After an amazing performance during today's team finals at the European Championships, team Romania took home the gold medal.
The Romanians, led by Diana Bulimar and Larisa Iordache had issues in the qualification round yesterday, but today, they on fire.
Following them, was Team Great Britain, who took home the silver medal after qualifying in first for the team final. Russia took home the team bronze with a very young team mostly consisting of newbies. There was tears, laughter, joy and jumping and hugging at the same time.
Rotation 1
Russia Uneven Bars:
Russia killed it on the bars, as always, it's an event they're known for mastering, so it's not surprising that they had their best performances on this apparatus.
Daria Spinidirova - Cute little blond girl. Nice, beautiful, balletic Russian lines. Lots of piked stalder element, and piked elements, including a nice piked jaeger and a Komova 1/2. Full in dismount. 15.066
Aliya Mustafina - all hail the queen. The reigning European champion is beautiful as always on this event, she had a beautiful, floaty high piked jaeger. Dismounted with a full in. 15.166
Romania Vault -
Alina Stanila - a first year senior for team Romania. These new seniors can walk the walk and tumble and vault. She struts onto the vault runway and pulls out a beautiful, high clean Yurchenko double full. 14.66
Larisa Iordache- nice high and really speedy DTY. By speedy, I mean she went by so fast, you'd blink and you'd miss it. 14.866.
Great Britain- Beam
Starting on beam can be really nerve wracking, but the girls handled it so well and pulled out some beautiful gymnastics under pressure. The feed must have only showed Beckie Downie, because that's the only name I have written in my notes. Beckie's beam was full of connections on all sides, aerial cartwheels and forward aerial walkovers into split jumps. Very nice routine. 14.133.
Roxi Popa- Spain - Uneven Bars - this is the only routine of hers the BBC feed showed, but oh well. Roxi's bars are dynamic, she throws a Maloney 1/2 to an immediate in-bar Gienger right off the bat. For the conclusion, she threw her full twisting double layout. 14.166
Ilaria Kaeslin Switzerland Balance Beam - Ilaria's routine may not have been the most difficult, but she managed to show off beautiful flexibility, with an Onodi to sheep jump combination, she wobbled on her full twisting back handspring and dismounted with a relatively simple double twist. 14.1
Germany - Floor Exercise
Pauline Schaefer - she opened with a front handspring to a super cowboyed double front. On her last tumbling pass, she threw the standard elite closing double pike and put her hands down. 12.233
Kim Bui - Nice opening full in. Second pass - whip to double back, followed by a 2 1/2 twist to front pike. Double pike dismount. 13.3
Standings after the first rotation:
1. Russia
2. Romania
3. Italy
4. Great Britain
Rotation 2
Great Britain - Floor Exercise. The new floor rules are definitely benefiting the British athletes. It's wonderful to see DANCE instead of Flamingo stand, leap, turn tumble, arm flail, tumble.
Hannah Whelan - the other senior member of the team. Hannah opened with a full in to three tumbling passes, nice clean tumbling. Great artistry and attitude. 13.633
Claudia Fragapane - the routine that launched one thousand hits on YouTube. This routine is the Helen of Troy of floor routines. Claudia is not only a super tumbler, and she actually dances! The new floor rules were made for her. She opens with a HUGE full twisting double layout and then follows that with a double layout. She get's so high on her leaps that the entire NBA is jealous of how high a tiny little British girl can jump. While some gymnasts seem to just run out of steam by the time they get to the final tumbling pass. Claudia lands her double pike so clean and crisp, chest up and I'm sure she still had energy to pull out another tumbling pass. And that double back spin? Ugh, to die for! 14.766
Russia Balance Beam
Aliya Mustafina - she kind of played it a little safe on this event. She is the reigning world champion on beam. She still had some difficult connections, including a glorious switch half to Onodi. She included her new series that she added at the Stuttgart Cup in December, the two forward aerial walkovers to backhand spring. She dismounted with a stuck double pike. 14.60
Maria Kharenkova - this is Maria's first major international competition as a senior. As the former junior European all-around champion and last year's European Youth Olympic all-around champion, Maria was a big fish in a small pond last year, and this year, she's now a big fish in a big pond with big fish. She was nervous and it showed. She went to throw her front tuck and went completely off line, she wobbled an wobbled and a foot came off the beam and it seemed like her tiny little ass was going to be off that beam, but her ass was not going to come off that beam and she stayed on that beam. How, I do not know. The girl must have toes of steel. She hit the rest of her routine. When she did her back- handspring to two foot layout series, she floated above shoulder height beautifully, and landed perfectly.
Romania - Bars
Bars really isn't Romania's strong suit as a team or as a country. I could make a joke about Romanians being super bad on bars, but I'm too tired. That being said, they have worked to improve their bars, and it does show.
