Ech Sofia - Review junior qualification & team final

Great Britain overpowers

On the first day of the 31st men’s artistic gymnastics championships, the junior men compete their qualifications and team final. As expected, Russia battled with Great Britain for the gold. France, Switzerland and italy did for bronze. 

In the first subdivision Austria leads the field the whole time. Clean exercises gave them 236,220 points, ahead of sweden (233,254) and Romania (227,533). The Romanian didn’t get the same level as the women’s gymnastics of their country. 

In the second subdivision countries Spain and Israel got into the top of the ranking. Spain led the ranking until the last apparatus, they performed less on the pommel horse and ended up 4th in the team ranking. Israel performed very constantly on every apparatus and rose very steadily towards the provisional first place. 

The firework came at last: favorite teams Russia and Great Britain. They were in the same rotation, Great-Britain performed first, set a goal for Russia. The British gymnasts showed great consistency on every apparatus, showing both nice execution and high difficulty. The public liked the high bar flight elements a lot! Finally they won the golden medal, collecting 1,5 point more than Russia. The Russian gymnasts performed very firmly, using their body strength.  

Some countries got chances to the third place. France was all-around the best of them, they got 0,300 point more than Switzerland. Belgium started very well, but had some failures in the second half of the competition. The young and promising team of Italy got a bit too short for the third place, they ended up 5th. 

The link to the results can be found here. 

ECh Sofia - preview men's competition

Russia and Great Britain men’s favorites

This week the junior and senior men wil compete their competition, the 31st Men’s European Artistic Gymnastics competition. The junior men have a team competition during the qualifications, a final all-around and event finals. The seniors only compete after the qualifications in a team final and the event finals. Russia and Great Britain were last years biggest medal contenders. What will they do this year?

Junior competition

The junior men start wednesday May 21st their qualifications at 10h00 local time (Eastern Europe Time). Traditionally Great Britain and Russia compete for the first place, behind them other countries fight for the third place: Belgium, France, Germany, and Italy. Most of the junior gymnasts compete for the first time on a podium on an international competition. A first step into the road to the Olympic games. 

Each country team contains 5 gymnasts, of which 4 can compete at each apparatus. The best 3 count for the final team result. Junior men are born in 1998, 1997 and 1996. In the competition 37 countries will compete, 30 of them have a complete team. 

The first 24 junior gymnasts all-around qualify for the all-around final in friday. Brinn Bevan (GBR) is the favorite together with his teammate Niles Wilson and Valentin Starikov (RUS). The first eight gymnasts on each apparatus qualify for the event finals.

Junior qualifications schedule

Subdivision 1 - 10h00 - Sweden, Austria, Greece, Slovenia, Georgia, Slovakia, Romania, Poland, Iceland and Serbia.

Subdivision 2 - 14h00 - Turkey, Ireland, Cyprus, Denmark, Spain, Norway, Portugal, Croatia, Czech Republic, Israel, Finland, Lithuania, Armenia and Latvia.

Subdivision 3 - 18h00 - Ukraine, France, Hungary, Germany, Russia, Great Britain, Italy, Belgium, Switzerland, the Nederlands, Bulgaria and Belarus.

Senior competition

Thursday May 22nd the seniors compete their qualifications, starting at 10h00 local time (EET). The first eight countries qualify for the team final on saturday. Great Britain defends the men’s team final, while Russia tries to challenge them. Romania, Belarus and Germany struggle for the third place. 

Each country team can contain 5 gymnasts, but only 3 compete on each apparatus. Those three scores count for the final team result. A total of 39 countries are present, 26 of them compete in the team qualifications. 

