Larisa Iordache won three out of four gold medals in the event finals at Romanian nationals: on vault, bars and floor. It was an all in all similar showing, compared to the previous day, for the Romanian leader. In the event finals hit vault, bars and floor but had a fall on beam. Her only fall of the day came on one of her insanely difficult skills, the layout full on beam. On floor, she lost some tenths in difficulty after missing the quadruple turn but had better controlled landings overall, compared to Saturday.
Keeping in mind that Larisa was presenting increased difficulty on 3 out of 4 events, this meet’s performances can be considered a very promising beginning.
Andreea Munteanu, who was doing only on beam and floor at this competition, took the title on beam and the silver on floor. She has a new routine, in a similar style (I believe still a tango) and has kept some of her old choreo but to a more pleasing effect (to my taste).
The third mention of the day must go to junior Andreea Iridon who hit all her events, managing to squeeze onto the podium on bars and beam, despite very harsh judging, especially for the junior routines. Throughout this Nationals she looked comfortable and determined, almost aggressive in the way she attacked the apparatus (especially on beam). This year Andreea demonstrated a “hunger” to succeed rarely shown during competitions.
Here are the top three per event:
Vault:
- Larisa Iordache
- Andreea Ciurusniuc
- Ana Maria Ocolisan, Stefania Stanila and Stefania Orzu (tie)
Bars:
- Larisa Iordache
- Andreea Iridon
- Ana Maria Ocolisan
Beam:
- Andreea Munteanu
- Larisa Iordache
- Andreea Iridon
Floor:
- Larisa Iordache
- Andreea Munteanu
- Stefania Stanila
And here we have some updates related to Saturday’s all around competition:
* extended results have been published on the official website of the Romanian Federation of Gymnastic, still no difficulty marks. [Link]
* (this is via GymFanRo on Facebook) Larisa said after the AA competition that “I miss Didi (Diana Bulimar)! I am used to having her by my side. We have been in the same team together for seven years. I’m so sorry that she can not compete. I’ll stay by her side and encourage her until she returns in the gym. I hope it will happen soon. To train and compete together again” [Link]
* AA videos have emerged, you can see them here and here.
And here is Larisa’s 14.75 bars routine, which brought her the national title on the event:
Later Edit: Andreea Munteanu’s beam routine:
Later Edit: Full results
Article by Bea Gheorghisor
Cover photo romgym.ro