The Story of Larisa Iordache - Part 3

Training with the seniors

new team mates (Larisa is second from right to left between Raluca Haidu and
Diana Chelaru)

In September 2010, before Romanian Nationals, it was announced that Larisa Iordache had been transferred to the “Olympic team”. In other words she had started to train with the seniors under Bellu and Bitang. The head coaches, whom had taken over the preparation of the national team in June 2010, had as main goal building a competitive team for London 2012. Bringing Larisa over (at only 14) was among the measures to achieve that.

At the Nationals, in the junior competition, Larisa won gold medals in the all around and on all the event finals. The story becomes “boring” after this:

- October 2010, Larisa was sent, together with seniors Dana Andrei and Diana Trenca and junior Maria Balea to an international competition in Schiltigheim. She again dominated, winning the all around with a total score of 58 points and all apparatus finals (on vault it was a tie with France’s Elodie Perez).

- May 2011: she is sent, along with other team mates in much need of gaining competition experience (Haidu, Andrei, Trenca)  at the French Nationals. Wins AA, VT, BB and FX

- June 2011 – Gym Festival (Trnava) wins AA, UB, BB, FX

- a couple of weeks later: Great Britain vs Romania (friendly meet between the junior teams). Larisa wins AA and gets the highest scores across the board

So here we are, in July 2011 at the European Youth Olympic Festival  - Trabzon 2011. For the first time I was nervous for her: this was the big meet of the year and this was the first time since april 2010 when she was supposted to be competing against those Russian Juniors, especially Anastasia Grishina and Anastasia Sidorova. Add to that Bellu’s statements that this was the meet which had to put Larisa in the spotlight, to make a reputation for herself. I say reality check time seasoned with a bit of a killer pressure from head coach.

But the Russians had once again managed the impossible and Grishina and Sidorova were left home to mend some new minor injuries aquired out of the gym.

With one challenge out of the way – thing that I bet did NOT make the coaches nor Larisa as happy as some may think - the battle now was with herself: competing three days in a row all around without having a major mistake.  

The final result speaks for itself in a way: 3 silver medals (team, VT and UB) and 3 gold medals (AA, BB, FX). By "in a way" I meant that in the all around the margin was of about 2 poins so even with a fall, she couldn’t have lost that title. 

On top of those medals, Larisa came back victorious: international press (meaning mainly us bloggers LOL) were raving about her and most importantly, she stayed on the apparatus, "on her feet", until the last routine, for three days in a row. Not bad, I say.

We have seen in parts 2 and 3 of my rants about Larisa Iordache how she beautifully developed, since 2008, on the international scene. Up next, in part 4, I will take a look at her routines and the skills she has competed during these years but also ask the big question: is she capable of more?

The story of Larisa Iordache – Part 1

The story of Larisa Iordache – Part 2

"I wish Mariana many medals

especially on beam" is Octavian Bellu's wish for Mariana Bitang on the 49th birthday.

"I am like a mother... a mother must also love them and tell them when things are not going well" she said to the press who wanted to also find out what presents she had received. She gracefully replied she was aware only of the flowers and there were also some unopened boxes somewhere.

Mariana Bitang was congratulated by the president's wife who also brought presents for the gymnast. The gymnasts sang her happy birthday and said that they needed to regroup and bring home shiny medals (Ponor), and that they love it when Mariana is happy, the atmosphere in the gym is much nicer - Izbasa (why did we have a feeling it was the case :) )

Also a nice present from Ana Porgras watch it here (at 00:40).

Other clips, most of the times same images but you can discover interesting things if you watch closely - here and here:

The Story of Larisa Iordache - Part 2

"Junior" years

This part is about the some of highlights of Larisa’s long junior international career whisch started in 2007 and it continues in 2011…

In 2008, when she was "already" 12 years old Larisa and team mate Diana Bulimar participated in the Top Gym competition in Belgium. Larisa finished the competition 4^th all around (behind Jordyn Wieber, Yvette Moshage and Kamerlin Moore) and had the 4^th highest score on vault, second on beam (0.05 behind Wieber) and 1^st on floor (tie with the American). On uneven bars she had the 14^th score in the competition.

