november and december news of Steliana Nistor

For former news see the newsarchive

28 December 2007

Steliana finishes 3rd

Gazeta Sporturilor reports that Steliana finished 3rd as the best Balkan athlete in 2007. She was defeated by Bulgarian canoeist Rumiana Neikova and tennis player Novak Djokovic from Serbia. Neikova (34) won silver at Worlds and gold at Europeans while Steliana became the vice world individual champion and won silver on beam at Worlds in Stuttgart.
The pole was held in Bulgaria, Albania, Greece, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia and Turkey.

25 December 2007

It's been a while since the site has been updated but not much has been happening in the gymnastics world. Steliana was invited to the Gala in Ghent, Belgium and competed on bars and beam. In her beam routine, she added a nice wave to the crowd which was much appreciated by the audience.
The girls have gone home to celebrate Christmas with their families and will return to Deva on the 27th of December to prepare for the first major competition of next year, the Europeans which are held in Clermont-Ferrand, France at the start of April.

The only thing left is to wish everybody a

12 December 2007

Catalina Ponor retires

Onlinesport reports that Catalina Ponor has decided to retire due to old back injuries.
Catalina: 'Today I have told the Romanian Gymnastics Federation about my decision to retire.
The motives are of a medical nature and I don't want to put myself at risk. I have talked to Mrs. Anca Grigoras and Mr. Adrian Stoica and they know already about my decision.
Now I am going to think about my studies and I want to spend the Holidays with my family.'

9 December 2007

Stela dominates Toyota Cup

The Toyota cup is a two day event comprising of event finals, with an invited field of gymnasts so there is no qualification involved.
On the opening day Steliana picked up a silver medal on bars (15.550), narrowly missing out to Iryna Krasnyanska of the Ukraine. On the men's side Daniel Popescu missed out on a medal on floor finishing 4th but he won a bronze for his efforts on Pommels scoring 15.450.

On to the second day and the two remaining event finals, another wonderful performance brought Stela a gold on beam with a score of 15.900. The final event was floor and Steliana posted her highest score ever on FX (15.200) amazingly it was only good enough to take a silver, America's Chellsie Memmell taking the gold.
Daniel Popescu also added to his medal tally with a gold medal in the vault competition (15.800), to make it a very successful competition for the two Romanian gymnasts.

Results:

Vault:
1. Oksana Chusovitina GER 15.150
2. Keiko Mukumoto JPN 14.100
2. Alina Kozich UKR 14.100
4. Miki Uemura JPN 13.700 (only 4 contestants)

Bars:
1. Irina Krasnyanska UKR 15.650
2. Steliana Nistor ROM 15.550
3. Bridget Sloan USA 15.300
4. Koko Tsurumi JPN 15.250
5. Chellsie Memmel USA 14.800
6. Alina Kozich UKR 14.700
7. Mayu Kuroda JPN 13.750
8. Oksana Chusovitina GER 13.300

Beam:
1. Steliana Nistor ROM 15.900
2. Chellsie Memmell USA 15.650
3. Koko Tsurumi JPN 15.450
4. Bridget Sloan USA 15.300
5. Oksana Chusovitina GER 14.950
6. Irina Krasnyanska UKR 14.650
7. Alina Kozich UKR 13.550
8. Joeline Moebius GER 13.450

Floor:
1. Chellsie Memmell USA 15.550
2. Steliana Nistor ROM 15.200
3. Bridget Sloan USA 15.050
4. Joeline Moebius GER 14.300
4. Miki Uemura JPN 14.300
6. Alina Kozich UKR 14.100
7. Oksana Chusovitina GER 13.950
8. Yu Minobe JPN 13.700

8 December 2007

A day trip to the snow

While Steliana is competing in Japan at the Toyota Cup, her teammates were enjoying a day in the snow at Piatra Craiului. Nicolae Forminte felt that the girls needed some change and took them out for the day so they could enjoy the first real day of winter. They spent their time making snowmen and having a snowball fight.
The girls and training staff will stay in Izvorani until the 22 of December after which they will all enjoy a couple of days off. On the 26 or 27 of December they will all meet up back in Deva, reported Prosport.

