2018 in review: May – August

Welcome to part 2 of our 2018 review!

May

• Israel’s Linoy Ashram continues to write history. At the World Cup in Guadalajara (ESP), she edged Russia’s Aleksandra Soldatova by just 0.050 to claim her first ever World Cup all-around victory, a first also for her country.
• At the Rhythmic World Cup in Portimao (POR), Russia’s Maria Sergeeva claimed the all-around title -her second victory this year- almost 2 points ahead of Israel’s rising talent Nicol Zelikman and a further point ahead of Polina Khonina (RUS).

June

• At the European Championships in Rhythmic Gymnastics, held in the Spanish town of Guadalajara, Russia’s team victory was never in doubt, after the strong performances by its juniors and senior group on day 1. The girls continued in the same way on day 2, clinching the European team title with a clear margin of over 10 points!
• In the all-around competition, the group from Italy gave Russia a run for its money, producing two superb exercises that the Spanish audience loved. In the end the 1.200 difference in difficulty gave Russia the edge over the Butterflies.
• European and World Champions Dina and Arina Averina were widely expected to stand on the all-around podium with Dina showing great form this season and Arina beating Aleksandra Soldatova for an entry ticket to this event. It was Arina however who prevailed with 79.250 featuring 20+ scores with hoop and ball. Dina trailed by one and a half point after she dropped her hoop in the last rotation. The battle for bronze went between Israel’s Linoy Ashram and Belarussian Katsiaryna Halkina. Ashram, who has been on fire this season, made an uncharacteristic big mistake with ribbon, leaving the door open for Halkina whose four consistent performances had her coaches jump for joy. An excited Halkina said afterwards:

• Emotions ran high during the senior group finals where one great performance was followed by another. The crowd got caught in the moment creating a superb atmosphere of support for the gymnasts. While Russia won the allaround competition yesterday, their gymnasts made mistakes in the apparatus finals today which cost them dearly. With 5 hoops Ukraine showed the highest difficulty, 14.1, closely followed by Italy and Russia. In execution, however, the Italian group was far superior than any of the other finalists, overtaking Ukraine for the European title. With 3 balls and 2 ropes Bulgaria were looking for redemption after their costly mistake in the all-around and team competition last night. Marking the top score both in difficulty and execution, the girls got their long-awaited European title. Italy took the silver with a difference of less than half a point. Azerbaijan claimed the bronze medal.
• With scores that could challenge for finals in the senior competition, the juniors from Russia blew away the field with their incredible performances. Polina Shmatko, already junior European Champion two years ago in Holon, posted the highest score, a 18.825 with hoop that featured a difficulty of 10 points! Teammate Lala Kramarenko scored just a few tenths less to take the gold with ball before winning the ribbon title as well. And Daria Trubnikova outscored Belarussian Anna Kamenshchikova for the clubs title, making it a sweep for Russia. Both Ukraine’s Khrystyna Pohranychna and Bulgaria’s Tatiana Volozhanina competed in all 4 finals and returned home with medals. Pohranychna won the silver medal with ball and ribbon and bronze with hoop. Volozhanina claimed silver with hoop. Arzu Jalilova gifted Azerbaijan the bronze with ball, Valeria Sotskova goes home to Israel with the bronze with clubs. Italy’s Talisa Torretti submitted an inquiry to up her Dscore which was accepted and awarded her the bronze with ribbon.

• In Guadalajara, SmartScoring honoured Salome Pazhava with its Shooting Star Award. The 20-year-old Georgian won her first European medal in 2012 as part of the Georgian junior team. She started competing with the seniors in 2013. Internationally she qualified for many finals most notably in 2015 where she qualified to all 4 apparatus finals at both the European Championships and the European Games. 2016 started with a minor leg injury but Salome managed to show great form at the Europeans in Holon! She finished 5th all-around with a personal best. However, a foot injury disturbed her performance at the Rio 2016 Olympics which ended in a big disappointment. The next year, while still recovering, she suffered another setback, an injury to her arm. Also this year, she had to skip some competitions to protect her from injury. But Salome doesn’t give up, she has her goals firmly set and will work hard to achieve her dreams. Salome Pazhava placed 6th in the all-around competition, securing a ticket to next year’s European Games as well:

• At the Aerobics World Championships in Guimaraes (POR), Michela Castoldi and Davide Donati (ITA) successfully defended their mixed pairs World title in mixed pairs for Italy. Joining the Italians on the podium were two other European pairs: Dacian Barna and Andreea Bogati (ROU) claimed silver and Daniel Bali and Fanni Mazacs (HUN) clinched the bronze!

• European Champions in Step Aerobic, Russia qualified in second place for the final but there Timur Alitovskii, Danil Chaiun, Anastasiia Degtiareva, Irina Dobriagina, Aleksei Germanov, Veronika Korneva, Kirill Kulikov and Ekaterina Pykhtova improved their score by four tenths to win the World title.
• Anastasia Ziubina, Ekaterina Pykhtova and Elena Ivanova have been training together for seven years in Saint Petersburg (RUS). Their hard work and perseverance finally paid off as they clinched Russia’s first ever World title in the trio final. Their excellent artistry and execution gave them the edge of their Chinese rivals.