A few weeks later Larisa took part in 2008 Challenge international, a junior competition held in Netherlands, together with team mates Patricia Tiron, Mihaela David, Ana Maria Baicu (all of whom are now retired from gymnastics). She finished the competition 4^th all around behind Corrie Lothrop, Olivia Courtney and Amanda Jetter. She had the highest marks on beam and floor, was third on vault and 9^th on uneven bars.

In 2009 her most notable competitions were:
 the National championships which was the first time she competed on the same “scene” as the Romanian senior gymnasts. Granted 2009 was not a particularly good year for the Romanian national team, Larisa stole the show. Here is her BB routine, when Alina Alexoi, the Romanian National Television commentator is in awe of the discovery.

 (For the ones of you that don't speak Romanian her's a summary: she (the commentator) first says that  Larisa seems sure footed, then is amazed by the tucked full, then she says she doesn't want to make her fall so will refrain from praising her, then she starts again by applauding her leaps, jumps and acro skills only to be shocked by the pirouette and the triple twist Larisa throws in the end.)

in November 2009, Larisa returned to Charleroi for the Top gym competition. It was time for redemption: she won the all round and the beam final. She also competed in the UB final, finishing 7^th.

In 2010, prior to the Euros, Larisa and the other members of the Junior team were allowed to participate in the Romanian International competition (outside the contest). In the first day she had some mistakes in the AA competition, finishing 6^th but the event finals she stole the show from the seniors (once again): she had the second highest total on vault, was 3^rd on UB, 1^st BB (better than first place – Ana Porgras) and 1^st FX (higher score than Diana Chelaru who won the final).

At the Junior Europeans, a few weeks later, in a competition dominated by the Russians, Larisa was among the few gymnasts who were able to challenge them. She contributed to the team’s silver medal and then took bronze AA (behind Komova and Grishina), was second on BB (with an watered down routine) and shared the first place on floor with Anastasia Grishina.

  

Up Next – Larisa’s development in the last year, since she became a member on the Romanian Olympic team. Don’t miss tomorrow’s “newspaper”!

Read the first part here:

Larisa Iordache – The beginning

The Story of Larisa Iordache - Part 1

The beginning

Larisa Performing one of her signature moves - Top Gym 2009
Photo source http://www.gymnasticsunited.com

Born on June 19^th 1996 in Bucharest, Larisa is the “child” of CSS7 Dinamo. You know who else was from Dinamo? I am sure you have heard of this name before: Aurelia Dobre. Larisa’s first coaches at Dinamo were Mariana Silişteanu Câmpeanu, Raluca Suciu Popescu and Vladimir Potop

She comes from a family of athletes: her mother was a handball player who had to give up the sport when her family was unable to financially support her anymore and her father was a football player. Larisa’s brother, who is five years older than her, is also a professional footballer. Unsurprisingly, when she was little Laris also wanted to take up a sport: ballet.

But, as it happens, one day she was spotted by a gymnastics coach while rollerblading in the park. Mariana Silisteanu, the gymnastics coach, seeing the kid’s fearless and poised attitude asked her mother if she wanted to send her do gymnastics. The answer: no.  

Nonetheless she allowed Larisa’s grandmother to take her and check out the gym. It was not love at first sight for the five year old. Still, once she overcame her shyness and tried to do some gymnastics elements, the was won.

In fact, after the “play” hour had ended, she did not want to leave the gym anymore.

As time passed, she wanted to work more and never seemed to be bored of the training. He coaches started teaching her harder and harder elements eventualy starting the training appropriate for a future elite athlete.

By the time she was eight years old she had won her first gold medals at the “Little gymnast” national contest. And she loved it. Whenever she was second or third, that meant her ambition increased, it was only a sign that she had to keep working in order to maintain her status of best gymnast in the team.

At 11 she became a member of the junior national team and moved to Onesti.


Larisa's floor routine - 2007 (same choreo!)



Beam, same competition in 2007



Don't miss the next 4 parts about, among others, her results as a junior and how she ended up in the Romanian olympic team at 14 - I will post them in the following days.

