian Justus, Oliver Geis, Christian Reitz, Florian Schmidt, Jana Beckmann, Katrin Quooß, Christine Wenzel, Barbara Engleder, Beate Gauß, Amelie Kleinmanns, Lisa Müller, Munkhbayar Dorjsuren, Monika Karsch, Stefanie Thurmann

Swimming: Thore Bermel, Moritz Brandt, Ole Braunschweig, Maximilian Forstenhäusler, Paul Hentschel, Alexander Lohmar, Henning Mühlleitner, Ronald Müller, Tobias Niestroy, Nico Perner, Leo Schmidt, Paulus Schön, Johannes Tesch, Marek Ulrich, Moritz Walaschewski, Konstantin Walter, Jana Augenstein, Lea Boy, Thea Brandauer, Katrin Gottwald, Marie Graf, Laura Kelsch, Leonie Kullmann, Julia Mrozinski, Lia Neubert, Phillis Range, Josephine Tesch, Hana van Loock, Maxine Wolters, Jana Zinnecker

Synchronised Swimming: Michelle Zimmer

Taekwondo: Levent Tuncat (58kg), Tahir Gülec (80kg), Volker Wodzich (+80kg), Anna-Lena Frömming (57kg), Rabia Gülec (67kg), Yanna Schneider (+67kg)

Table Tennis: Timo Boll, Dimitrij Ovtcharov, Patrick Baum, Ying Han, Petrissa Solja, Xiaona Shan

Trampoline: Martin Gromowski, Kyrylo Sonn, Leonie Adam, Silva Müller

Triathlon: Jonas Breinlinger, Lisa Sieburger

Water Polo: Alexander Bayer, Philipp Dolff, Benjamin Flammersberger, Dan Hilgendorf, Efstratios Manolakis, Rafael Nawrat, Daniel Reimer, Fynn Schütze, Konstantinos Sopiadis, Denis Strelezkij, Robin Toth, Vincent Winkler, Filip Zugic, Nele Baumbach, Ira Deike, Franziska Dregger, Sophia Eggert, Victoria Fischer, Aylin Fry, Nadine Hartwig, Vivian Hohenstein, Lotte Hurrelmann, Lynn Krukenberg, Leonie Prinz, Jamie Verebelyi, Meike Weber

Men's Volleyball (will be cut to 14 players): Michael Andrei, Marcus Böhme, Tim Broshog, Christian Fromm, Simon Hirsch, Björn Höhne, Denis Kaliberda, Lukas Kampa, Georg Klein, Tomas Kocian, Sebastian Kühner, Matthias Pompe, Moritz Reichert, Jochen Schöps, Falko Steinke, Tom Strohbach, Leonhard Tille, Ferdinand Tille, Phillip Trenkler, Dirk Westphal, Jaromir Zachrich, Jan Zimmermann

Women's Volleyball (will be cut to 14 players): Mareen Apitz, Carina Aulenbrock, Heike Beier, Anja Brandt, Maren Brinker, Lenka Dürr, Jennifer Geerties, Denise Hanke, Saskia Hippe, Denise Imoudu, Lisa Izquierdo, Margareta Kozuch, Juliane Langgemach, Louisa Lippmann, Jennifer Pettke, Jana Franziska Poll, Leonie Schwertmann, Wiebke Silge, Lena Stigrot, Lisa Thomsen, Janine Völker, Laura Weihenmaier, Kathleen Weiß

Freestyle Wrestling: Marcel Ewald (57kg), Samet Dülger (65kg), Tim Müller (70kg), Georg Harth (74kg), William Harth (86kg), Stefan Kehrer (97kg), Nick Matuhin (125kg), Jaqueline Schellin (48kg), Nina Hemmer (53kg), Laura Mertens (55kg), Luisa Niemesch (58kg), Nadine Weinauge (63kg), Aline Focken (69kg), Maria Selmaier (75kg)

Greco-Roman Wrestling: Deniz Menekse (59kg), Matthias Maasch (66kg), Frank Stäbler (71kg), Pascal Eisele (75kg), Jan Rotter (80kg), Ramsin Azizsir (85kg), Oliver Haßler (98kg), Eduard Popp (130kg)