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| Irina Paun and some girls from Russia that also won medals in Marseille |
Saturday
best picture of the week
Tuesday
Sunday
Translation of "The Medal Factory"
For those of you who don't speak Romanian I tried to translate as much as I could of the "Medal Factory" show.
The show that aired on Digi Sport on Saturday November 13th, had as guests Mariana Bitang, Octavian Bellu, Andreea Raducan, the Romanian Olympic team, the six juniors that are in the special program of preparation for the Olympics and the coaches from the Senior and Junior teams.
the Olympic team: Dana Andrei, Amelia Racea, Raluca Haidu, Larisa Iordache, Cerasela Patrascu, Gabriela Dragoi, Diana Trenca, Diana Chelaru, Ana Porgras, Anamaria Tamirjan, Sandra Izbasa (not present).
Juniors: Georgiana Gheorghe, Maria Balea, Andreea Tufa, Diana Rusu, Madalina Neagu, Beatrice Margarit, Diana Bulimar (not present)
The coaches: Lucian Sandu, Marius Vintila, Florin Cotitiu, Liliana Cosma (not present) and for the juniors Lacramioara Filip Moldovan and Cristian Moldovan.
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| Romanian National Team (before the Worlds) |
These are bits of conversations that i managed to translate. I had to make a bit of a selection because the entire show lasted for 45 minutes and the transcript of the entire thing would have been a much too difficult task for a Sunday afternoon:
Mariana: “Let’s ask Anamaria Tamarjan what made her comeback.”
Anamaria: “I realised that I hadn’t done enough in gymnastics”
Mariana: “Bravo Ana! I am glad she has this mentality: she is an European Champion, has an Olympic medal, nevertheless she considers she has not done enough in this sport and I am conviced she will do more.”
Trying to talk to the gymnasts… First up Maria Balea:
“Why did you start gymnastics?”
“Because I liked it (…) I want to become a champion”
“I want to go to the Olympics and get all the gold medals”
Bitang: “Larisa, not all of them, let’s leave some for the others”
Mariana: “Good, I am sure you will get those Olympic medals”
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| the Junior team - Silver medal winners at 2010 Euros |
What about you, Pitic?
Bellu: (jockingly) you will have to adjust her voice whe you edit this she has a funny voice.
Haidu: “I want to go to the Olympics and win gold, help the team. I will work a lot to get there.”
Ana: “I think that the most important medal is the gold, because winning it means that you are the best. Silver and bronze are on the side.”
Bellu: “And they don’t even play your anthem.”
Host: “This is one of your favorites, right?”
Bellu: (smiling) “We don’t have to exaggerate either, because behind a bronze medal there’s a fantastic amount of work and you can pass quickly because of things that depend on youself or on the circumstances from being a gold medal favorite to bronze medal winner. So I say that at the Worlds, Europeans and Olympics, any medal is valuable”
Bitang: “But we’d rather have the gold one.”
Bellu: “Yes, because there are also other benefits after you win it. I am glad they have the jeweler’s inclination. I must also warn Iordache and Haidu that they don’t accept ties at the Olympics, so they will have to fight each other for gold… Only at the Worlds they can both have gold (laughing with Bitang).”
Host: “We slowly come to talk about the future, about London Olympics but also next year’s Worlds in Tokyo
Bellu: “I have always tried to avoid making predictions because this is not agriculture, we can't predict anything in a situation in which the circumstances are always changing (…) The perspective depends on the way in which the gymnasts will be responsible, give it all to work and be careful not to have gaps in preparation any more, to add new elements and increase difficulty and once 75% of these are covered, the shape in which you are at that one competition, then the circumstances can be favorable or not, but you must be prepared for anything and to be able to solve whatever is up to you: clean execution, good landings etc.”
Host: “Do we have enough time to catch Russia
Bellu “Yes, we do have time but it depends how you use it because if you can’t accumulate quickly you can’t remain at the stage of learning the elements one week before the leaving for the Worlds. At one point you must stop and work to stabilize the new elements and combinations.” …”But the difference at the Worlds was obvious and I even saw statistics, the difference was not between our execution marks but our difficulty.”
