XXI. European Championships of Rhythmic GymnasticsTchachina most successful gymnast

Titles for Tchachina, Kapranova and Godunko

With three titles overall Irina Tchachina from Russia was the most successsful gymnast of these European Championships. The 23-year-old gymnast, who already was World Champion with the Russian team in 1999 and has won numerous medals at international competitions since, once again convinced with her very difficult routines and technical perfection in the execution.
Despite of three silver- and 2 bronze- medals (!) Anna Bessonova from Ukraine probably won’t be happy with her results at these championships,leaving without a gold medal. At the European Championships 2003 in Riesa she had won the titles with hoop, clubs and ribbon.
The only “non- Russian” gold medal this year went to Natalia Godunko (UKR) in the ribbon final. This is not her first victory with this apparatus. The 20-year-old from Kiev presented a unique choreography, full of speed and temper. She certainly belongs to the favourites of this apparatus for the World Championships in October.

Impressions from the finals
Almost 4,000 spectators came to the large hall in the Olimpiskij Sports Komplex today in order to watch the finals.
Irina Tchachina with two great routines – which brought her two victories – and two messed-up routines which brought her two - for her quite unusual - 6th ranks. The ball rolled out of bounds that far that she seemed to be quite uncertain whether she should still fetch it, which she finally did.
The leaps of the Ukrainians were as always very beautiful to watch – Bessonova as well as Godunko presented them with a perfect execution.
The rope is again one of the apparatus in the competitions (instead of hoop), so only new routines were presented with this apparatus – open throws, (planned) interesting snarls, artistic jumps (Natalia Godunko), the formerly quite boring apparatus nowadays is a true enrichment of RG.
Turns on the belly seem to be quite up-to-date at the moment, with all apparatus and in all kind of variations.
The routines of the day: Tchachina with the clubs – highest score of the day with 17.150; Godunko with the ribbon – simply thrilling!

Information from Moscow: Gigi Eschmann

Results ball:

1. Olga Kapranova RUS 17.025
3. Anna Bessonova UKR 16.350
3. Inna Zhukova BLR 16.300
4. Simona Peycheva BUL 16.025
5. Natalia Godunko UKR 16.000
6. Irina Tchachina RUS 15.875
7. Anna Gurbanova AZE 15.225
8. Valeria Kuryilskaya BLR 13.950

The junior group from Belarus was the best today

The junior groups from Russia and Belarus dominated this final – and in the end the girls from Belarus were a little bit better. The Russians presented the highest level of difficulty (6.700) in this competition but made a mistake and couldn’t compensate this drop of a ball.
On rank 3 followed the group from Greece, almost two points behind the two higher- ranked teams. The Bulgarians were a bit disappointed with their 5th rank - in the qualification they still were on the bronze medal position – but they dropped a ball which then rolled out of bounds and with such kind of mistakes it’s almost impossible to reach a medal- rank in a final.
Despite of various mistakes, the 13 – 15- year-old girls presented demanding and nice choreographies: The level of performance was very high in this competition and also the large amount of participating junior groups (22) shows that the attractivity of groups - RG is steadily growing.

Information from Moscow: Gigi Eschmann

Results of the junior groups final:
1. BLR 23.600
2. RUS 23.100
3. GRE 21.225
4. ESP 20.475
5. BUL 20.100
6. UKR 20.075
7. ISR 19.925
8. HUN 19.825

Results

The group from Russia was 1st- ranked still after the qualification on Friday in front of Belarus and Bulgaria.
Results qualification junior groups