Diana Bulimar - little Diana has grown in her time off. She's far more mature in her gymnastics and her presence. While she doesn't have super difficult bars, she's got beautiful lines and her form is impeccable. She keeps her legs pasted together at every transition, and she dismounted with a clean full in. 14.133
Larisa Iordache - Larisa has made great improvements to her bars. Today, she decided to pull a Jordyn Wieber. On a stalder to handstand, she lost tension in her back and had to turn around on the low bar. Guess we all need a little rush sometimes. 13.966
Giulia Steingruber - Switzerland - Floor Exercise - She's the reigning vault European champion and she's incredibly powerful. She opened with a beautiful double layout, and followed with a beautiful, high double tuck. She didn't do her full twisting double layout she did at the American cup. On the last pass, she put her hands down. 13.000
Standings After Rotation Two:
1. Romania
2. Russia
3. Great Britain
4. Germany
Rotation Three:
Russia - Floor Exercise.
Daria Spiridirova opened for Russia on floor. BBC only showed her dancing a little bit, didn't see what the tumbling looked like. 13.10
Alla Sosnitskaya - tall, skinny and blond, she looks like a Nastia Liukin circa 2005-2006. She has the lines of a Nastia. She opened with a pretty double layout and followed with a whip, whip, whip to triple full. She has nice flexility, with a beautiful Memmel turn. She went out of bounds on a double pike. 13.766
Maria Kharenkova - Opens with a beautiful tucked double arabian. 1 1/2 to double pike. Whip whip to 2 1/2 twist, double tuck dismount. 13.766
Great Britain Vault
Rebecca Tunney - speaking of people who have grown, at the London Olympics, Rebecca Tunney was a tiny little stick, now she's grown and she's looking powerful and elegant. Leads off the team with a high and clean DTY. 14.7
Beckie Downie - What else? A DTY, a nice DTY and high and powerful. 14.7
Romania Balance Beam
Diana Bulimar - Diana's lines are exquisite on this event, she has such lovely flexibility in all her leaps. Switch half to back tuck, back handspring two foot layout, dismount with two back handsprings to double tuck. 14.533
Larisa Iordcahe - backhandspring to tucked full, round off to two foot layout, small step back. She smiles as she finishes her routine with a triple twist.
Andreea Munteanu - beautiful low beam work with a unique chest roll/cartwheel. Back handspring to tucked full, fantastic. Forward Aerial to side somi, front tuck to switch 1/2. Tripe twist dismount.
Giulia Steingruber vault - super handspring Rudi (front 1 1/2 twist), high vault score of 15.10 (judges were happy to see something other than a DTY).
Laura Waem - Belgium- uneven bars - nice lines, not a super difficult routine, but it was clean and pretty. 14.266
Standings after three rotations:
1. Romania
2. Great Britain
3. Russia
Final Rotation
Russia- Vault
Aliya Mustafina- I would like to know what Valentina Rodionenko is smoking putting Aliya up for vault. It was reported that Aliya had been dealing with a minor ankle injury, vaulting doesn't seem like something a person with an ankle injury should do. Whatever. Yurchenko double full, step back. 14.733.
Alla Sosnitskaya - Nastia could really only ever manage a Yurchenko 1 1/2, Alla pulls out a nice DTY. 14.733
Maria Kharenkova - A nice clean full twisting Yurchenko, not super high, but okay for a lead off. 13.933
Total for Russia: 169. 329
Great Britain - Uneven Bars
Rebecca Tunney - bad ass Bhardwaj (full twisting pak salto), beautiful church, full in dismount, 14.766
Ruby Harrold- love the Bhardwaj, amazing old school Zuchold transition. Can't wait to see her compete for LSU. 14.733
Beckie Harrold - what a total bad ass. I love her on this event, she friction owns it like Beth Tweddle before her. Beautiful stadler piked tkatchev, gorgeous Chow. 14.833
Total: 170, 663
Vanessa Ferrari - Floor, super double double opening pass into a full in. Finished with a double pike, but her chest was down. 14. 491
Romania Floor
Andreea Munteanu - Her floor music is "Roxane" from the movie Moulin Rouge. She owns it, and emotes beautifully through her dance. Opens with a full in and follows with a triple full. Beautiful routine, 14. 133
Diana Bulimar - She opens with a super straight double layout and sticks it, and for her next pass, she throws a super piked full in. Shows beautiful artistry and unique ability with a super cool chest cartwheel low on the floor. Closes with a clean double pike. 14. 225
Larisa - At this point, Romania has it in the bag. She starts off strong with a double double and then follows with a tucked full in. She did a quad turn (more like 3 3/4), total bad ass. Finishes with a double pike, hops back but is still in bounds. She just cinched the win for Romania. 14.466
Total: 172.754
Final standings:
1. Romania 172.754
2. Great Britain 170.663
3. Russia 169. 329
The Romanians, led by Diana Bulimar and Larisa Iordache had issues in the qualification round yesterday, but today, they on fire.
