|
22-24 May - BRITISH JUNIOR TUMBLERS TRIUMPH AT EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS
A fantastic performance from Great Britain’s Tumblers saw them win an amazing 3 European Team Titles plus the Individual European Title for GB’s Samantha Palmer at the European Tumbling and Trampoline Championships in Metz, France.
Great Britain also won Individual Bronze Medals in Junior and Senior Tumbling plus European DMT and Trampoline Podium places for the British Gymnast’s who produced some excellent results in a Championships previously dominated by the Russians, Ukranians and Eastern Europeans.
The Junior Events in Tumbling, DMT, Trampoline and Synchro opened the European Championships, and for the athletes born between 1989 and 1993 it was an experience they will never forget!
22 May - TUMBLING PRELIMINARIES - CLEAN SWEEP BY RUSSIAN MEN AS RUSSIA LEADS BY 20 POINTS, WITH GREAT BRITAIN 2ND!
An incredible performance by the Russian Male Tumblers saw them finish in 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th places in the Preliminary Events with Evgeni Zinukov taking the lead with 71.00 after increasing his difficulty with tariffs of 9.40 in his first pass and 11.00 in his second. Russian team mate Konstantin Grafiev qualified in 2nd place scoring 69.80 with tariffs of 9.10 and 11.00. Vasilli Kirillov and Innokenti Maskin finished in 3rd and 4th places scoring 69.50 and 66.00 and Maskin was desperately unlucky not to qualify for the Men’s Finals as only 2 gymnasts per country can compete in the Final, and he was only 0.30 behind Grafiev. Adrian Brylka from Poland the bronze medalist at the 2005 IAGC in the 15-16 Age Group scored 65.10. Great Britain’s Greg Boosey finished in 5th position and Gary Aspinall in 7th place also qualified for Finals. GB’s Stephen Newey finished in 11th place, and the youngest tumbler in the competition Sean Gregory finished in 19th place with a great performance.
In the Team Preliminaries the Russians built an incredible 20 point lead scoring 210.30 with Great Britain in 2nd place with a total of 190.30. Belarus, Poland and Denmark also qualified for the Team Finals with Russia looking unbeatable in this competition.
In the Women’s Junior Tumbling event, Alina Yarullova would have been favourite to land the 2006 European Title but she has moved up to the Senior Division. Great Britain’s Sarah Turner who is the International Age Group Champion in 2005 took an early lead in the Preliminary Event scoring 65.30 with tariffs of 6.70 and 6.90, with Elena Krasnorutskaya from Russia 2nd with 64.00 who competed 7.20 and 6.70 tariffs Great Britain’s Zara McLean from Wakefield was 3rd on 63.10 and the remaining places were fiercely contested as 10 gymnasts finished within 2 points of each other! Again only 2 gymnasts per nation could qualify for Finals and despite finishing in 5th place GB’S Jenny Dawes missed the European Finals but 2 gymnasts from Portugal and Denmark who finished in 11th and 12th still qualified for tomorrows Finals! GB’s Rachel Letsche also performed superbly to finish in 7th place. In the Team Competition Great Britain qualified in 1st position with Russia, France, Portugal and Ukraine all qualifying for the Team Finals.
22 May - TRAMPOLINE & DMT PRELIMINARIES
With Olympic, European and World Champions and Medalist’s competing in Metz, the standard was always going to be exceptional, and an excellent performance from Great Britain saw the British Women’s Team qualify in 1st position in the Junior Trampoline Prelims. The British Junior Men’s Team were not to be outdone as they qualified in 3rd place plus a 5th place for Tom Lewis. Fantastic individual results for GB in the Synchro Events too as Andrew and Michael Freeman qualified in 1st place with GB Team mates Jack Helme and Tom Lewis in 2nd! And in the Women’s Synchro GB’s Yasmin Gumbs and Danielle Pietruszka finished in 2nd place.