• The Youth Olympic qualifying competition in Baku was won by Ukraine’s Anastasia Bachynska and Russia’s Iurii Busse.
• Marios Georgiou (CYP) and Lara Mori (ITA) star at the 18^th Mediterranean Games in the Spanish city of Tarragona. In total, eight countries -7 European and Egypt- returned home with medals showing a nice spread of high-level performance throughout the region.

 

July

• The EC awards the 2020 Golden Age Gym Festival to Rethymno on the Greek island of Crete and the 9^th individual European Championships in Artistic Gymnastics 2021 to Basel (SUI).
• Russia’s Susana Kochesok and Belarussian Olympic Champion Uladzislau Hancharou win the Trampoline World Cup in Arosa (SUI).
• Sunny Liege (BEL) hosted the first official European Gym for Life Challenge! More than 800 gymnasts participated, representing 12 countries: Azerbaijan, Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, France, Great Britain, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Norway, Portugal and Switzerland. The biggest delegation came from Greece: 241 gymnasts forming 10 groups. The 37 groups showed threeminute performance featuring dance, acrobatics and show elements and they could choose to use equipment or not. Immediately after their routine, the coaches got feedback from an experienced team with the aim to help improve the level of the performances. A team of professional evaluators gave marks and awarded all groups with a medal: gold, silver or bronze. The 12 Heads of Delegations could also vote for two special prizes: the Wow Performance went to the acrobatic performance of Portugal and the Best Costume Award to Azerbaijan.

• EUROGYM 2018 was held in Liege from 15 to 20 July. Thousands of gymnasts coloured the streets of the Belgian town! It was a warm week, with spectacular performances and many opportunities for social and cultural exchange. Even Queen Mathilde of Belgium paid a visit, taking in the city performances and taking the time to meet some of the gymnasts backstage.

August

• On the opening day of the junior competition at the Artistic Gymnastics Europeans in Glasgow (GBR), the Italian team featuring twins Alice and Asia D’Amato, Giorgia Villa, Elisa Iorio and Alessia Federici, posted the highest score on both vault and bars, and the second-total on beam to claim the gold medal ahead of Russia and Great Britain. Giorgia Villa live up to the expectations by winning the all-around gold.
• In the senior women’s team final, top qualifier France and defending Champion Russia started off strongly on vault, with Russia securing an advantage of almost half a point. Three excellent bars sets improved their lead while Great Britain came undone on beam. They counted several falls including a sub-10 score by Kelly Simm. Russia continued their fine form on beam, hitting their routines and holding their nerves together unlike in qualifications. France suffered a fall on beam from Marine Boyer. After the third rotation the French ladies trailed Russia by approximately 3 points. Angelina Simakova kicked off the final rotation for the Russian, followed by Lilia Akhaimova. 2014 junior all-around, 2016 team and 2017 floor European Champion Angelina Melnikova, the leader of the team, performed an excellent routine to seal the victory. France didn’t let go of the second position and the girls seemed delighted with their well-earned silver medal. Sharing their joy, were the Dutch ladies who confidently strode to the bronze medal. After receiving her gold medal, Angelina Melnikova told us:

• In the junior event finals, the gold medals went to Italy’s Asia D’Amato (vault), Russia’s Ksenia Klimenko (bars), Italy’s Giorgia Villa (beam) and Romania’s Ioana Stanciulescu.
• In the senior event finals, Boglarka Devai (HUN) won vault, Belgium’s Nina Derwael successfully defended her bars title, Olympic Champion Sanne Wevers (NED) conquered beam and France’s Melanie de Jesus dos Santos claimed gold on floor.  

• The British junior men have won every team and allaround European title since 2008. In front of the home crowd, they were surpassed by the Russians in the team standing while Italy’s Niccolo Mozzato pulled off a great victory in the all-around.
• The Russian senior men beat their British rivals for the third time in a row in an exciting team final. Team veteran Nikolay Kuksenkov said after the competition:

• In the junior event finals Jamie Lewis (GBR) won floor, Edoardo Do Rosa (ITA) pommel horse, Grigoriy Klimentev (RUS) rings, Sviataslau Dranitski (BLR) vault, Ilia Kovtun (UKR) parallel bars and Nicolo Mozzato (ITA) horizontal bar.
• Concluding these spectacular Artistic Europeans, the senior event finals saw history written as Rhys McClenaghan clinched Ireland’s first ever European title and Eleftherios Petrounias claimed his fourth gold in a row, equalling the record of Italian star Yuri Chechi in the 90s. Dominick Cunningham delighted the home crowd by winning the gold on floor while Artur Dalaloyan became the only double winner, defending his title on vault and taking over from Oleg Verniaiev on parallel bars. Oliver Hegi made sure that the high bar title stayed in Switzerland as successor of Pablo Braegger.

• Sad news from Russia as 1988 Olympic all-around Champion Elena Shushunova passes away at the age of just 49 from complications after suffering pneumonia.
• The 2019 Rhythmic and Aerobics European Championships are awarded to Baku (AZE).
• Israel’s Linoy Ashram wins her second all-around title at the World Cup event in Minsk (BLR).
• Returning from injury, fan favourite Aleksandra Soldatova beats teammate Dina Averina after a tiebreaker at the World Cup stage in Kazan (RUS). Averina took her revenge in apparatus finals, sweeping all 4 gold medals. 

 

Thursday 27 December … the final part: September to December 2018!