On May 21st and 22nd, the 4th edition of the No Limits Open was held in Antwerp (Belgium).
The Dutch delegation consisted of Anna Pobokova, Sanne Kouters and myself, our coach was Zoya Kolesnik
and Jolanda Sap was especially invited as judge by the organisation.
The plan was to be at Motel Dennenhof at one o'clock but there was a lot of traffic jam so we arrived
at half past one. There we met Zoya and Sanne and her parents. After we filled in a list with questions, our
hostfamily arrived with Anna, who allready was there since eleven o'clock. The three of us were in the same hostfamily.
When we arrived there, we only unpacked a little of our bags, since we had to be in the competition hall to train at three again.
In the competition hall I met a lot of people I knew from last year and the No Limits Sports Camps and it was really nice to see them
again.
The competition hall was different from last year, but it was just as beautiful and perfect for competition. It had a window in the ceiling
above the competition floor, what was really good for taking pictures, and two training carpets. Only there were two rafters in the ceiling that
were pretty low, but for me this wasn't a problem since our training hall at home is even lower.
The training went pretty good. We had just enough time to do all 12 routines so it ment that you did all 4 routines with only three minutes between.
It got pretty heavy in the end but the routines went o.k. except for my first one, hoop.
After the music we had about one hour left for training without music and everything was really easy for me (except that it was really hot in the hall!)and I really enjoyed it.
After the training we handed in our music and we went to Barny's photo stand to look at some photos. Then our host family came to pick us up and we went home.
In the evening we watched the movie Save the last dance and then went to bed.
We had to get up only at ten o'clock and we were going to the competition hall at 12. At first we had lunch and Zoya told us the working order. She told me
that I had the best draw and it was quite funny since I remember here saying almost exactly the same words last year... Anna was number 3 to start, Sanne 8th and I was 20th.
Halfway the competition they kind of mixed the order, so I finished my competition earlier then Anna and Sanne.
At first there was time to watch some of the competition of the hopes. Maaike, Valerya and Tessa and the mothers of Maaike and Tessa had come to watch and also Danielle and Marisha Bubberman
and Maike de Groot from the club Omnia. They had big orange Holland-flags and stuff and it was really funny.
The hopes were really good, especially the Roumenian and Turkish girls. My favourite was Nevin Sevinç Deveci from Turkey.
I had to start with ball, and I was not really happy with it, I made some mistakes and I didn't stood as strong as yesterday. My ball music is from a Russian cd and after my routine the
speaker said that the music was beautiful :D. Hoop was my second routine, and it was a disaster. It allready started with small mistakes and the further the routine came, the bigger the mistakes.
After the 2nd round there was a pauze and Maaike, Valerya and Tessa came down to encourage me for the next routines. I was really happy with them being there!.
Ribbon was my next routine and it was not as bad as hoop, in fact it started not even that bad with just some minor mistake but in the end it got all messed up. After my clubs routine I had the idea
that I had at least that routine done okey, but I was wrong since I got only 15.6 for it...
After the competition there was a victory ceremony where everybody got a lot of presents (as the No Limits organisation is used to do).
My favourite gymnast Dominika Cervenkova had one the competition, like she did last year. Anna ended 2nd which was a very good result since she beated Katerina Kopacova from Czech Republik. Sanne got 11th
and I was 14th.
Today were apparatus finals. Sanne and I didn't qualify (although I realised afterwards that I was 2nd reserve with ball)
but Anna qualified for all 4. The first two routines of the seniors were mixed with the finals of the benjamins and the second two with the
finals of the hopes --> that ment get up early, since Anna had to be in the sports hall at half past eight.
The finals were really high level and worth looking! Dominika Cervenkova had the same hoop as last year with some small changes and got first in this final.
Anna got the silver medal and Tjasa Seme from Slovenia got 2nd. Dominika has such a beautiful new ball leo and the routine is beautiful too! She got gold also in
this final, Kopacova got 2nd and Anna 3rd. Cervenkova had a really big mistake in clubs, one club just flies out of her hand and she had to run out of the carpet to get it again.
She was only fourth with clubs. Anna did a good clubs routine and got first! I really loved the clubs routine of Katerina Kopacova; she had simply not the smallest mistake and her expression
was great. She got 3rd and the silver medal went to Tjasa Seme. In the ribbon final Kopacova won gold. Cervenkova got her ribbon stuck in one of the rafters but she could get a reserve apparatus
and still managed to get 2nd. Anna got 3rd, which made her the gymnast with the most medals of the whole competition! In fact she came home with 5!
The banquet was nice, and at half past eleven we went home again and I had to start thinking how to tell my coach about my routines...;P