steliana nistor news from january and february08

For former news see the newsarchive

29 February 2008

France vs Romania

There has been a change in the team that is going to compete in Rouen tonight as Andreea Grigore has been replaced by Andreea Acatrinei.
Prosport reports that Adrian Stoica stated that it's an important training competition as it's the first one and he thinks that the change of environment is good. 'It's preferable to have a demonstration competition alongside other national teams than just have a simple training in Deva. I hope it will be a good motivation.'

22 February 2008

France vs Romania

The team for the competition against France on the 29th of February has been announced.
Steliana Nistor, Sandra Izbasa, Cerasela Patrascu, Anamaria Tamarjan, Gabriela Dragoi and Andreea Grigore. The gymnasts will be accompanied by Nicolae Forminte and Liliana Cosma.
The competition starts at 8 in the evening.
More information can be found here.

Gazeta Sporturilor reports that Nadia Comaneci thinks that Steliana Nistor has a good chance of winning Olympic gold in Beijing. Nadia is more reserved when it comes to the team competition because China is one of the strongest teams at the moment. Nadia: 'I don't want to upset anyone but if we manage to get third place, we can consider that a good achievement.'

12 February 2008

Saviours

Nicolae Forminte became headcoach of the Romanian national team in 2005. Even though it's an Olympic year, the gymnasts are still struggling with health problems, one of the reasons why Romania didn't win the team gold at the past two World Championships.
Gazeta Sporturilor caught up with him and things don't seem to be any better at the moment. Steliana Nistor has started the year badly, with a problem with her leg. He sometimes wonders
if it's all worth it. It seems that gymnastics has been given the task to save Romanian sports at these Olympics. They know the results haven't been exceptional but the entire Romanian sports
is in a crisis.
When asked who was to blame, the athlete or the coach he says that a good coach can train his athlete to get a silver but the road to gold depends on the athlete, he or she makes the difference and of course it depends on luck too.
Forminte is also very aware that this is an Olympic year and that they have a tradition to maintain. The girls who could form the team that will compete in Beijing are first of all Steliana Nistor, Sandra Izbasa, Cerasela Patrascu and Ana Maria Tamirjan but everything will depend on how they progress over the next few months. The other girls who follow this first group are Daniela Druncea, Andreea Grigore, Gabriela Dragoi, Alina Stanculescu and Madalina Gutu.
Asked if it's too early to be talking about the adversaries of the Romanian team, Forminte explains that there's a lot of analysing going on in gymnastics. Forminte: 'First of all you have a battle with yourself, then with the apparatus and last but not least, with your adversary. Everybody
has problems with the new code of points now, before that, the ten was an equalizer, now it seems it's just there for the love of the statistics.'

8 February 2008

Sandra is in form

Two months before the Olympics, Sandra Izbasa will celebrate her 18th birthday. Even though she had a very difficult year last year due to her ankle injury sustained at the European Championships, the Olympics are still Sandra's dream for which she has spent 15 years in gymnastics.
Gazeta Sporturilor had a short chat with Sandra and she explains that she is trying to forget last year and that the training is going quite well now and she hopes it will continue well until the Olympics and afterwards. Even numbered years have always been lucky for Sandra and she wishes that she will stay healthy although there are small physical problems but nothing major.
At the Olympics she wishes to help the team and to show that she hasn't spent 15 years in the gym in vain.
The routines are coming along, she's been practising them since February last year but it's not easy after she had to take a break of two months due to a back injury but Sandra thinks that she's in form now.
Like Steliana Nistor, Sandra too has a new music for her floor routine which she likes a lot. She knows that the public always wants fast music but she hopes that they will like her Polish music.
Sandra is competing on all four apparatus and she wishes to continue to do so.
She collects stickers but hasn't been able to add more to her collection as while they were training in Bucharest, she didn't have much time for it so maybe after August she will be able to concentrate on her collection again.
Sandra's parents are known to visit the major competitions so will they go to China for the Olympics too?
Sandra: 'I know that they will be with me in France, during the Europeans and I hope that they will go to China.'

3 February 2008

Cerasela Patrascu voted best sportsperson of Hunedoara in 2007

Hunedoreanul reports that little Cerasela Patrascu was voted best athlete of Hunedoara for 2007 and she was rewarded during a special ceremony held on the 31st of January.
Cerasela was born 15 years ago in Bals, in the county Olt and started gymnastics 7 years ago, in Deva and got to there mainly by chance. Cerasela: 'I wanted to do modern dance but a choreographer lead me towards gymnastics and that's how I got to Deva. When I entered the gym, full of apparatus, instantly I wanted to achieve what Nadia Comaneci had done. Back then I thought that everything was simple but I was wrong. It wasn't like that at all. I have worked really hard, thousands of hours of training, broken palms and tears of pain.'
Cerasela's first coaches were Ramona Micu, Gheorghe Orban and Florin Cotutiu.