Senior qualifications schedule

Subdivision 1 - 10h00 

Norway, Czech Republic, Azerbaijan, Slovenia, Hungary, Austria, Slovakia, Sweden, Iceland, the Netherlands, Serbia, Finland and Denmark

Subdivision 2 - 14h00  

Latvia, Poland, Belgium, Lituania, Croatia, Georgia, Cyprus, Israel, Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey, Monaco and Luxemburg

Subdivision 3 - 18h00  

Romania, Italy, Spain, Belarus, Portugal, Germany, Ukraine, Armenia, Great-Britain, France and Switzerland

Competition schedule

21 May 2014 - 10h00 - Junior qualifications 

22 May 2014 - 10h00 - Senior qualifications

23 May 2014 - 17h00 - Junior all-around final

24 May 2014 - 14h30 - Senior team final*

25 May 2014 - 10h00 - Junior event finals

25 May 2014 - 15h00 - Senior even finals*

*This competitions will be online covered by the European Gymnastics Federations, find here the link to the livestream.

ECh Sofia - Review of the senior event finals

Senior team finals review

The senior event finals are held on the last day of the 30th Women’s European Artistic Gymnastics Championships. The finals are planned in Olympic order: vault - uneven bars - beam - floor exercise. Like in the junior competition, Russia and Great Britain won the most medals.

First score on vault was set by Giulia Steingruber (SUI). The defending European champion on this apparatus performed a handspring layout with 1,5 twists, she’s the only gymnast in this tournament performing that vault, and how! Her second vault is only a mainstream full twisting Yurchenko, but with the highest execution score of the final (9,133)!  Larissa Iordache (ROU) can follow her country mate Sandra Izbasa towards a  European gold. Yurchenko with double twist and tsukahara with full twist only leads to the bronze medal. With one gymnast to go, Ana Pavlova (AZE) knows it’s her time to shine. The former Russian gymnast has a reputation on vault and sticks her double twisting Yurchenko vault. Her second vault is a roundoff half on, half off… The crowd raised because her score was high enough to get the silver medal!

Senior vault results

1. Steingruber (SUI) 14,666 (15,200-14,133)

2. Pavlova (AZE) 14,583 (14,766-14,400)

3. Iordache (ROU) 14,533 (14,866-14,200)

The final on uneven bars was one to remember forever! Surprisingly Iordache (ROU) qualified for this final, although bars is not her best apparatus, it proves her level of gymnastics. She became sixth. Tunney (GBR) is the first one to set a score to beat, with an exercise that reminds us of Elisabeth Tweddle. After her, Spiridonova (RUS) brings a very difficult exercise to a good end, she shows good vertical handstand lines each time. Bui (GER) and Popa (ESP) can’t do any better. 

Aliya Mustafina (RUS) has a certain reputation on bars and showed it. She makes a lot of combinations: stalder full to pak salto, full turn info full twisting double dismount. She overrules her country mate and outdoes her with a good 15-score. Rebecca Downie (GBR) qualified as first gymnast together with Mustafina, 15,100 and the Russian did better than in qualifications. The British gymnast showed her quality upgrading her exercise with 0,4 in difficulty. She showed a lot of first class flight elements: clear hip circle to piked Tkatchev and Tkatchev to pak salto. With a stuck full in double layout she got the gold medal.

Senior uneven bars results

1. Downie (GBR) 15,500

2. Mustafina (RUS) 15,266

3. Spiridonova (RUS) 14,966

On beam, the fans were looking forward to the performances of the Romanian gymnasts. Iordache showed a excellent tucked salto with full twist. And with a stuck landing on her triple twisting dismount, she ended just behind Kharenkova (RUS). The Russian performed just before her, and made just one mistake. She had the same difficulty as Iordache. Cleaner in execution, she got the gold. Mustafina looked like she was making up her exercise on the spot: great differences with the qualifications. A less higher difficulty note brought her to the third place, even with the best execution of the beam finalists. 

The Polish Marta Pihan-Kulesza deserves a special mention: as the oldest finalist, she brought the finest artistic exercise of the final. Further we mention the planche mount from Vanessa Ferrari (ITA) and the split mount from Rebecca Downie (GBR). 

Senior beam results

1. Kharkenkova (RUS) 14,933

2. Iordache (ROU) 14,800

3. Mustafina (RUS) 14,733

The floor final entertained the audience the most, with a tie on the first place… The new floor from Janssen-Fritsen is extremely bouncy, so the gymnasts can perform more difficult tumbling passes. The first two gymnasts end as a tie, Marta Pihan-Kulesza (POL) and Bulimar (ROU) both got the 14,400. Pihan-Kulesza really danced through her exercise on the pink panther.

