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Finish of a very busy period... I've had 4 competitions in a row, then one weekend free and another competition the next weekend, so I haven't had much time to update this site. It was a very busy time but in one word FANTASTIC! I've had so much fun on all these competitions, even if I wasn't succesfull on some.

Verdi Cup, Verviers

The first weekend of March (Saterday March 4th) my club SV Pax participated in a small competition in Belgium: the Verdi Cup in Verviers. Michelle competed in junior category, Roxanne and I in senior category and Annemieke and Lisette came with us as coach and judge. It had been three years since I had been in Verviers for the last time, and I really liked going again. We had to leave very early in the morning, as it was about three hours driving and the competition started at 10:30. When we arrived in Belgium, there was a huge pack of snow and off course we immediately started a snowfight :). When we entered the hall, the judges meeting started and Michelle, Roxanne, Annemiek and I went outside again to get some fresh air and another snowfight. After coming back the espoirs competition started.

We had no participant in this category, because Patty who was subscribed here was suffering a knee injury. Michelle was the first Dutch gymnast to compete. Besides gymnasts from Holland and Belgium, there were juniors from Ukraine and France. Michelle showed her routines with hoop, clubs and ball and she did a good competition. Unfortunately she had a bit stupid mistake at the beginning of her ball routine, but she ended on a nice 8th place in a field of 13 participants. In senior category, there were only 5 participants, from Belgium, Holland and France. Roxanne did her routines with rope, ball and clubs. Unfortunately she was just 0.20 points short of beating Florence Hanocq from Belgium. I had to start with my ball routine and it went very good, it was almost the maximum I could do at that moment. My ribbon routine was normal, but unfortunately my clubs routine went very bad (I think I dropped my clubs 4 times :s). I ended 2nd, after Donatienne Geron form Belgium. Florine Dally from France got 3rd. In the ranking for clubs, we ended on the 4th place (as we didn't have an espoir).

After the competition we had to drive back to Holland (with a small stop at McDonalds (A)..). It was a very nice day, and I hope we can go back next year.

Photos and results.


Madeira
The next Thursday, I went to Madeira together with the Dutch national group (Maaike, Melanie, Tessa, Eva, Valerya, Kim-Manou and Evelien) coach Karin Hermans and judges Etteke Mojet and Susanne Knip. For me and Maaike it was the 4th time going to Madeira and it is a fantastic tournament :).
We had to be at Schiphol airport very early; 5:15 in the morning (!). After some problems with the clubs of the group that didn't pass the douane control at first, we could fly to Madeira. When we arrived, we turned out to be in yet another hotel as the previous years, but it was again very beautiful.
After dividing the rooms (I was in a room with Melanie, Evelien and Tessa) we had training almost immediately. For me I think it went quite good, I really liked being back in the hall, it has a great athmosphere. When I was doing my rope routine with music, I threw my rope too far in my throw with illusion + roll, but I managed to do a second roll and even catch my rope. It felt great :D.
After the training we had time to get some sun at the swimming pool of the hotel and we even went in the pool although the water was still very cold.

The next day was competition day, but in the morning we had another training. We'd never had this training previous years, for, as it turned out afterwards, it was officially a training just for groups. I was in the second competition group and my first routine was ball. It went quite ok, not as good as in Verviers but without big mistakes, only a little careful. With rope, I made a mistake during the small jumps through the rope, and immediately after that was the most difficult throw in the routine, but that one went good. I almost fell somewehere else in the routine, but Karin hadn't even noticed, so I don't think it was a problem. Over all I was satisfied over the first day. In the evening the group competition with 5 ribbons took place. There were much more groups than previous years, but our group did very good and they ended on the 5th place of nine groups. I really liked the group from Belarus and the group of France also had great compositions and looked very beautiful, although they made very much mistakes in this routine.