The gymnast doesn't hide the fact that in the 7 years that she has spent in the gym doing gymnastics, she didn't have moments in which she wanted to give up. 'I was in the mountains one day and we had to run through the snow which was high up to our knees. Then I felt I couldn't go on anymore, I wanted to give it up, but my teammates helped me so much and I continued and I don't regret it now,' remembers the girl who's teammates call her Cera.
The Olympics in Beijing are a secret dream of all the gymnasts in Deva and of Cerasela who knows what the goal is of the thousands of hours training. Cerasela: 'I want a medal at the Olympics. It would be the crown from my entire career up until now.'

Asked about her daily schedule, Cerasela doesn't have to think for a second. 'I get up at 6.30, at 7.15 we are weighed after which we have breakfast at 7.30. From 8 until 10 we have school and 15 minutes later we are in the gym for the first training which finishes at 13.30. After lunch, we rest (sleep) from 2 until 4 in the afternoon and then from 5 until 20.30 we have the second training. I go to bed at around 10 in the evening and it's the same for the other 350 days of the year.'

2007 was the best year for Cerasela so far. First she created a sensation at the Hungarian Internationals where she won the all-around, bars and floor. After that were the Youth Olympic Days in Belgrade (Serbia) where she won the silver all-around, gold on vault and bronze on beam and with the team. She won the all-around gold at an international competition in Lugano (Switzerland) and silver on vault at the Romanian Internationals in Ploiesti and was part of the team that won the bronze medal at Worlds in Stuttgart (Germany).

2 February 2008

Steliana has a bad start to the New Year due to injury

The Olympic year didn't start well for Steliana as she had to take a break from training for a week due to nagging pains in her leg.
Gazeta Sporturilor talked to Stela and she explained to them that she isn't doing that well as she wants to train but the pain doesn't allow her to. She's scared not to get badly injured just before the Olympics and she hopes she can get back onto the apparatus soon and get tired instead of being tired due to pain.
At the moment Steliana is putting the accent on physical training and is hoping that February will be better than January.
She has new floor music and she likes it a lot. She feels like it makes her more supple, more artistic. On beam and bars she hasn't reached her full potential yet but she will get them up to par before the Olympics. After the Olympics she will think about what to do next.
Steliana hasn't been to China yet but has been to Japan but she feels like she has got used to the pressure now and that she needs to control herself but until that point, she needs peace
and concentration.

25 January 2008

Rehearsal for Europeans and Aluissa still has a month's recovery

The girls have received an official invitation for a demonstration competition in France as a rehearsal for the upcoming Europeans, reports Prosport.
The competition will take place on the 28th and 29th of February in the Sport Complex Saint Exupery in Rouen, France.
Adrian Stoica is glad they have received this invitation as it will be the first test for the girls in the Olympic year. The gymnasts will be closely watched during the competition to see what progress they have made and which girl could be a potential member of the Olympic team.

After having an operation on her left knee last September, Aluissa Lacusteanu still has a month's recovery period left, after which she will go to the doctors in Bologna for another check up.
Nicolae Forminte: 'Aluissa is doing light exercises to maintain her upper body muscles. She still
has a month's recovery period left before the official term is over and after which she will have a check up. However, there is no question about taking part at Europeans. Our wish is to get her
fit for the Olympics, if it's possible for two apparatus, vault and bars. We don't want to force her and that's why we want to be certain first that everything is ok from a medical point of view.'

15 January 2008

In preparation for Europeans and Olympics

After a well earned rest during the Christmas period, the girls are back in Deva after their stay in Bucharest. Prosport reports that the staff in Deva has had a meeting and have set out the routines and elements that the girls will perform during competitions like the Europeans and Olympics and that they will concentrate on this in future training.

4 January 2008

First of all, Happy New Year everybody.
Adrian Stoica talked to Prosport about 2007 but he also looked ahead as it's an important year with the Olympics coming up. He stipulates that he is not entirely satisfied with what the teams have achieved last year but they had a lot of bad luck with injuries, most of all Sandra Izbasa
and Marian Dragulescu. He also feels that there has to be more communication between coaches, more friendship towards each other and to be more open about things.
There haven't been any gold medals but that was also due to the injury problems, the gymnasts couldn't take the risks necessary to win gold but Stoica says that they haven't given up in the battle for gold.
He's very happy about the total come back of Steliana Nistor and says that there is a healthy rivalry between her and Sandra Izbasa which will bring out the best in both girls and that it's good to have two leaders in a team.
Talking about the Olympics, Adrian Stoica says that he has belief in the women's team which will have two leaders Izbasa and Nistor, with Cerasela Patrascu, Andreea Grigore, Alina Stanculescu in who's comeback he believes enormously and with Gabriela Dragoi, who's almost a senior. He's convinced that they will be a surprise to everyone.