Do you remember the little triplets who train in Focsani (the town of our great champion Gina Gogean) and who we all hope to see together on a podium sometime in the future? Well, here they are, almost 10 years old, still training and with an impressive story, told recently to Prosport. Here it is the English translation of the article appeared on February 23^rd.

Malina, Irina and Ana Postolache train in Focsani. They still represent a record for Romanian gymnastics.

“The Posto sisters”, as they are spoiled, are an interesting presence, that the gym CSS Focsani is very proud about.

In the nice gym, Ana, only 2 seconds younger than her sisters, is listening very attentively to the coach’s indications. “You need to extend your toes and control your position”, says the coach, Carmen Smeu. The little girl nods, docile; she focuses and gets on the chest. She goes on the high bar, rotates, she goes on a handstand and then lands.

Afterwards, Irina does the same thing, a bit more precisely and with more courage. “Take care while landing, come off more to the center”, Ana whispers to her. The coach smiles and supports Malina: “Come on, you are the oldest, you should show them how to do this perfectly!” Although she has an injury at one of the legs, Malina goes decisively on handstand. It comes out better than before and she smiles, reserved, for about a second. That’s the reward she offers herself after an almost one hour work.

Doing gymnastics since they were 5

Malina, Irina and Ana were born on June 6th, 1999, in a village 40 km away from Focsani, named Straoane. “The family tried for 10 years to have children. Initially they knew they would have twins and it was a surprise to find out that they are going to have triplets. Not having possibilities to raise so many children, the parents went to the Town hall and asked for help. That is how I found out about them”, the lady principal of the CSS Focsani, Adriana Lescovar, explains.

Her husband wanted to help the parents and he advised them that, if the girls are healthy, they should bring them to the gym. When they were 5 they participated to the selection and after 6 months they remained at the gym in Focsani. “In the beginning they were coming every day from home, traveling up and down, but then they moved here. We have the hostel and the gym very close to each other and that helped them to adapt faster.” explains Lescovar, who also trained Gina Gogean for a while.

They help each other all the time

There are almost 5 years since they first entered the gym. Now they are scholars in the third grade of the primary school, and their life is divided up in the 4 hours of daily training, lessons, rest, and visiting their families two times per month. They stay in the same room and always help each other. “We are like one, because together we are stronger. We like what we do, because for us gymnastics is not just playing, although it was difficult in the beginning. I don’t know if I could do anything else except gymnastics. I like a lot to work at the uneven bars, when I’m in the air I feel like flying”, explains Ana, the most talkative of the sisters.

Sitting beside her sister, Irina continues immediately: “I would like to become a doctor, to help people not to be sick anymore. But this only after I am done with gymnastics, after I become the best on floor”. More introvert, Malina doesn’t participate in the discussion. She answers whispering that she likes gymnastics and that she doesn’t find it too difficult. “I would like to become a gymnastics coach, to teach the children, to come all the time to the gym”, says she.

They make progress one by one

Together all the time, the Postolache sisters always wait for each other, even when learning new elements. “They are making progress one by one. The one who learned the fastest waits for her sisters, then she stays, another one starts and so on”, their coach explains. “All three have talent for gymnastics. Malina is more advanced, but not because she is the first born, but because she is the most serious of the three”, completes the lady principal, Adriana Lescovar. This year, the triplets are going to “fight” with other 7 colleagues for one of the 6 places in the club team.

They have personalized routines

Although at their category the elements that they should present during competitions are set by the Federation, each of the little girls has her own exercise. “At floor the music is different, taking into account each one’s temperament; the order of the compulsory elements and the links are thought differently. It is like you’d see the same person competing three times, each time differently”, their coach explains. More than that, they are also starting to show their different personalities. “If in the beginning they couldn’t stand the idea of being dressed differently, now they’ve become more coquettish, each one wants to be different and starts to distinguish herself as individuality”, says the teacher Lescovar.

“At the beginning it was difficult, I was calling them “Posto” and they were all answering. Now I can distinguish them perfectly, Irina is slower in moving, Malina has a more defiant look and Ana has sharper features” – Carmen Smeu, the girls’ coach.

3 is the place obtained by Malina at the beam during the first Nationals she participated at.

 Ioanavol