Covergirl Classic - videos

More photos HERE

Aly Raisman VT UB BB FX

Chellsie Memmel VT UB BB FX

Sabrina Vega VT UB
Sophia Lee BB

Bridgette Caquatto VT UB BB
Casey Magee VT FX

Alicia Sacramone VT1 and VT2 BB FX

Jordyn Wieber UB BB

Mackenzie Caquatto UB BB

Shawn Johnson UB BB

Gabrielle Douglas UB

Anna Li UB

Kyla Ross VT UB FX
Katelyn Ohashi  UB BB


EDIT: Complete results for the Junior competition - HERE and for the Senior's competition - HERE.
Interviews from Gymnastike.org : Chellsie Memmel, Shawn Johnson, Sabrina Vega, Aly Raisman, Mckenzie Wofford, Alicia Sacramone, Katelyn Ohashi, Kyla Ross, Lexie Priessman, Nica Hults.


Do not miss the pictures from Gymnastics Examiner!


Also, check out the Universal sports website for highligts of Shawn Johnson Alicia Sacramone, Chellsie Memmel, Jordyn Wieber,  Aly Raisman routines and an analysis by Tim Daggett and Amanda Borden (It does not work for all the countries, I think).


Now, I am going to watch everythig again so I can share my thoughts. Until then, what was the nicest surprise for you? Any disappointments?

Australian nationals - Event finals

Lauren during the AA medal ceremony

Lauren Mitchell had a rough day on Sunday: she missed her opening pirouette on UB, fell on the first tumbling pass on BB and almost sat the first pass on floor. But she still won 3 gold medals (vault, beam and floor). And, except for BB maaaybe, deservedly so. 

Ashleigh Brennan took two silver medals - beam (14.525/ 5.9D) and floor (13.350/ 5.3 D score).

Honestly, I would have been extremely happy for Brennan to take beam gold, because see, they don't have that many people in Australia that are good on beam. So, at least when Lauren falls, they should give it to the girl who stays on the beam (even if she isn't exactly wobblefree either). 

Chloe Sims took uneven bars title with 14,275 (5.8 D) - whereas Mez Monkton finished second (13.875/ 5.8 D). On third place - Larissa Miller, with the highest difficulty of the competition, on bars (6.1) but only 7.05 on execution (counting a fall).

Aside from second place on bars, Mez also won bronze on beam (14.05/ 5.8 D score) and second on floor (13.350/ 5.3 D score)- tie with Brennan.

Thank you Gemeani for all the wonderful videos!

More pictures from the AA meet on Gymnastics Australia website.

Australian nationals - All Around

photo source here

Lauren Mitchell is Australian AA National Champion. Georgia-Rose Brown won silver and Mary Anne Monckton - bronze.

The gymnasts competed twice on all events and the totals of the two days added up for the final results.

In Day one, Mitchell was followed by Georgia-Rose Brown and Chloe Sims. Both Georgia and Chloe have ok FTYs and consistent uneven bars routines and both seem not to be very fond of beam. On floor, Georgia is pretty fantastic, she has long lines and good flexibility - I would love to see her at worlds this year (watch here her routine from Vic championships).

Next day, Mary Anne Monckton did a liiiittle better on floor and beam placing second for the day and moving on third in the final AA rankings. Nevertheless, Mez  seems to have established herself as no. 1 bar worker in Australia (challenged by Chloe Sims maybe).  

 Lauren did better in day two than in day one on floor and beam. But if on these two events she is currently struggling to re-gain the shape, on vault and uneven bars she is definitely doing better than in the previous years. Her DTY is turning out ok-ish and as long as she will be able to almost stick it, she will surely score in the mid-14s with it in international competitions.

 or here

her bars works is also improving slowly but steadily

or here

Floor seems to have been much better than in Japan (I am referring to day one because I haven't seen a video from day 2 yet) at least for the first minute, until she fell on that third pass, it was nice.

or here

Beam is a lot of work. But this has always been the case for her and undoubtedly she will figure everything out by October, even the turn in tuck stand - by connecting the full turn out of it. Deep down, I always hoped she will drop it, but it seems we will have to live with it.

or here

AA results day one:

AA results day two:

Complete results HERE

will there be life (or World team finals) after Beth?