6 December 2007

Cerasela Patrascu a girl of gold

Sometimes, children demonstrate to us that they can be much stronger than us adults, and when they are passionate about something, they are capable of waving goodbye to all the happiness of childhood and to fight for their dream.
This is the case with the tiny gymnast Cerasela Patrascu. She measures just 1.48 but her will-power can pull down mountains. Protv talked to Cerasela and filmed her during training. Follow
the underlined link to watch the video of her.

She has spent her childhood in the traininghall, far from her family, without holidays, playing and without being spoilt. But she's happy: She has been training for 7 years now, preparing herself
for the Olympics because she is part of the Romanian Olympic team.

She leads a life with a continuous battle: She wakes up at 6.30 and she goes to bed at around 10. A life like a waiting room, always far from home, always in impersonal rooms, without a lot of memories or emotions.

Cerasela Patrascu started gymnastics quite late, at the age of 8 when other kids work out their muscles with a joy stick, learn to number slowly to ten and to create identities after the latest cartoon seen on tv but she has her own heroes from back then.
She says that when she started gymnastics, she thought of wanting to be like Nadia. Little did she know then that a gold medal and signing autographs in the street are part of a life full of
hard work, continuous sacrifices and most of all a lot of pain.

In the mean time she's reached the age of 15 and has been in gymnastics for 7 and she's learnt how to deal with the pain. When the palms of her hands are torn and she can't train, she straps her hands in on bars, her favourite apparatus, her strongest point, and she flies with her eyes closed and her brain empty of every thought. That's how she relaxes. There are few of these moments (of relaxation).

She misses her parents, she can only go home at the end of the year but it has made her stronger. She's matured quicker. In the Olympic team, nobody has time for a childhood. In gymnastics, years go by differently, quicker.

Performances are difficult to obtain, there are few valuable medals and pension (benefit) comes straight after adolescent/adulthood. Or, worse, after a fracture that can throw you permanently on the reserve bench. So, there's no time to lose, to cry or to regret. In the end, Nadia managed to do all this without what they have today: a mobile phone and a messenger.
She's a child through correspondence, in a childhood without frequences.

China is the secret dream of all the 15 gymnasts that are in the Romanian Olympic team. Soon, they will make the selection. They will know who will represent us at the Olympics next year. A
wish that outshines everything else. No disco's, no films, no play, no teenage love. Their dream is another one, bigger, stronger, probably not easy to understand for the others of their age group.

Even though for some of them the verb to win could remain unconjugated, these girls live every minute of the day having just one thought, under the reflecting light, in a gym full of denial,
under the colours of the Olympics, a gold medal would recompense all the years of work.

30 November 2007

Grigore finishes 10th

Andreea Grigore improved a bit compared to the qualification competition but still finished 10th.

Nicolae Forminte declared for Prosport that he is a bit disappointed in the way Grigore competed but that Stanculescu performed better than in Barcelona. The idea of going to Beijing was to perform routines with the new elements and to get into at least one apparatus finals. He explains that if Grigore would have competed like she does in training, on beam and floor, she would have made the final for both and it worries him about the errors made. He wants of all his gymnasts to get through their routine, he tells them that every time and he prefers certainty and belief in the execution.
He continues to explain that Grigore is a gymnast who finds it difficult to control her emotions and that the injury she has just recovered from, played a part in that she was unsure of herself.
About Stanculescu he says that she needs to enter international competitions again after being injured for almost 2 years but she's making good progress if you look at her scores in Barcelona.

Results AA competition:
1. Jiang Yuyuan CHN: VT 14.875, UB 15.725, BB 15.400, FX 15.225 Total: 61.225
2. Daria Joura AUS: VT 14.875, UB 15.125, BB 14.950, FX 14.850 Total: 59.800
3. Bridget Sloan USA: VT 14.700, UB 14.775, BB 15.100, FX 14.650 Total: 59.225
4. Lauren Mitchell AUS: VT 14.025, UB 14.875, BB 14.700, FX 14.100 Total: 57.700
5. Chelsie Memmel USA: VT 14.025, UB 14.550, BB 14.700, FX 14.150 Total: 57.425
6. Kristina Vaculik CAN: VT 13.950, UB 13.775, BB 15.025, FX 13.875 Total: 56.625
7. Svetlana Klyukina RUS: VT 14.125, UB 14.025, BB 15.000, FX 13.125 Total: 56.275
8. Marissa King GBR: VT 14.700, UB 13.150, BB 14.350, FX 14.025 Total: 56.225
9. Verona vd Leur NED: VT 14.575, UB 13.875, BB 14.575, FX 12.825 Total: 55.850
10. Andreea Grigore ROM: VT 14.025, UB 13.900, BB 13.825, FX 13.925 Total: 55.575

