European Championships 2004, Kiev

This year Ukraine organised Europeans from June 4th - 6th. For Holland the delegation consisted of Anna Pobokova, myself, my coach Lisette de Meza, judge Elly Bleeker and head of the delegation Dinie Grootten. It was my first European Championships as an individual (hopefully much more to follow :P)and you can read my experiences below.

Tuesday June 1st

Finally we were going to Kiev! Tuesdaymorning at a quarter past nine everybody had to be at Schiphol Airport. As usual we were too early but Dinie Grootten, who had had a flight from Maastricht, already had arrived at half past seven! Anna and her parents got stucked in traffic jam so they arrived a little late but when everybody was there we could start checking in. My parents, sister and brother would go to Kiev for a week to see the city and of course the competition and they were on the same flight.
When we were in the plane, we were told that there was a delay caused by a problem in a system which led to some trunks not being arrived at the plane. After half an hour we could leave and soon we landed in Kiev.
At the airport we first had to pass a controle post and then we could go to get the luggage... we thought! The luggage of Elly, Dinie and me and one trunk of my parents arrived very soon but those of the others (Lisette and Anna) stayed in Holland due to the problem in the system. They had to go to a little office called 'Lost and Found', already behind a large row of people with the same problem. After 90 minutes waiting we finally could go to the hotel. When we passed the last control we saw a boy with a very large poster of the tournament. Immediately a man started filming us :P and our luggage was taken by some boys with t-shirts of the tournament. At first we were afraid that we had to wait for England to go to the hotel (they were far behind us at Lost and Found) but we could leave immediately.
In the hotel the first thing we did was accreditation, we had a picture taken for our pass (most awful picture of me ever, I look like I'm stoned or drunk or something) and we got a little bag and t-shirt with logo of the tournament.

Wednesday June 2nd

On Wednesday and Thursday we had two trainings a day; one in the traininghall and one in competition hall. Today our first training was at 11 o'clock in the traininghall. The hall was great! It had a little warming-up area upstairs and downstairs there was a large high hall with four springfloors. Everywhere there were more than live-sized posters of Bessonova, Godunko and Yerofeeva, beautiful pictures taken by Bernd Thierolf. I wished we had such a hall at home...
We started in the warming-up area for 40 minutes and after that we went downstairs were we had about an hour without music and 20 minutes with music. We decided to train two apparatus today and two tomorrow, in order of the competition. It ment that I did hoop and clubs today and Anna ball and ribbon.
After training we went back to the hotel for lunch. Our key was lost for a while too and at half past three we went to the competition hall eary (you could easily walk between hotel, competition hall and training hall) to watch some other countries. I had already seen the hall on videos of Deriugina Cup, but in real it was even bigger and more beautiful, although there was still plastic everywhere.
After watching training of France and Belarus we had to start warming-up ourselves. At first we went to a small area to warm up and then to a hall with a low ceiling (about as high as our training hall in Holland ;P)and then to the two floors behind the competition floor.
It was a podium training, which ment that all judges were sitting to judge the routines... It made me nervous already but it was less worse than expected.
Back to the hotel we were in the same bus with Anna Bessonova

Thursday June 3rd

Today we had training in the traininghall at a quarter past eight in the morning! I had to do ball and ribbon. The training went very good for both Anna and me.
Already at half past 10 we were back in the hotel but it felt like it was in the afternoon already. At one o'clock we had training in the competition hall again and I felt really nervous but there were almost no judges and my routines went very good. Elly was there and she said that the British judge has said that we both were 100% better than yesterday.
After the training me and Anna stayed in the competition hall for a while to watch the training of Czech Republic, Belarus and France and then we had to go back since at a quarter past five we had to leave again for the opening ceremony.
The ceremony was so cool! At first we had to march on with all gymnasts (well, not all, Kabaeva and Tchachina weren't there) down the hill and while we were standing on the floor some people, including Albina Deriugina, were having a speach.
Then we had to go back and a large gala started with incredible exhibitions.
A lot were from Deriugin's school, but also Belarus, Israel, Greece, Turkey and maybe other countries I forgot did exhibitions. Bessonova, Godunko and Yerofeeva did their Moulin Rouge demo. There was such a cool demo on Pirates of the Caribbean, I think by almost whole Deriugin's school. One of the best for me was the demo called 'We are' by Galina Shyrkina and Irina Kovalchuk, beautiful! In one exhibition, Natalya Godunko performed a throw with hoop with four rolls under it... and she almost catched it! She was like 0.1 second to late...

