RRI Sports Club – Artistic Gymnastics

Tune in to an overview of the World Gymnastics Championships held last week in Antwerp, Belgium.

Florin Orban, 09.10.2013, 14:14

The World Gymnastics Championships were held last week in the Belgian city of Antwerp. Romania was represented both in the men’s and in the women’s competition. Our athletes’ main objective, namely of bringing home at least one medal, was achieved. Although Larisa Iordache won bronze in the floor finals, Romania’s medal list could have been much longer.

In the men’s competition our athletes fell short of expectations. Flavius Koczi, Cristian Bataga, Ovidiu Buidoso and Andrei Munteau had disappointing performances, failing to qualify to the finals. Marius Berbecar was the only Romanian competitor to qualify to the vault finals, where he ranked 7th. Berbecar also qualified to the parallel bars final, but failed to complete a swing element and thus finished in 6th place.

In the women’s competition, Larisa Iordache held good chances of grabbing a medal after the qualifiers, both in the individual all-round event, as well as in the beam and floor finals. Larisa fell off during her beam routine, both on Friday’s individual all-round finals and on Sunday’s beam finals. She made up for her disappointing performance in the floor finals, where she grabbed bronze.

Sandra Izbasa’s floor routine was a medal until the last diagonal, when she suffered a mislanding, just like with her routine at the 2012 London Olympics. Thus Izbasa ended in the competition in 7th place.

The bitter conclusion following this year’s edition of the World Championships is that the face of Romanian gymnastics has lost some of its former glow, although our country did grab a medal. With the gymnast pool growing thinner by the year, our Romanian gymnasts hold fewer chances of grabbing medals. Conversely, other countries such as the United Kingdom, Italy and the Netherlands have reported huge progress, while the United States, China and Russia have consolidated their lead.