Bitang: “If we think about it and it was obvious at the past Worlds, the difference used to be of around 10 points now the gap was smaller, 3 points, less than 3 poins. But now it depends on every gymnast because every technician will think the routine according to the gymnasts real and maximum abilities, but then again, only the gymnasts are responsible of how they address the preparation (…) if they really want to get those medals they must upgrade their value, their difficulty in a short period of time. I want to highlight that after the Worlds, most of the people are having a few days off, a recovery break. Given that they unfortunately had such long periods of recovery after injuries, we considered that it’s best to remain in the gym, because they were in a good physical shape after the worlds and learn new skills. This can already be seen, we can see a speed-up in the assimilation of new and very difficult elements, and I hope we will be able to keep this pace even if there will be smoother periods coming, because only now they can learn, now, for one more month or two because then they will have to start repeating whole routines two months before the Europeans - that are scheduled in the beginning of April”
Host: "How did the girls seem when they came back from London
Mariana: “During the first two trainings they were enthusiastic and worked perfectly.. if only the contests had been then… I mean they obviously wanted it more.(…)”
Bellu ”The main idea is the continuity. Now this increase of difficulty happened precisely when they say there is a downfall, also in the specialised literature you will find that there will be a general fall after an important contest.. for these gymnasts this fall did not exist and we are glad."
Host: "Were you surprised by this and by the girls’ attitude."
Bitang: “mmm… No, we can’t be surprised anymore, but I think they were surprised, let’s ask them. We had all sorts of experiences so let’s ask the gymnasts. Were you surprised?”
Ana Porgras: “Yes!”
Andreea Raducan: “Gymnastics seems to be different now. When I was a gymnast, we never heard of vacation after the Worlds or Olympics. We just prayed that the five free days to come for Christmas”
Bitang: “See? Nothing is new. This is how we built the results in the past. After a contest ends you don’t stand”… “But Ana tell us more.”
Ana Porgras: "Yes, in the past, we had an easier period after the competitions but now we came back, started training new elements and I was surprised."
Bitang: “And you were surprised: wow! I can do a double twisting Yurchenko!”
Again, you can watch the entire show on eamyy's youtube channel.
Anamaria Tamarjan is back at Izvorani!
This is the promo for a show that aired on Romanian Sport's Channel Digis Sport. You can see at one point Sandra, Gabi Dragoi and the Ana Tamarjan.
The Romanian Olympic team has now 17 gymnasts!
Edit: she confirmed in the show for which the promo was done, which was taped at Izvorani and aired on Saturday (yesterday).
Monday
"I still wake up at night because I dream I missed a vault" - Andreea Raducan
Andreea is a huge star in Romania, there are many articles about her and many interviews in Romanian magazines... She manages to say something interesting every time although the questions are all the same.
about being so slim "I am not on a special and miraculous diet. I went to Izvorani recently and Mrs. Bitang told me she could not believe she must beg me to eat, because when I was a gymnast I was always slightly overweight."
when asked if it happens to her to dream that she is competing "For a long period of time I kept dreaming that I was training or in competition, especially right after I retired. It still happens to me to wake up because I dream that I mess up the steps before a vault and I feel I don't have enough power to jump or to run."
about meeting guys "If anybody thinks that for as long as I was an athlete I thought of anything but gymnastics, they are wrong. But after 19 I had enough time to think about boys."
by the way, in case you missed it, Tribute2the80s has uploaded the TF AA and EF of the 2001 Worlds (and the quality is great too).
Silvia Stroescu and then Andreea Raducan on beam:
or watch it here
Sunday
Romanian Gymnasts that turn 16 in 2011
The greatest news is that Diana Bulimar becomes a senior. I hope it's not too late, considering her latest health problems.