The second day I was in the first group, so I didn't go to the training in the morning. My first routine was clubs and I had two drops, one was because of a risk I took but the other one was just stupid. The difficulties and other CAPs went good, so in the end I got my best score for clubs (11.800, 13th place). My second routine was ribbon, which is still the most difficult apparatus for me. The first half of the routine went very good, but then I made a little mistake and from there everything went wrong. After the second day I had been on the 19th place and I was expecting to drop down in the rankings after this, but I ended one place higher; on the 18th place of 29 gymnasts.
The group had to do their routine with 3 hoops and 4 clubs in the evening, with very beautiful new leotards for this routine. I don't remember exactly how they did, because I was filming the routine, but I don't think they made big mistakes cause they ended on the 4th place for hoops and clubs and 4th AA also. A very good result!

The group had qualified for both the finals on Sunday, but after the training in the morning (I trained too, 'illegally' again :p) we first we went to a cable railway that was close to our hotel. Up the mountain there were small souvenir shops and we took pictures wearing funny traditional Madeira hats. When we came back, the group and Karin stayed at the hotel to prepare for their competition, and I went with Etteke and Susanne to watch the individual finals.

The level was very high, much higher than last year. Unfortunately Almudena Cid dropped out of the finals, but there were still Liubou Charkashyna, Marina Shpekht, Yana Seledchk, Katerina Bezverkhaya... It was the first time that I saw Marina Shpekht live and I really like her, she's got a great expression and looks happy all the time, she had a broad smile even when she was concentrating for the second time for her ribbon routine after her music stopped halfway the first time. Liubou Charkashyna is one of my favourite gymnasts, but she didn't have a good day and made a lot of mistakes. Sabrina Pilhatch from Austria (pic) really impressed me with her ball routine, her back flexibility is great, she did some very original catches and she was very clean. The group did again two good routines, though with a bit more mistakes than in AA. They ended 6th with hoop and clubs and 7th with ribbon. Unfortunately their total score of 21.9 was just 1 point short of the limit set by the Dutch Federation for participation in the European Championships (22.9). But surely getting so close is a good sign.

After the competition the banquet was in the hotel with the funny traditional dancers as usual. After the banquet some of the MAG gymnasts asked us to join them to a local bar and we never thought our coach and judges would allow us but they did, on condition that they would join us too. We had a lot of fun and when we came back in the hotel at 4, we still had to pack our bags for the depart the next morning at half past eight...
After some problems the next morning (a lost roomkey, a lost passport and the buss that was supposed to bring us to the airport that didn't show up) we ultimately arrived at the airport in time and at 4 o'clock in the afternoon we were back in Holland.

Photos and results


Coupe d'Opale, Calais
The next Thursday, I went to Calais together with Fleurine, Karin (coach) and Susanne (judge) to participate in the 19th Coupe d'Opale. It was the first time for me to participate in this tournament and I was really looking forward to it. At half past one we left from Karin's place to pick up Fleurine and Susanne in Alphen a/d Rijn (we went to France by car). When we arrived at Fleurine's, it turned out that Susanne got lost on the way so our depart was a little delayed :p.

We arrived in Calais about three hours later. We stayed in a youth hostel that was only 2 minutes walk from the sports hall. Karin and Susanne were taken to a casino in the evening for dinner and drawing of lots also I think, and Fleur and I had dinner at the hotel. It was extremely quiet when we arrived, and everybody was looking at us because we came in chatting and laughing... The next morning we were the first to have training, at 8:15 I think. The training didn't go very well, but the sports hall was great, it looked like it was build especially for rhythmic gymnastics, with pics everywhere and lockers belonging to gymasts as Delphine Ledoux and Julie Gournay in the changing rooms.

After training we went back to the hotel to have breakfast. After that we went to the hall again to watch the training of some other countries. (It was very easy that you could just walk to the hall whenever you wanted).
When we arrived the Bulgarians just started training... Filipa Siderova is soo amazing! It was the first time I saw herlive and she really does incredible things. She works very hard too, I don't think she stood still even for a second during the training.

When Bulgaria finished their training we went back to the hotel so that Fleurine could do her hair and make-up and get some rest before the start of the competition. There were a lot of juniors (23) so they were divided in two groups. Fleurine was in the first group today and she had to do hoop and rope. She did two good routines, in hoop she only didn't have enough time to do her last throw but rope was very good and she even got the 13th best mark on this apparatus.

