Nadia Comaneci International Invitational took place last week-end (13-15 February) in Oklahoma.
You can find the individual results for each session and levels three to 10 here. Unfortunately the missing piece are the results of the Elite International competition. There were two sources that reported on the competition results, IG magazine (you can read the article here) and Puzzle Gym on Facebook (most likely from a source in the Romanian camp present at the competition). Unfortunately we can’t (for now) add much more to what was already said in the above mentioned article but here are some of the highlights:
The top competitors were Jessica Lopez (8th all around at 2014 Worlds), Elizabeth Vasileva (the Bulgarian junior that started out as a rhythmic gymnast and that has impressed with her artistic skills and flexibility) and a trio from the Junior National Romanian team (Deva), Ioana Crișan, Olivia Cîmpian and Alexandra Mihai, all born n 2001.
A couple of words about the Romanians: Ioana Crișan is an axcellent all around gymnast that made her mark in 2014 by winning the all around Junior title at Romanian Nationals (in addition to vault and beam titles). She also participated with her team mates from Deva to various international competitions – 2014 Nadia Comaneci International, Massilia, Top Gym. Olivia Cîmpian is another internet darling that started out as a rhythmic gymnast but has switched to artistic gymnastics. She is still very graceful and also quite strong and one of her favorite pieces is floor (won the title in 2014 at Top Gym, 2nd at Massilia last November). Alexandra Mihai is another promising member of the 2001 generation, 3rd all around and 1st of floor at 2014 Romanian Junior Nationals.
But returning to the competition that took place last weekend – in the Junior competition Romania took the team title, followed by Canada and a mixed team consisting of Elizabeth Vasileva and three gymnasts from the host club (Bart Conner Academy).
In the all around, there was a tie for the first place between Olivia Cîmpian and Ioana Crișan. Vault and floor were all Romanian podiums. On bars, Crișan took the silver, Cîmpian the broze and on beam Crișan took the gold medal and Mihai the bronze. Bars gold and beam silver went to Laurie-Lou Vezina from Canada.
In the senior competition Jessica Lopez competed only on beam and bars and International Gymnast reported she earn marks in the high 14s and even 15s for her routines.
Here are the probable ranks for teh Juniors (please do comment if you have additions or have found results or video):
Team Competition
1 România Deva (Crișan, Cîmpian, Mihai) 2 Canada (Laurie-Lou Vezina, Victoria Jurcă) 3 Mixed (Vasileva, Dunn, Stapleton, Henry)
All Around
1 Crisan and Cimpian (tie)
3 Laurie-Lou Vezina
Vault
1 Crișan 2 Cîmpian 3 Mihai
Uneven bars
1 Laurie-Lou Vezina 2 Crișan 3 Cîmpian
Balance beam
1 Crișan 2 Laurie-Lou Vezina 3 Mihai
Floor Exercise 1 Cîmpian 2 Mihai 3 Crișan
Note: this article was amended on February 17th. Laurie-Lou Vezina was added in the Junior ranks, with medals on bars and beam.
Article by: Bea Gheorghisor
Picture via Nadia Comaneci on Facebook
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