The Double Mini Trampoline Qualifiers too saw more GB success with the Women’s Team qualifying in 3rd place with the 2005 IAGC Gold Medalist Asha Philip producing a wonderful routine to qualify in 1st place with a score of 66.80 with two 5.60 passes. The gymnasts were so evenly matched that 4 of them tied for 2nd place with all 4 scoring 64.10! The tie had to be broken based on the score of their 2nd pass and the difficulty with Noellia Serano from Spain ranked 2nd, Anastasia Zhuravleva from Russia 3rd. Hannah Moses 8th. A major shock occurred in the Men’s DMT Qualifiers as Russia once more dominated with Pavel Gorchakov and Alexei Livov tied in 1st place on 69.50, which caused the automatic elimination of Russian favourite Dimitri Fidiev who had won the Silver Medal in the 2004 Junior European Championships despite finishing in 3rd place with 69.10. Alexander Doshlygin from Russia finished in 5th place meaning Russia had finished with 4 out of the top 5 places, but only 2 of their gymnasts could qualify! Daniel Schmitt from Germany qualified for Finals despite only finishing in 13th place, which again fuelled debate on the 2 gymnasts per nation rule. The GB Junior Men also qualified for the Team Finals after finishing 4th, an excellent opening day for all of our Teams!
23 MAY - BRITAIN’S JUNIOR WOMEN TUMBLERS WIN THE EUROPEAN TITLE PLUS BRONZE FOR GB MEN!
In the first of the Tumbling Finals, Great Britain’s Rachel Letsche, Zara McLean, Jennifer Dawes and Sarah Turner won the European Junior Team title in Tumbling scoring a total of 91.90. Sarah Turner again produced excellent technique to score a total of 32.80 with Wakefield and GB Team mate Zara McLean scoring 31.70. Jenny Dawes put yesterday’s disappointment of just missing out on Individual Finals behind her with another great performance to help win the European Title for GB. Alina Mamchur, Alexandra Meduchenko, and Olga Sudarkova from the Ukraine won the European Silver Team Medals, as Elena Krasnorutskaya from Russia struggled with her tumbles but solid performances from Ekaterina Reynbakh and Natalia Morzhanoskaya helped Russia win the bronze medals. This wonderful achievement from the British girls surpasses the results from Sophia in 2004 when Great Britain s won Silver Medals. Congratulations to the girls on an excellent result.
The Men’s Tumbling Title must surely go to Russia after winning the Prelims by a margin of 20 points, and a demonstration of superior tumbling once more saw the Russians take the European Title by 10 points as they reduced their difficulty to ensure victory, but showed incredible skills way ahead of their rivals to score 105.50 Konstantin Grafiev, Vassili Kirillov and Evgeni Zinukov with Zinukov, who led after the individual preliminaries, scored the lowest total of the three Russians. The Belarus team of Dimitri Darashuk, Pavel Siniakov and Pavel Stankevichtook the silver medal. Great Britain won bronze medals as Greg Boosey, Stephen Newey, and Gary Aspinall improved on the 2004 European Championships where GB came 4th Denmark finished in 4th place with Poland 5th after top performer Adrian Brylka surprisingly struggled.
23 May - GB WOMEN’S TEAM ALSO WIN SILVER AT EUROPEAN DMT CHAMPIONSHIPS!
The DMT Women’s Junior Team of Asha Philip, Charlotte Warmsley and Hannah Moses rounded off the GB’s medal collection in Metz when they performed superbly to win European Team Silver medals. Asha competed a 6.80 tariff to score 34.50 to lead the team and is a strong contender for a medal in tomorrow’s Individual Finals. Two years ago, in Sofia, the GB Team also finished in fourth place, demonstrating the huge progress which the British Teams have made.
The Gold medals were won by Russia’s Svetlana Karavaeva, Daria Romanova, and Alexandra Davydova who performed superbly to score 98.90 with Great Britain close behind on 96.70. Spain took the bronze medal with Katish Hernandez, Laura Garcia and Noelia Serrano while Portugal were 4th
In the Junior Men’s DMT Finals Spain emerged as the new European Champions after a thrilling contest with Russia in the men's DMT final. Spain beat the Russians, who occupied the top 3 spots in the individual preliminaries, by just or 0.20 pts (103.80 pts to 103.60 pts to take European Gold. David Jimenez and Alejandro Milan both hit 35+ pt routines and Antonio Yague scored 33.70 pts. Surprisingly Russia left out the 2005 IAGC winner Dimitri Fidiev, did well with Alexei Livov, Alexander Doshlygin, and Pavel Gorchakov, but were not quite good enough for the gold Samuel Coelho, Tony Pinto, and Mario Pereira from Portugal won bronze medals with 102.40 pts, with Germany in 4th position and Great Britain 5th.
