Last week saw another major competition, the Mediterranean Games in Tarragona. With a range of nations from all over the Mediterranean region, the French, Spanish and Italian teams were expected to be the standouts here, but there was also some strong competition from other countries, some of whom counted Olympians among their members. Italy (Martina Basile, Caterina Cereghetti, Giada Grisetti, Francesca Linari, Lara Mori) won the team competition, despite the absence of most of their strongest gymnasts, with the French (Marine Boyer, Grace Charpy, Morgane Osyssek, Sheyen Petit, Louise Vanhille) putting in some great performances to come second, and the Spanish girls (Helena Bonilla, Nora Fernández, Ana Pérez, Paula Raya, Cintia Rodríguez) coming in third.
One of the highest profile gymnasts at the meet was Italy’s Lara Mori and she did not disappoint here. Having had a great 2017, making the floor finals at both Europeans and Worlds, she competed all around here to claim the title, with solid performances on all apparatus. Mori also took gold in the floor final, where she scored an enormous 13.600, putting her over a whole point ahead of the next gymnast. Errors in her bars and beam routines led to her failing to medal in those finals, but she still ended up going home with three gold medals, including the gold for the team final. Giada Grisetti also looked great at these games, just missing out on the all around bronze by one tenth, and losing ties for the bronze on both bars and floor, but she did get to take home a well-earned silver medal for her stunning beam routine, which scored 13.366.
Spain’s Ana Pérez was also in attendance, just a few months after her wrist surgery. She had a very good chance of taking the all around title until an unfortunate fall right at the end of her floor routine, but still managed to snag the bronze. She also made the beam final, where she placed fourth. An impressive result given how recently Ana returned to training and competition. Her teammate Cintia Rodríguez was also in excellent form, winning a bronze on floor with an elegant routine which was beautifully performed, and Paula Raya delivered an excellent bars routine to claim the silver medal with a score of 12.700. Helena Bonilla finished a respectable ninth in the all around.
Louise Vanhille of France had a great competition, not only coming second in the all around competition, but also claiming the bars title with a fantastic 13.166 and winning bronze on beam. Teammate Marine Boyer, who made the beam final in Rio, was on top form here, a beam routine which scored 14.033 ensuring her a gold medal. New senior Sheyen Petit also made a great impression, her poised and confident performances in the all around giving her a sixth place finish, and also making the floor final.
Standouts from other nations were the Slovenians, with Tjasa Kysselef and Teja Belak coming second and third on vault respectively and Lucija Hribar coming seventh all around and third on bars. Turkey’s Göksu Üctas Sanli just missed out on the bronze on vault by a tenth, later earning a silver medal for a lovely floor routine, which scored 12.533 with 0.3 in neutral deductions. Teammate and Olympian Tutya Yilmaz finished tenth all around and sixth in the bars final. The Egyptian gymnasts also performed well here, with Nancy Taman claiming the vault title with 13.899 and Farah Hussein coming sixth with 13.216. Hussein also came sixth in the beam final and fifth in the all around, with Farah Salem finishing eighth all around and eight in the bars final and Mandy Mohamed coming in fifth on floor.
The European Gymnastics Blog 