About one week to go till the Romanian Nationals in Buzau… Initially planned for September 11th-13th, the competition has been postponed because of a game that the local handball team needed to play in the same arena. The Romanian Gymnastics Federation has made no public announcement regarding the date when the competition would take place, but it was kind enough to confirm this date to us, via email, through the amability of Mrs. Anca Grigoras.

Unfortunately there has been no official schedule yet, so that we have no information on the finals which will take place and, moreover, on the age categories of the participants. Traditionally, these Nationals are dedicated to the seniors coming from the national team or from different gymnastics club teams in the country. However, the number of the senior gymnasts in the last years has been extremely low (especially in the case of women artistic gymnastics), this also being the reason for the participation of the junior gymnasts in the same competition with the seniors. The situation at the moment is quite worrying indeed: there are very few senior gymnasts in Romania (Sandra Izbasa, Anamaria Tamirjan, Gabriela Dragoi, Diana Chelaru, Ana Porgras, Loredana Sabau, Andreea Span, Cerasela Patrascu, the last three not in shape at the moment); therefore, a competition with these gymnasts only cannot be organized; as a result, we think there is a high probability that the last year juniors, who are already training in Deva, will also join them next weekend in Buzau: Amelia Racea, Claudia Voicu, Raluca Haidu, Diana Trenca, and Daniela Andrei.

However, the competition will be very interesting to follow, taking into account that the Worlds in London are less than a month away. Everybody is anxious to see the reigning Olympic floor champion Sandra Izbasa compete, especially after the Europeans this year, where she competed on beam and floor and ended up on the 7th place in the floor finals. The World title is the only one she misses, her motivation being extremely high: she needs to prove herself that she can surpass the disappointment given by the results at the Europeans and that she’s on the right track to the gold at the Worlds, where she will have to beat a competing-at-home Beth Tweedle, the European floor and uneven bar champion from Milan.

A pleasant surprise was to see Anamaria Tamirjan on the roaster for the Worlds. Anamaria, one of the main contributants in the team’s bronze in Beijing, comes after a period of doubts, oscillating between retiring and continuing. This was also determined by the „mysterious” pain in her leg which she had felt since before the Olympics. We are convinced that her comeback represents a big joy for the Romanian gymnastics fans, due to her elegant style and to her big ambition of succeeding, despite the injuries which kept her quite a long time away from making progress. The Nationals will represent the first opportunity after the Europeans of watching Anamaria competing and observing how she stands from the difficulty and execution points of view.

We are also anxious to see Gabriela Dragoi compete, especially that this year, our only Olympic beam finalist from Beijing and the bronze European beam medallist from Milan will only go to London as an alternate. Also suffering from injuries after the Europeans, Gabi should have been reached the top form by now, so her naming as alternate for the Worlds team raised our curiosity.

On the other hand, the new generation of gymnasts comes at these Nationals with a great surprise: Ana Porgras. Beam gold medallist at the Junior Europeans last year in Clermont-Ferrand, the second Ana from our team should have been the greatest ace up Romania’s sleeve this year. Unfortunately, an injury on her knee, followed by surgery and a recovery period of a couple of months stopped her ascension. Despite this, Ana was amazing on beam at the Romanian Internationals in June, winning the gold in the event finals, together with her more experienced colleague, Gabriela Dragoi.

Diana Chelaru, the second new senior in the team, needs more and more competition experience. Under these circumstances, the Nationals will be another confidence test for her, especially given her progress from last year.

The juniors, Raluca Haidu, Claudia Voicu, Diana Trenca and Amelia Racea (AA vice-champion at the European Youth Olympic Festival, where she also won another 6 medals, out of which two gold) will probably be the best candidates for the team of 2012 Olympic Games in London, together with Diana and Ana. Just as the coaches had accustomed us lately, the little juniors Diana Bulimar, Larisa Iordache and Madalina Neagu have also a little chance to compete at these Nationals in the “Hopes” competition (nothing official yet).. The three little girls are always a pleasure to watch.

The Men competition will also be very interesting, especially with the return of Marian Dragulescu, who made a comeback after some health and personal issues. Marian will also be present at the Worlds, according to the nomination announced by the Federation. This time, we hope the bad luck he had at the Athens and Beijing Olympics will be forgotten and that he can follow his dream of winning the Worlds gold on vault, his favourite event.

His younger colleague, Flavius Koczi, will definitely maintain our interest during the Nationals, especially because we don’t know yet if he is going to compete in the AA or only in the event finals at the Worlds. Daniel Popescu, silver medallist at the Worlds in 2007 and bronze medallist at the Europeans in 2008 is a very serious candidate on vault at the world level. This is also the reason why the „training with public” in Buzau will be a very important step for him in his way to the Worlds.

Cosmin Popescu, Marius Berbecar and Robert Stanescu will have the chance to prove to the head-coach Nicusor Pascu that they deserved being nominated in the team for the World Championships.

To conclude with, the competition will be extremely interesting and the gymnasts need more and more audience support especially  because, at least for the girls, this is the last competition-test before the Worlds in London. Let’s go and encourage them on September 18th-20th in the Sports Arena in Buzau!!!! Fangymnastics team will also be there and we will try to come with fresh info every day.

Ioanavol and Crisloregym