Saturday

Romanian Nationals - Part one: All around and Qualifications



It's been a good one...
Ana Porgras won, with a fall on the UB dismount. Her beam routine is not as artistic as it used to be, the choreo is almost all gone but it looks rock solid. The floor on La Boheme is great. There are a few elements of her old choreography in it but as she will compete it, this new routine will have its own "personality" . On vault - only did a FTY, she will probably never be a gymnast to throw DTYs in all competitions but I don't think she will hesitate to show it in a Worlds AA final. On UB - she is back to her old routine and she had improved execution compared to this spring. 

Amelia Racea was second. I think her beam routine is my favorite of the Romanians at the moment because it's not as watered down on choreography and her leaps and jumps are perfection. On floor, they seem to be trying everything to make her dance more. She looks as bored as ever. It's heartbreaking really because she is such an elegant gymnast - to me that this is only a mental thing. On vault - she still has that bent knee on the second flight phase. On uneven bars she looks good, better than last spring. I hope she can add one tow tenths in difficulty on time for worlds.

Raluca Haidu hasn't improved much really. But she had a good AA competition: her beam was good (though watered down), on floor she has the same music - the artistic elements are as good or better than last year but her acro series are not as well executed. Vault was good, comforting that she still has the DTY. her uneven bars set is increased in difficulty which is good but the execution is still not there - gosh she has such nice lines it could be brilliant.

Diana Bulimar came back to competition after more than a year. She was not allowed to step with her injured foot for about four months as we shockingly found out from Cristian Moldovan (who was the commentator along with Alina Alexoi). Diana was up first on beam and though she looked very good, she fell on a front salto. She had the most fantastic floor (5.8 D score) which I didn't manage to see but Moldovan, who was also the coach that accompanied her at last year's YOF, said her artistic leaps and jumps were much improved and that she had worked a lot to solve these issues because she had understood that last year she lost to Tan Sixin because of the artistic part. They did not manage to correct her piked position on handstands on uneven bars but her transitions and dismount are nice. Unfortunately Moldovan said that the incorrect position was something that they also struggled for 3 yeas to correct while she was in the junior team.
Dana Andrei is still beautiful - but not yet the gymnast that can make it to a World championship.

Gabi Dragoi - is still far from what she could become. Uneven bars can still place her in the National team should the circumstances allow it. It's good that she still has four events.

I didn't see much of Diana Trenca - but she doesn't seem changed compared to last year.

Maria Balea fell on uneven bars again, other than that she looked good but tired.

Catalina Ponor showed some exciting gymnastics: beam was very good, better than in 2007 really; her floor routine although with some execution errors, looked solid. And her Yurchenko 1 1/2 was fantastic. The TVR commentator Alina Alexoi said that she landed a DTY on podium training the previous day. 

As a conclusion, Romanians had a good day overall, but the two "problem" events are still lacking. Beam was fantastic with three routines scoring above 15, on floor the coaches and choreographer are trying to find routines that are pleasant to the audience and suit the gymnasts' personalities -way better than in the Puia's era; Vault  was not so good - only two DTYs and a one and a half TY. Uneven bars have improved slightly compared to last year as there are now four routines with around 6.0 D score, but the same execution errors are still there.



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