Steingrubers (SUI) exercise only contained double tucks: full twisting double layout, double layout, double pike and double tuck. She ends up fourth. Meanwhile Iordache had already set the best score so far, even though she looked very tired after her exercise. It is logical that she is tired since she competed a lot the last week: she was in all finals - the team final and all four event finals. The Italian crowd really supported Vanessa Ferrari during her difficult exercise, a lot of twisting and double tucks in her routine! She ties with Iordache for the first place.

Senior floor exercise results

1. Iordache (ROU) 14,800

1. Ferrari (ITA) 14,800

3. Steingruber (SUI) 14,500

ECh Sofia - Review junior event finals

Gold for Great Britain and Russia  

The last day of the women’s tournament starts with the junior women’s event finals. The first eight qualifiers compete individually on each apparatus: vault, uneven bars, beam and floor. Russia, Romania and Great Britain are the teams with more medals in this finals.

On vault, nearly all vaults were of the Yurchenko vault family. It was Jurca (ROU) who set the first score to beat: 14,383 for her full and double twisting Yurchenkos. As the others tried to set their best scores, Tinkler (GBR) got a 14,349 with the same vaults. Her teammate and first qualifier Elissa Downie (GBR) got the highest score with a sky high double twisting Yurchenko and a well executed half on piked front off. 

Vault results

1. Downie (GBR) 14,633 (14,933-14,333)

2. Jurca (ROU) 14,383 (14,766-14,000)

3. Tinkler (GBR) 14,349 (14,733-13,966) 

It was the vault gold medallist, Downie (GBR), who started the uneven bars final. She had a clean routine with a toe on shaposnikova and a stuck double piked dismount. She would end up fifth. As second on the start list, Skrypnik (RUS) set a huge 14,833 score. She had amazing clean lines and only a few breaks in her shaposhnikova and pak salto, continuing with a high piked jeager and a full twisting double back dismount. Melnikova (RUS) showed a few form breaks during her routine, but a difficult exercise that got her the second place. Enderle (GER) executed a beautiful and solid routine and ended up taking the bronze. Very good news for the German team, who has been very solid and original during this championships.

Uneven bars results

1. Skrypnik (RUS) 14,833

2. Melnikova (RUS) 14,766

3. Enderle (GER) 14,500

For the beam final, the crowd looked forward to see the Romanians perform. Unfortunately, Butuc (ROU) fell in her half twisting switch leap, a relatively easy skill that costed her a medal. Her teammate Iridon (ROU) had a clean but wobbling exercise, performing a gorgeous 1,5 twisting Y turn. The crowd screamed for her, she ended up in second place. Melinkova (RUS) performed a high sky back layout, and had very clean and correct lines, getting the first place. Tabea Alt, a promising german gymnast, stuck her double back into a well deserved bronze medal, giving the Germans another reason to celebrate.

Beam results 

1. Melnikova (RUS) 14,575

2. Iridon (ROU) 14,433

3. Alt (GER) 14,200

The new floor of Jansen Fritsen gives the junior women a lot more explosiveness. This floor final was full of artistic showcase, along with very impressive quality tumbling. The Belgian Axelle Klinckaert and the British Catherine Lyons had probably two of the nicests choreographies of this European Championships, performing two beautiful, energetic an emotional exercises. Lyons ended up getting the first place, with the whole crowd getting emotional with her exercise, that she performed dramatically. Gorgeous leaps and clean tumbling was the key for her succes. Tinkler (GBR) really twinkled over the floor with a triple spin, double layout and a beautiful full twisting double back got her a tie with Romanian Andreea Iridon (ROU), who had the highest leaps and the most energetic attitude on floor today. With clean twisting form, she also deserved that silver medal.  

Floor results

1. Lyons (GBR) 14,033

2. Tinkler (GBR) 13,966

2. Iridon (GBR) 13,966

ECh Sofia - Women's team final

Great Britain to win first team gold?

