The second meet of the Serie A took place in a big venue, the Palalottomatica in Rome, where Brixia Brescia won another title and new senior Martina Maggio won the unofficial AA. Elisa Iorio, Alice D’Amato and Martina Basile were absent due their partecipation to the Junior Mediterranean games in Guadalajara, Spain. Giorgia Villa, who got injured in Jesolo, had a surgery to repair a partial rupture of the Achilles tendon, and she’s expected to be back in 6 months.
- As previously said, Martina Maggio won the the AA with a respectable 53.35 and it looks like she has recovered from her past injury. She did a nice DTY ( 14.40), hit the Maloney + Tkachev combination on bars but just dismounted with a double pike ( 13.30) and performed a nice routine on floor with a good full-in, a double back, a 1 1/5 front twist and double piked ( 13.35), while she fell on beam. Since beam used to be her best event when she was younger, seeing how much she has regressed in term of confidence and difficulty is really sad. Of course, working at Brixia has really helped her improving on vault and bars, but the lack of good beam workers in the next generation is quite scary right now.
- Asia D’Amato had the 2nd AA score of the day. Her DTY had great amplitude and was almost stuck ( 14.40) and she also hit a nice bar routine ( Ricna+ pak, Maloney+ bail, double front dismount) after some issues she had with it earlier this year ( 13.45). She was tentative on beam ( 13.05) and had landing issues on floor (12.35).
- New senior Desireè Carofiglio hit a nice Yurchenko 1 ½ despite the wonky landing ( 14.00), had a few form issues and didn’t hit all the handstand on bars (12.65), hit both the Dowell and the double front on floor despite a big step on the latter (13.30). She had to add a simple front layout+1/1 twist to fulfill the requirement, hoping she’s going to upgrade her double back to a full in.
- Veteran Lara Mori had a great performance on floor ( full-in, Memmel, back 2 ½ to front layout, triple twist, double piked) and almost stuck all the passes ( 13.80). Her FTY was spot on as always (13.60). Lara had problems on both bars (12.45) and beam (12.85) with low difficulty and bad form.
- Elisa Meneghini competed the AA for the first time in the season with all watered down routines, where her FTY was well done ( 13.60) , bars was pretty basic, beam had wobbles on almost all the skills ( roundoff+layout, full turn, side somi, front aerial+split+wolf jump) and she also did a new mixed combination, a switch split+straddle jump+bhs ( 13.00) On floor she unveiled her new front pass, an almost stuck double Arabian where she went OOB, a good full-in where a foot went OOB, a great and open double back, and a slightly over-rotated double piked, where she went OOB with a foot once again( 12.55). I think she has grown a bit from Rio and that she’s probably adjusting to her new height.
- Giada Grisetti has a really nice composition on bars, with a inbar 1/1+ Maloney+ bail + stalder 1/1, inbar ½ + endo + double front, too bad she has a loose back most of the times that ruins her great lines (13.80). The new DTY needs work, especially on the block ( 13.60) while her beam needs more confidence (13.25).
- Sofia Busato, did a great DTY (14.55). She has a great block, but since her comeback I’ve noticed she’s less precise in the form. Martina Rizzelli was back and competed on her best event, bars. She hit the Ray+pak and Maloney+ bail connections, but she had problems hitting the handstand and didn’t also have the best form (13.20). Arianna Rocca, the gymnast who’s always ingnored by the federation, had the best score on beam (13.50) where she hit a great roundoff+layout, front aerial+straddle jump, side somi, switch split+ split jump+ back tuck, L turn, high double piked dismount. She also hit a front layout ½ on vault (14.05).
The selection camp for Euros had Martina Maggio, Noemi Linari, Sofia Busato, Giada Grisetti, Caterina Cereghetti, Desireè Carofiglio, Arianna Rocca and Lara Mori.
The four selected to go were Sofia Busato, Lara Mori, Giada Grisetti and Martina Maggio
Sofia was selected for vault alone considering she had a pretty big shot to advance to the final. Unfortunately she tore her ACL in Cluj, she will not be replaced in the team. Lara and Giada can respectively aim to floor and bars final, while Martina is currently the top AA gymnast.
Noemi was the best AAer in Jesolo, but the lack of a standout event may be the reason to leave her home, and despite the good improvements Desireè has done consistency wise, she may not be ready for a big competition yet.
Entire competition can be watched here
Full results are here** **
Junior Mediterranean Games – Guadalajara
Elisa Iorio, Alice D’Amato and Martina Basile went to Guadalajara, Spain, to compete at the junior Mediterranean Games. The girls had an excellent competition, winning the team competition with Spain and France by over 7 points and sweeping the AA podium with Elisa in first (53.95), Alice in second (53.00) and Martina in third (52.35). The event finals, where just 1 gymnast per country could compete, saw Elisa winning the gold medal on vault more than a point over the silver medalist (13.80) and the silver on bars after a fall (12.35), while Alice went for two silvers on beam ( 12.20) and floor (12.90) despite a tie for the first place on the latter.
Article: Giuly Holzer
Cover Photo: Nadia Boyce