And a poll-------------------------->

In my previous post about Berlin, I mixed travel details with gymnastics thoughts. Do you feel I should go on for the next two posts about my days in Berlin, or stick to gymnastics?

Please Vote!

Later Edit: the poll is now closed- 6 people want me to continue writing only about gymnastics, 12 said that it's interesting when I give away random travel details and other 5 do not care. Good thing no one was wondering how they got here :)

So, we change the day but we continue the same!

Berlin, Moskwa, gymnastics, wind, Zaitz - Day 1

I left Rotterdam with very low expectations about the following days. Maybe it was the fact that I was deprived of sleep most of the previous week, maybe Tuesday's qualifications had embittered me... So I was not very optimistic about the outcome of the following days. But, I was blown away.

I traveled to Berlin by train on the worst possible route (or so I've heard), via Utrecht and Duisburg. On the bright side, the ICE had very comfortable seats, and I had to change trains enough times to fill up on caffeine. We arrived in Berlin Central at 2 pm; two hours later, after I left the bags in the apartment located in Prentzlauer Berg, I was drinking my Moskwa beer and eating a nice Odessa salad in a place called Parsnip (somewhere between the place we stayed in and the Max-Schmeling Halle). Like this:

But, this is a gymnastics blog...

Then the story becomes foggy. Went to the Max Schameling... saw Aliya Mustafina knocked out of the competition... learned how to pronounce Seitz... And then there was Demy's weird little smile attacking the last floor pass. But yes, I was shocked. So was everybody else in the arena. And, of course her coaches... They stayed there, next to her, for 10-15 minutes trying to recover from the shock and then they realised it was impossible but the only thing to do was to focus on Demy. And she did not let them down, she had a great copmpetition, with solid uneven bars, she stayed on the beam, she was great on floor (I think that that was the time the public realized that Seitz was not going to win LOL)...And a FTY. So far the Russians were accused that they were winning a tad too many points with crooked Amanars. It was as if Alexandrov tried to prove they can win in any way.

Then there was Amelia's vault. I was preparing to leave (I had people to meet, stuff to do, I was in Berlin, no time for the Russian anthem :D). On my way out, as it happens, I stopped next to Bellu when Amelia was waiting for the green light. If you imagine that coaches that have decades of years of experience are very relaxed when their gymnasts compete, think again :). Bellu is a good example. He knows what Ama is capable of in terms of vaulting. She is good. But right then and there she needed a mark of around 14.6 (by my onsite calculations) for silver. A score accessible for her. But see, Bellu knows Amelia Racea. So he was anxious. 

"Ama, dreapta la ronda!" ("Ama, stay straight on the round-off!") he shouts. Amelia nods. And just as the green light appears, Bellu vanishes. Amelia doesn't do her best vault. She settles for bronze. But now, I could not leave, I was curious where Bellu was. But I couldn't find him... I decided to give up, and as I was walking by the same spot I where had lost him, I saw Bellu walking out of the restroom.

 He had filled his water bottle.

"

a lot of gymnastics and some berlin

I was extremely lazy... I took very few pics and all of them are bad :) 

And some Berlin...

What's eating Amelia Racea

Beam:

This is the only video I could find (via IG forum)- and it's incomplete the first acrobatic series is cut. But There is one missed connection that was vital for her score (she should have connected two leaps) but there's an obvious pause there (0:53)... Other than that, were were plenty of wobbles. So the score, although it could have been maybe 0.1- 0.2 higher is pretty fair to me.  I wonder why didn't she add another leap... or try the series again, if she was running out of time, a 0.1 deduction would have been better than the 0.5.

now, her floor

She missed a requirement on floor as well... why, oh, why didn't she add an aerial walkover, after she landed on her b*** if she would have a tiny bit more inspiration, there was enough time for an aerial at 1:22 ...

Two errors she will never repeat... one costed her the beam finals and the other nearly took her off the AA finals.