Friday June 4rd

Today competition! After breakfast we started with doing our hair and make-up and at 12 o'clock Anna had to take the bus to the training hall. I could take a bus later, but I went together with Anna and Lisette. In the training hall group A had training for their competition tomorrow. I was sooo nervous already, but Lisette managed to calm me a bit. At half past 12 Anna's warming up started and after a while I could start too.
Trainingtime was devided per gymnast, and since Anna had her competition prior to mine Lisette would go with her. Dinie would stay with me and after Anna had performed Lisette would rush back to me. We now discovered why many countries had that many coaches with them :)
When her time was up, Anna went down to the other hall and Dinie and I stayed upstairs. I was doing ballet between Maria Ringinen en Dominika Cervenkova!
In the end it got pretty scary, for everybody went down and I was left with only Ukrainians and Russians... Finally we went down too, Lisette and Anna were still there. After a quarter they left to the competition hall and some time later we went to the bus too.
We went to the lower hall upstairs and I felt sick of nerves. After a while Lisette came upstairs, Anna had done her ball routine pretty good, only she had one small drop. We went downstairs were I had ten minutes left. I felt so nervous that I really didn't want to go but Lisette held a complete peptalk ;) But it helped and I felt slightly better after it. One routine in advance you got time to prepare with your coach up the hill and then you walked down with somebody of the organisation.
I just loved going down that hill, it made me smile automatically. I had to do clubs first, and it went good!! I had one little drop but I didn't care and it felt so good. I was really happy with the routine and Lisette also.
After clubs we went upstairs again for hoop. We didn't go back to the training hall, for we would be there for five minutes and then we had to come back again. The time between two rounds past pretty fast and then I had to do my hoop routine already. It was a bit less than clubs, I had to save a few catches but I managed not to drop and the difficulties went okay so I was satisfied with this routine also.
After the second round the 2nd competition of group C started and we went back to the hotel to eat something and rest a bit. It was a really weird feeling to go back to the hall again, it felt like it was a new day or something.
At first to the training hall again, warming up and downstairs. I wasn't nervous at all anymore, just a bit tired. When we were going in the bus to the competition hall, I was thinking to have a little rest of about 2 minutes, but the bus driver broke a record and took only about 30 seconds...
I had to start with ball, but there were two ball routines in a row so I had to wait some time before the floor. Lisette said she got really nervous of it, but the audience was screaming and clapping for me and I really liked it. It was really cool and my ball routine went good also! After the routine we were sitting in Kiss and Cry corner but Lisette had to go back to prepare with Anna and she said "if you don't want to see your mark, just look the other way" and I didn't want to see it but I didn't know were it was published so I saw it anyway. The mark was a bit dissapointing, but I didn't care, since I felt so great after my routine.
Ribbon was the last routine I had to do, the hardest routine for me too. In the beginning I made a very stupid mistake; the end of the ribbon slipped out of my hand during a boomerang throw. During training the part before the throw had gone wrong, so I was focussing on that and when I performed it right, I think I lost concentration for a moment...
Luckily I could do the rest of my routine without big mistakes.
And then the European Championships for us was finished...

Saterday June 5th

Today the competition of group A started at 2 o'clock so before we had time to see something of Kiev. We went to Lavra, a monastry which was a little city on itself. There were beautiful buildings, but it was a pity that we only stayed very short. We met a Russian delegation, braught to Kiev by Viner to cheer for the Russian gymnast. It was really funny to recognize some of the younger ones from previous tournaments we've been.
After we left Lavra the bus took us on a tour via all important places in Kiev. We passed a lot of weddings, so they told us we could make wishes. And believe it or not; the wishes I made there have now come true!
In the afternoon we watched the competition of group A. It was really cool to see, although all the topgymnasts made mistakes (except Godunko, who was really cool and about flawless).
Bessonova had drops in all her routines, even in her last routine with hoop. In ribbon, Kabaeva and Bessonova both had the same mistake: the end of the ribbon slipped out of their hands during a boomerang throw. Good to know that even such good gymnasts make mistakes like this ;).
This was team competition and Russia easily won before Ukraine and Belarus. Individual Kabaeva was first, Bessonova 2nd and Tchachina 3rd. Godunko ended 4th. Strange to see that Russia had brought 5 (!) gymnasts (Kabaeva, Tchachina, Outiacheva, Kapranova and Sesina) and let only 2 perform.
For Ukraine Yerofeeva performed only one routine; clubs, but it was a beautiful routine.

Sunday June 6th

Today the final took place for the best 26 gymnasts of the individual ranking yesterday. I was really glad to see Dominika Cervenkova qualified, since she's one of my favourite gymnasts and I didn't get to see her Friday for she was in group B also. Unfortunately she messed up her clubs routine, but I love her ball!
In the audience there was a Ukrainian part and a Russian part; really cool to see how they were trying to scream the hardest. Only when Ukrainians were scanding 'Anya, Anya' while Tchachina was performing, I thought it was getting rude.
Kabaeva managed to become European Champion for the fifth time in row, Bessonova got silver and Tchachina bronze.
In the team competition, Holland ended 22nd. I'm not sure if this means that we will go to group C next year... Individual Anna ended 36th and I ended 43rd.
After the competition there was a banquet and after that we had to pack our luggage so it got pretty late. The next afternoon we had our plane back to Holland.

I don't think I will put my photos online, I've taken a lot as usual but the quality is really bad.

Results of the European Championships