Following them, was Team Great Britain, who took home the silver medal after qualifying in first for the team final. Russia took home the team bronze with a very young team mostly consisting of newbies. There was tears, laughter, joy and jumping and hugging at the same time.
Rotation 1
Russia Uneven Bars:
Russia killed it on the bars, as always, it's an event they're known for mastering, so it's not surprising that they had their best performances on this apparatus.
Daria Spinidirova - Cute little blond girl. Nice, beautiful, balletic Russian lines. Lots of piked stalder element, and piked elements, including a nice piked jaeger and a Komova 1/2. Full in dismount. 15.066
Aliya Mustafina - all hail the queen. The reigning European champion is beautiful as always on this event, she had a beautiful, floaty high piked jaeger. Dismounted with a full in. 15.166
Romania Vault -
Alina Stanila - a first year senior for team Romania. These new seniors can walk the walk and tumble and vault. She struts onto the vault runway and pulls out a beautiful, high clean Yurchenko double full. 14.66
Larisa Iordache- nice high and really speedy DTY. By speedy, I mean she went by so fast, you'd blink and you'd miss it. 14.866.
Great Britain- Beam
Starting on beam can be really nerve wracking, but the girls handled it so well and pulled out some beautiful gymnastics under pressure. The feed must have only showed Beckie Downie, because that's the only name I have written in my notes. Beckie's beam was full of connections on all sides, aerial cartwheels and forward aerial walkovers into split jumps. Very nice routine. 14.133.
Roxi Popa- Spain - Uneven Bars - this is the only routine of hers the BBC feed showed, but oh well. Roxi's bars are dynamic, she throws a Maloney 1/2 to an immediate in-bar Gienger right off the bat. For the conclusion, she threw her full twisting double layout. 14.166
Ilaria Kaeslin Switzerland Balance Beam - Ilaria's routine may not have been the most difficult, but she managed to show off beautiful flexibility, with an Onodi to sheep jump combination, she wobbled on her full twisting back handspring and dismounted with a relatively simple double twist. 14.1
Germany - Floor Exercise
Pauline Schaefer - she opened with a front handspring to a super cowboyed double front. On her last tumbling pass, she threw the standard elite closing double pike and put her hands down. 12.233
Kim Bui - Nice opening full in. Second pass - whip to double back, followed by a 2 1/2 twist to front pike. Double pike dismount. 13.3
Standings after the first rotation:
1. Russia
2. Romania
3. Italy
4. Great Britain
Rotation 2
Great Britain - Floor Exercise. The new floor rules are definitely benefiting the British athletes. It's wonderful to see DANCE instead of Flamingo stand, leap, turn tumble, arm flail, tumble.
Hannah Whelan - the other senior member of the team. Hannah opened with a full in to three tumbling passes, nice clean tumbling. Great artistry and attitude. 13.633
Claudia Fragapane - the routine that launched one thousand hits on YouTube. This routine is the Helen of Troy of floor routines. Claudia is not only a super tumbler, and she actually dances! The new floor rules were made for her. She opens with a HUGE full twisting double layout and then follows that with a double layout. She get's so high on her leaps that the entire NBA is jealous of how high a tiny little British girl can jump. While some gymnasts seem to just run out of steam by the time they get to the final tumbling pass. Claudia lands her double pike so clean and crisp, chest up and I'm sure she still had energy to pull out another tumbling pass. And that double back spin? Ugh, to die for! 14.766
Russia Balance Beam
Aliya Mustafina - she kind of played it a little safe on this event. She is the reigning world champion on beam. She still had some difficult connections, including a glorious switch half to Onodi. She included her new series that she added at the Stuttgart Cup in December, the two forward aerial walkovers to backhand spring. She dismounted with a stuck double pike. 14.60
Maria Kharenkova - this is Maria's first major international competition as a senior. As the former junior European all-around champion and last year's European Youth Olympic all-around champion, Maria was a big fish in a small pond last year, and this year, she's now a big fish in a big pond with big fish. She was nervous and it showed. She went to throw her front tuck and went completely off line, she wobbled an wobbled and a foot came off the beam and it seemed like her tiny little ass was going to be off that beam, but her ass was not going to come off that beam and she stayed on that beam. How, I do not know. The girl must have toes of steel. She hit the rest of her routine. When she did her back- handspring to two foot layout series, she floated above shoulder height beautifully, and landed perfectly.
Romania - Bars
Bars really isn't Romania's strong suit as a team or as a country. I could make a joke about Romanians being super bad on bars, but I'm too tired. That being said, they have worked to improve their bars, and it does show.
