Golden Glow: Russia won nine medals at the European Championships in rhythmic gymnastics

The European Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships were held in Varna, Bulgaria, from May 27 to 31. For the first time in more than four years, Russian athletes, both adults and juniors, performed at it. And they didn't leave the tournament without medals. The Russian national anthem was played twice in honor of our winners. In addition, the national team has four more silver and three bronze awards.

The fight for the top 6 in the all-around

Maria Borisova and Sofia Ilteryakova competed in the individual all—around from the Russian national team - both athletes were in the top 6.

15-year-old Ilteryakova turned out to be slightly higher, who looked more confident both in qualifying and on the final day of the competition. In the qualification, Sonya performed hoop, ball and ribbon exercises and made it to the finals in all three types. In the all-around final, she made a loss in the hoop exercise, which is why she received about two points less than she could have. Ilteryakova went through the rest of the sports confidently enough and could have fought for the top three if it hadn't been for an annoying mistake.

Maria Borisova made me worry in qualifying — after the first day she took only the 28th place, having performed unsuccessfully in exercises with a hoop and a ball. In both sports, the athlete couldn't control her nerves and allowed one loss each. Accordingly, Borisova did not make it to the finals with these subjects.

On the second day, Maria was able to rehabilitate herself by performing high-quality programs with clubs and a ribbon. The Russian not only reached the finals of individual sports, but also rose to 17 positions in the all-around qualification. There were no fatal mistakes in the final, but sometimes it was noticeable that Borisova was playing it safe, fighting for every catch. Probably, this did not allow her to claim a medal.

The title of the absolute European champion was won by the ex-Russian Daria Varfolomeev. The girl has been playing for Germany for a long time — she became the champion at the last Olympic Games. Varfolomeev also won the last two all-around events at the World Championships.

In qualifying, Daria was third — she went to the carpet with tapes on her feet, the bends were unsuccessful, and after completing the exercises, shortness of breath was observed. Later it became known that the athlete performed after poisoning. However, in the final, Varfolomeev showed almost the maximum result.

Bulgarian Styliana Nikolova, who was predicted to win gold at the home championship, took silver. In the final, she was let down by the last tape exercise — she didn't have enough concentration, she got confused in the subject. The bronze medal was won by Ukrainian Taisiya Onofriychuk, the winner of the last European Championship. Alina Gornosko from Belarus became the fourth, although she claimed a medal until the last one. A slight loss in the ball exercise and blemishes in the clubs did not allow her to take the prize.

Silver in group exercises

The athletes competing in groups qualified for the individual finals and the all-around finals at the same time. The Russian national team, represented by a team from the Celestial Grace Rhythmic Gymnastics Academy of Alina Kabayeva, successfully reached the finals in exercises with hoops and clubs, as well as with five balls.

The first type is considered more stable among Russians, but it was there that an unfortunate mistake occurred — one of the athletes tried to save the catch, but stumbled and did not manage to catch the object in time. Everything was much more successful in the five-ball exercise, which allowed the gymnasts to become silver medalists in the all-around.

The Israelis were only one tenth behind the Russians, as they also failed to perform with hoops and clubs. But everything worked out for Spain.: they showed two confident performances and won gold.

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The results of the finals in individual sports turned out to be different. In the five-ball exercise, the Russians lost the ball in the first half of the performance. Then there were some inaccuracies in the execution of other elements, as well as easier catching of objects. Because of this, our girls ended up at the end of the standings, losing more than four points to the winners from Spain. However, it is worth noting that the athletes fought to the end and did not give up trying to perform the program efficiently, including maintaining synchronicity.

The final with clubs and hoops closed the European Championship competitions, and the Russians performed last in this form. And they managed to finish the tournament successfully, and that's always important. In this form, we became the second, losing to the Spaniards — they were out of reach at the European Championships. But this does not mean that they will not be able to compete in the world championship.

