11th EUROPEANS of AEROBIC GYMNASTICS 2019

To the first time Azerbaijan's capital Baku will host European Championships in two different gymnastcs disciplines in May 2019:
After the 35^th Rhythmic Gymnastics Championship (16-19 May), now the 11^th European AEROBIC Championship 2019 will take place from 24-26. May, organized again by the Azerbaijan Gymnastics Federation (AGF), which organizes such aerobics ECh for the very first time in Baku in this discipline.
The venue of the competition is the "Milli Gimnastika Arenasi" (National Gymnasium), in which several major competitions in various gymnastics disciplines took place already.
♦ Altogether 333 junior and elite gymnasts representing 22 european countries are expected at this 3-day continental championships.

* UEG P R E V I E W : (>> ECh Schedule)
♦ Elite and junior gymnasts compete in the programs "Women Individual", "Men's Individual", "Mix Pairs", "Trios", "Groups" as well as "Aerobic Dance" and "Aerobic Step" (only elite) on. According to the rules, a participant can participate in a maximum of 3 aerobics categories. In the team competition the winners for the 5 best achievements are determined. In each category there are both qualifications and finals.
♦ Headlined by European Champions Daniel Bali (HUN) and Belen Guillemot (ESP) and World Champions Michela Castoldi and Davide Donati (ITA), the participants’ field is a great mix of experienced competitors and rising stars with most notably Turkey’s Mehmet Ersos and Ayse Begum Onbasi making their senior debut. Russia’s Daria Tikhonova, the 2017 junior European Champion in mixed pairs and vice-European Champion individually, is the most experienced junior competitor.

* UEG ECh format --: These European Championships are for juniors (15 to 17 years old) and Elite (18+).
- The juniors compete in 5 categories: individual men (IM), individual women (IW), mixed pairs (MP), trios (TR) and groups (GR)
- while the Elite also add Aero Dance (AD) to their programme.
The Aero Step category did not have enough participants so will be performed out of competition. The qualifications for juniors (Friday) and the elite (Saturday) determine the team standing and the finalists. The top 8 of IW, IM, MP, TR and GR advance to the final with a maximum of 2 per country except groups where only 1 per country can qualify. The top 6 of AD advance to the final, maximum 1 per federation.
The team ranking list will be established by adding the 4 best rankings obtained during the qualifications in the following categories: Individual Men or Individual Women, Mixed pairs, Trios and Groups. The Federation with the lowest number of points is declared Team European Champion.

♦♦ 11^th AEROBIC European Championships (ECh)

♦ DAY 3 - Sunday, May 26:
* ELITE's FINAL :
→ AER INDIVIDUALS --: RUSSIAN gymnasts dominated, with both the men and the women category, taking gold and silver: Roman SEMENOV beat Timur Kulaev for the men’s title while Ekaterina PYKHTOVA and Tatyana Konakova posted the same total score but a tie-breaker bumped Konakova to second place. Bulgaria claimed the two bronze medals for Antonio Papazov & Darina Pashova.
→ PAIRS--: Daniel Bali & Fanni Mazacs looked fabulous as they attacked their mixed pair exercise. Smiling throughout, the Hungarian stars outscored Turkish talents Ayse Begum Onbasi & Mehmet Ersos by four tenths. Romanians Dacian Barna & Andreea Bogati completed the podium.

→ TRIOS --: Joined by Balasz Farkas, Daniel Bali & Fanni Mazacs were victorious again as they posted the highest score of the day: 22.411, for their trio routine. Russia’s Elena Ivanova, Ekaterina Pykhtova & Anastasia Ziubina clinched the silver and Andreea Bogati added another medal to her collection, together with Dorin Brotei & Mihai Alin Popa.

→ GROUPS--: The party wasn’t over yet for Bogati as she and her Romanian teammates successfully their European title in the group final, beating top qualifier Bulgaria and Russia.

→ AER DANCE --: The highlight for the local audience surely was the Aero Dance final where AZERBAIJAN won its first ever European medal, straight away grabbing the gold. Reversed from qualifications, the Azeri team outscored Russia by just 0.050. Romania won the bronze.