In the evening the seniors had competition, there were only 11, so it was just one group. I had to do ball and rope. My ball routine wasn't good, I had two drops and a lot of insecurities in diffuculties and CAPs. Rope was better fortunately, I had one mistake but I managed to have some expression and I really had fun on the carpet. The next day we had training in the morning again, a little bit later now so that we could have breakfast first. After the training we watched the Belarussians and Israelians train and we took some pics with Manfred from Germany. Fleurine was in the second group today, so I only watched her first routine with clubs, which was very good and she didn't make mistakes. Unfortunately she told me that in her last routine with ribbon she had a knot. I had to do clubs and ribbon too today, and both were with too much mistakes. Sunday morning we first had training on a side carpet because we weren't in the finals and after the training we watched the finals.

I liked the turkish girl Pinar Akilveren a lot, I'd seen her at No Limits Open tournament a few years ago but she improved a lot and showed beautiful routines. In senior category I loved Silviya Miteva's ball routine, so beautifull... Alexandra Solovieva had an amazing catch in her clubs routine; she throws one club and then catches it with the other one on the floor during a backwards walkover :o. It looks very scary and impressive. After the competition there was a gala of exhibitions. Filipa Siderova came up with her rope, wearing her rope leotard and the first 20 seconds she just did her rope routine so that everyone thought that she was just showing her routine again. But suddenly she did a huge splitleap, throwing her rope very far away and she continued with a freehand dance.. very cool and surprising. Silviya Miteva did the same thing with her ball routine, also very nice but the surprising effect was off course gone.

After the competition the banquet was in the casino, we arrived just on time with all our luggage since we were leaving right after the banquet. It was supposed to start at half past eight, but when we arrived nobody was there yet and I think it only started an hour later. All the gymnasts were sitting on one table, very cosy. Everybody was very hongry, so when they gave us some bread, it was immediately gone and I think the waiters got very tired of bringing more bread and drinks to the gymnasts' table :p.
We left the banquet at about ten o'clock, after we got a very nice towel with the logo of the Coupe d'Opale.

Photos Friday, Saterday, Sunday and results


1st qualification competition, Holland
The next Sunday we had the first qualification competition for the Dutch Nationals (the best ten gymnasts over 2 competitions qualify). It was the first competition with all gymnasts of the country, so we could finally see how we were doing compared with the rest of the country.

In the juniorcategory 2A the gymnasts had to do all five apparatuses. I haven't seen their competition but Michelle, who was actually ill that day, ended on the 5th place. Demi ended 6th and Christel, who had some bad luck in some of her routines ended 7th. Demi even got the 3rd best mark with her ball routine. The first place was for Linda de Geus (SVOD) and silver and bronze went to Fleurine and Sharai (both Badhoeve).
In category 3A Patty was favourite for the first place, although she's still injured on her knees and not training on full power for several weeks now. She did a good competition, except for her last routine with ball, and she managed to win gold with a difference of 2 points with the silver medallist. Vera and Tayla are competing for the first year in category 3 and ended on the 6th and 10th place.

In the seniorcategory Anna Pobokova returned to competition after being injured for almost a year. It was very nice to see that she has come back to the sport. Another gymnast that returned to competition was Ramona Stook, who was the Dutch Champion when I was about 12 years old I think (I'm 19 now). She showed that she didn't forget her skills; she impressed me a lot by doing three rolls under a throw in her rope routine (I don't think anyone else in Holland does that).
Tessa, who was in the Dutch group before and was only training individual again for a few weeks, did a good competition except for a big drop in ball and some mistakes in ribbon. She ended on the 6th place. Roxanne did a very good clubs routine and ended 7th. I made minor mistakes in all my routines, but I didn't have any big mistakes so I was quite satisfied with the competition, especially since I ended on the first place :D. This competition probably was the best of the 4 that I did this month.

