The Medal Factory – (c) DigiSport Tv
TRANSLATION

Catalina Ponor: “I’m not thinking about the 4 year gap in training, what I need to do is to be consistent and work even harder”

Adrian Stoica: I can´t say we´ve very happy. We´ll have to do an analysis to see where we are and what we can do till the Olympics. I think everyone could see we are facing titans in competition, a couple of exceptional athletes…

Despite the fact that at this year´s Worlds Romania did not make the podium, this cannot be considered a drama. The change in generations and the kids and their parents´ way of thinking have changed compared to the times when having results was something mandatory or necessary. Romanian gymnastics´performance has not been overshadowed just by one World Championship, where the girls could not pull themselves together in time.

Adrian Stoica: We´ll have to do an analysis, we´ll have everything we need to look into what happened at our disposal. I don´t want to say this will be an impossible mission, although it sometimes looks like it….

Nadia: We could have fought for third, but the Chinese are 3-4 points ahead of us on bars, they clearly taught us a lesson there. In the gymnastics world, everyone knows this is our weak event despite of the fact that we have a couple of girls who perform pretty well. I think for now we will be fighting the Chinese for bronze.

Catalina Ponor: I was not nervous, I was actually very calm and tried to follow Mr Bellu and Mrs. Mariana´s advice. I did not focus enough and there´s nothing else I can say…..

Reporter: Did you miss competitions like this?

Catalina Ponor: I definitely missed it, I really wanted to be here and I worked hard for it.

After the beam final, you could see disappointment in Catalina´s eyes. Despite being one of the favorites, she missed the podium on her favorite apparatus.

Catalina: I did not get all the connections, I did not do the job well and this is the result….

Reporter: You did not do your job now, but I´m sure you worked hard for it.

Catalina: Yes, I worked for it and I worked really hard….A competition is a competition, what happened to Komova happened to me as well. I need to work even harder and catch up.

Adrian Stoica: She did not do the job well, she needs to look into it with her coaches. There was a difference in the difficulty score between the let´s call it “superior” judging panel and the competition judges. The superior panel gave her almost 0.4 more in difficulty but in the competition there was this new rule which did not allow us to do anything when there were differences. In the end, we were part of the public as well….

The Athens Olympic champion knows the Romanian team has everything it takes to do well in London. Even if the Romanian anthem was not heard at Worlds, Catalina Ponor is not giving up and wants to go back to the gym and correct the mistakes which made her so unhappy.

Catalina: Overall, we could have done better. I´m not thinking about the 4 year gap in training, what I need to do now is to be consistent and work even harder.

Reporter: Are you happy with the 5^th place in the final?

Amelia Racea: No, I´m not. I could have done better.

Reporter: How did you see this championship overall?

Amelia Racea: We have a lot of work to do.

Diana Chelaru was already in the bus when she found out she was about to compete in the floor final.

Diana: We were on the bus, ready to go when someone came in asking for me. Just a couple of minutes before this, Mr. Lucian had been joking about me being in the final if something else happened…I was lucky Ms. Raluca had an extra leo, the number and everything…

Reporter: Did this ever happen to you?

Diana: No, never. I was happy I could compete, but I´m sorry I could not take advantage of this.

Reporter: You were the third alternate. Did you have time to warm up?

Diana: I could only run around a couple of times and I had to go in.

Reporter: You came in right in the middle of Beth Tweddle´s floor, you were next…

Diana: Yes, Ferrari got injured, I don´t know exactly what happened. I only know Komova did not compete….

Reporter: You were not nervous though, if you had landed right on the last tumble…

Diana: I did the first two pretty well and I did a small jump on the third so I said to myself I had to land the last one perfectly. I did not push harder as I knew the podium was bouncier than the one in training. This damaged my performance in the end…

Reporter: Last year you were a silver medalist, now…

Diana: This is it, it happens…

Reporter: What have you learned from this?

Diana: Everything counts, every step, every 10^th, everything….

Reporter: Is there a lot to catch up on before London?

Diana: I don´t make the program, the coaches do…

Ana´s elegance and talent were not overwritten in Tokyo. She did not get the medal she had dreamed about, but she received a special award.

Reporter: Ana, in the end you did get an award in Tokyo…

Ana: Yes, it wasn´t the one I wanted, but it´s nice anyway.

Reporter: How does it feel being the most elegant gymnast in the world?

Ana: It feel good, of course, I´m really happy I won this award. As far as I know I should have won it last year, but…

Reporter: What do you do to be elegant?

Ana: I don´t do much for that, it´s something I was born with and I only try to improve it in training.

Ana Porgras: Because this is not a medal, it does not take away the bad feeling I had after competition, but I´m really happy I won this award.

Adrian Stoica: We were a school of gymnastics once, now we only have a class of gymnasts and it feels like we are working in a lab. This is the current situation of Romanian gymnastics, as is probably the case with all sports in Romania.

Ana Porgras: It was difficult for me to get myself together.

Diana Chelaru: I can´t say I´m happy with myself, I could have done better.

Lucian Sandu: We still have problems.

Adrian Stoica: Romania is not a bars specialist, neither in the women nor in the men´s competition.

Nadia: The girls did well, I can´t say they didn´t do a good job. But we need higher vaults…

Catalina Ponor: I did not do my job well.

Adrian Stoica: I don´t want to say this will be an impossible mission, although it sometimes looks like it….

RGF