At the conclusion of 11^th Aerobic Gymnastics European Championships in Baku, the UEG's global partner SmartScoring presented the "SmartScoring Shooting star award" to Daniel Bali (HUN) and Michela Castoldi (ITA).

* ELITE's Final Results:
► Women, ind.; ► Men, individual; ► Mixed pairs;
► T r i o s; ► G r o u p s; ► AE Dance.

* Day 2: May 25
♦ ELITE's QUALIFICATION
:Russia started off strong, edging an impressive performance by the home team Azerbaijan in the Aero Dance category by just 0.050. Then Ekaterina Pykhtova scored more valuable points for the Russians by leading the individual women standings. In the trio competition, Hungary performed best with Daniel Bali, Balazs Farkas and Fanni Mazacs posting the highest score of the day: 22.361!
Bali and Mazacs also outperformed their competitors in the mixed pairs category. Roman Semenov overtook teammate Timur Kulaev for the individual men’s lead, ahead of two Bulgarians, Antonio Papazov and Tihomir Barotev who were both instrumental for the Bulgarian group’s first place too.

* RUSSIA took their second team gold of the event, ahead of Romania whose gymnasts performed consistently for the silver. Hungary joined them on the podium, in third place.
1. R U S S I A;     2. R O M A N I A;    3. HUNGARY
    ► Detailed Results
.
* Qualification results:
> Women, individual;   > Men, individual    > Mixed pairs;
> T r i o s;                   > G r o u p s;        > AE Dance
.
.

♦♦ AEROBIC Junior European Championships (JECh)

♦♦ Junior's FINALS - May 25/26:
RUSSIA proved to be again the strongest nation, winning 5 out of the 6 available junior European titles!
However, Italians Andrea Colnago and Elisa Marras prevented a clean sweep by the Russian delegation as they performed a fabulous routine to take the mixed pairs gold medal beating Damir Manafov & Ksenia Stefu in a tie-breaker.
Living up to his role of favourite, having qualified to the final in first place, Anton Kolobov won the Individual men’s title ahead of Spain’s Miquel Mane Gabarro.
Romania’s Daniel Tavoc and Portugal’s Rui Cansado tied for the bronze medal.
Anastasia Dmitrieva displayed great form and energy to win the Individual Women’s final ahead of teammate Daria Tikhonova who won the silver medal two years ago in Ancona as well.
Tikhonova & Stefu came back strongly from the silver-medal winning performances to team up with Aleksandra Merkulova and claim to trios title. And Merkulova and Stefu were also part of the winning group while Dmitrieva also added another gold medal, with her Aero Dance teammates.
♦ FINAL Junior RESULTS
► Girls, Indiv.; ► Boys, Indiv. ► Mixed Pairs;
► T r i o s; ► G r u p p e n; ► AE Dance

* DAY 1 - May 24 --:
--- 2017 junior mixed pair European Champion Daria Tikhonova led the field in two categories:
individual women and trio, while her teammate Anton Kolobov posted the highest score of the day for his routine in the individual men’s round.
Gymnasts of the Russian team also placed first with the group and the Aero Dance competition. These results ensured them the team gold medal as it’s a calculation made based on the qualification standings.
The only non-Russians on top of the leader board were Romanians Alexandra-Daria Mihaiu and Daniel Tavoc who edged their teammates Darius Augustin Branda and Andreea-Selena Sotanga by just 0.050. Tavoc also placed second individually and with the trio. His efforts, and those of all his teammates, were rewarded with the team silver medal.

* With a second place in the group competition, Hungary overtook Italy for the team bronze medal in the Team desicion:
1. R U S S I A;    2. R O M A N I A;    3. HUNGARY
    ► Detailed Results
.
* ... all Qualification results
> Girls, individual; > Boys, ind.   > Mixed pairs;
> T r i o s;             > G r o u p s; > AE Dance

* GYMmedia will publish a summary at the end of each competition day:
- the editorial office

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