Her strengths: she's a good gymnast all around; a double layout and overall great tumbling and leaps on floor; nice form on uneven bars and very difficult beam
Weaknesses: she is not completely recovered after her foot injury; she needs to upgrade on vault
Best Results: third on Uneven Bars in the event finals at 2010 Junior Europeans, second on floor EF at Youth olympic Games 2010
This is the floor routine from the YOG EF:
or here
Madalina Neagu
Best Result: Qualified in the EF on Balance Beam at 2010 Europeans
Strengths: Competitive beam and floor routines; she's the only junior that has a release move in her uneven bars routine (besides Diana Bulimar and Larisa Iordache), nice form on uneven bars, pretty elegant beam worker; she has switch ring leap on beam
Weaknesses: her vault, she has been injured for most of 2009
This is her beam performance at Romanian International 2010:
or here.
Diana Rusu
Best Result: silver with the Romanian team at 2010 Euros, qualified for the vault finals at 2010 Euros, 3rd AA at 2010 Romanian Nationals
Strengths: floor (great leaps and hight in tumbling passes) and beam
Weaknesses: the uneven bars (her D scores have been in the mid 3s)
or here
Beatris Margarit
Strengths:floor - she is a poweful tumbler and has a competitive D score on this apparatus, consistent on beam
Weaknesses: the uneven bars
Best Result: silver with the team at 2010 Euros
This is her floor from 2010 Nationals in Resita (a month ago):
or here.
Tatiana Geamparoiu
Strengths: floor
Weakness: did not show an Ub routine at 2010 Nationals
International Experience in 2010: Gymnix Junior Cup
This is the floor she showed a month ago at the Nationals:
or here
Ana-Maria Baicu
Strengths: she is lovely on twists on floor; pretty form on leaps on floor and beam; on beam she has the difficulty and much more: lovely arms and spins, great rhythm.
Weaknesses: She did not train at full potential in 2010 due to injury
International Experience in 2010: Gymnix Junior Cup
This is her beam routine from Gymnix Junior Cup
Romanian Junior Nationals
This weekend the Junior Nationals for categories II and III took place in Bacau. No videos have emerged yet, but I have read that it was a pretty good one, with many nice surprises.
In the Junior II the competition was dominated by Ana Maria Ocolisan, who won the All around title and the Vault and Uneven Bars finals and Andreea Rotaru who won floor and medals on vault and uneven bars.
At level 3, the all around title was won by Laura Jurca. This is her floor routine from June:
I like this kid! She is only 11 and yes the choreo is not very complex, but I like how she uses her arms and the fact that she looks like a future power tumbler.
At level four, Irina Paun was the star: she won the All around and silver medals on all four apparatuses. What a great all arounder to have in the team after 2012! This is her beam set from last month at Resita:
Many wobbles, but pretty good for an 11 year old, huh! And that sheep jump!
You can find many pics from the meet on this website.