28 November 2007

Relaxing evening for Stela

Nominated for 'sporter of the year', Steliana went to the special event together with her coach Nicolae Forminte.
Even though Stela didn't get enough votes to win the category, she really enjoyed the occasion. Forminte told Prosport that they both felt really relaxed and well and he thought it was a shame that he couldn't bring all the girls along as it would have been a welcome change from Izvorani. He added that both really needed this and it took away almost all the daily tension and tiredness.
The winner of the sporter of the year was football player Adrian Mutu.

Beijing

Gabriela Dragoi had to be replaced by Andreea Grigore to compete in Beijing as the organisation had a problem with Dragoi not being of senior age yet.
The scores of qualification were as follows and it doesn't seem either of them have qualified for the apparatus finals:

Alina Stanculescu: beam: 14.650 and floor 13.625
Andreea Grigore: VT 13.800, UB 13.400, BB 13.750, FX 14.025 Total: 54.975 (16th)

19 November 2007

Snippets

Sandra Izbasa is still complaining about a slight back pain and continues to do light training. She has a different training schedule than her teammates. 'At the moment we are worried about Sandra, who is in a semi-break because she's been complaining about back ache. The tests came out ok, nothing appeared on the scan but we want to protect her a little. I think it's due to a discopatie, a problem that a lot of gymnasts get.', said Nicolae Forminte for Prosport.

In the meantime it seems that Aluissa Lacusteanu is doing well after her knee operation but she won't be starting training sooner than 4 months after the operation. At the moment she's working on regaining her muscles on her leg and to regain mobility.
She has grown a lot so they don't know what that will mean when she will re-start her training program. The first apparatus she will start training on will be bars, as that will be the least strain for her leg.

Alina Stanculescu and Gabriela Dragoi will take part in a pre-Olympic competition in Beijing, held
at the end of this month between 28th of November and the 3rd of December.

17 November 2007

A day of training in Bucharest

As usually gymnastics only receives attention in the media during the major competitions like Europeans, Worlds or the Olympics. One often forgets what it takes to be able to take part at these competitions and sometimes gymnasts are even hard done by in the press when they fail
to win the so expected gold.
This time around, newspaper Prosport visited the girls in Bucharest and wrote several reports to show what goes on during a normal training day.

Stela Nistor is all smiles. Every time she rolls or lands, she reveals her braces that she is wearing to straighten her teeth. She's a natural and has a catching tonus. She's permanently encouraging her younger teammates. You don't need a background knowlegde of gymnastics to see that she's in shape and that she has the voice of a leader. Sandra Izbasa, the other top gymnast in which Romania puts hope for the Olympics, complains of back pain and is training seperately. Neither Cerasela Patrascu is training at maximum capacity. She even says, with a voice of a very serious child who knows about what she is talking: 'I still have a few health problems, but recovery is going well.' This is also another matter, when children of their age who barely learn the secrets
of maths, already know how to make a declaration to the press.
Ponor is not equiped for training. She has a special program and is gracefully floating through the gym. In fact, she is just walking! At a certain moment, she passes by a huge poster of herself on beam in Athens, three years ago. 'Balance for success' is the sponsor's logo. Those memories made her come back. She wants to re-live that moment and has chosen to sacrifice a part of her adolescense after already sacrificing a childhood for beam.

