 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
30 June 2008
Stela dominates Romanian (Open) Nationals
The all-around competition started with quite a shock. Sandra Izbasa injured herself. She went
up to the nurse with tears in her eyes and later left the arena to go to the hospital where they took x-rays. Fortunately there's not much harm done to her right foot. For Gazeta Sporturilor, Sandra explained: 'During the warming up on beam, when I did a front somi, I heard a crack and afterwards after landing a vault, it got worse but I'm ok now. It's better that it happened now and not later as I still have time to recover.'
The competition started on vault where Steliana performed a DTY (15.100). Andreea Grigore performed a 1.5 Yurchenko and did well, just a step forward. Druncea performed a DTY with a solid landing while Dragoi tried a 1.5 Yurchenko and had to put a hand on the mat to one side.
Gabi Dragoi seemed so disappointed with herself that she hadn't fully pulled herself together for bars and had errors there too and fell on her dismount.
Andreea Acatrinei however performed a solid bars routine and had a great double layout dismount.
Steliana performed well on bars except for a bit of a struggle on one handstand.
On beam, Dragoi had redeemed herself and performed a good routine, just a few uncertainties here and there where she had to take her leg off the beam.
Stela had a good start but then had problems on her pirouette with her leg at horizontal and lost the connection. She was also low on her dismount. Acatrinei fell off beam but Grigore performed very well and dismounted with a double pike for a 15.525
On floor Acatrinei had a step forward after her double layout but once again showed good lines in the artistic work.
Stela stumbled forward a bit after her double layout opening but the rest of the acrobatic series was good.
Andreea Grigore performed well and was determined not to make a mistake today. Nicolae Forminte was pleased about Andreea's performance and said for Prosport: 'The big win of these last days is Andreea Grigore, she was much more secure and concentrated now. She will be a big asset for the team is she continues this way.'
Cerasela Patrascu performed on bars and beam again and did quite well. What a beautiful line she has on both apparatus.
Maybe the surprise of the competition was Elena Chiric, who came back from retirement in 2006 to compete at Worlds and is still doing gymnastics. She trains in Onesti with the juniors while she's helping out during training as well. Chiric is a very solid gymnast and makes very few mistakes.
Madalina Gutu could have been a contender for the Olympic team but lacks the difficulty although today she outdid Gabriela Dragoi so that must give her an enormous boost.
Steliana: 'I'm happy with the way I have performed today but there's room for improvement. I was a bit stressed because I have to do my Bac exam, and straight after the competition, I'm going back to Deva for my history exam. The following days will be tiring and I hope to get through ok. I'm tired, I can't wait to go to sleep!'
The team will leave for Italy on Thursday where they will compete on the 5th and 6th of July.
Nationals AA
1. Steliana Nistor (Sibiu) VT: 15.100; UB: 16.200; BB: 15.375; FX: 15.225 Total: 61.900
2. Andreea Grigore (Steaua) VT: 14.575; UB: 14.450; BB: 15.525; FX: 15.000 Total: 59.550
3. Andreea Acatrinei (Deva) VT: 14.350; UB: 14.825; BB: 14.500; FX: 15.300 Total: 58.975
4. Daniela Druncea (Steaua) VT: 14.950; UB: 14.400; BB: 14.375; FX: 14.800 Total: 58.525
5. Elena Chiric (Dinamo) VT: 14.900; UB: 13.850; BB: 14.375; FX: 14.900 Total: 58.025
6. Madalina Gutu (Onesti) VT: 13.700; UB: 14.675; BB: 14.675; FX: 14.875 Total: 57.925
7. Gabriela Dragoi (Buzau) VT: 13.700; UB: 13.150; BB: 15.625; FX: 14.600 Total: 57.075