23 May - EUROPEAN JUNIOR TRAMPOLINE FINALS
An absorbing Final with a nail biting climax with Ukraine and the talented new crop of youngsters from Spain battled for the European Junior Trampoline Titles. 15 gymnasts had qualified for the Team Finals with Viktoria Gurova from the Ukraine leading the competition with 34.00 and the Silvanich twins from the Ukraine Elena and Svetlana both scoring 33.70, to give a gold winning total of 101.40.
Spain had to settle for the Silver Medals with a score of 99.80 with an exceptional group of young trampolinists. Cristina Sainz (33.70 pts), Katish Hernandez (33.00 pts) and Claire Lizarraga (33.10 pts) all scored 33+ pts routines, to earn well deserved silver medals.
Georgia won the team bronze medals thanks to Luba Gulovina who gave it her all to compete a 13.10 routine, the highest tariff of the Juniors and almost 1.0 higher than any routine in the Preliminaries where the highest tariff had been 12.20. Golovina performed a faultless routine with the highest execution in the Final of 23.50 points to score a total of 36.60 points.
The British team finished in 4th with 98.70 points, only 0.60 points behind the Georgians, after qualifying for the Final in 1st place. However, the British Team should be proud of their performances with three solid routines delivered by Cara Jamieson, Yasmin Gumbs and Laura Gallagher. Russia finished 5th with 98.00 points with strong routines for such a young team with the highlight being Nadezhda Glebova who performed brilliantly to post a 33.80 pt routine.
In the Men’s Junior Team Final, France won their first men's team title at a European Youth Championship since its victory in 1998. Thomas Lacombe, Matteo Campus, and Lorris Bailet each performed solid routines, with Thomas Lacombe performing the best routine of the Team after crashing in the Preliminaries. In some ways a disappointing Final as only 2 Teams out of the 5 Finalist’s completed all 3 routines, with France emerging as new European Champions with a total of 105.20 as they showed good consistency, with individual scores ranging from 34.40 points to 35.50.
Belarus won the Silver Medal scoring 104.40 team took the silver medal with 104.40, only 0.80 points behind the French Team and Roman Danilov, who qualified to the individual final in 2nd position, competed only a 10.30 routine instead of the 14.20 which he performed in the Individual Preliminaries. Alexander Yatskov performed an excellent routine for Belarus to score 36.60.
Russia had been strong favourites for the European Team Title after qualifying in 1st place and the Russian Junior Team had won the Title in the previous 2 European Junior Championships. Mikhail Melnik qualified in 1st position in the Preliminaries performing an incredible 14.90 routine which scored 23.00 points for Execution and an overall total of 37.90 and must be favourite for the Individual European Title if he repeats this performance. but Russia’s Team Gold Medal hopes were shattered when Ilya Grishunin the 2003 World Age Group Games bronze medalist in the 13-14 Age Group fell off. Surprisingly Nikita Fedorenko did not compete for Russia in the team final and Russia scored only 77.10 points to earn the European bronze Medals. Unfortunately Great Britain and Germany both failed to go clean with all 3 routines with GB finishing in 4th place and Germany 5th.
24 MAY -THREE SILVER MEDALS FOR GREAT BRITAIN AT JUNIOR EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS
7 GOLD MEDALS FOR RUSSIA IN JUNIOR INDIVIDUAL FINALS!
Great Britain’s Sarah Turner stood proudly on the Medal Podium tonight as she received her first European Silver Medal with Wakefield also celebrating terrific performances from Zara McLean and Gary Aspinall who both finished in 4th place in the Individual European Tumbling Championships. The results once again demonstrate the fantastic record which Wakefield have in producing National and International Tumblers at top level and are a credit to the GB Team. Great Britain and Wakefield Head Coach Craig Lowther said "In the Junior Tumbling the competition for the medals was in fact between Russia and Great Britain! Our girls and boys completed 15 out of 15 routines- excellent!”