Nicolae Forminte also talked to Prosport and they asked him if there was a recipe for success. He answers that everybody knows about gymnastics, there are good coaches everywhere so one can't talk about a secret anymore. The difference on the podium in the future will be the subject (gymnast) that you are working with, the talent but most of all sports medicine. Those who can conserve their value, who can come back the quickest after an injury, will be in front.
For instance Alina Stanculescu was diagnosed with a stress fracture and was treated accordingly, given her rest but then after a year and a bit, at another series of tests, they made another diagnosis. She almost lost 2 years, she had to come back from scratch. Vanessa Ferrari suffered the same injury, in September at Worlds and I have heard now that she has already started training again. Make your own comparison!
Forminte thinks that there are so many injury problems due to the difficulty of the routines. To have the highest SV, the gymnasts are performing more and more difficult routines and with a raised grade of difficulty. The number of repetitions for a sure performance and the difficulty of the elements cause wear and tear on the body, the body can't take it any longer.

12 November 2007

Grand Prix in Glasgow

The qualifications took place on Friday, without public, just a few spectators like family and a few invites were present which gave the entire competition a strange and empty feel to it.
Steliana was going to try and qualify for 3 events, bars, beam and floor. Her warming up went quite well, there was only a little bit of a scare when she landed her dismount off bars and she seemed to have hurt herself but after some consolation from Nicolae Forminte, she seemed her perky self again and got on with things.
Steliana's teammate, Daniela Druncea was in Glasgow too and did bars and floor and both girls seemed to have quite some fun chatting to each other while waiting for their turn on the apparatus.
Stela started her qualification competition on bars and did well, performing her new combination (Maloney, shoot 1/2 to handstand, Ray) effortlessly to score a 15.225. The only one to overtake that score was Beth Tweddle, who scored 15.600.
Dana Druncea did reasonably well but she muscles through her routine rather than swing but her release, the Gienger is sky high. She only scored 13.250 and finished 12th so didn't qualify for the finals.
On to beam where Steliana performed a steady routine, just a few wobbles here and there but nothing major for a 15.400 and qualified as 3rd. Lyudmila Grebenkova, formerly known as Ezhova, qualified first with a 15.725 and Canadian Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs as second with a brilliant and original routine. (15.425)
On floor Steliana showed a high double layout as a first series and sailed through the rest of her routine and was the best of the lot with a 14.400.
Daniela Druncea showed 6 tumbling passes and didn't even seem tired at the end of it! The tiny might just flies from one tumbling pass to the next, fitting in a few dance moves in between. She qualified as fourth with a 13.950

Finals

Warming up on bars had Steliana in a laughing fit as Dana Druncea, who helped her chalk up the bars, was absolutely covered in white from the magnesium powder. Forminte walked over to her and gestured what on earth had happened to her and started trying to clean her tracksuit so she didn't look like a tiny snowgirl, to great amusement of Steliana. (Click on thumbnail)

First up from all finalists on bars, Steliana showed a good routine packed with elements as for instance a toe on, full turn to a high Gienger, toe on to Tkatchev, Pak salto, another Tkatchev and Jaeger and a full in stuck dismount. The only error was a slight loss of legs in one of her pirouettes on the high bar which gave her a score of 15.200 from a 7.00 SV.
Dariya Zgoba, who beat Nistor at the Europeans in April, had to encounter a 0.10 penalty for standing on the low bar rather than performing a transition and added with a slight leg seperation, she finished behind Nistor with a score of 15.050
Krystina Palesova from the Czech Republic had beautiful style on bars, great lines and combinations and scored a 15.000 for third place.
The red hot favourite, Beth Tweddle had a complete nightmare and lost her way on the high bar and fell on the dismount, coming very close to hitting the highbar on the way down.

Things didn't go as well on beam as on bars for Stela as she had a major wobble after her full in, having to put her leg up high to prevent her from falling so she finished 5th.
Beam was won by Grebenkova (15.475) who was solid along the way, showing her handstand sequence that she is known for. Hopfner-Hibbs was second (15.300) and next time you see her perform on beam, just have a look how far she lands on the beam after her mount! It is truly amazing what distance she gets. Zgoba was third (15.200), showing a sky high layout somersault.

