MONTPELLIER – The Russian gymnast Kharenkova
wins the qualifier during the European championships
in Montpellier with 57.689 points. Followed by the
Swiss gymnast Steingruber and Elissa Downie who was
in lead during the first two subdivisions. A summery of
the qualifications.
Subdivision 1:
Subdivision 1:
From the start the top five of this subdivision existed of the
same gymnasts. After the first rotation Downie was in lead
followed by her fellow-Brit Tinkler and the German Tratz. After
the second rotation the Italian gymnast Rizzelli took the place of
Tratz and the German dropped to the fifth place. After the third
rotation Downie was still in lead, followed by Rizzelli and
Tinkler. The United Kingdom stayed on top the whole time.
The attention was also focused on the Russian ladies. Afanaseva
performed on floor and vault. On vault she qualified for the
finals with 14.533 points and on floor she was the best of her
subdivision. On the uneven bars Paseka entered the
classification with 14.233 points and with 14.416 points on
vault.
Subdivision 2:
In the second subdivision attention was mainly focused on one
group with the Italian gymnasts Ferrari and Fasana and the
Romanian Jurca and Iridon, but, of course, also the Dutch
Thorsdottir and Van Klaveren. The home audience was mainly
interested in the others of the group, the French gymnasts. After
two rotations and two subdivisions Thorsdottir was fifth in the
all around classification. Van Klaveren was eleventh. Downie
was still in lead, followed by Fasana and Jurca.
In lead was still Downie. The third place was for the Italian
Rizelli. After the third rotation in the second subdivision
Thorsdottir was fourth and about to start one of her favorite
events, the balance beam. Van Klaveren stayed on the eleventh
spot.
The fourth round of the second subdivision was a suspenseful
one, because all ladies in lead were about the start the balance
beam. Ferlito was on the first place of beam with 14.058 when
Thorsdottir started her routine with lots of self-confidence, but
she did have some balance mistakes. Van Klaveren was a bit
more aggressive, it seemed she wanted to take revenge on the
falls she made earlier in the competition. Jurca’s routine had
very little balance disturbances, but fell on her butt on the
dismount and scored 12.466 points. Iridon’s routine ended up
flawless, getting a big applause of the audience and a score of
14.100 points. With that routine she went on lead on beam.
Ferrari (ITA) did a perfect layout and some careful split leaps, a
double pike with a small step as her dismount, and scored
13.933 points. She ended up behind Eythora Thorsdottir. The
19-year-old Fasana performed a flawless routine and looked
very self-confident on beam, she scored 13.841 points and
ended up in second place.
Subdivision 3
The Dutch ladies of the third subdivision started on balance
beam. This is the event that always makes Supriana the most
nervous. You can read the interview in which she talks about
that on our site. She performed a good stable routine, but
touched the ground with her hand on the dismount. Sanne
Wevers reached a D-score of 6.5 on this event, but an E-score of
5.7. This brought her to a total of 14.225, the highest at that
event at that point. Supriana got a score of 12.966 points. At the
same time Steingruber performed an astounding routine on
floor with incredibly high flips. In a previous interview with
IntoGymnastics the Swiss gymnast said she wants to reach the
finals, “I want to reach as many finals as possible, so I want to
perform flawlessly,” Steingruber told us, “The D-scores are
really important for the all-around finale.” On floor she reached
the astounding D-score of 6.00 points and reached, at that
point, the first place on this event. In this round the oldest
gymnast in the competition also competed, the Greek gymnast
Millousi, and performed just as well as her younger fellowcompetitors. On bars she even performed with lots of elegance.
Kharenkova wanted to defend her title on beam and started her
routine with a high somersault followed by an Arabian, back
handspring layout. Both had very stable landings. Her aerial
had some slight balance disturbances. The back handspring
double pike she landed very well.
After the third rotation of the third subdivision the Russian
Kharenkova placed in lead, followed by the Swiss Steingruber
and Downie (UK). Rebecca Downie wanted to defend her title
on the last event of this subdivision and performs a fast
astounding routine with high flight elements and bar
transitions. She scored 15.233 and that placed her second
behind the Russian Spiridonova on this apparatus. Fragapane
made a fall from the bars in a flight element, at the same time
Steingruber fell from beam with her layout. Supriana finished
her routine without any big mistakes, but did make some slight
errors in performance. Sanne started off with her transitions
between bars and performed a high flight element. She
increased her speed previous to her double layout and landed
on her feet, giving her the possibility of making the bars finals.
Subdivision 4
The fourth subdivision could still change a lot in the
classifications. The Romanian Munteanu and Bulimar still had
to perform, but also the Polish Martha Pihan-Kulesza. Still they
kept the Dutch gymnasts in the finals after the third
subdivision.
In the first three rotations of the last subdivision the Slovenian
Belak still grabbed a spot in the vault finals, right behind the
Dutch Noel van Klaveren, with a score of 14.183 points.
A sigh sounded through the arena after the Turkish Yilmaz
made a fall, her coutry-mate Morava performed a more stable
routine. She showed a calm bar routine in the third rotation, not
with a lot of difficult elements, but what she did, she did well.
She was the youngest competitor in these European
Championships.
After the third round in the fourth subdivision Bulimar placed
on the thirteenth place, behind Thorsdottir. Pihan-Kulesza
placed sixth and Martins fifteenth, after this rotation, two places
ahead of Supriana. In the fourth rotation of the final subdivision
the French gymnast Bahl perfomed two very good vaults and
qualified for the vault finals, at the expense of the Icelandic
Robertsdottir.