The European Junior Women’s Individual Tumbling Championship was won by Russia’s Elena Krasnorutskaya with tariffs of 7.6 and 7.9 scoring a total of 66.30. GB’s Sarah Turner scored 65.70 with Russian Team mate Ekaterina Reynbakh collecting the bronze medal with 65.20
The Men’s Individual Tumbling Title also went to Russia as Evgeni Zinukov became European Champion with a score of 69.60 which included tariffs of 10.1 and 8.3. Konstantin Grafiev won the Silver medal scoring 68.40 and a first pass of 11.0, despite an interruption to his rhythm in the second pass after a full twisting double straight transition forced him to finish with a simple full. Dimitri Darashuk from BLR won the bronze medal and Great Britain’s Gary Aspinall finished 4th after 2 solid tumbles which included full in back tuck and double back pike in his second run. Greg Boosey was in 6th place with another fine performance by the British Tumblers.
DMT AND SYNCHRO SILVER MEDALS FOR GB
GB enjoyed more medal success as Hannah Moses (DMT) and Yasmin Gumbs & Danielle Pietruszka (Trampoline Synchro) won Silver medals at the Junior European Championships in Metz, France which concluded on Wed, 24 May.
An incredible performance from Yasmin and Danielle with good synchronization produced a score of 42.700pts just 0.1 points short of the European Gold medals which went to Olga Kapustina and Olga Sinitsina from Belarus who scored 42.800 with both pairs competing 9.60 routines in a terrific Final. Tara Fokke and Anita Pot (NED) won the Bronze with a total of 42.000.
In the Men’s Synchro Finals Great Britain’s Andrew and Michael Freeman who had won the Synchro Qualifiers were desperately unlucky as Michael was forced to withdraw from the Finals after injuring his foot during the Men’s Team Finals yesterday so was unable to challenge for the European Title. The Final produced yet another Gold Medal for Russia as Mikhail Melnik and Dimitri Rozhkov won the Championships with a score of 45.30 and a tariff of 12.10, with Switzerland’s Loic Schir-Alexis Kovgar collecting the Silver.
In the DMT Women’s Finals Great Britain’s Hannah Moses collected the Silver Medal with a great performance as Spain’s Noelia Serrano won the European Title by a margin of 3.2 points with a score of 65.10 against Hannah’s 61.90. GB’s Asha Phillip had been favourite to win the DMT Title but unfortunately a bad landing in her first pass cost her chance of a medal. Asha produced an excellent second pass with full in full out lay to finish but sadly was not quite enough to reward Asha with the medal her performances so richly deserved. Another great result for the British Team.
The Individual European Women’s Trampoline Title was won by Luba Golovina (GEO), as Viktoria Gurova (UKR) won Silver and Olga Sinitsina (BLR) won bronze. They were followed by Cristina Sainz (ESP), Nadezhda Glebova (RUS), Yasmin Gumbs (GBR), Cara Jamieson (GBR) and Svetlana Sivanich (UKR), who could not complete her routine
In the Men’s Trampoline Final Russia and BLR shared the first 3 places as Mikhail Melnik (RUS) created history by becoming only the second male trampolinist in history to win the European Title at an age more than 2 years lower than the normal age limit. The only other trampolinist to achieve this was 1996 World Champion Dimitri Poliarush (USSR), who won the title in 1986 in Czestochowa (POL). Dimitri later became World Champion in 1996. In this year’s European Championships Roman Danilov from BLR won the Silver with BLR Team mate Alexander Yatskov collecting bronze. The British Champion Tom Lewis finished in 4th place.
No doubt the highlight for many of the competitors, judges and spectators was the appearance of the originator of the sport of Trampolining, 92 year old American George Nissen honoured the Championships with his presence and was acclaimed by an appreciative audience. George invented the first folding trampoline in the 1930s having built it in his garage in Cedar Rapids, Iowa USA. From here he set up a production facility and sold trampolines throughout the world. He was also instrumental in setting up the International Trampoline Federation which was responsible for developing the sport to its Olympic status of today.
CLICK HERE TO SEE FANTASTIC VIDEOS OF THE EUROPEAN TUMBLING, TRAMPOLINE AND DMT FINALS AT ACROBATICSPORTS.COM!
DON’T MISS OUR REPORT BELOW AS SAM WINS EUROPEAN TUMBLING TITLE!
|
