The last Serie A meet took place in Rimini last week-end and we got to see many gymnasts competing again. After Montpellier’s Europeans, Vanessa Ferrari was kept out of this competition in order to heal, and both Carlotta Ferlito and Erika Fasana were not in top shape due small health problems.
During the competition,a big announcement was made by Enrico Casella , the team for European Games is made by Tea Ugrin, Giorgia Campana and Alessia Leolini. Many gymnasts couldn’t attend Euro Games because of school exams or injuries, so you ccan say this will not be the most competitive team. For Tea this will be the first international competition as a senior after many injuries she has sustained in the last couple years. Also Giorgia Campana is coming back after a not too sharp 2014. As for Alessia, I have many doubts concerning her convocation, but we will see how it ends.
Let’s get back to Serie A. I won’t talk too much about the various team, but more about the gymnasts. I have to warn you that the scores were really too high, like many national championships, compared to the international standard. Also there were some bonus added to reward difficult; if you watch the official results, you can see it just before the final score for each event. The score I will right below are without that bonus.
BRIXIA BRESCIA
Erika Fasana just competed on two events, bars and floor. On bars her routine had some visible mistakes, bent legs in the Maloney, over arched back on a full turn and not too much fluidity ( 14.05) while on floor she did a watered down routine ( double layout, full-in, double pike) not as precise as usually on the landings (14.10).
Martina Rizzelli competed on three events, all but floor, and had the same problematic DTY with a legs separation on the table (14.60). Bars had some messiness too despite her good D score, she needs to clean that routine in order to be able to get good scores ( 14.15). Beam will never be a good event for her, so even a clean routine won’t get close to the high scores (12.80).
Giorgia Villa, a 2003 gymnasts, is looking more promising day after day. She had a clean layout Yurchenko on vault (13.50), basics but clean routines on bars and beam ( 13.60 – 13.40) a very good floor routine with one of the most clean triple twist I’ve ever seen. Giorgia is training many other skills and she might be one to watch for the future.
Last but not least, Sofia Busato came back after some issues on her knee. She did a huge DTY (15.00), but an untidy routine on bars, huge legs separation on her Pak , bent legs on the Maloney and just a double piked dismount( 13.20), sad since she has one of the most original routine for an Italian gymnast. Sofia will likely be part of the EYOF team being a 2000 girl.
ARTISTICA’81
Tea Ugrin has had quite some problems in her first years as a senior, but she’s showing she still wants to be considered as one of the top gymnasts in the country. She had a clean competition, FTY on vault ( 14.15), a nice bars routine, including a Maloney+bail to handstand, inbar stalder+ inbar stalder 1/1, a Gienger and a full in dismount, with a good 5.9 D score ( 14.15). Beam was a little shaky ( 14.20), and on floor Tea had some landing problems ( 13.60).
Olympian Giorgia Campana, who’s from Rome but competing for a different club, had a great beam routine, Kochetkova+layout stepout, split ring leap, double piked dismount ( 14.65) while on bars, her best event, despite being one of the few gymnast to compete an Ono and a Ono half, she lost control many times ( 13.75).
GAL LISSONE
As previously said, Carlotta Ferlito was not 100% ready. She started on vault with a bad 1 1/5 Yurchenko, low, turning hand on the table, bent legs and a landing all over the place ( 13.30). Bars were ok aside form a little hesitation on an handstand (13.35) and on beam, even if with good difficulty , Carlotta had small wobbles on pretty much every skill and bent legs on the 2.5 dismount. The score, 14.90, was too high for that performance. Floor was quite good despite a crooked triple twist ( 13.60).
Elisa Meneghini is looking better even if not at full strength. Still performs a simple FTY on vault ( 14.30) and doesn’t seem to add difficulty on bars ( 13.35), but on beam she performed her usually routine, front aerial+split+wolf, side aerial, switch ring and double piked, without problems (14.05). On floor Elisa added back the double layout (OOB), piked full-in, double back and double piked (13.65). She should focus more on dance skills, because a 5.6 D score with those diagonals is underachieving.
Romanian gymnast Ioana Crisan had an incredible 6.5 D score on beam with a wonderful mount and great skills, but again the 15.10 was not too deserved considering how many hesitation she had. Ioana also competed on floor, but went out of bounds with both feet twice (12.80).
PRO LISSONE
Enus Mariani is still recovering form the torn ligaments on her ankle, so, like in the past competitions, she just performed bars. A low D score, some problems and just a layout dismount didn’t gave her a great result ( 13.10).
Polish Martha Pihan- Kulesza earned some good score on bars ( 14.20) and beam ( 13.70).
Arianna Rocca ( Forza e Virtù), the gymnast who probably should have been named to the Euros team instead of Vanessa Ferrari, fell on her DTY ( 13.30) and also on her beam dismount (13.75). Aside form that fall, her routine was flawless and difficult. She also went OOB on floor, double layout, 2.5 twist, double piked and double back ( 13.10).
Francesca Deagostini, competing for Fratellanza Savonese, isn’t looking sharp. She lacked fluidity on beam ( 13.75) and a nice FTY ( 13.70) didn’t help the not so good performances on bars (12.10) and floor ( 12.65).
Alessia Leolini, Ginnastica Giglio, had an high score on vault with a handspring layout half ( 14.20) but all the other apparatus had too low D scores ( 4.9 on bars and beam, 5.0 on floor).
In the end, Brixia Brescia won again the tournament with Artistica’81 in second place and Gal Lissone in third.
If you want to watch the competition, here’s the link.
As a side note. Vanessa Ferrari has released a book about her life called “ Effetto farfalla” ( Butterfly effect) if anyone is interested. for now, we don’t know if it will be translated but we will keep you posted.
Article by: Giuly Holzer
Photo Cover: Nadia Boyce