A few weeks before 2014 Worlds I went to see Romania (plus Germany and Switzerland) in a friendly match somewhere near Zurich. It was the 6th of September, one week after Romanian Nationals, the first and only test “on foreign ground” under the observant, and as objective as possible, eyes of international judges. Romania ended the meet with its reputation slightly crumpled, after losing to Germany, 219 points to 220.
Someone close to the team asked for my opinion after the event. The truth was that I did not allow myself to think about it too much or to appreciate in any way the gymnasts’ evolution after one bad meet.
But something stood out. I was judging the circumstances, faith, bad planning or terrible misfortune ?, that brought the team in a situation when they were posting strictly four routines on uneven bars. Three of those routines looked unstable and had low difficulty (around 5.0). This, when a World Championship with qualifications by the five compete / four count rule was just around the corner. While the other apparatuses looked absolutely approachable, uneven bars looked bad by any standards. Fatally so.
Fast forward 4 weeks later and it was hardly a surprise when the qualifying session happened in the same manner : decent vaults, great beam, despite falls, good floor. But an uneven bars rotation of 39 points and 25th place on the event. Romania was luckily qualifying from 7th place for the final.
I was writing after the prelims ended: “Not many will want to remember this day riddled with mistakes and falls. When these pile while you are already vulnerable due to overall low overall difficulty, a 7th place is something to be grateful for. But there are some positive aspects: the vault rotation with three 9+ execution scores for the three DTYs, the evolutions of Paula Tudorache who competed well her routines on both bars and beam, Stanila on bars and floor, Munteanu on both beam (despite the fall) and floor (despite the OOB), Ocolisan on floor. Of course Larisa Iordache managed to keep it together for Romania, looking prepared and strong for the first time at a Worlds Championship. She had the 3rd all around total (with a mistake on bars) and qualified 2nd behind Biles on both beam and floor. She is also the 1st reserve on vault. She will set the tone and turn things for her team by the end of this Worlds.
At the end of the day, not much was lost for Romania: the biggest heartbreak will be Munteanu’s absence from the beam final… and that’s about it. Perhaps we can add to that a bruised ego. But then again a similar team total was obtained a few weeks ago in a friendly match so this was not a surprise. Unlike a few weeks ago, each gymnast contributed with some good performances, although it was unfortunate that (the mistakes) piled on the same event (or even the same routine).”
Who would have thought that only two days later, at the end of the team final, Romania will cry…
for missing out on a bronze medal by 0.5?
Almost everything worked during the final: they started with three secure floor routines, from Munteanu and Stanila scoring in the mid 13s and then Iordache upped the game with a 14.7. Then the vault rotation went even better, after three strong Yurchenko double fulls (Stanila, Ocolisan and Iordache).
“It was good so far” told them coach Sandu while moving towards their most feared event. But this time Stanila set the table with a routine of just under 13, then Larisa, who was just getting started in her mission for her team, hit an upgraded routine for a score of over 14. The replacement of Ocolisan, who had had the two mistakes in qualifications, with Tudorache, also paid off: Paula managed to hit her routine for a score in the high 12s.
Three rotations went by almost without error. But when the final one is beam and when all three routines contain a back tuck full, you know a major error is bound to happen. Stefania Stanila eventually cracked under the pressure and fell in the opening routine. Munteanu had something to prove after qualifications and was flawless (15.200/6.3), as did Larisa Iordache (15.5/6.5). Romania ended in tears .5 behind Russia, with Stefi Stanila apologizing to everyone who would listen for “the mistake that cost the team a medal”.
Of course this is technically true; and this is what the trick of putting teams “race” against one another by competing on different events at the same time would have you believe. They call it suspense and it fares well with the audiences. In reality, the medal had been out of reach all that time: Russia won a head start of 4.4 points in the bars rotation, their first, and then gave out important points on beam and floor, but not enough.
“We have a young team, that is now growing/maturing. But we wouldn’t have come so close if others had not had mistakes” said coach Sandu after the final. The beauty of this declaration is that’s so concise, yet it contains the entire story of the final. That part about the “young team” speaks about the future and it means “We may not be worthy medalists if others don’t mistake… just yet”.
Besides a spectacular jump from 7th in qualifications to 4th in the final, there were other positives for Romania:
Vault is starting to look really good despite the “conservative” all-DTY approach; these vaults are clean and effective.
As insanely risky as the beam rotation was, it was also their best in the day of the final. The duo Munteanu-Iordache managed to gather enough points to compensate for Stanila’s 13.2 , and then some, managing to still earn the top total on beam among the eight teams.
Stefania Stanila has grown immensely over the past year: she already had a DTY on vault as a junior, but it never looked as good as it does now. On bars she has improved her form and handstands, also adding a more difficult (and unusual) dismount. Beam and floor are far improved compared to last year. The quality is apparent and the execution scores are on par:
Beam: Antwerp 2013 – 12.266 (5.3) Nanning 2014 – 13.200 (5.5) both with a fall
Floor: Antwerp 2013 -12.7 (5.4), Nanning 2014 13.666 (5.4)
The invaluable experience of competing (and well) in a World final when everybody brought their top game: Munteanu especially, who is so young and ambitious and manages everything she sets her mind to, for the team; Paula Tudorache, who did her best on bars, an event Romania suffers the most, especially since she was herself terrified not to let down again; Ocolisan – who did not over-think and threw an amazing DTY in the team final.
Larisa Iordache, ever so selfless, posting a total score on par with her all around final and giving out her best beam routine of the Championships for the team.
The team of coaches, Lucian Sandu, Lacramioara Moldovan and Cristian Moldovan, who have quietly prepared this team for the past months (and the years before). They proved here that stability, a healthy atmosphere, even when the bar is set high, are the grounds of good results.
With the addition of 2015 seniors Laura Jurca and Andreea Iridon, the return of Diana Bulimar, bars is not looking as grim all of a sudden. Iridon is a polished bars worker, the only challenge for Larisa at the recent Nationals and has good difficulty on this event (Ricna, full in dismount) as is Jurca (who does a pretty good Hindorff), while Diana Bulimar does not have huge elements but manages execution scores of over 8.5 and is very consistent.
At the end of the day, with or without this 4th place, Romania would have had far better chances from 2015 onwards. But it was a thing of beauty to watch how this placement happened.
2014 had all the premises to become the most unfortunate year in recent memory: with the least amount of gymnast (the reserve , Ioana Nicoara, came from Deva, she doesn’t even train with the National team), after three months of training (remember the clips from July when they saying that they were slowly starting to prepare for Worlds, that was not quite a figure of speech) and after Diana Bulimar’s injury in August.
The pain we felt when the bronze slipped through their fingers was terrible and hard to grasp. But it felt so good. For the gymnasts it was the discovery of giving it all and coming so close to a major medal.
For us spectators it was Romanian gymnastics emerging from its darkest year with a new wave of gymnasts that can, and will, come to play.
Article by Bea Gheorghisor
Photo cover: Nadia Boyce