Romania in the news - week 15 - 21 August

Deva are aiming at winning the Senior National title in Onesti, where Romanian Nationals are starting on Friday. The team will be composed of: Raluca Haidu, Diana Trenca, Amelia Racea, Beatrice Margarit and Maria Balea ( source: Mesagerul Hunedorean, article HERE)

Catalina Ponor's birthday was last week, on the 20th. She told Libertatea she will not have much time for partying and that a 24 year old gymnast sees things differently. (Source The Couch Gymnast - from Libertatea; articles: HERE and HERE).

Ana Porgras interview (by Curaj Romania) - HERE

Last interview of the Curaj series - Sandra Izbasa HERE

A few articles on Romanian Gymnastics Federation website about the Summer Universiade where the Romanian MAG team have won five medals. This year's big goal is qualifying a full team for London Olympics. (www.romgym.ro; articles here and here)

Fangymnastics have started a series called Beatrice's Journal - written by a former Romanian gymnast who retired from gymnastics at a young age (from what I understand). (source: fangymnastics.com; article HERE )

And Catalina Ponor posted what seems it will be her floor music on her facebook page. It needs a bit of editing because the original piece is over five minutes long, but it suits her well:

Lauren's much anticipated floor routine

Lauren Mitchell's highly anticipated floor routine has managed to bring me out of the cave I've been trying to hide in for the past few weeks. It was THAT big an event. I love it when this happens and I wish people would market  routines like that and launch them en fanfare more often. Ok, ok, maybe it was not Lauren herself who announced it this way...maybe us, crazy fans hungry for some news-scrap related to gymnastics did that. What i meant was that I wish gymnast would give us the opportunity to become animated like that more often.

Now, about the routine: the first time I watched it, I thought it was awkward. Then it became increasingly obvious that it needs some more work. Now after watching it numerous times I think that, with time, as the choreography will be more and more rehearsed, Lauren will be able to discover and accentuate certain nuances of the music. She will learn to use to her advantage the vocal parts that are the element that if speculated correctly can bring the originality factor to the routine. Plus, what we have seen this weekend was a very "choppy" version - the landings were so messy that it was difficult to maintain a unity of the choreography and also interpret the music. 

What did you think about Lauren's routine? Which is your favorite "new" routine of 2011?