Diana Bulimar - little Diana has grown in her time off. She's far more mature in her gymnastics and her presence. While she doesn't have super difficult bars, she's got beautiful lines and her form is impeccable. She keeps her legs pasted together at every transition, and she dismounted with a clean full in. 14.133
Larisa Iordache - Larisa has made great improvements to her bars. Today, she decided to pull a Jordyn Wieber. On a stalder to handstand, she lost tension in her back and had to turn around on the low bar. Guess we all need a little rush sometimes. 13.966
Giulia Steingruber - Switzerland - Floor Exercise - She's the reigning vault European champion and she's incredibly powerful. She opened with a beautiful double layout, and followed with a beautiful, high double tuck. She didn't do her full twisting double layout she did at the American cup. On the last pass, she put her hands down. 13.000
Standings After Rotation Two:
1. Romania
2. Russia
3. Great Britain
4. Germany
Rotation Three:
Russia - Floor Exercise.
Daria Spiridirova opened for Russia on floor. BBC only showed her dancing a little bit, didn't see what the tumbling looked like. 13.10
Alla Sosnitskaya - tall, skinny and blond, she looks like a Nastia Liukin circa 2005-2006. She has the lines of a Nastia. She opened with a pretty double layout and followed with a whip, whip, whip to triple full. She has nice flexility, with a beautiful Memmel turn. She went out of bounds on a double pike. 13.766
Maria Kharenkova - Opens with a beautiful tucked double arabian. 1 1/2 to double pike. Whip whip to 2 1/2 twist, double tuck dismount. 13.766
Great Britain Vault
Rebecca Tunney - speaking of people who have grown, at the London Olympics, Rebecca Tunney was a tiny little stick, now she's grown and she's looking powerful and elegant. Leads off the team with a high and clean DTY. 14.7
Beckie Downie - What else? A DTY, a nice DTY and high and powerful. 14.7
Romania Balance Beam
Diana Bulimar - Diana's lines are exquisite on this event, she has such lovely flexibility in all her leaps. Switch half to back tuck, back handspring two foot layout, dismount with two back handsprings to double tuck. 14.533
Larisa Iordcahe - backhandspring to tucked full, round off to two foot layout, small step back. She smiles as she finishes her routine with a triple twist.
Andreea Munteanu - beautiful low beam work with a unique chest roll/cartwheel. Back handspring to tucked full, fantastic. Forward Aerial to side somi, front tuck to switch 1/2. Tripe twist dismount.
Giulia Steingruber vault - super handspring Rudi (front 1 1/2 twist), high vault score of 15.10 (judges were happy to see something other than a DTY).
Laura Waem - Belgium- uneven bars - nice lines, not a super difficult routine, but it was clean and pretty. 14.266
Standings after three rotations:
1. Romania
2. Great Britain
3. Russia
Final Rotation
Russia- Vault
Aliya Mustafina- I would like to know what Valentina Rodionenko is smoking putting Aliya up for vault. It was reported that Aliya had been dealing with a minor ankle injury, vaulting doesn't seem like something a person with an ankle injury should do. Whatever. Yurchenko double full, step back. 14.733.
Alla Sosnitskaya - Nastia could really only ever manage a Yurchenko 1 1/2, Alla pulls out a nice DTY. 14.733
Maria Kharenkova - A nice clean full twisting Yurchenko, not super high, but okay for a lead off. 13.933
Total for Russia: 169. 329
Great Britain - Uneven Bars
Rebecca Tunney - bad ass Bhardwaj (full twisting pak salto), beautiful church, full in dismount, 14.766
Ruby Harrold- love the Bhardwaj, amazing old school Zuchold transition. Can't wait to see her compete for LSU. 14.733
Beckie Harrold - what a total bad ass. I love her on this event, she friction owns it like Beth Tweddle before her. Beautiful stadler piked tkatchev, gorgeous Chow. 14.833
Total: 170, 663
Vanessa Ferrari - Floor, super double double opening pass into a full in. Finished with a double pike, but her chest was down. 14. 491
Romania Floor
Andreea Munteanu - Her floor music is "Roxane" from the movie Moulin Rouge. She owns it, and emotes beautifully through her dance. Opens with a full in and follows with a triple full. Beautiful routine, 14. 133
Diana Bulimar - She opens with a super straight double layout and sticks it, and for her next pass, she throws a super piked full in. Shows beautiful artistry and unique ability with a super cool chest cartwheel low on the floor. Closes with a clean double pike. 14. 225
Larisa - At this point, Romania has it in the bag. She starts off strong with a double double and then follows with a tucked full in. She did a quad turn (more like 3 3/4), total bad ass. Finishes with a double pike, hops back but is still in bounds. She just cinched the win for Romania. 14.466
Total: 172.754
Final standings:
1. Romania 172.754
2. Great Britain 170.663
3. Russia 169. 329
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