It’s that time of the Euros again, when we look at the list of qualifiers for finals and we try to make some sense of it. A time when we inevitably forget there will always be a next competition, or another day of competition even. We are happy for the ones that made it, we are sad for the ones that are left behind.
Of course, some conclusions are very clear – that Great Britain and Russia are looking hot right now. that the Netherlands are setting the table for a great year, that Italy are really consistent and that Romania without Larisa Iordache amounts to little medals prospects.
Time will tell whether these observations mean a lot in the grand scheme of things. For now all we can do is enjoy the competition and notice whether our predictions were right or a bit off:
No surprise: Kharenkova and Spiridonova qualified for their events with top scores. Winners of the beam and bars respectively at the March Russian Championships, dominating the apparatuses in all days of competition, Maria and Daria confirmed today in Montpellier. They were among the few to receive 15+ scores for their routines and had no doubts regarding their spot in the finals.
Surprise: Maria Paseka, a last minute replacement for Alla Sosnitskaya, qualified for the vault final. Word was that Maria flew to Montpellier on Tuesday (no podium training for her). She competed a DTY and a layout Podkopayeva and managed to qualify with the fourth score into the vault final. She also had a score that would have allowed her access into the UB final, if not for the two per country rule. Not bad at all.
No Surprise: Veterans Vasiliki Millousi and Marta Pihan Kulesza will be competing in the event finals again. Vasiliki, who is 31, qualified to the beam final for the 4th time at Euros (after Milan 2009, Berlin 2011 and Brussels 2012). Marta, who is 28, will be competing in the floor final for the third time (after Brussels 2012 and Sofia 2014).
Surprise: Speaking of mature gymnasts, Ksenia Afanasyeva big come back kinda got lost among the myriad of statistics and extreme joys and sorrows. But she did what she came to do, qualifying for both vault and floor. I still don’t believe that she will show an Amanar and take the title on vault, like Valentina Rodionenko announced. But I would be (truly) surprised if she doesn’t step up to take that floor title.
No Surprise: Claudia Fragapane has a steady start of Championships. There were no big flashy scores on either of her events, but she qualified into four finals (AA, VT, BB, FX), only one in three gymnasts to succeed this. After a not-so-successful start of year at the American Cup, Claudia had better performances with each competition and is now looking comfortable with her routines. It was a bumpy but successful spring so far.
Surprise: Team mate Becky Downie shone on her two events – bars and beam – and qualified for both finals. After a disheartening performance at the British Championships less than three weeks ago, when she presented a watered down bars and had a few falls and a score of under 10.0 on beam, Becky’s selection to the Euros team was heavily debated. We (rightly) asked whether sending her to Euros was a good move since she was obviously not yet in the right physical or psychological state to compete. Today she provided all the answers and more.
No Surprise: Romania earned a total of four spots for the finals. As mentioned above, in the absence of Larisa Iordache and given the rather scarce results in the competitions leading up to Euros, it can’t be a surprise that Romania is not as well represented compared to other years. Diana Bulimar and Laura Jurca will be competing in the all around final, while Andreea Iridon is a reserve for the beam final.
Surprise: Andreea Munteanu qualified for beam and floor finals. Munteanu replaced Larisa Iordache who was recovering from an ankle injury and, she was the final addition to the Euro team. If you were to pick the top Romanian before the start of the competition, Diana Bulimar would have been favorite due to a superior competition record . Now that Bulimar is still recovering from back to back knee injuries ( complications due to a necrosis of the knee tissue) and has a way to go before reaching top shape Andreea Munteanu stepped up and made sure Romania is still present in the event finals.
No Surprise: Giulia Steingruber dominated floor and vault qualifications. She won the events at Doha World Cup just weeks before Euros and looked extremely comfortable with her routines. In Montpellier, although she had to upgrade vault, she further demonstrated how well prepared she is (despite the mishap on beam).
Surprise: Giulia also qualified for the uneven bars final. Maria Kharenkova and Sanne Wevers made it into the bars final too. All three are hard working gymnasts that showed a huge desire to progress on this event so it’s great to see their progress rewarded.
No Surprise: Vanessa Ferrari qualified for yet another all around final at Euros. Giuly wrote in her Italy Euros preview article about Vanessa’s health issues and how these had a significant impact on her training for the past months. But we’ve followed Vanessa for a while now and it’s not a surprise that, although she is not in top shape, she still managed to qualify for the all around.
Surprise: Or at least an interesting and noteworthy fact – Vanessa and team mates Rizzeli and Ferlitto had all around scores within .250 p each other, between the 54.558 of Ferarri and the 54.324 of Ferlito.
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So, what else did you notice that was surprising/ not so surprising/ or at least noteworthy?
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Article by: Bea Gheorghisor
Photo Cover: UEG on facebook