44th WOMEN's EUROPEANS of ARTISTIC GYMNASTICS

After 2020 (Mersin), the up-and-coming Turkish Gymnastics Federation is hosting European Gymnastics Championships for the 2nd time, which this year also have a special qualifying character for the 44^th women#S EuropeanS of ARTISTIC GYMNASTICS 2023.

♦ The 13 best European nations qualified for this year's World Championships with Olympic qualification character in September in Antwerp.
Great Britain came first, followed by Italy and the Netherlands. The German women achieved their minimum goal with 9th place.
 For the 2nd time after Elissa Downie (2017), Europe's gymnastics queen comes from Great Britain:
<< Jessica GADIROVA won all-around gold with 55.032 ahead of Hungary's Zsofia KOVACS (54.899), the second all-around medal for her country after Henrietta Onodi's bronze medal (1990) after 33 years. Instead of the defending champion Asia D'Amato (2022), her twin sister Alice D'Amato won the bronze medal for Italy this time (54.500).
Germany's only finalist Sarah Voss improved from 20th in the preliminary competition to 16th in the final (49.932).

♦ At the end of the two apparatus finals days,GREAT BRITAIN was the most successful nation with 3x gold and 2x silver, ahead of Italy (1/3/2=5). Italy, Netherlands and France each earned one gold medal at the apparatus too. and together with their men's team British Gymnastics won 9 titels total (4 / 4 / 1) !
Thanks to Elisabeth Seitz's bronze medal on parallel bars, the German women were ranked 6th out of a total of 8 medal nations, together with Belgium and Romania.

♦♦ 44^th WOMEN's EUROPEANS of ARTISTIC GYMNASTICS
              (Antalya / TUR, 2023, April 11-16)

* TEAMS - :  Since the former UEG introduced the continental team competition at the 20^th European Women's Championships in 1994, there was a biennial rhythm until 2018, almost exclusively ROMANIAN (7) or RUSSIAN (5) victories, interrupted only once by ITALY (2006 in Volos/GRE). In the pandemic year (with only 8 teams), UKRAINE won ahead of Romania and Hungary, and in 2022 in Munich ITALY won ahead of Great Britain and Germany. As the three best-placed countries at the last World Championships (GBR, ITA, FRA) already have the World Championships ticket for Antwerp, there will be a fierce scramble for the 10 qualifying places still open, because as last time in Tokyo, Belgium (8th), Germany (9th), the Netherlands (11th) and Spain (12th) want to be part of the "Olympic Family" again. It will be an open race ...!

* The last MULTIPLE MEDALS in Munich (2022)  went to Italy (1. Asia D'AMATO + 3. Marina MAGGIO) and Great Britain (2. Alice KINSELLA,). From a German point of view, there are probably no medal dreams ripening at the moment (Elisabeth Seitz was the last German to stand on the podium in 2011 in Berlin as European vice-champion, and only she and Kim Bui have made it into the top ten since then!)
 

♦ ♦ Chronology of the ECh Events this week:

* Friday, 14. April:
♦♦ WOMEN's All-AROUND FINAL

Jessica GADIROVA is the 223 European women’s all-around gymnastics champion after a masterful performance at the European Championships in Antalya, Turkey. The 18-year-old produced sensational routines across the board to score 55.032 and take the most coveted European crown.
The gold adds to Jessica's already incredible medal haul and is her third all-around major championships medal after claiming World bronze in 2022 and European bronze in 2021. Georgia-Mae Fenton placed in a brilliant 8th spot with an excellent performance alongside Jess.
Second to Downie in 2017, Zsofia Kovacs pushed Gadirova to the very end, posting higher scores on both bars and beam

                                            (1) Jessica GADIROVA (GBR)
         (2) Zsofia KOVACS (HUN)                                       (3) Alice D'AMATO Italy)
^© Europen Gymnastics

 The Hungarian Zsofia KOVACS ended her quest on floor where she delighted the audience. Her total of 54.899 earned her the silver medal.
The gap with Gadirova … just 0.133!
With defending Champion Asia D’Amato not competing all-around, twin sister Alice D'AMATO stepped up her game. Highlighted by a 14.400 for her exquisite bars set, Alice clinched her own all-around medal, ending the day with bronze.
In a fabulous competition for the ‘lowlands’, the Belgian gymnasts wrote history with a 4^th place for Lisa Vaelen, while teammate Maellyse Brassart finished 5^th, a huge improvement from narrowly making the final. The ever elegant Eythora Thorsdottir outscored Dutch teammate Naomi Visser to end in places 6 and 7.
Great Britain’s Georgia-Mae Fenton, Romania’s Ana Barbosu and Spain’s Laura Casabuena round out the top 10!
  + + +

♦♦  ALL-AROUND FINAL RESULTS

1. GADIROVA, Jessica  GBR) - 55,032
2. KOVACS, Zsofia       (HUN) - 54,899
3. D'AMATO, Alice         (ITA) - 54,500

      4. VAELE, Lisa   (BEL) - 54,099
      5. BRASSART, Maellyse  (BEL) - 52,865
      6. THORSDOTTIR, Eythora  (NED) - 52,733

         ►► Detailed Results

   ► EUROPEAN ALL-AROUND CHAMPIONS, All
+ + +
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* Wednesday, April 12
* Individual All-around (Qualification):
1. Jessica GADIROVA (GBR) - 55,566;       2. Zsofia KOVACS   (HUN) - 55,231;
3. Alice D'AMATO              (ITA) - 54,899;      4. Naomi VISSER  (NED) - 54,031; 
5. Georgia-Mae FENTON (GBR) - 52,899; 6. Alice KINSELLA (GBR) - 52,531;
          ► Detailed Results