The highest scores on the apparatus during the AA on Saturday were:
Vault
1. Steliana Nistor 15.100
2. Daniela Druncea 14.950
3. Elena Chiric 14.900
4. Andreea Grigore 14.575
5. Andreea Acatrinei 14.350
6. Gabriela Dragoi 13.700
Bars
1. Steliana Nistor 16.200
2. Andreea Acatrinei 14.825
3. Madalina Gutu 14.675
4. Cerasela Patrascu 14.525
5. Andreea Grigore 14.450
6. Daniela Druncea 14.400
Beam
1. Gabriela Dragoi 15.625
2. Andreea Grigore 15.525
3. Steliana Nistor 15.375
4. Madalina Gutu 14.675
5. Cerasela Patrascu 14.650
6. Andreea Acatrinei 14.500
Floor
1. Andreea Acatrinei 15.300
2. Steliana Nistor 15.225
3. Andreea Grigore 15.000
4. Elena Chiric 14.900
5. Madalina Gutu 14.875
6. Daniela Druncea 14.800
Apparatus finals Romanian Open (Sunday)
Vault
1. Steliana Nistor 15.125
2. Daniela Druncea 15.037
3. Elena Chiric 14.787
4. Andreea Grigore 14.525
5. Andreea Acatrinei 14.350
6. Gabriela Dragoi 14.250
7. Madalina Gutu 13.375
Bars
1. Steliana Nistor 16.600
2. Stefani Bismpikou (Gre) 15.300
3. Andreea Grigore 15.000
4. Daniela Druncea 14.600
5. Madalina Gutu 14.400
6. Andreea Acatrinei 14.225
7. Cerasela Patrascu 13.650
8. Elena Chiric 13.025
Beam
1. Steliana Nistor 15.675
2. Gabriela Dragoi 15.450
3. Andreea Grigore 15.375
4. Andreea Acatrinei 15.000
5. Stefani Bismpikou (Gre) 14.950
6. Madalina Gutu 14.625
7. Daniela Druncea 14.475
8. Cerasela Patrascu 13.750
Floor
1. Steliana Nistor 15.450
2. Andreea Acatrinei 15.325
3. Andreea Grigore 15.300
4. Daniela Druncea 14.950
4. Madalina Gutu 14.950
6. Elena Chiric 14.600
7. Gabriela Dragoi 14.050
28 June 2008
Romanian Nationals Team Finals
The team finals were competed today, in an overheated arena due to the current heatwave that hit Romania.
A lot of the National team members would compete today, except for Steliana Nistor. Her team Sibiu didn't qualify for the finals so Stela could stay in Deva for her exams and would travel to Ploiesti on Saturday.
Sandra Izbasa, who competed for Steaua Bucharest, competed well, scoring a 16.325 on beam and a 16.000 on floor. She performed a good bars routine too and nailed her double front somi dismount, with which she had been struggling lately.
Andreea Grigore seems to improve steadily and had a good competition. Only on floor she struggled a little as she fell on her punch front and was short on her full in and double pike.
Dana Druncea's floor is a matter of stamina as she performs 6 tumbling lines! and she's still right there in the race for a place on the Olympic team.
Andreea Acatrinei seems to feel the pressure. She had to encounter two falls off bars, one off the low bar and a fall on her double layout dismount and also fell off beam with her side somi and a few wobbles here and there.
The delight of the evening was that Cerasela Patrascu performed on bars and beam. What a beautiful gymnast she is. She performed well on bars but didn't perform a dismount and still scored 14.500. She did fall off beam with her flick but there's hope now that she can make the team for Beijing in time.
Results
1. Steaua Bucuresti (Sandra Izbasa, Andreea Grigore, Daniela Druncea, Gabriela Bordeianu, Patricia Tiron) 235.100
2. Cetata Deva 1 (Andreea Acatrinei, Cerasela Patrascu, Amelia Racea, Claudia Voicu, Raluca Haidu, Loredana Sabau) 228.950
3. Dinamo Bucurest (Larisa Iordache, Mihaela David, Anamaria Baicu, Elena Chiric, Georgiana Gheorghe) 222.200
Romanian Nationals and some updates
The Romanian National Championships will take place this weekend and the competition will be an important test for Beijing. Sad news is that Anamaria Tamarjan is injured and it is unlikely that
she will compete. What causes her injury is not clear. She has undergone a lot of tests and there seems to be a problem in her groin/hip area. One has to hope that she will recover soon as the team needs her in Beijing!