On today’s schedule of the European Championships: exciting women’s team final! The top three countries of the qualifications were very close at the qualifications. Can Great Britain maintain the first spot? Can Russia do a little better? What can Romania do without 3 falls? Behind these three, it will be an interesting battle for the other places. 

Today’s competition happens to be the main competition of this women’s European Artistic Gymnastics Championships. Based on the qualifications, it promises to be very a thriving struggle. Great Britain surprised to qualify as first team (172,147). They showed great vaults and are very consistent on bars. Not falling on beam, they manage the first place. 

Can the British manage to stay on top? Romania (171,130) counted three falls during the competiton and still are the second qualifier. Without falls they are capable of winning this team final. Russia (170,621) hasn't got a lot of their key gymnasts, and managed to have the third place. Some of their all-around specialists are injured, forcing to select others in their place. Maybe Mustafina can inspire them to go beyond their limits and do better…

In their slipstream, other countries combat for the fourth place. Italy (166,928) didn’t do a strong bars-passage, leaving them fourth during qualifications. If they manage to get the level of their podium training, they really can do better. Germany (166,695) wasn’t very outstanding, but consistent over the whole line of the qualifications.

Surprisingly Belgium (162,630) made the final with very artistic exercises. Maybe not today, but in future they have a very promising team! Also the qualification of Switzerland (163,663) was surprising, but with the strong lead of Giulia Steingruber they were very elegant performing. Spain (162,271) was led by Roxana Popa to a 8th qualifying spot.

Note: only 8 countries could qualify, leaving the Netherlands, France and Poland out. It’s gonna be a high level competition!

Today’s women’s European Artistic Gymnastics team final! At 15h00 local time (EET). 

Livestream to be found here (click 'live').

ECh Sofia - Junior individual AA-final

First final: Junior all-around final

Today the 24 best junior women compete for the individual all-around title. In wednesdays qualifications the Russian women topped the ranking, though the Romanian and Brittish gymnasts came close . Who will confirm her score? Who will cope best with the stress?

Again this year, the Russian domination seems to continue. Angelina Melnikova lead the qualifications with 56,699. She is the current Russian champion, what's an impressive fact - she's only a first-year junior. Close behind her comes countrymate Seda Tutkhalyan (56,332). It’s looking forward to their vaults  and uneven bars exercises, where they already had stunning performances! 

The rise of the British gymnastics is now also clearly remarkable in the junior category. Wednesday they became the silver medallist in the team final, today they have two outstanding gymnasts in the all-around final. Both of them had some minor mistakes on beam and uneven bars, but were outstanding on floor and vault. Look forward to Elissa Downie (54,941) and Catherine Lyons (54,932) with the wondering how active the public will be today! 

According tradition, also Romania has good gymnasts, Laura Jurca (55,641) and Andreea Iridon (53,965) both defend the Romanian colors. In their slipstream, also Tabia Alt (GER - 54,866) and Loan His (FRA - 54,499) ended up close. What do they do today? Can they step up some places?

Finals begin at 15h00 local time (EET).

Find here the list of the qualifiers

Find here the start lists.

Ech Sofia - Preview senior women qualification

Rusland and Romania on top, who follows?

On the second day of this European Championships, the senior women show their gymnastic skills. In teams of 5 gymnasts per country the best 8 teams qualify for the teams final. Also the gymnasts with the best apparatus scores come back in the event finals. 

The first gymnasts begin the day at 10.00 am local time (EET), including Ukrain and Bulgaria. The Bulgarian senior team looked very confident earlier this week, officially representing the organizing country. The favorites for the tare the same as the junior ones: Russia and Romania. However Russia didn’t compete any international team competition this year, they have outstanding gymnasts performing. Great-Brittain heading up in their backyard with a very well balanced team. Also Belgium, France and Germany have chances to make the team final on saturday.

Each country can contain 5 gymnasts, 3 of them compete at each apparatus and those 3 scores count. There is no individual all-around ranking this year, only event finals for every apparatus. 

