Photo by: Mariya Muzychenko
Glittering and colorful leotards combined with elegance, grace, and technical mastery from the worlds’ best gymnasts will soon be the star of the show at the 41st Rhythmic Gymnastics World Championships that are due to take place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil from August 20th-24th.
The last two weekends were full of action and emotion, as the rhythmic world gathered for the last two FIG events – the FIG World Cup in Milan, Italy and the FIG World Challenge Cup in Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
New Stars Making a Name for Themselves
While the usual names dominated both competitions, there were still some big surprises, with surprising results from Meital Maayan Sumkin (ISR) winning her first ever World Challenge Cup gold medal with the hoop in Romania, in just her fist years as a senior. She also walked away with two bronze medals, one in the all-around and the other with the ribbon. In Milan, with was double joy, as 18-year-old, Tara Dragas won her first ever World Cup gold medal with the ribbon on home soil, for much of the Italian fan’s delight. Additionally, she won a double bronze with the ball (one in Milan and another in Cluj), as well as silver with the clubs, in Romania.
Other honorable mentions, must also go to Rin Keys (USA), Liliana Lewinska (POL), and Vera Tugolukova (CYP), with each earning medals and cementing themselves as strong contenders for the world championships.
A Story of Redemption
Photo by: Fanny Cortyl
Sofia Raffaeli showed up in Milan proving why she is a world champion and the Olympic bronze medalist. After knowing that her coach, Claudia Mancinnelli was leaving her, after nearly two years of staring working with her, Raffaeli had her most stable competition this year, and won the all-around competition on home soil. With all four scores above 29 points, not even the current Olympic Champion, Darja Varfolomeev (GER) and the current European Champion, Taisiia Onofriichuk (UKR) could match her.
In the final day in Milan, Raffaeli won another gold with the hoop and silver with the clubs. For Bulgaria’s leading gymnast, Stiliana Nikolova, who finished fourth in the all-around competition in Milan proved why she is a multiple European and world medallist, winning three medals on the final day: bronze with the hoop, silver with ball, and finally gold with the clubs.
Redemption continued in Romania, but this time for Darja Varfolomeev, who only won silver in the all-around and gold with the ball in Milan. The German champion won the gold in the all-around as well as with the ball, and silver with the hoop and bronze with the clubs.
The reigning European Champion, Taisiia Onofriichuk was the most stable gymnast in both weekends, winning several medals both in Italy and Romania, but it was in the latter that she really shown, winning two gold medals with clubs and ribbon after two superb routines.
Golden Spain
In the group competition, the Spanish group did a golden sweep of the all the three gold medals up for grabs in Cluj-Napoca. Choosing to skip the Milan stage, in Italy the groups competition was much more divided, with Italy, China, and Brazil winning gold medals each.
It will be interesting to see how the competition spans out in Rio de Janeiro, if Spain continues its dominance after winning all the gold medals in the European Championships, as well as in Romania, but surely the Olympic Champions will also have something to say, just as the home squad, Brazil will.
The World Championships in Brazil will be the last competition of the season, so for the next few weeks, gymnasts will be hard at work fine tuning the last-minute details before flying to Rio de Janeiro, where competition commences on August 20th.