Cerasela Patrascu might compete on bars during Nationals but Nicolae Forminte is leaving it to her own account whether she will compete or not as he doesn't want to force her.
In the meantime, Steliana has been concentrating in getting her Baccalaureat. Prosport reports that she has had her first oral English exam on Thursday and Friday she will take her written
exam in Romanian literature. Stela will return to Deva on Sunday evening where she will have to prepare for her written History exam on Tuesday and also she has her gymnastics exam. After that it's Geography and then she will leave for Italy where there will be an international competition on the 5th and 6th of July. Stela: 'I feel that I'm really well prepared for the exams but also for the competitions but I can't tell what the outcome will be. It's the first time that I'm in such a situation and it's very straining to prepare in the gym and for my exam at the same time in an Olympic year.'
17 June 2008
GB vs Romania in Ipswich (14 and 15th of June) by Nicole Citroen
The Romanians fielded a strong team to Ipswich as an important test before the Olympics. Andreea Acatrinei was added to the team.
During the warming up, Sandra Izbasa seemed to have hurt her foot and walked to the nurse for some help. She then decided to wear one shoe to protect her foot but she didn't seem very happy during the competion, maybe due to the discomfort.
To make matters worse, Anamaria Tamarjan sat out the competition too, apparently with a groin injury. The poor girl stayed in a corner doing fitness exercises during almost the entire competition.
Both teams lined up on floor and the national anthems were played. The British girls then gave the Romanian girls a teddy bear as a welcome gift.
The Romanians started the competition on bars and Andreea Grigore (14.500) and Gabriela Dragoi (14.650) showed good routines. Sandra Izbasa (13.550) fell on her double front somi dismount
but Steliana was brilliant. She had a 7.3 SV and scored a 16.350! A small side note is that during warming up, Stela usually wears slippers to walk from one apparatus to the next but she jumped onto the high bar, still wearing the slippers! For a second I thought she was going to do a giant and the slippers would go flying through the hall.
On to beam and Andreea Acatrinei showed a good routine with a high flick to layout somi for a 14.150. Steliana was on form on beam with a solid full twisting tuck back and showed a new full pirouette with her leg at horizontal into a front kickover but she had to improvise later on and left out the Nistor. (15.850)
Sandra Izbasa was steady on the beam but wasn't completely round with her triple twist dismount. (15.500)
Dragoi and Grigore both encountered falls off beam.
On floor, little Daniela Druncea is like Speedy Gonzales! She just never stops and goes from one tumbling pass straight into the next, showing 6 tumbling passes amongst which a good triple twist, full twisting double back and finishing with a double pike. (14.750)
Andreea Acatrinei opened with a high double layout and had nice dance lines. The start of her routine is similar to that of Daniela Maranduca, who performed in Dortmund during the 1994 WC.
Stela included a new triple twist in her floor routine to up the difficulty but she fell on her 2 1/2 twist. (14.200)
Sandra Izbasa's routine is a real crowd pleaser and even though she didn't seem her cheerful self, she performed the routine with a smile on her face to score a high 15.650.
Druncea and Nistor both scored a 14.600 for their double twisting Yurchenko and Izbasa scored a 14.500 for the same vault.
Grigore performed a 1 1/2 Yurchenko with good form and Acatrinei scored a 14.400 for the same vault but with some leg form issues.
After the competition and the medal cermony, it had been arranged that the children could come down onto the competition floor and ask for autographs. Steliana sat on the mat and signed countless numbers of autographs and had her photo taken together with fans.
She is a remarkable person. I looked at her, standing ready to train vault, with a bandage on her elbow, a bandage on her knee, a strap on her calf and a back brace and I felt sorry for her as
her body has to endure a lot but you know what? She gets on with it. She's a fighter but moreover, if she is in pain, you would not notice it. She's always cheerful, really appreciative if you give her something and she has a lovely personality. She is a true ambassador for gymnastics.