Photo source HERE

Ever wondered what the Brits will do after 2012? Will they manage to find another gymnast as great as Beth? Will they ever be able to win other Team medals at Euros or qualify for team finals at Worlds?
The latest British Nationals have demonstrated that we have no reasons to worry about them. It is becoming increasingly obvious that a successful team will be built around three fantastic gymnasts:

1) My favorite is Gabrielle Jupp, who placed second in the junior all around competition at the latest Nationals. She is only 13 and her favorite event is the balance beam (1st place on the EF). Her beam D score was 5.6 (she presented a 5.8 D score at a friendly meet against Romania a few weeks ago) and she also had good results on floor (second, with 5.4 D score) and vault (silver medal - 5.0 and 4.6 D scores for her vaults).

 Here is her beam routine from this spring Gymnix International, where she placed 1st on the event final. 

or watch it on youtube.

Besides the fact that she works with great confidence and that she masters a wide range of skills, I love her flexibility and the amplitude of her leaps and jumps. 

2) Rebecca Tunney - the new British Junior AA National Champion: She was born in 1996 and she is from Manchester but competes for City of Liverpool Gym Club. In her presentation on her club's website she says that Shawn Johnson is her favorite gymnast and  the triple twist - a favorite skill. At the latest British Nationals Rebecca had good D scores across the board: 5.8 on UB, 5.2 on BB, 5.3 on FX. She also won two EF gold medals: on floor and uneven bars, which is also her favorite apparatus. I love her attack and her rhythm on this event.


or here.

3) On third place in the AA competition at the latest Junior nationals, we had Abi Caig, another gymnast from City of Liverpool. Abi is only 14 (she was born on the 1st of October 1997) and  on the club's website we can find out that her favorite gymnast is Beth Tweddle, she likes to spend time in front of the computer and her favorite meal is a "roast dinner". Lovely!
I only found her footage of her UB routine from Nationals, which is her weaker event:

or watch here.

If you are not convinced yet, here is a nice montage by smallsoph. You will see why Abi is one to watch for 2013:
 
or here.

Other gymnasts to watch: Loriah James, Raer Theaker and Angel Romaeo.

As a conclusion, the Brits have a fantastic junior team. I think that, even though Rebecca Tunney becomes a senior next year, they stand a good chance of winning the Junior TF at 2012 Euros.

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?

Dilemmas

As per FRG, via Fangymnastics, the Romanian gymnasts Maria Balea, Georgiana Gheorghe and Larisa Iordache will compete on the 4th and 5th of June in Trnava, Slovakia.

I must confess that I am becoming quite anxious because of this drought of videos on youtube. It's starting to get to me, slowly. Three meetings have taken place in the last 2 weeks. At least 28 routines: 16 at French nationals, 8 in Lugano, 4 in Brno. There are only 4 routines on youtube, all from French nationals, none of which are close to interesting. If you are reading these lines and you are one of the people that actually recorded something and also bothered to upload on youtube. I thank you. You are the reason why I have not lost it completely.

But, back off-topic and out of line. I wish I could fly to Slovakia on Saturday morning. I would take a sandwich and my green purse. And my camera. I think my memory card is a bit old. I would have enough space for 10 maybe 12 minutes of recording. I would have to spend it wisely. 

Wise I am not. But I do like to spend.

Larisa Iordache on beam! 1 minute and 30 seconds well spent. her Vault! vault is short right? but it is also tricky because the gymnast can wait for a while before the green light comes out. I would either waste the space with the wait or choose to risk by pressing the recording button the moment she starts running. Then I would remember that I did try this trick once, in Waalvijk. Missed 6 vaults out of 7. And the one I caught was Nabieva falling. So I would not risk anything, because I MUST own (on tape) the 9.6 DTY or even, possibly a 9+ Amanar (ah, the though of that makes me jump with joy).

So here I am, with two minutes of Larisa Iordache waiting for the green light. And then the pretty sight of my fingers. There are still 6 minutes left. 8 at most

- Georgiana Gheorghe on beam. yeah, you must know by now that I have a thing for beam. And for the cutest gymnast after Pitic. 

Then Maria Balea's bars of course.... and the beam! I definitely want all three beam routines.

So by now I have used roughly 7 minutes and 30 seconds. I want Larisa Iordache on Bars and floor - 9 minutes and 30 seconds. Then and Georgiana Gheorghe on floor and I would probably still have enough space of half of Maria Balea's floor. Now I have (almost) all Maria Balea but no more space for Georgiana Gheorghe's bars.

Care to see what I missed?

In fact, Georgiana has a release move in her routine now. At this rate I will not live to see it.