Let’s go!
As discussed yesterday, Italy is in for Belgium in the team final.
Unfortunately, they’ve placed Italy into Belgium’s slot rather than reseeding, which means we still have major medal contenders in three rotation groups instead of two, which in turn means we’re going to miss more vital routines. It happened more than 24 hours before the final. There was time to reseed. Continue reading European Championships Team Final – Live Blog
A. European Championships – Belgium Drama
Following yesterday‘s intense (and apparently secret…) team qualification day, the big news has become Belgium.
Belgium performed splendidly on Thursday, securing qualification in third place ahead of Great Britain and the Netherlands (as well as the favored-but-suddenly-disastrous Germans in 10th). But today, Belgium announced that it is pulling out of the team final in order to focus on event finals and remaining healthy for worlds.
The wha…?
This turn of events is a useful reminder that Belgium is still a tiny gymnastics nation, one that has been punching above its level recently because of a small, extremely talented generation but is not as established as any of the other countries its competing against. Belgium is in Glasgow with only four gymnasts, not as some sort of cool political statement, but because there aren’t really any other available options.
On this team of four, Senna Deriks is currently not able to compete floor and Nina Derwael’s ankles are hurting, and…well…the ability to comfortably put up three athletes on each event in a team final dissipates pretty quickly. Belgium is clearly already worried about getting more injured and not having enough people to go to worlds in a few months.
The other factor here is less tangible. Because of not having a huge pool to choose from historically, Belgium hasn’t secured a ton of team accomplishments over the years and has therefore not developed that rabid THE TEAM IS ALL culture that’s so strong around gymnastics programs like the US. (For reference if you’re not an insane American: At the 2008 Olympics, US gymnasts won AA and BB gold, and those Olympics were viewed as “just OK” because of the team silver.) Continue reading Things Are Happening – August 3, 2018
| VAULT | BARS | BEAM | FLOOR | |
| Group 1 | DENMARK | SWEDEN LUXEMBOURG CYPRUS CROATIA |
BULGARIA IRELAND GEORGIA LITHUANIA |
SLOVENIA |
| Group 2 | CZECH REPUBLIC |
— |
We’re sans broadcast thus far because the French LIED TO US and Flo LIED TO US. Anyway, here’s what has been happening…
The first subdivision started off slowly with none of the major teams yet competing, though it did nearly bring our first surprise of the competition. After three events, Slovenia was leading the favored Czech Republic by more than a point on the strength of the expected high vault scores and a surprisingly proficient bars rotation that successfully carried out a strategy of low difficulty but not-terrible execution. THE CONCEPT.
Things fell apart for Slovenia on beam, having to count an 8.900 from Hribar, which opened the door for the Czech Republic to pass with a hit floor, which it got, led by a 12.833 from Holasova. The Czech Republic had to count a 10 on both bars and beam and suddenly found itself without expected AAer Lucie Jirikova (who was able to compete only bars), but while it was far from an ideal performance or situation, the Czech Republic still did enough to take a temporary lead. Continue reading European Championships Qualification – What You’re Missing
How It Works
Taking into account all scores recorded at competitions in the last six months, each nation is given a team total based on how its best-scoring group of five senior gymnasts would do in a hypothetical 3-up, 3-count team final.
Each individual’s best scores may come from any official competition (they need not all be from the same meet), and whichever group of five gymnasts would produce the highest score is the one selected.
Countries that have not shown enough senior routines in the last six months to fill a 3-up, 3-count team on each event are not included.
Rankings will be updated on the first of each month, and scores will expire after six months in order to provide the most up-to-date snapshot of where nations are at the current moment. The current rankings include only scores from February 2018–July 2018.
Rejoining the rankings this month were Ukraine, Cuba, Kazakhstan, Costa Rica, and Dominican Republic. No nations dropped off.
Last month’s ranking is in parentheses. Continue reading National Team Rankings – August 2018