Results
1. Romania: VT: 58.300; UB: 59.400; BB: 59.650; FX: 59.850; Total: 237.200
2. Great Britain: VT: 58.900; UB: 56.800; BB: 58.850; FX: 57.650; Total: 232.200
Individual
1. Steliana Nistor: VT: 14.600; UB: 16.350; BB: 15.850; FX: 14.200; Total: 61.000
2. Beckie Downie: VT: 14.900; UB: 15.800; BB: 15.500; FX: 14.550; Total: 60.750
3. Sandra Izbasa: VT: 14.500; UB: 13.550; BB: 15.500; FX: 15.650; Total: 59.200
4. Andreea Acatrinei: VT: 14.400; UB: 13.900; BB: 14.150; FX: 14.900; Total: 57.350
5. Marissa King: VT: 14.800; UB: 13.600; BB: 14.300; FX: 14.600; Total: 57.300
5. Andreea Grigore: VT: 14.600; UB: 14.500; BB: 13.650; FX: 14.550; Total: 57.300
7. Imogen Cairns: VT: 14.500; UB: 13.550; BB: 14.700; FX: 14.200; Total: 56.950
8 . Daniela Druncea: VT: 14.600; UB: 13.800; BB: 13.700; FX: 14.750; Total: 56.850
9. Gabriela Dragoi: VT: 13.800; UB: 14.650; BB: 14.150; FX: 13.950; Total: 56.550
The apparatus finals were held on Sunday and started on vault. It was clear during the warming up that the British girls were good vaulters.
Nicolae Forminte took Stela out of the vault final and put Andreea Acatrinei in. Beckie Downie
won the vault final and showed a good DTY.
Daniela Druncea landed a good DTY but came to grief on her second vault and impacted her
knee. Forminte ran up to her and told her to sit on the bench while he checked her knee. She then later sat on a bench with ice on it.
Stela was superior on bars and nailed her routine and dismount. Beckie Downie appears really strong on bars, showing a lot of muscle power and had a 7 SV. Andreea Grigore is performing really well after being injured for quite some time and is truly in contention to be on the team for Beijing. Although she is not the master of any of the events, she's not poor on any of them either. She has a good level on all four apparatus, without any serious weaknesses.
Most of the spectators would have thought Romania would win all 3 medals on this apparatus as it's their strongest piece but Andreea Acatrinei fell to pieces, falling off twice. She does suffer from nerves quite a bit it seems.
Stela performed well on beam but had to improvise yet again after her new skill, the pirouette with her leg horizontal. She had a low landing after her two flicks to double pike dismount.
Sandra had quite a big wobble at the start of her routine and fell forward after her triple twist dismount but still managed to edge out Stela on the score.
Hannah Whelan is a real talent and performed a good and steady routine but had a lower SV (6.5) than Nistor and Izbasa who were credited a 6.9 SV.
Andreea Acatrinei pulled her self together again and performed well on floor, showing a sky high double layout to start with.
Steliana left out the front through to 2 1/2 twist with which she fell in the team competition and just performed a double twist. She nailed her triple twist.
Sandra Izbasa was the star act of the day and her routine is just wonderful to watch. She didn't perform the same difficulty as she did at Europeans but the routine had the highest SV and she is a class of her own above the others.
Hannah Whelan really surprised me on floor, almost reminded me of a young Oksana Omelianchik the way she danced and performed the artistic elements. She is a true talent on beam and floor.
Vault
1. Beckie Downie 14.425
2. Imogen Cairns 14.225
3. Marissa King 14.150
4. Daniela Druncea 13.500
5. Andreea Acatrinei 12.525
6. Andreea Grigore 12.325 (Acatrinei and Grigore both performed the same vault twice, 2 points deduction)
Bars
1. Steliana Nistor 16.500
2. Beckie Downie 16.100
3. Andreea Grigore 14.700
4. Rebecca Wing 14.300
5. Gabriela Dragoi 14.000
6. Imogen Cairns 13.500
Beam
1. Sandra Izbasa 15.550
2. Steliana Nistor 15.500
3. Hannah Whelan 15.400
4. Rebecca Wing 14.700
5. Kayleigh Cooke 14.450
6. Andreea Acatrinei 13.850
Floor
1. Sandra Izbasa 15.700
2. Steliana Nistor 15.250
3. Andreea Acatrinei 15.000
4. Hannah Whelan 14.750
5. Marissa King 14.600
6. Kayleigh Cooke 14.500
16 June 2008
Steliana interview
Fans of Stela from Gymworld, sent questions for her so I could try and ask permission to interview her during the competition Great Britain vs Romania, held in Ipswich on the 14th and 15th.
