Russia dominated the junior competition in the first day of the 2016 Euros winning the team final, first two spots in the all around final and top qualifying spots to the four event finals. In a four up three count competition, they had a total of 168.179, over 4 points ahead of 2nd place GB and 3rd place Romania. They started on bars, where Iliankova and Perebinosova hit their very difficult routines, with good form in releases, difficult transitions and competitive dismounts (for a 14.6 and 14.4 respectively). Equally impressive was Russia’s beam rotation, with four routines that scored above a 14. Fan-favorite Varvara Zubova got buried in the team line-up and unfortunately did not make the event final as she was overtaken by team mates Eremina and Iliankova.
Great Britain had a total of 163.912 across the four rotations. They had a few mistakes but managed to contain those to one per event and pulled off competitive totals, especially on beam (2nd to Russia) and floor (3rd after Russia and Romania). Alice Kinsella was their top gymnast of the day with the highest scores of the team on all four events and a competitive 14.0/5.6 on balance beam; she qualified 3rd for the all around final. Maisie Methuen also qualified to the AA and beam finals.
Romania came very close to a silver medal (less than .3 behind GB), but eventually conceded to due to mistakes on bars and a nervous beam rotation. Ioana Crisan, 5th qualified into the all around and 3rd on beam, as well as Denisa Golgota (vault and floor finalist), were the best Romanians on the day. Romania “won” vault on the day after good DTYs from Cimpian and Golgota (14.933 – the best score of the meet, across the events). They “compensated” with an 8th place on bars though.
Italy placed 4th after a great vault rotation (three Yurchenko 1 1/2 and one DTY), but had mistakes on bars and beam. France placed 5th; they were really pretty to watch on floor and very good on bars but had a disaster on beam. Switzerland came in 6th, followed by Germany and Belgium.
Team final results:
AA qualifiers:
Event finalists:
Article: Bea Gheorghisor