At this year Jesolo City Trophy, Italy couldn’t send many of its best gymnasts due injuries and recoveries. Top gymnasts Erika Fasana and Martina Rizzelli are still recovering, and are only ready to compete bars, Vanessa Ferrari had surgery a few months ago, Sofia Busato is still having tendon problems, and Lara Mori sat the competition due some pain on her back. So this team, as Enrico Casella said himself, was an experimental one, and placing 3° just 1 point behind Brazil, which is bringing its A team to be ready for the Test Event, was quite impressive!
Let’s have a look to all the Italian gymnasts, junior and senior, who took part in this competition.
Juniors AA and EF
The juniors only competed an individual final. Giorgia Villa was the top scorer for the Italian team placing 6°. Her FTY on vault was not as good as I remembered, little distance and a very piked form ( 5.0 / 13.80), while on bars she’s giving some hope to Italy since she’s fluid and clean, with a good Tkachev+Pak combination, a Maloney to a bail to handstand and a high full in dismount (5.7 14.15). Beam and floor were a little underwhelming, but she has grown a lot in the past months and she’s adjusting to her new height. Also she’s young, she has plenty of time to clean up her form. On Sunday, Giorgia was 6° on floor, going oob on her triple twist (5.4 12.90) and 4° on bars (5.7 14.00). Martina Maggio was 7° in the AA with an off Yurchenko 1 ½ (5.3 13.95), a fall on the Ricna on bars but a good rhythm overall (5.4 12.70), a very nice beam routine with a solid bhs+layout stepout+layout stepout (5.7 14.15) and a very entertaining floor routine (full-in, front double twist, double back, double pike, 5.1 13.55). Martina was the most decorated Italian gymnast, earning 2 silver medals, on beam (5.7 13.60) and vault (14.05), and a bronze on floor (5.1 13.50). Francesca Noemi Linari placed 8° in the all around and was 4° in the beam final, performing a nervy routine (5.5 13.45). She also was 4° in the floor final (5.4 13.25). Maria Vittoria Cocciolo placed 9° in the AA and 6° in the bars final (4.8 12.55), Asia D’amato was 10° and placed 8° in the bars final due a bad fall on the bail to handstand (5.2 11.00). Martina Basile placed 8° on beam with a fall (5.2 12.60) and 4° on vault, performing a nice Yurchenko 1 ½ (13.825).
Seniors TF
The competition started on floor, where the low difficulty scores kept the big numbers in check. Tea Ugrin performed a downgraded routine, with just a double back, double pike and double twist (4.9 13.05), Giorgia Campana performed a similar one, but we won’t see much more from her later in the season (5.2 13.20). Desireè Carofiglio‘s routine was quite exciting, with a Dowell, a back 1 ½ twist to a front layout and a nice double front to finish, too bad her leaps and turns don’t match the difficulty of her tumbling (5.3 13.35). Enus Mariani’s performance was well received from the audience , her energetic and gorgeous style sets her apart from the other gymnasts and help her to obtain a good score ( 5.4 13.85). Carlotta Ferlito had a good routine, not as precise as in other meets, but all the passes were clean and the artistic part was fun to watch.
Vault rotation was looking a bit hard, since all the absent gymnasts, aside Mori, are the ones who perform the DTY. Ugrin, Campana, Mariani all did an FTY, and all of them lacked distance and amplitude, scoring in the high 13s, low14s. Alessia Leolini performed a rare handspring layout ½, quite piked down and with some form issues (5.4 14.20), while both Carlotta’s and Desireè ‘s yurchenko 1 ½ were quite good ( 5.3 14.65 14.55).
Bars still is a difficult place for Italy, and I’m quite upset the coaches aren’t going to search for same help in this regard. Bad composition, bad form and no originality drag the team down. Tea has a nice Gienger and beautiful inbar stalders, but her lack of precision during turns and small breaks here and there don’t let her to score over a low 14 (5.9 14.05). Enus bars are usually clean, but a weird fall on the Maloney and the lack of upgrades, result in an always minor chance to be relevant (5.7 13.00). She’s working on many skills, but at the end of the day she doesn’t show anything new, or if she does so and fall, forget to see that upgrade again. Ferlito’s routine was ok for her, aside for some legs apart and a few steps on the dismount (5.6 13.75). Giorgia was the only gymnast of the meet that performed some lovely pirouettes, but again she lacked precision and upgrades (5.6 13.7).