Mr. Forminte then gave the questions to Stela so she could answer them so here we go. I've put the names of the people who's question it was in brackets.
If you had a chance to go back to the past and be part of one of the former Romanian Olympic Champion teams, which one would you choose, 2004 or 2000 and why? (GymGcampos)
Stela: '2004 because that's when I started to realise what gymnastics meant.'
There was an article not long ago in which it was mentioned that you would like to have manele music for your Olympic floor routine. Is that true? (Sri Ea)
Stela: 'No, that's not true. I have said that I like manele, not that I would like a floor routine with this kind of music.'
What is your favourite event? (Sandra)
Stela: 'Bars because since I was little I have liked it a lot.'
What is your favourite victory/medal? (Sandra)
Stela: 'For the time being the one from Clermont Ferrand because it's the most valuable.'
If you could chose a pet, what would it be? (Ferrari)
Stela: 'I love cats very much because they are fluffy, lovable and playful.'
Are there skills that you are or were afraid to do? (Mariska)
Stela: 'No there hasn't been and I've never been afraid.
Outside of gymnastics, what do you appreciate in life, what makes you happy? (Eta)
Stela: 'Fitness gym, joking, music, going for walks and to help people when I have the possibility.'
If you could use any song you wanted for your floor music, which one would it be? (Brigge)
Stela: 'I leave that to the coaches. I go with their choices.
What is the most memorable moment of your first day in the gym ever? (Brigge)
Stela: 'To be honest I don't remember. I was too little. (She started when she was 4)
In France, during Europeans, when you stood on the podium, you were wearing a heart
on your leotard. What did that mean? (Nicole & Rusty)
Stela: 'Someone gave me the heart. I wanted to fascinate (delight) the spectators a little.'
(When I gave her the photos and she saw the one with the heart, she was in fits of laughter. She then told me that when she wears the heart, it lights up with her heartbeat.)
What do you hope to do after your gymnastics career? (KittyKat)
Fitness coach or .... it depends what life offers me.'
Where do you keep your medals/trophees that you have won? (Barbara)
For the time being at home (in Sibiu). I have given them in the care of my parents.'
Thank you Stela and all the best for the future and lots of success in Beijing.
With lots of love, from me, Steliana Nistor, for all my true fans, I hug you with respect. Kiss for all!
1 June 2008
Win for Romania
Romania beat Great Britain during a competition in Constanta. Steliana Nistor, Sandra Izbasa, Gabriela Dragoi, Anamaria Tamarjan, Andreea Acatrinei and Daniela Druncea were chosen to compete.
VT: 58.600; UB: 58.100; BB: 61.950; FX: 59.950 Total: 238.600 vs Great Britain's score 230.400.
Nicolae Forminte seemed satisfied as the girls tried new elements. Izbasa and Nistor added new elements on floor to up their SV and Tamarjan added new elements on beam, including a new dismount, a double piked instead of a double tuck, and a new element on floor. Sadly enough Tamarjan encountered a fall off beam on her front somi and Izbasa fell on her bars dismount. Steliana tried a triple twist on floor but wasn't entirely round.
The highest score was for Beth Tweddle on bars, a 16.450. Sandra scored a 15.650 on beam, Stela scored a 15.600 on beam and a 15.500 on bars and Andreea Acatrinei also posted a 15.600 on beam. Sandra didn't perform her best on floor, going out of bounds twice.
Stela was the only one who stayed behind after the competition to sign autographs and to have her photo taken.
(With thanks to Catalin from the Online Sport forum.)