In those event finals, a lot of beautiful things will come to us. The Russians are also individually very strong, are there some other gymnasts who can outscore them? Is Alyia Mustafina still the world-class star she used to be? What can the Romanians do on their specialist apparatus, beam? Can Giulia Steingruber (SUI) defend her title on vault? The competition looks promising!

Schedule of the day - 15th of may 2014

Subdivision 1: Norway, Azerbaijan, Finland, Sweden, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Ukraine and Latvia. 

Subdivision 2: Lithuania, Luxembourg, Croatia, Austria, Switzerland, Greece, Georgia and Cyprus.

Subdivision 3: Ireland, Iceland, Belarus, Portugal, Turkey, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Israel and the Nederlands

Subdivision 4: Germany, Russia, Romania, Belgium, Spain, Great-Britain, France and Italy.

In the first week of the European championships, the senior and junior women compete for several European titles. Junior women compete a team competition, an individual all-around competition and event finals on every apparatus. The senior women only have a team competition and individual event finals. 

14 may 2014 - Junior qualifications + team competition

15 may 2014 - Senior qualifications

16 may 2014 - Junior individual All-around competition

17 may 2014 - Senior team competition

18 may 2014 - Junior + senior apparatus finals

The men have their European championships in the consecutive week. 

ECh Sofia - Preview junior competition

Russia and Romania, Junior team favorites

At the first day of the Sofia Women European Artistic Gymnastic Championships , the junior women come into action. They compete in teams, a medal ceremony awards the best three at the and of the day. Gymnasts can qualify in this team competition for the individual all-around final on friday and the event finals on sunday.

The first subdivision of the team competition starts at 10.00 o’clock local time (EET) with some minor countries. The medal contenders for the team competition compete in the last subdivision. Tradition points out that Romania and Russia dominate the junior field, also this year they have the best team results so far. Contenders strive for the third place are numerous, based upon results of this year. Great-Britain, France, Italy and Germany also have a certain tradition in the junior women and showed this year very similar team results, whereas Belgium is an underdog. 

Each country can have 5 junior gymnasts in the team, of which 4 compete at each apparatus. The best 3 scores count for the results. Junior women are born in 1999 and 2000. 36 countries present gymnasts, 26 of them have a complete team.

Also in the individual all-around competition Russian and Romanian gymnasts outstand the field. Angelina Melnikova and Seda Tutkhalyan ar both individual favorites for Russia. Romania has Andreea Iridon and Laura Jurca. The gap with the rest of the field is thight: also Great-Brittain had a lot of gymnast who score 55 points or more: Tyesha Mattis and Amy Tinkler. 

It looks a promising competition. For most of the junior gymnasts this European championships are the first big international competition. How will they behave performing on a podium?  Can they cope with the stress? This juniors will turn seniors for the Rio de Janairo Olympic games in 2016. Will they make the national team?

Schedule of the day  - 14th of May 2014

Subdivision 1 - 10h00 : Israël, Hungary, Slovenia, Denmark, Azerbeijan, Belarus, Austria and Ireland.

Subdivision 2 - 12h10 : Georgia,  Luxembourg, Bulgaria, Norway, Spain, Lithuania, Cyprus, Finland, Belgium, Sweden and Slovakia.

Subdivision 3 - 15h20 : Iceland, Portugal, Latvia, Croatia, Czech republic, Turkey, Greece, Poland and Switzerland

Subdivision 4 - 17h30 : France, the Netherlands, Russia, Germany, Romania, Ukrain, Great-Britain and Italy

19h45 medal ceremony

In the first week of the European championships, the senior and junior women compete for several European titles. Junior women compete a team competition, an individual all-around competition and event finals on every apparatus. The senior women only have a team competition and individual event finals. 

14 may 2014 - Junior qualifications + team competition

15 may 2014 - Senior qualifications

16 may 2014 - Junior individual All-around competition

17 may 2014 - Senior team competition

18 may 2014 - Junior + senior apparatus finals

The men have their European championships in the consecutive week.