Qualified first on floor and unlucky in the draw, having to start first again after being up first on bars too, Nistor was out to redeem herself from not winning a medal on beam but things started badly as she had to put her hands down after her first series, a double layout. The rest of the routine went well but it was already too late and too much damage had been done.
Even though she didn't win a medal, Adela Sajn has to be mentioned as she performed such a beautiful and elegant routine, that is what floor choreography should be like.
Tweddle had a lot to prove to herself and the crowd and performed a good solid routine, only stepping out after her first series, one and a half through to double Arabian. It does have to be said that the routine seems a bit dead, maybe it's time for another routine as she has had the same routine for quite some time now. Nevertheless she won gold on floor with a 14.550
Nicole Pechancova performed a beautiful routine with a 3 and a half pirouette, double pike and triple twist for a silver medal. (13.650)
Last up, Daniela Druncea had everything to go for but went for too much right at the start of her routine and flew out of bounds after her triple twist opening. It didn't put her off too much and the rest of the routine was perfect and in the end both Druncea and Nistor won bronze together with a 13.625.

Results:
Qualification on Friday 9th of November:

Vault:
1. Eniko Korcsmaros (HUN) 13.987
2. Marissa King (GBR) 13.862
3. Maryna Sergiyenko (UKR) 13.800
4. Kim Bui (GER) 13.738
5. Nansy Damianova (CAN) 13.688
6. Marina Kostyuchenko (UKR) 13.562
7. Paula Plichta (POL) 13.525
8. Valeria Maksyuta (ISR) 13.450

Bars:
1. Beth Tweddle (GBR) 15.600
2. Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs (CAN) 15.300
3. Steliana Nistor (ROM) 15.225
4. Krystina Palesova (CZE) 15.125
5. Daria Zgoba (UKR) 14.875
6. Darlene Hill (USA) 14.650
7. Jenny Brunner (GER) 14.600
8. Jana Sikulova (CZE) 14.200

Beam:
1. Lyudmila Grebenkova (RUS) 15.725
2. Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs (CAN) 15.425
3. Steliana Nistor (ROM) 15.400
4. Daria Zgoba (UKR) 15.075
5. Sanne Wevers (NED) 14.950
6. Natasha Kelley (USA) 14.925
7. Zhou Zhuoru (CHN) 14.875
8. Fan Ye (CHN) 14.825

Floor:
1. Steliana Nistor (ROM) 14.400
2. Zhou Zhuoru (CHN) 14.100
3. Beth Tweddle (GBR) 14.025
4. Daniela Druncea (ROM) 13.950
5. Nicole Pechancova (CZE) 13.900
6. Kim Bui (GER) 13.675
7. Adela Sajn (SLO) 13.650
8. Nansy Damianova (CAN) 13.625

Finals on Saturday 10th of November:
Vault:
1. Marissa King (GBR) 14.237
2. Enikö Korcsmaros (HUN) 14.037
3. Marina Kostyuchenko (UKR) 13.825
4. Kim Bui (GER) 13.775
5. Marina Sergiyenko (UKR) 13.737
6. Valeria Maksyuta (ISR) 13.487
7. Paula Plichta (POL) 13.475
8. Nansy Damianova (CAN) 13.000

Bars:
1. Steliana Nistor (ROM) 15.200
2. Daria Zgoba (UKR) 15.050
3. Krystina Palesova (CZE) 15.000
4. Darlene Hill (USA) 14.675
5. Jenny Brunner (GER) 14.525
6. Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs (CAN) 14.425
7. Beth Tweddle (GBR) 14.025
8. Jana Sikulova (CZE) 12.900

Beam:
1. Lyudmila Grebenkova (RUS) 15.475
2. Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs (CAN) 15.300
3. Daria Zgoba (UKR) 15.200
4. Fan Ye (CHN) 15.025
5. Natasha Kelley (USA) 14.875
5. Steliana Nistor (ROM) 14.875
7. Zhou Zhuoru (CHN) 14.800
8. Sanne Wevers (NED) 14.500

Floor:
1. Beth Tweddle (GBR) 14.550
2. Nicole Pechancova (CZE) 13.650
3. Daniela Druncea (ROM) 13.625
3. Steliana Nistor (ROM) 13.625
5. Adela Sajn (SLO) 13.550
6. Kim Bui (GER) 13.250
7. Zhou Zhuoru (CHN) 13.075
8. Nansy Damianova (CAN) 12.975

4 November 2007

Swiss Cup

Another day and another competition for Steliana. After competing in Milan yesterday, Stela was back performing today in the Swiss Cup in Zurich, Switzerland.
The Swiss cup is a male/female pairs event with both partners competing on 3 events each to make the finals. Steliana was partnered by Romanian men's AA vice-champion Flavius Koczi.
Steliana and Flavius finished as the winners ahead of the German pairing of Oxana Chusovitina and Eugen Spiridonow. Steliana showed a new element she has added to her bars routine in the final round, bringing her start value up to a 7.0.