There are many, many routines of the Romanian juniors on andra000lumi's youtube channel (but not yet from this competition)
Complete results:
Juniors II
Vault
1. Ana Maria Ocolişan (CNS Cetate Deva) – 13,350
2. Andreea Rotaru (CSSG Focşani) – 13,100
3. Maria Răuţă (CSSG Focşani) – 13,050
Uneven Bars
1. Ana Maria Ocolişan (CNS Cetate Deva) – 13,300
2. Maria Răuţă (CSSG Focşani) – 12,350
3. Alexandra Marcu (CNS Cetate Deva) – 12,250
Balance Beam
1. Alexandra Marcu (CNS Cetate Deva) – 13,650
2. Maria Răuţă (CSSG Focşani) – 12,900
3. Andreea Rotaru (CSSG Focşani) – 12,850
Floor
1. Andreea Rotaru (CSSG Focşani) – 14,200
2. Ana Maria Ocolişan (CNS Cetate Deva) – 13,700
3. Alexandra Marcu (CNS Cetate Deva) – 13,600
Juniors Category III, Level III
Vault
1. Mădălina Blendea (CNS Cetate Deva) – 13,625
2. Larisa Culbece (CSS 1 Timişoara) – 13,300
3. Andreea Puiu (CSM Oneşti) – 13,200
Uneven Bars
1. Anda Butuc (CSS 2 Bucureşti) – 13,850
2. Mădălina Blendea (CNS Cetate Deva) – 13,800
3. Laura Jurcă (CNS Cetate Deva) – 13,400
Beam
1. Andreea Iridon (CNS Cetate Deva) – 13,450
2. Larisa Culbece (CSS 1 Timişoara) – 13,350
3. Laura Jurcă (CNS Cetate Deva) – 13,250
Floor
1. Andreea Iridon (CNS Cetate Deva) – 14,150
2. Mădălina Blendea (CNS Cetate Deva) – 14,000
3. Aida Orheanu (CSSG Focşani) – 13,900
JUN, Category III, Level IV
Vault
1. Silvia Zarzu (CSM Oneşti) – 13,450
2. Irina Păun (CSA Steaua Bucureşti) – 13,200
3. Diana Teodoru (SCM Bacău) – 13,100
Uneven Bars
1. Andreea Munteanu (CNS Cetate Deva) – 12,950
2. Irina Păun (CSA Steaua Bucureşti) – 12,700
3. Ioana Badea (CSS 1 Timişoara) – 12,600
ina Paun (photo Ionut Branzei)
Beam
1. Ioana Badea (CSS 1 Timişoara) – 13,700
2. Irina Păun (CSA Steaua Bucureşti) – 13,500
3. Denisa Năstase (CSSG Focşani) – 13,050
Floor
1. Denisa Năstase (CSSG Focşani) – 14,000
2. Irina Păun (CSA Steaua Bucureşti) – 13,850
3. Silvia Zarzu (CSM Oneşti) – 13,750
Wednesday
Vacation? I don't think so...
Some are on vacation, others do the fall-winter competitions with the big cash prizes, Romania is back in the gym. Anca Grigoras announced that the Romanian gymnasts have finished the competition season and that the next months, they will be concentrating on learning new skills, the ultimate goal being an increased difficulty score.
I hope they all manage to get through this period in good health. At the airport, Bellu was so eager to get back in the gym that he said he wouldn't have given the gymnasts the few days of... if it were up to him they would have gone from the airport straight to a training at Izvorani .
If you are still not convinced of how difficult the next period it will be (I know you are, just saying..) here is the ultimate proof :) : Mariana is not happy and she is not used to having a team that does not/cannot challenge for the podium.
This is an interview she gave after the team finals:
The girls managed to have a contest without falls...
According to the new COP this seems to be unimportant, it's important now to have a high difficulty, that allows you to fall and still the final score will not be affected too much.
Are you satisfied with the result?
The girls worked as much as they could, they tried to do their best and this is all it could be accomplished after about a month of thorough preparation, especially that the girls just came from injuries. I am not satisfied with the fact that on floor they could not maintain the total they got in qualifications.
Romania was closer to the podium that in qualifications..
The problem is not that the difference is big, the important is what we are going to do from now on. Our only chance is this: either we come to our senses and start working like we used to or we quit.
Isn't it difficult for you to watch the Worlds from home?
No, because there is a lot of work to do here as well. Moreover, I am used to fighting for something when I go to a contest. in the situation when Romania had five consecutive titles (with the team) and now we are out of the medals, it's tough.
Monday
Swiss cup - Izbasa and Koczi on fourth
The contest was won by Elisabeth Seitz and Fabian Hambuchen (who competed on the uneven bars and high bar respectively in the final) followed by Vanessa Ferrari and Matteo Morandi (floor and rings) on the second and Ariella Kaeslin and Claudio Capelli on third (beam and parallel bars).
these are Sandra's and Flavius' floor performances from the semifinals:
and this is Sandra's from the finals:
Watch Seiz's uneven bars routine:
or here
complete results can be found here.
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