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In
the vault final, gymnasts had to perform two vaults from different
families with the scores being averaged.
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Spain’s Elena
Gomez landed her RO-full-twisting ff on back pike off well but
could only manage a full-twisting Yurchenko as a second vault. Oana
Petrovschi, competing in her only final here, opened with a 1
½ twisting Yurchenko (bent knees) and took a large hop forwards on her
RO-1/2 on front pike off. Ilaria Colombo
followed with the same two vaults but could land neither properly. Verona
van de Leur then took the lead with a double Yurchenko that was
beautifully twisted but went off centre on the landing. She stuck her
second vault of RO-full-twisting ff on back layout off. Monica
Bergamelli was way off centre on her double twisting Yurchenko
and then scored a zero when she landed her second vault on her hands and
knees. Alyona Kvasha had a major arm
bend going into her handspring full-twisting front layout and messy legs
throughout but nailed it. She fell to her hands on her 1 ½ twisting
Tsukahara. Yelena Zamolodchikova went
into the lead briefly after her double twisting Tsukahara but then totally
crashed her double twisting Yurchenko.
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Natalia
Ziganshina picked up the slack by standing up both her double
twisting Yurchenko and her RO-1/2 on pike ½ off (layout position in the
first half).
Bars
provided unexpected drama with two of the favourites faltering. Suzanne
Harmes got things going with a powerful routine (nice stalder
to 1 ½ to Jaeger).
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Tweddle, who had swung her set with ease and style, catching
her Markelov and Gienger. Alyona Kvasha
was clean, but not overly exciting, showing a nice full pirouette on the
low bar. Monica Bergamelli was very
dynamic to outscore Kvasha. Renske Endel
glided through her stalder work with ease and caught her Jaeger, but
overarched a handstand on high bar to leave some room. Her routine was the
only one with a ten start value. In the first shocker, Lyudmila
Yezhova lost her swing on a giant and jumped off in a routine
that seemed to be going well.
Next,
Irina Yarotskaya fell three times,
meaning that Tweddle had a medal for sure, so Beth
Tweddle wrote history for Britisch Gymnastics. The colour was decided by Svetlana
Khorkina, who put another bars title under her belt with her
excellent work (9,8 SV).
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Beam
brought a long awaited gold for Russia’s Lyudmila
Yezhova.
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Last up, she competed her difficult routine – Onodi-
front aerial-side somi- calmly and with confidence before breaking into a
delighted smile after her 2 ½ twist dismount. Off the podium, she was
greeted with a huge hug from Svetlana Khorkina.
Khorkina navigated her mount sequence RO- full-twisting ff –ff- layout
well for second place. Verona van de Leur
brought home another medal for her routine that included a RO- layout
mount and finished with a 2 ½ twist. Ilaria
Colombo wobbled on her ff-layout but was solid elsewhere for
fourth. Suzanne Harmes had a big
wobble on her full-twisting tuck jump. Delphine
Regease posted the lowest start value of the final – 9,3 and
wobbled on her full-twisting ff. Fresh off her bars medal, Beth
Tweddle skidded along the beam after a ff to layout to two feet
but stayed on. Elena Gomez nearly fell
on her RO-layout mount and had to put her hand on the beam.
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 Maria
Teresa Gargano got the last final of the competition underway
with a full-in; 2 ½ twist punch front and a triple twist (9,5 SV).
Motivated by the deafening cheers of the home crowd which for once half
filled the arena,
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Dimitra Kastritsi
tumbled a double layout, a handspring double twisting front to punch front
and two whips through to a double pike. Tatiana
Yarosh fell forward on her closing double pike and looked a bit
uninspired throughout the routine. Verona van de
Leur looked on track to finally break into the gold but stepped
out of bounds. Elena Gomez was back on
track for Spain with a tucked full-in, 2 ½ twist punch front full; triple
twist and double pike. Riding on a high since winning bronze AA, Alyona
Kvasha gave nothing away in her tumbling during her Arabian
style routine with rock solid landings. Svetlana
Khorkina returned to her double twist to split jump dismount
(9,5) and took a step to the side after her whip triple twist. Natalia
Ziganshina could have still taken a second gold, but when she
came up short on her whip triple twist, the gold was Kvasha’s.
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BALANCE:
Russia’s
domination of these European Championships came as no surprise after the
Romanian withdrawal. With team and all-around medals as well as a medal in
each of the apparatus finals,
Dutch gymnastics has finally made the
transition from underdog to European powerhouse. Holland has arrived.
Alyona Kvasha’s success was able to undo some of the damage the
Ukrainian women’s programme had received after their dismal showing in
Ghent 2001.
Svetlana Khorkina
won her 10th gold medal - all together 15 European medals -
like nobody before!
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Host Greece offered to the first
time video clips of some details, which you can down load with
Real 