Disclaimer: Don't get me wrong, I am by no means implying that there is something wrong with her or criticizing her... I am trying to give an answer to the people who asked if I thought she was scored fairly, that's all.

some qualification videos

Sandra Izbasa - floor


Sandra Izbasa - Vault 1

and vault 2


Diana Chelaru - UB


Porgras BB

2011 Europeans Qualifications

Ama Racea  (photo source here)

It was an awkward day for the Romanians. It started in a disastrous way with Ama Racea falling on the uneven bars dismount (oh that double front, I hate that skill, I don't understand why people use it!) and it ended with the same Amelia qualifying for the Vault Finals.

So here are top five strangest things that happened today:

5: Ana Porgras got a 13.575 on UB for a routine with a D score of 6 while Diana Chelaru got a 13.65 for a routine out of 5.7

4: Diana Chelaru - turned out to be the top AA qualifier for Romania (3rd)

3: Amelia Racea qualified for the Vault finals (instead of Diana Chelaru)

2: No Romanian in the Beam finals (!!)

1: Sandra Izbasa -top qualifier for the Vault finals

the second strangest fact could have easily been the number one but I wanted to keep things on a positive note ;)

So if I ever see Bellu or Lucian Sandu in Berlin, I want to ask them what exactly does Ana Porgras' new UB routine lead to... Then, how come no one qualified for the beam finals, once the best event by far for the Romanians ... and how  come now we have two weak events instead of one (that happen to also be the highest scoring ones).

I am sure there are answers for this half  failure... Europeans are just a stage in the B&B big plan. They have never really made a purpose out of this meet. Historically, some of the worst meets Romania had were at Euros (3rd place with the team in 2000 behind Ukraine, the "scratched" one from 2002 when they only sent Petrovschi are a few examples that come to mind) but it wouldn't have been that terrible if Ana had stayed on that beam or if Ama wouldn't have had such a floor routine.

As others have pointed out, maybe this also happened because it was an individual event, the qualifications format is weird and also because these two competed in the first subdivision. a few hours later Ama's beam E score would have been considerably higher, the same for Ana's bars.

I hope it was just a bad day. Amelia at least can still prove herself...

But qualifications are over. Many competition days are ahead of us:

Friday's All Around finals with Chelaru and Amelia Racea

Saturday - Vault with Izbasa and Racea

Sunday - Floor with Izbasa and Chelaru

PS: Look at Sandra's vault WOW!

Thanks eamyy !

Fortune favors the brave...

Bellu and Bitang seem to have learnt that maybe there exists a good kind of  exposure, the kind that doesn’t make you less of a gymnast and more of a celebrity. I have noticed that in these pieces about the national team every gymnast has her moment; in turns.  Each gets the spotlight, has to speak up, has to explain why and how is she going to become a champion. Every gymnasts will hear herself saying that she is confident and she wants to win. Sometimes you need to let others know your dreams in order to keep them alive

Read my article in The Couch Gymnast.

LIVE from Izvorani!

Bellu and his team amaze me! 
The constant updates from Izvorani were among the highlights of the winter for us gymnastics fans. But what happened today is even better: they let the journalists in the gym for an entire training session. GSP was there and aired it live on their website. 
eamyy  managed to catch the last part and upload it on youtube:






ot watch it HERE and HERE 

There are more photos in Prosport

Chelaru "I have a slightly upgraded routine on uneven bars and I tried to clean-up my vaults but I did not succeeded to, as much as I wanted, but by 2011 Worlds, I hope everything will be alright. I am saving the best for Worlds.. I have almost the same routine as in Rotterdam."


Porgras: "I will have the same routines as I had at Worlds, without risking anything. Until 2011 Worlds there is still plenty of time to perfect certain elements. 
And many interviews and articles in Gazeta Sporturilor.

About Bercy 2011, about Romania, about always wanting more

French International Conclusions 

Did you like the French Internationals? Getting the chance to see gymnastics on TV/youtube and read some news on the blogs was nice, but I can’t say I enjoyed the meet itself. First of all, the competition format is bad: when you have four gymnasts in a final, the risk of ending up on the podium with more than one gymnast that fell is very high. This is bad and it says enough.

