On Sunday November 9th, a special competition was held in Haarlem (Holland). Gymnasts of A-
B- and C-level of all clubs of the region North-Holland were linked together in groups of five
gymnasts. Every gymnast did two routines. The higher the rank the individual gymnasts got in her
category, the more points the team obtained. Every team got the name of a color and with the opening
and closing ceremony everbody had to come dressed in the color of the team.
There were prizes for the best teams, for the gymnast with the most expression and with the most
bad luck, for the most talented gymnast and
for the best gymnast, and also for the team that was most originally dressed.
It was a very long day. We had to be in the sports hall by half past nine, and for example my competition started only at 2 o'clock. But it was really nice to see gymnasts of all different ages and levels competing.
The best team was silver, gold was second and my team light-blue was third. The prize for the most talented gymnast went to Vera Meulblok of SV Pax. The gymnast with the most expression was Patty Lubeck of de Badhoeve and the gymnasts with the most bad luck was Eva Herngreen, also from Badhoeve. She had to do her ball routine again because there was something wrong with the forms, and the second time was not as good as the first. I became the gymnasts with the highest score of the day. The most originally dressed team was team orange. I also liked team white, especially Kim-Manou Brockhoff who was dressed like a mummy.
Following article was in the Dutch newspaper Haarlems Dagblad on 10-11-03:
Couple competition Rhythmic Gymnastics great succes
Ideal oppertunity to test in Haarlem
This Sunday the first Couple competition Rhythmic Gymnastics was organised in the Kennemer
Sport Center in Haarlem. Not less then 100 gymnasts from the region competed in teams with
the apparatuses rope, hoop, ball, clubs and ribbon.
The event was organised for the first time by the productgroup RG region North-Holland. President of the productgroup Leo Hoogstede: "We had this
idea of organising such a competition for a long time. It's a ideal way to couple all gymnasts
who compete and make them fight for a medal together. Five gymnasts per team, that competes under the name
of a color. From beginning gymnasts to topgymnasts. The pupils can see were they have to work for and the coaches
have a good test. But without help of the KSC we couldn't have realized this competition. Especially Kitty van Gilst
(manager KSC) has worked very hard to make this happen.
The most participants came from Pax from Hoofddorp and from De Badhoeve from Badhoevedorp. Especially Pax is still
one of the best clubs in Holland. Headcoach Lisette de Meza works together with Natalya Boeravkina from Oezbekistan.
De Meza: "I'm really happy with this. Natalya has a lot of experience. She has trained with topcoach Irina Viner so she
has a lot knowledge. We profit enormous of her experience.
At nine o'clock in the morning the first gymnasts were present on the floor of the KSC. And from that moment the ropes, hoops,
balls, clubs and ribbons are flying through the air. There were mistakes, but the coaches had a great change to test the routines.
Number two of the Dutch top, Lisa Vos (Pax) won easily gold in the individual ranking. With a score of 42.650 she ended more then 4
points above Evelien van Rheenen of De Badhoeve (38.400). Third was Maaike Hoogstede from Pax (37.550). But none of these topgymnasts
were in the team that got the first place. That honour went to team Silver, constisting of Kim Carter and Melissa Hendriks (De Badhoeve),
Kimberly Borchers, Joanne van Drie and Christine Hekstra (Pax) and Karin van Wijk (Keizer Otto).