After the first day, I thought all the Romanian gymnasts were suffering either from lack of motivation or lack of training; out of shape or too injured to even dream of the World podium in three weeks.
The relief was that on the second day of the Natinals I saw all of them conviced that they were capable of achieving something, they looked somewhat dignified.
I must confess that Ana-Maria Tamarjan scared me a little, when I first got there. She was trying to show something to Nocolae Forminte, the head coach. She was in pain, jumping around and shaking her head as if she were saying "this hurts too bad, Mr. Forminte!"; then they let her mount the beam and was falling after every single pike front or aerial walkover.
Ana Maria: a bit(?) worried
After quite a while she moved to the UB with the other girls and the competition began.
Vault:
Diana Chelaru looks now much better than 3-4 months ago, mostly because she gained confidence. Her Double twisting Yurchenko doesn't look that terrible either. Her mark:14,287 (14,800 şi 13,775) - she finished first
Ana Porgras: she did the same vault twice; she managed to stick both landings plus she looks very clean in her flight
Amelia Racea: looks a bit tired, doesn't try too awfully hard to pull off perfect landings. Her final mark: 13,700 (13,900 şi 13,500) - finished second
Amelia Racea: preparing for her first vault
Ana Maria Tamarjan: made the same vaul twice (double twisting Yourchenko) and she was given 14.9 and 15.05 ... I don't think she actually deserved those marks, maybe the judges were more impressesd by her reputation :).
Third: Dana Andrei 13,287 (13,275 şi 13,300) - she's a junior
Uneven Bars:
Cerasela Patrascu looks good, but the real competitions are far away for her. She doesn't even try a proper dismount, probably she is not strong enough yet. Still, she looks clean and elegant and she reminds me of Ana Pavlova.
Cerasela Patrascu and Gabriela Dragoi
Ana Maria Tamarjan: She fell (again), but she looked a bit more polished than in day one
Ana Maria Tamarjan: UB
Diana Chelaru - fell on the same combination as in day one, she is just too far away and off direction in that release. Frankly, I don't think she'll manage to show that combination successfully at the Worlds.
Ana Porgars: had the nicest UB exercise, as expected of her, with the most difficult combinations, still after the dismount, Forminte pointed to her head, as if he were saying, "Ana, I don't know what's in there, but's not doing us good". Her mark: 15,050 - finished first
Ana, after her dismount
With Nicolae Forminte, talking about the head problems :)
Gabriela Dragoi: beautiful work, just not the most difficult skills and the most difficult dismount (only a double backward tucked).
Amelia Racea, was probabily the gymnast Forminte scolded the most (from what I have seen). Scored 14,375. to finish second
Third: the same cute Dana Andrei, with 13,900; all the other scores were bellow that because the gymnasts were either unable to perform their complete exercise due to injury or because they fell!!
Amelia and her coach
I'll be back with some more...
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