The team got to finish on beam, where Giorgia upgraded a bit, hit a good Kochetkova, had some little form breaks and a slightly low double piked dismount (5.7 13.90), Tea hit an elegant but very downgraded set ( 5.3 13.90) with just a simple double twist dismount. This apparatus is not Desireè’s best one, she was shaky and finally fell after struggling a lot (5.2 12.45). Enus’s beam was lovely, with a cool split+front aerial+ scale combination, a sissone+aerial cartweheel combination, a Y turn and a low landing double pike ( 5.6 14.15). Beam specialist Carlotta Ferlito was quite nervy and didn’t hit her best set, losing many connections (switch split+back tuck, front aerial+sheep jump) and she almost landed on her knees on the dismount (5.6 14.10). You could see Carlotta wasn’t feeling her best, since during the warm-up on floor, her legs where shaky and she was landing every pass on her butt.
Senior EF
With the 3 per country rule, the USA didn’t let much for the other countries. On vault, since only 1 Italian gymnast was ready to perform 2 vaults, they decided to let the gymnasts compete just one salto. Alessia Leolini performed once again a handspring layout half, piked in the landing and not great form in the air, to place 4° (5.4 14.20). Desireè Carofiglio’s yurchenko 1 ½ had a big leg separation on the block and a big step oob on the landing (5.3 14.10).
Tea Ugrin was the only gymnast of team Italy who made the bars final, and her routine was quite good until the dismount, where she was too slow on the rotation and fell on the full in dismount (5.9 12.95).
The beam final of this trophy was very impressive and with a high level of difficulty and execution. Carlotta was doing a great routine, with all the difficulty and connections and no wobbles, too bad , as anybody knows, she missed a feet during the round-off and fell on her neck landing the double pike. She has been quite busy in the last few weeks, with the American cup, a camp in Brescia and then Jesolo, so I know it’s easy to talk about that now, after knowing what happened, but I really think she should have rest. She already proved she’s valuable to the team and she’s competing no stop, so if other gymnasts can’t compete because they’re not in shape, it doesn’t mean she has to risk. Fortunately, Carlotta is fine, with just an ankle sprain and a big scare, but this accident could have been much more serious. Enus Mariani had to compete right after Carlotta, and since the same fall happened to her just 1 year ago during the Serie A, she showed nerves of steel nailing pretty well the routine (5.6 13.85).
Enus competed again in the floor final, showing artistry and maturity despite a low d score (5.4 13.75). What I don’t understand is, Enus can’t deliver big tumbles, why not working on higher dance skills, more difficult turns or turns combinations? Anyway, Desrieè fell on the first pass, a Dowell, but nailed her final pass, a double front (5.3 12.25). Again her dance skills are not so difficult, meaning that despite great passes, she has a very low d score. An upgrade for her could be adding a full-in as second pass, so she doesn’t have to count an easy 1 /2 twist .Giorgia Campana qualified for this final even if floor is her worst apparatus. She has simple passes (double pike, double twist, double back) and not the best presentation, but she can do her job (5.0 12.95).
Regarding the juniors, the Jesolo meet helped clearing the strengths and the weakness for the upcoming European Championships. Granted this year’s juniors are definitely weaker than the ones in the past years, so a bronze medal in the team final could be a huge goal. Giorgia Villa, being born in 2003, is sadly too young to take part to that competition, but Martina Maggio and Francesca Noemi Linari made a great case for themselves. Martina Basile could be a good addition, with a Yurchenko 1 ½ on vault and an interesting beam which includes a bhs+bhs+layout and a double piked dismount, and also Maria Vittoria Cocciolo is very good on beam and vault. The last spot could be a fight between Asia D’Amato, who’s strong on bars and vault, and Sidney Saturnino, who has a great potential on beam.
Let’s say this meet was not too relevant for the seniors in order to make decisions about the next competitions. Aside Ferlito, who’s becoming more consistent every day and aims for a possible beam final at Euros, the other members of this team are in a bubble, they are the gymnasts who are fighting for a spot in the major team. Tea Ugrin is still recovering from some problems, and needs to have a higher difficulty and to become more consistent, since she can be very valuable if her nerves do not surrender. For Enus the same speech, she needs to understand that if she wants the Olympics, she has to bring the big skills and numbers to the table. A hit bar routine bringing back the inbar stalders, could be great for the team, but she needs to understand that playing safe means she won’t go far. Desireè isn’t helping her cause either, too much falls and no big scores aren’t going to make a big impression to Casella, but she’s the youngest gymnast of the group, so she’ll have more chances in the future. While Alessia Leolini has shown she isn’t a strong contender yet, Giorgia Campana has come back after many issues and she’s not looking bad. Her strengths on bars and beam could be useful to the team, but a 5.6 d score is way too low for a specialist, and she also has to clean up her form.
We’re going to watch these gymnasts next in Rome for the Serie A on the 3rd of April, hoping to see great things!
Article: Giuly Holzer
Cover Photo: Myriam Cawston