As Sara mentioned, I will be continuing the 2015 Euros recap with the best individual performances and a look at some of the let-downs.
Before that, I feel that another collective effort is worth mentioning: Netherlands’ very professional approach to these Euros (with two rounds of internal trials) was rewarded promptly, wasn’t it? Of course the most notable outcome was Sanne Wevers’ bronze medal on uneven bars. But let’s not forget that they qualified a gymnast to three event finals (van Klaveren on vault and Sanne who competed in the beam and bars finals). Add to that Eythora’s good all around placement (8th in qualifications, 12th in the final). Thorsdottir was a little bit unlucky too not to qualify for an event final herself: she was 9th on floor, after losing a tenth for stepping out of bounds.
Also, remember that the Dutch Federation opened up Euros participation and European Games participation to different sets of gymnasts. Celine van Gerner, for instance, is training for Baku. This team is building towards a massive result at Worlds, if they keep up.
Best of – Individual Performances
I would also like to draw attention to the special case of Sanne Wevers: she’s been around for so many years (she will turn 24 in September) and has always been a gymnast with great potential on balance beam. On this event, she struggled though ups and downs with hits and misses to achieve that balance beam final. But her beam routine is so intricate and nerve-wracking, it seems impossible to hit under pressure. And after the years of trying, her best result came on a different event; as if all this time the answer had been bars.Two hit routines, very few nerves (perhaps due to the lack of expectations) – it seemed unbelievably easy.
Giulia Steingruber had in France the meet of her career. She was in fantastic shape, confident and resilient. That was reflected in the execution of each routine (she had only one big mistake in the whole meet, on beam in qualifications) and in the results: gold in the all around, bronze on floor, silver on vault. She came to Montpellier with bigger routines on each event and better executed: she was known as great vaulter but here she surpassed expectations; she had been known for gigantic tumbling on floor, but this time she stuck her landings. She kept her form breaks to a minimum and kicked back stronger even after less satisfactory routines. I am curious to see what she will do next.
I thought that Claire Martin’s beam final draw was the most fortunate and helpful draw, but also the most instrumentsl to nerves and not-needed (extra) pressure. Her routine had remained the last chance for the host country to get a medal in the WAG competition. Last (eight) up on beam in the final, knowing what others had done, knowing that the medal was within reach, knowing that the score was achievable if she hit; Claire kept her cool and was almost flawless, winning the bronze medal. Chapeau!
.
Momentary disappointments
… or things that didn’t go so great and caused us some headaches.
(This is not to undermine their lasting impact – where this is the case- but because disappointment is such an egoistic word and makes me feel entitled.)
We suffered quite a lot with our favorites at these Championships. It was Romania’s time to become one of the major sources of disconcert: low difficulty scores (mostly in the mid 5s), tense and nervous performances in qualifications, an overall feeling that if there were a team final this year, quite a few other nations could have done much better. Fortunately, in the finals all the gymnasts hit their routines (10/10 hits) although the scores maintained quite low. Undoubtedly each team member learned from this experience. Diana Bulimar and Laura Jurca, after their solid AA performances, that they can help the team and that they can be counted on, but that they will need bigger difficulty and lots of repetitions in order to be able to hope for finals. Andreea Iridon and Andreea Munteanu saw that they have the capacity and the goods to win many beam medals in their senior careers, but they need not to hold back. Because that is the difference between 9th place in qualifications and a place on the podium.
Another not so stellar performance was the one of Italy. It was not an entirely pointless or useless competition (to quote a minor controversy we had in one of our dedicated Euro previews). But there were so many ‘almost’ moments that you can’t help but feel for them. There was Vanessa Ferrari and her final stumble on a floor pass in qualifications, which prevented her from advancing in the event final; then Vanessa’s and Carlotta Ferlito’s disappointing 11th and 1oth place on beam in qualifications. The frustration reached new heights with Erika Fasana’s 4th place finishes in the all around and floor finals. Both were fantastic achievements and came to support the pre-Euros hype surrounding her, but they stung badly as Erika’s scores were within less than a couple of tenths from a medal on both occasions.
But the most terrible disappointments were the injuries that took out of the competition gymnasts we were hoping would have much to say in Montpellier or in the next stages of the 2015 season. Anna Pavlova missed out on an opportunity to defend her silver medal on vault (won in 2014 at the Sofia Euros) after injuring her elbow in podium training (she was preparing for her bars training). And Jonna Adleteg tore her ACL during the all around competition, on a floor pass. It is a shame for Jonna to suffer this set-back just as she was becoming one of the uneven bars workers to watch this year.
Back to you Sara, what could you have done without at these 2015 European Championships?
Article: Bea Gheorghisor
Photo : UEG on Facebook