Secondly, I didn’t like it because I personally was unable to watch it on TV, but that’s a different problem.

But the most important reason for which I didn’t like it was the fact that we were not given the oportunity of seing many surprises. There were some fantastic gymnasts invited, there’s no doubt. But, aside from Mustafina - who had the right to compete on all four events or on whatever events she chose - the others kind of showed same old, didn’t they? I don’t understand the point of inviting only the gymnasts that are in the top and get them compete exclusively in the events that they excel at.

So, besides Mustafina who is good at basically anything (I bet she is able even to pee faster and more efficiently than any of us if she sets her mind to), we saw a group of gymnasts that had spent  most of their winter improving not on their best events but on their weaker, right? But, too bad, they competed on the events they didn’t need much improvement on.

That being said, were you among the people that less than impressed with the Romanian girls? Don’t feel bad, I was a bit underwhelmed as well.

But I am not depressed (yet).

 Recap

To be honest, I am not dissatisfied with what I saw. There were many signs and hints of evolution:

Sandra Izbasa 

-       

       Izbasa:  new floor routine, rearranged passes, more dramatic and appealing choreo, no more OOB issues, lovely triple twist. Conclusion: pleased. But for wow, I want to see more.  

           Chelaru: she presented two vaults with slightly improved form, more controlled and “taller” landings on the DTY; same floor routine – same music anyway- BUT it was much more artistic, it had a better triple twist, and a very nice jump out of the double back. No Amanar, no new skills; Conclusion: I like this enhanced version of Diana Chelaru but I am not impressed yet;

-        Porgras:  rearranged uneven bars routine that doesn’t look nearly ready – works hesitantely, doesn’t hit handstands, has added one more release skill; rearranged beam set  - but no new skill (she has been doing versions of this routine since 2009) –good potential for further increasing her difficulty; a few hesitations and wobbles  and even a fall on one of her steadier skills (word is that even Mariana was surprised she missed that). Conclusion: interesting but not impressive (yet).

 Where does the dissatisfaction come from?

So I am underwhelmed. Yes I admit there is progress, the work IS palpable, this is gymnastics. You can learn skills in 2 weeks (sometimes more) BUT to change entire whole routines, it certainly takes time.

This weekend’s results were nice! We saw the best three gymnasts of the team winning at least a medal in finals in which only the top 4 in the world (at this point) were able to qualify.

 But we already knew those were not Romania’s issues.

I am dissatisfied with what I haven't seen. (I know, sounds like I am going mad).

I want to see Sandra’s second vault in competition, I want to see Diana Chelaru on beam and uneven bars, I want to see Porgras’ DTY and upgraded floor. And more importantly, I want to see Racea –beam, uneven bars, vault, floor -, Haidu’s rearranged beam set and upgraded uneven bars, Dragoi’s uneven bars etc. Only after that will we be able to form an opinion...

Europeans are a great opportunity of seing four gymnasts competing on all four apparatuses. I hope, (as all selfish gymnastics fans do), that 1) – they will send 4 gymnasts and 2) – that at least three of the gymnasts will compete on all four events (except for Izbasa – for which I will be pleased with two or three events). If this happens then I will be able to form a bit of an opinion about the progress of Bellu’s squad. If no, then we will have to wait until the summer or worse – Tokyo. 

Until then, I will enjoy the ride, and stay positive, 

or at least wish that the gymnasts will do so :)

TVR goodies

Romanian gymnasts are back from Paris, some more confident, others eager for a rematch:



Bellu:
About Sandra: "it's good she made an impression, she can be one of the favorites for the title at the Europeans"

about Ana "A wake-up call for the ones that were still under the influence of what happened at Worlds- was necessary."

Thank you eamyy!!
You can find this video and many other interesting clips on this channel.