The points obtained in the individual and group all-around qualification were summed up. According to the results, the winners and prize-winners of the team competitions were determined. The Russian national team won bronze medals in this event. The European Championship medalists were Maria Borisova, Sofia Ilteryakova, Eva Kononova, who qualified with only one type — clubs, as well as the entire team in group exercises: Arina Lysenko, Nelly Reutskaya, Nicole Andronchik, Alena Seliverstova, Alina Proschalykina.

The same number of points as the Russians — 274,650 — was scored by athletes from Israel, but they got silver. This was determined by additional indicators: in total, the Israeli women performed cleaner. Bulgarian women became the winners.

Ilteryakova and Borisova Awards

On the last day of the competition, the athletes competed in the finals in individual sports. Young Sofia Ilteryakova won the hoop exercise, one tenth of a point ahead of the experienced Alina Gornosko. The third was world champion Sofia Raffaeli from Italy.

After her performance, Ilteryakova left the carpet a little upset — her program turned out to be strong, but not perfect. However, she was so pleased with her assessment that the Russian even burst into tears, realizing that she would have a medal. And the reward turned out to be golden.

A few minutes later, Ilteryakova was already on the mat in a ball practice. And there, too, it turned out to do everything cleanly, although caution was evident in the execution of the elements. Only one of the risk fishing turned out to be not very successful, which was performed a little easier than planned. Because of this, the score is not the highest, but the ball is not the strongest kind for Sony. As a result, she won a bronze, and only Daria Varfolomeev and Styliana Nikolova, who received the same number of points, were higher.

In the final with the ribbon, Ilteryakova remained fourth, although she performed the exercise visually with high quality. Maria Borisova, who trains at Alina Kabayeva's Heavenly Grace Rhythmic Gymnastics Academy, received the same number of points. Masha has a slightly higher score for her performance, so she took the bronze medal. She has one of the most technically challenging exercises with a ribbon and is definitely the strongest in the Russian national team, but there were inaccuracies in catching in the final. Daria Varfolomeev and Styliana Nikolova were also ahead of our gymnasts here.

Ilteryakova did not participate in the maces exercise — she was not in the qualification in this form, so she could not compete for the finals. Borisova made her way there, who seemed to be very calm and energized before going to the carpet. The performance turned out the same way — clear and confident, without mistakes. Despite this, Masha lost the gold to Styliana Nikolova, who had inaccuracies in the exercise. Most likely, the home judging and the authority of the gymnast helped.

How did the Russian juniors perform

At the European Championships, the juniors competed for team medals, as well as for prizes in individual finals. The Russian national team became only the fifth in the team all-around due to mistakes in qualifying. Eva Chevtaeva made it to the final with the ball from seventh place — she went through the first half of the exercise cleanly but stiffly, and at the end she made a loss on a difficult element. In the final, Chevtaeva performed better, but remained in an offensive fourth place.

Ksenia Savinova competed with clubs and a hoop, but reached the final with only a hoop. In the maces exercise, before the risk, the object slipped out of the hand, which caused the correct throw to fail, and the mace fell to the carpet. As a result — only the 10th place. There was no such mistake with the hoop, although Ksenia was reinsured after the failure. Nevertheless, her result allowed her to reach the final, where she took second place, performing the exercise without any serious disruptions. The assessment caused dissatisfaction with the Russian national team, a protest was filed, but it was not satisfied — the scores remained the same.

Yana Zaikina performed with a ribbon and got to the final from eighth place — she also could not avoid losses. At first, at one of the risks, she had to go outside the site — the tape flew there, then another mistake occurred on the boomerang. However, Zaikina performed confidently in the final and won, bringing the first gold of the Russian national team at a major tournament after being suspended.

In total, the national team won nine medals at the European Championships in Varna. Sofia Ilteryakova and Yana Zaikina won the titles, Maria Borisova won two more individual medals and Ksenia Savinova won one. Two silver medals are being taken to Russia by the team in group exercises, which trains at Alina Kabayeva's Heavenly Grace Rhythmic Gymnastics Academy. And the adult national team won the team bronze.

It should be noted that no country that competed at the European Championships has more medals. Bulgaria, Germany and Spain beat our girls in the number of gold awards, but not in the amount of prizes. We can say that Russia won the unofficial team competition of the tournament in Varna.