The Italian team sent at the European Championships did a good job considering there weren’t too much expectations about finals or medals. The team lost one of their player when Sofia Busato tore her ACL while training vault in Cluj and it was decided not to send a replacement. Sofia had a pretty good shot at the vault final, and her injury is very unfortunate considering she has been battling with injuries for a long time.
But here’s what happened:
Martina Maggio: She hit 8/8 and has shown great consistency during the whole meet despite coming back from an injury not too long ago. She had low D score on all events but vault, where her DTY is looking more solid each day. Bars were well executed, even is she still has some minor flaws and she needs to work on a more difficult dismount, which at the moment is just a double piked. Same talk about beam, where the too easy 1 ½ twist dismount ruins the rest of the routine, which could have aimed to a final, while floor needs some work on the leaps side. Martina qualified 8th in the AA and improved her positions by two in the final, placing 6th, a very good result for a new senior.
Lara Mori: She didn’t advace to the AA final since Maggio and Grisetti were ahead of her, but she earned the only event final of the team, floor, and had a pretty good shot at a medal, qualifing in 4th place. In the final, she could have gone for the bronze, but she had too much power and bounced after evey pass, which lead her to a 4th place tied with German Kim Bui. On the other events, Lara still doesn’t look ready. Her beam could be really interesting, but too much and too long pauses hammer her E score, while her bars are too rushed and suffer from handstand issues.
Giada Grisetti: Giada had a great qualification round, entering in the final with the 11th score with hit routines on all the apparatus. Then in the final, she lost 10 positions due a fall on the double tuck dismount on beam and another fall on the double piked on floor, where she also went oob with both her feet.
So, a 6th place on the AA and a 4th place on floor were not a disapponited result for the team, but what scares me the most is the fact that the last medals Italy grabbed in a European Championship, taking out the one Vanessa Ferrari won in 2014, was 6 years ago, in 2011, with Carlotta Ferlito and Elisabetta Preziosa. The fact that Italy consider herself as a treat and as one of the best gymnastics country in Europe, but constatly lose medals, while France, GB, Germany, the Netherlands have gained a lot of them in the last few years, is quite depressing, and shows Italy must really work hard to be relevant again.
Serie A 2017: Ancona
The third meet on the series was held in Ancona two weeks after the European Championships. Brixia lost many gymnasts of the line up, like Sofia Busato, who, as previusly said, went “under the knife” after the ACL injury she suffered in Cluj, Giorgia Villa, who’s also gone under the knife after a partial tear of the Achille’s tendon and Alice D’Amato, who slightly injured the knee while training a DTY. Another notable absent due a freak reason was Elisa Iorio whose team, Artistica’81, failed to enter her name during the registration, so she had to sit the competition.
Comparing the scores of this meet with the ones we saw in Cluj is quite challenging considering how lenient the Italian judges were here in Ancona, but let’s take a look.
After Euros, Martina Maggio has shown once again she’s the best gymnast in the country right now. Martina hit a nice and stuck DTY (14.80), a good routine on bars with a stalder 1/1, Maloney to tkachev (low), bail to handstand, easy double pike dismount, even if she risked a fall while doing the half turn before going into a front giant ( 13.30). Beam was steady enough to earn a good 13.85 and she peformed a nice floor, with an almost stuck full-in, stuck double tuck, front 1 ½ twist, double piked and a failed Memmel (13.40).
Junior Asia D’Amato performed the other great DTY of the meet, which was high, clean and stuck (14.90), but fell on the double front dismount on bars (12.45). Beam was shaky (12.75) and floor had not the best landings nor the best interpretetion of the coreography ( 12.90).
After coming 4th in the floor final at Euros, Lara Mori hit her floor routine once again (13.80). She was solid on the other pieces, even if her routines look quite easy and as now I can’t see many room for improvements.
Desireè Carofiglio suprised everyone by adding a brand new front layout to double front sommersault perfectly executed on floor, the pass previuosly done by Elena Produnova and some few other gymnasts. She then went for a Dowell with a big step forward, a double tuck and an easy front layout to front full twist as last pass. That and some weak dance elements prevent her from having a big D score, which is just around 5.2/5.3 right now (13.70). Desireè went crazy on the other 3 events, landing a bad Yurchenko 1 ½ with a fall ( 13.35), falling after the van Leeuwen and then stopping the routine after a turn on bars (10.75) and falling again on beam after the layout (12.30).
Elisa Meneghini has shown much more confidence on beam compared to the last meet. Elisa debuted a new switch split mount, hit the roundoff+ layout combo (even if it doesn’t look too creditable) went for a clean front aerial+split and a good switch split+straddle jump+bhs,then hit a high and clean double pike dismount. Some connections added here and there can raise her D score, which is quite low 5.2 (13.45). Later in the competition she hit a pretty FTY ( 13.80) but fell twice on floor due a too early open on the new double Arabian and a very low landing on the double pike ( 11.25). There she performed a new routine with a new music, which in my opinion still needs work.
Thing didn’t go as expected for Giada Grisetti, who after a decent DTY with some form issues (14.00) fell on the bhs+loso on beam (12.30) and fell on bars too on the inbar 1/2 (12.35). Giada has potential and gorgeous lines, but the lack of confidence and the nervy routines are sadly keeping her away from the central role she could have in the national team.
Martina Rizzelli was back on vault, performing a good FTY with a step back (13.60), and did her job on bars with a downgraded routine, where she went for a Ray to pak, Maloney to bail, a very late toe on 1/1 and a full-in dismount (13.50). Arianna Rocca performed a tsukahara 1/1 on vault (13.95) and hit the best routine of the meet with a sky high roundoff+layout (13.50).
Italian federation stream of the competition: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tRaZeYLP1U
Article: Giuly Holzer
Cover Photo: Bea Gheorghisor