Results + detailed results


XXXI Spring Competition, Szczecin

The next weekend I was free, but the following Friday I left together with Lisette and Sharai to Poland for the XXXI Spring Competition. At Schiphol airport (very early again - 05:30!) we saw Danielle and Fleurine who were flying to Romania together with Linda de Geus and Sanne Kouters for the Irina Deleanu Cup. We were flying to Berlin and there the organisation picked us up and drove us to Szczecin together with the Bulgarian delegation. We arrived at the hotel 2.5 hours later and as there were no training posibilities today, we went to a huge shopping center that was not even 2 minutes walking from the hotel. When we walked out of the hotel, we saw Liubou Charkashyna and Mariya Yushkevich standing in the hall, so the level of the tournament was a bit higher then we had expected...

After having lunch together with Lisette, Sharai and I spent some time looking around in the shops and (succesfully!:p) trying not to give in to the countless icecream stands. There also was a cinema and we had fun planning to go see a film called something like 'Nagli Instinct' (probably Polish for Basic Instinct...) We had dinner in the hotel at six and afterwards we went back to the shopping center with Lisette to get some icecream :D.

The next day we first had training in the morning. The hall was nice and the training went quite good. When we were ready, we watched the Russians training. They had amazing control over their body, some of them stood in attitude balance for like a whole minute and then started a slow turn on releve... very impressing. I really liked Natalya Pichushkina, all her body movements are so smooth and beautiful.
At half past 10 we took the buss back to the hotel, and 2 hours later we went back to the hall again were we had lunch and then Sharai allready had to start her warm-up. There were a lot of juniors, and you could tell that many of them were trying to qualify (or allready had) for the Europeans.
The juniors were divided in 2 groups and Sharai was in the second group. She had to start with rope, which she did good and without big mistakes. Her second routine was hoop, which was also good with some minor errors.

My first routine was ribbon and I made a very stupid mistake (just threw my ribbon stick away while I was doing nothing..). I had two more drops but my pirouettes were relatively ok. My second routine was clubs and I did two drops in the end of the routine. Lisette said that the rest of the routine had been quite good, but it felt very small and insecure.
We had dinner in the sports hall and afterwards there were some exhibitions, including one of Svetlana Putintseva.

The next day the competition started earlier, so there was no training. Sharai was in the first group, so she and Lisette allready left at 8 o'clock. I followed one hour later, so that I was there on time for Sharai's comeptition.
Sharai was the last gymnast of the first group today, and she had to start with ribbon. Unfortunately she had one drop and some errors in the difficulties, but the general impression was still good and she got a good mark too (17.142). Her last routine was clubs and it was a good routine again, she even had some music left at the end so there was room for some improvisation movements ;).
I had to start with ball today and it was my best routine this competition. I had a small drop in the beginning and another throw I had to catch with my hands instead of with my feet, but there were no extreme mistakes. Rope was a disaster, I had a drop, a knot in the rope and I ended without apparatus. A At first I misheard the speaker and thought that I'd got 7 points for this routine and I wasn't very surprised. It turned out to be 10 points, luckily, but it was really a terrible routine.

After the competition there was a banquet in the hotel. It was the shortest banquet that I've ever attended. When we arrived (on time!) lots of people were allready eating. After 45 minutes or something the official part started, and every member of the delegations got a towel with the logo of the tournament, just like in Calais =). After that, the banquet was finished and everybody left again. Our flight back was the next morning, so we went to the shopping mall for some time again and afterwards, we had a lot of fun trying to understand the Polish news on television. The buss to the airport was leaving at 4:15 the next morning, so Sharai and I got up at 4:05 and were just in time, even before the Portugese girls who were going together with us. We didn't really get much of the buss trip, cause everybody was sleeping most of the time. At the airport we said goodbye to the Portugese girls and their coach and then we had to wait for an hour before we could check in. Our plane left at 08:45 and at ten o'clock we were back in Holland.

Photos and results

This weekend we had the regional competition for individual gymnasts of A-level and groups of A- and B-level. The competition is for clubs from the western part of Holland (Pax, Badhoeve, Omnia, Keizer Otto and GTVH) and the club OBQ from the northern part came to compete as guest.

