Last weekend the Dutch nationals took place in Rotterdam. It was a downgraded national championships on the senior field since the best gymnasts did not attend. Lieke Wevers, Céline van Gerner and Lisa Top were at the Euro Games in Baku, Eythora Thorsdottir is working towards worlds and the nationals did not fit in her schedule. Other notable absences of the national team members were Noël van Klaveren, Chantysha Netteb, Isa Maassen, Shirley van Deene, Dana de Groot, Wendy de Jong, Hélène Houbraken who are all injured and Julia Bombach and Wyomi Masela who struggle with motivation.
In the AA competition Vera van Pol took the gold. A fall on beam was her only big mistake. The silver winner was a surprise, first year senior Mara Titarsolej. This elegant gymnast had a rough year and had a great competition up until beam (two falls and hands down one time). Mara also placed first on floor with a 14.000. The bronze went to last-year’s Dutch National Junior Champion, Tisha Volleman. Volleman had, besides one fall from beam, a good competition. Her scores were all in the 12’s with the exception of vault. But with Maartje Ruikes (4th place) having an off-day and Dyonaillys Supriana (5th) competing with watered-down routines she definitely deserved the bronze medal.
Reina Beltman (ankle injury) and Sanne Wevers only competed bars and beam.
Sanne Wevers did, as her sister Lieke in Baku, what she had to do. She qualified first on Saturday for bars and beam finals. Also Reina Beltman qualified for the bars and beam final.
Juniors
The juniors field was nearly complete. Of the national team members, only Esmee Parinussa and Noa Claver had to withdraw because of injuries. First year junior Marieke van Egmond has lovely form and is making real good progress since her club hired a new coach (Frank Louter). She had a rough day on bars but with three scores in the 13’s she is the most promising junior. She took home the bronze. Naomi Visser, another first year junior has the biggest D-scores in the field but is not consistent and does not have the clean lines as Marieke has. She placed 5th.
Morgan Lynn Spruitenburg took home the gold with a clean all around performance. But with all her scores below the 13, she won, in my opinion, because of the mistakes of others. The silver went to her teammate Sering Perdok, who had generally clean performance but made a mistake on beam. I think she is more promising than Morgan at the moment, but I think both will not fight for a high ranking in next years senior field.
Mirte de Reiger, a first year elite gymnast is also showing some potential. Though the 2016 Olympics will be way too early for her, but if she continues to improve like she did this year, who knows what she might achieve in 5 years time…
Technically, from the juniors we only got to see Tsukaharas piked & tucked, Yurchenkos straight & tucked on vault and a refreshing nice preformed front handspring piked sommersault from Sophie van Beek. On bars the only D-dismount came from Marieke van Egmond (full in) and from beam we mostly saw 1,5 twisting dismounts. On floor we saw some double sommersaults and some double twist only. So my conclusion is that all the juniors have to build up their difficulty fast if they want to get noticed in the senior field next season or two seasons from now.
Youth
As weak as the junior field is, as promising are the youth gymnasts. With two Yurchenko 1/1 from Juliette Berens and Bogusia Rossen, they already outscore the juniors on the difficulty level. From bars we have full ins from Sanna Veerman and Juliette Berens and a double straight from Bogussia Rossen. The double tuck beam dismount from Bogusia Rossen also stands out and then on floor Sanna Veerman has impressed with a lovely double Arabian, Bogusia Rossen with a full in as her first series and a double pike as the last and Juliette Berens with a double pike, 2.5 twist and a double tuck in her floor routine.
Sanna Veerman became national champion, Bogusia Rossen came in second less than point behind Sanna and Juliette Berens took the bronze.
Besides those three gymnast there is also, Raisha Rosario, a lovely clean performer who is building up her difficulty really fast at the moment who was 4th.
Maud Lammertink, from the same club as Marieke van Egmond is also showing great potential and was 5th. Vienne Supriana had a broken foot but was among the top youth at the beginning at the season. Glad she healed in time for the nationals with some watered down routines she took the 10th place. Teammate Talila Oughzou looks also promissing but this really tiny cute gymnast does not yet have high difficulty on vault and bars, besides that she is still very inconsistent. She finished 7th. On 8th place finished Olivia Mulready, teammate of Bogusia Rossen. She really was the top compulsory gymnast last year but has, due to injuries also, mixed results this year. Hopefully she will come back strong next season.
Event finals
No real surprises here. The vault and floor finals were won by Vera van Pol and the bars and beam finals by Sanne Wevers. On the junior field first year elite gymnast Sophie van Beek took home the gold on vault, Sering Perdok won bars and Marieke van Egmond won beam and floor. The youth really had a fight for the gold medals. Bogusia Rossen won vault and floor and Sanna Veerman bars and beam.
In the junior field Marisa Koedoot concluded her comeback on beam with a silver medal. After two years of injuries, this once most promising young Dutch gymnast, proves she still has the qualities. Hopefully she can shine on all four events next year.
Dutch gymnastics newssite www.gympower.nl uploaded some videos of the nationals on their youtube channel (Since this nationals is an event for all the “gymnastics related sports” you have to search among all the uploaded videos).
Results:
AA youth
Article by: Eef van Leeuwen
Photo Cover: Nadia Boyce