♦ Individual Apparatus Results (Final qualifiers)

► Vault;  ► Uneven bars;  ► Balance beam;  ► Floor exercise
  + + +
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* Saturday, April 15  (part I)

♦♦  A P P.  F I N A L S

V A U L T --:
Entering the arena for the vault final, Coline Devillard (FRA) stayed focused on the job at hand. Scoring 14.300 for her first vault, the 2017 European Champion secured her second vault title with a beautiful second vault. Italy’s Asia D’Amato  aced her double twisting Yurchenko but went out of the landing area on her second vault. She retains the silver medal she also won last year in Munich. After an excellent all-around final in which she placed 4^th, Belgium’s Lisa Vaelen had her eyes on the prize. Less than 2 hundreds of a point behind D’Amato, Vaelen clinched the bronze medal. This marked the second time Belgium won a vault bronze, after Aagje Van Walleghem in 2005.

* Results    (> Start list)

  1. DEVILLARD Coline  (FRA) - (5.4/4.2) =13,800
  2. D'AMATO, Asia          (ITA) - (5.0/4.8) =13,600
  3. VAELEN, Lisa           (BEL) - (5.4/4.4) =13,583
         ► Detailed Results

   + + +

  U N E V E N  B A R S ---:
In a star-studded bars final, Alice D’Amato, supported by her sister Asia’s vocal encouragements, excelled. She improved on her already fabulous bars routine from yesterday’s all-around final, posting 14.466 today for the victory. Now both D’Amato twins have an individual European title to their name! Antalya marked the return to international competition of 2014 and 2016 European Champion Becky Downie. She already helped secure the British team a historic team win here. Today, the 31-year-old swung to silver, holding off a strong challenge by defending Champion Elisabeth Seitz from Germany.

* Results     (> Start list)
  1. D'AMATO, Alice             (ITA) - (6.2) =14,466
  2. DOWNIE Rebecca       (GBR) - (6.3) =14,233
  3. SEITZ Elisabeth           (GER) - (6.1) =14,200
         ► Detailed Results
  + + +

* Wednesday, 12. 04. 

♦ WOMEN's TEAM DECISION / WCh Qualification:

Historical European Team title for Great Britain!
With the expected strength and individual presence of their top performers, there was a repeat of the battle for team gold, similar to the European Championships in Munich 2022, between Italy and Great Britain, except that this time GREAT BRITAIN again had the upper hand and relegated the defending champions ITALY to silver place with a lead of +2.799 points. Gold at last, they might cheer on the island, because they had already been runners-up four times since 2010. For Italy it was the fourth medal success of a women's team since bronze in 2002 (Patras) and 2012 (Brussels) after the victory in Munich.
Gadirova, the defending European Champion on floor, showed why she’s rapidly becoming Europe’s leading lady in the sport, earning the highest score in the All-Around, and on beam and floor. Fenton amassed 52.899, placing 5^th place all-around and outscoring Vice-European Champion Alice Kinsella by just over three tenths for a place in the final. 2014 and 2016 European Champion Downie marked a successful return to competition, on her signature event bars.
The team bronze medal went to the NETHERLANDS for the second time after 2018 (Glasgow), whose silver medal in Volos (2002) also dates back more than two decades. The ranks 4 to 8 (HUN; ROU; FRA, BEL; ESP) are no surprises.
Actually, not even the violent crash from last year's domestic bronze medal to a 9th place for the German women! It was foreseeable, and also a little symptomatic:
Once again it was the established gymnasts, such as Sarah VOSS (20th), who was the only one to at least reach the all-around final, and the exceptional gymnast and title defender on uneven bars, Elisabeth SEITZ, who once again "showed her teeth" with unbelievable fighting spirit and reached the final with a high Difficulty score (6.1) and the third best result on uneven bars, even though there are two contenders for victory behind her, Rebecca DOWNIE (D=6.3) and Zsofia KOVACS ...! Nevertheless, chapeau!
But there was not much more to see from the others in the German team ...!
Unfortunately, the defending European champion on beam, Emma Malewski, did not show any visible development (D= 4.7) and she ranked only on 35th place ...!
If you consider that 35 of the 120 gymnasts on beam had a difficulty of more than 5.0 and that the top gymnasts successfully risked D-values between 5.7 and 5.9 with quality (!) and they come from the Netherlands (Wevers), Great Britain (Gadirova, Achampong) and Hungary (Kovacs) , the calamity of German women's gymnastics becomes visible: World Championship qualification was only achieved on rank 9, but the team of Germany's coach Gerben Wiersma still has a long way to go until Paris 2024 ...!.
- ehe-

♦♦ TEAM RESULTS: (1. - 13. = qualified for WCh Antwerp)

1. GREAT BRITAIN - 164,428
2. ITALY                 - 161,629
3. NETHERLANDS - 158,896
      4. HUNGARY - 156,627;  5. ROUMANIA - 156,297;   6. FRANCE   - 155,296;
      7. BELGIUM - 154,996;    8. SPAIN         - 153,097;  9. GERMANY - 152,096;
     10. SWEDEN - 149,930; 11. FINLAND - 148,230;     12. AUSTRIA    - 147,497;
      13. CZECH REPUBLIK - 145,530
            ►► Detailed Results

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