In the morning the girls from category 2A had their competition. Usually they do all five apparatuses, but today they didn't show their ball routines. This competition was the first 'real' comp for most of them and there were lots of pretty new leotards. Michelle, Christel and Demi competed for Pax. I only saw their first round, which they all did pretty good besides some small mistakes. Michelle ended on the third place, Christel got 6th and Demi 7th. Sharai Echteld (pic) was the best in this category and won the gold medal. In the afternoon the competition for the categories 3A and 1A started. In 3A there were only five gymnasts, and three of the girls competed for Pax. Patty scored the highest mark of the whole competition of this category with her routine without apparatus, but she couldn't do her other three routines because of a knee injury. Tayla and Vera ended on the 2nd and 3rd place, after Roxanne Stoffer from Badhoeve.

Me and Roxanne competed in 1A. Roxanne did a good competition and ended on the 4th place. For me, I was very happy with my clubs routine and ribbon was okay too (ribbon still is a difficult apparatus for me...). In rope I had some stupid mistakes and with my ball routine I wasn't satisfied at all; I missed a lot of CAPs and also some difficulties, but somehow I ended up with a score of 14.2 (the highest I ever scored was 14.7 - on a competition with only five judges ...).

The last part of the competition was the competition for groups. In the junior category the Pax group did very good (I haven't seen them this good in training actually) and won the gold medal. Pax also competed in 2B (first place) and category 3 (second place). In category 1B, the group of Keizer Otto II did quite a good routine with hoop and clubs (it was just finished a week ago), unfortunately they had some bad luck with ball. Between the competitions, the Dutch National group showed their routines with 5 ribbons and 3 hoops/4 clubs.

Pictures and results

Last Saterday, we had the first competition for C-level gymnasts in our regio. A lot of girls that I train with had competition today, and the best two gymnasts of each category over both competitions (2nd one is in March) will qualify for the Dutch Nationals.

The first category was 3C (girls of 10 and 11 years old) and from our group only Suzanne Vincken was participating in this category. The girls had to do two routines, one without apparatus and one with ribbon.

Suzanne did quite a good ribbon routine and she got the second place on this apparatus. Her routine without apparatus was ok too, only scored a bit low on execution so eventually Suzanne won the bronze medal, although the difference with number two was only 0.025. In category 1C Annelotte Vos and Vera van de Ven participated for Pax and Elleander Paans and Marinka van Koten for Keizer Otto. Annelotte did a very good competition, except for a big knot very early in her ribbon routine. Vera had some bad luck with ball, but made it up with a great rope routine, which earned her a first place on this apparatus. Elleander scored in my opinion too low on ball, for there were only few gymnasts who worked as 'large' as she did. Her other routines were pretty good too. Marinka did three very good routines, even with a painfull injury. Only with rope she made some small mistakes.

In the final results for this competition, Marinka ended on the first place, Annelotte was second, Vera fifth and Elleander seventh. In the break between the competitions and the award ceremony, Annemiek and Marinka and I did an exhibition that we made especially for this competition. It was very funny to do, but since we had only practised it on three trainings, some things went a little wrong (Annemiek and I clashed with our heads against eachother and I fell when Marinka had to lift me up...) Anyway, you can see a vid here. (Thanks to Alannah for the video!) In the afternoon, category 4C and 2C had their competition. We had nobody in category 4, but in 2 we even had five gymnasts: Natasja Winkelman, Laura Eijpe, Ashley Erkamps, Alisha Muller and Rianda Molenaar. They all did quite good competitions, and eventually Ashley ended on the first place, Natasja was third, Laura 10th, and Alisha and Rianda (who did only two routines) 18th and 20th.

After the competition, I did my ribbon routine as an exhibition and I made a terrible lot of mistakes... Only my pirouettes went quite good, but that was because the floor was so slippery and made it very easy to turn.
So now the girls can start training for the next competition, and in March we will know we will compete at nationals.

Photos.

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