Beauty, Art & Sport! The Rhythmic Gymnastics Newsletter N° 10

Dear Rhythmic Gymnastics friends

I hope you all enjoyed the recent Rhythmic Europeans in Baku as much as I did!

Shine like a star … never has an event motto been so true. Thanks to the excellent organisation by the experienced staff at the Azerbaijan Gymnastics Federation, over 300 gymnasts from 38 countries got the opportunity to perform on the biggest stage. In the spotlight, many gymnasts excelled and we witnessed several historic moments. Never before have we heard 6 different national anthems at a Rhythmic Europeans!

My first European Championships as Technical Committee President were a big success and I couldn’t have done this without the help of my extraordinary Technical Committee. With only Elena Aliprandi and I having previous TC experience, the newly elected members Alexandra Piscupescu, Hristiana Todorova, Eliso Bedoshvili, Isabelle De Cossio and Yevgeniya Vilyayeva put in an enormous effort to make this a huge success, learning from each other along the way as can only be done in true team spirit. I’m honoured to work with these lovely ladies!

Ready to revisit Baku? Read all about it below!

‘Shine like a star’, they said. Well, mission accomplished in Baku as an action-packed event saw exciting Champions crowned!

Boryana Kaleyn, Vice-European Champion in both 2021 and 2022, finally clinched the all-around gold for Bulgaria, a title the country had last won 29 years ago, in 1994 by the legendary Maria Petrova. Italian superstar Sofia Raffaeli continued to impress, overcoming some ups and downs to win the all-around silver and two apparatus titles. After all the hardship endured in the past year, Viktoriia Onorpiienko put her heart and soul into her hoop routine. She leapt and spun to the tunes of Bizet’s Carmen, impressing the audience and claiming her first title along the way, and the first for Ukraine since 2005! Another history-maker, Darja Varfolomeev earned the gold with ribbon, the first continental title for Germany. And what about Ekaterina Vedeneeva? Aged 28, the Slovenian ground-breaker earned her first European medal, bronze with clubs.

Bulgaria’s group performance in the qualification round secured not only the all-around victory but also the team title. Israel produced a divine 5 hoops routine for that victory while, icing on the cake for the hosts, Azerbaijan claimed its first ever group victory, in the mixed apparatus final.

All medal-winning routines and the full replays have been added to the European Gymnastics YouTube channel. Check it out to get your Rhythmic Gymnastics fix!

The Europeans in Baku also served as qualification event for the upcoming World Championships. This will be held in the Spanish city of Valencia from 23 to 27 August.

The FIG took the total scores of all individual routines to determine a team ranking. The top 12 teams can send 2 or 3 individuals. The lucky countries are Bulgaria, Ukraine, Germany, Israel, Italy, Spain, Hungary, Slovenia, Romania, Greece, France and Azerbaijan.

The other participating nations can send 1 individual to Valencia.

FIG - Event Detail (gymnastics.sport)

Last week, 25 gymnasts and 12 coaches gave the best of themselves at our annual training camp in Obertraun (AUT). Under the guidance of experts Yulia Baycheva, Ina Delcheva-Mehringer and Dominique Charlier, the talented gymnasts aged between 10 and 12, participated in training sessions including ballet and dance, technique of body movements and composition, apparatus technique, and physiotherapy. Of course, there was also time for recreation and social activities!

Thanks also to camp manager Dominique Muller-Lauth, physios Vincent Coppeaux and Annires Marchetti and videographer Daniel Palhegyi for making this week such a great experience for our youngsters.

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With my warmest regards,

Evangelia Trikomiti

RG-TC President