Scores: Final:
1. Romania: Steliana UB 15.400, Flavius VT 16.200 Total : 31.600
2. Germany: Oxana VT 15.475, Eugen VT 15.375 Total : 30.850
3. Russia: Svetlana UB 14.750, Sergei PB 15.600 Total : 30.350
4. Brazil: Daniele BB 12.750, Diego FX 16.200 Total : 28.950

Semi Final:
1. ROM: Steliana Nistor VT 14.000, UB 15.000, BB 15.700.
            Flavius Koczi PH 15.100, VT 16.300, FX 14.900. Total : 91.000

2. GER: Oxana Chusovitina VT 15.650, UB 14.300, BB 14.250.
           Eugen Spiridonow FX 15.000, VT 15.600, PB 15.100. Total : 89.900

3. RUS: Svetlana Kliukina VT 14.450, UB 14.700, BB 14.900.
           Sergei Korokordin FX 13.950, PB 15.450, VT 15.700. Total : 89.150

3. BRA: Daniele Hypolito UB 13.800, BB 14.400, FX 14.350.
           Diego Hypolito FX 15.850, VT 16.200, PB 14.550. Total : 89.150

5. SUI: Ariella Kaeslin VT 14.500, BB 14.500, FX 14.200.
          Niki Boschenstein RI 15.100, VT 16.250, PB 14.450. Total : 89.000

6. CAN: Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs UB 15.000, BB 15.100, FX 13.400.
           Nathan Gafuik FX 14.650, VT 15.800, HB 14.250. Total : 88.200

7. ITA: Lorena Cosa UB 13.500, BB 13.750, FX 13.150.
          Enrico Pozzo HB 15.200, VT 15.850, FX 14.700. Total : 86.150

8. UKR: Alina Kozich VT 14.600, BB 14.000, FX 13.350.
           Andri Isajew FX 14.600, VT 15.600, PB 13.550. Total : 85.700

9. NED: Verona Van De Leur VT 13.450, BB 13.600.
           Epke Zonderland HB 14.450, VT 15.700. Total : 57.200 *

10. SUI: Lucia Tacchelli VT 14.050, UB 13.100.
            Claudio Capelli FX 13.350, VT 16.300. Total : 56.800 *

11. KOR: Hyun Joo Jo VT 13.900, BB 12.500.
            Jin Sung Choi FX 13.300, VT 14.700. Total : 54.400 *

* Last 3 pairs were eliminated after first 2 events. Top 4 scores after 3 rounds to final.

3 November 2007

Milan Grand Prix

The Milan Grand Prix was held today. It is an invitational competition and gymnasts from Italy, China, Romania, GB, France, Bulgaria, Slovenia and Ukraine took part.
Steliana won a silver medal on both the events she competed in, bars and beam.

Scores:

UB
1. Beth Tweddle GB 15.750
2. Steliana Nistor ROM 15.400
3. Lia Parolari ITA 15.100
4. Francesca Benolli ITA 13.550
5. Iryna Krasnianska UKR 11.100

BB
1. Li Shanshan CHI 16.050
2. Steliana Nistor ROM 15.400
3. Iryna Krasnianska UKR 15.350
4. Monica Bergamelli ITA 14.650
5. Frederica Macri ITA 14.400

FX
1. Frederica Macri ITA 14.500
2. Li Shanshan CHN 14.500
3. Lia Parolari ITA 14.400
4. Beth Tweddle GBR 14.000
5. Francesca Benolli ITA 13.350

2 November 2007

Steliana will replace Izbasa at Swiss Cup

As Sandra Izbasa got injured during training in Zurich where the Swiss Cup will be held, the Romanian Federation acted quickly and they themselves took care of sending a replacement gymnast, Steliana. As she will be in Milan on the 3rd of November, she will leave immediately after the competition to fly to Zurich to team up with Flavius Koczi.
Stela will have a busy time as she is also scheduled to compete at the Glasgow Grandprix next weekend, together with Daniela Druncea.