During the last two days the EC2009 qualification rounds took place for both WAG and MAG in the Mediolanum Forum in Milan, Italy.  Today we can say that the evolutions of the Romanian gymnasts were satisfactory, with qualifications in 3 finals (WAG) and, respectively, 4 finals (MAG). 

In the WAG competition Anamaria Tamirjan was without doubt our star, qualifying 2^nd on the AA and beam and 5^th on floor.  Diana Chelaru qualified 15^th on the AA, but she didn’t managed to qualify in the vault final (she is first alternate). The best achievement of Diana yesterday was that she finished all routines without falls (this being her first big competition) and, of course, the qualification in the AA, which gives her the chance to perform again tomorrow, in a European final! Gabriela Dragoi, our beam finalist from Beijing, qualified in the beam final (6^th) and had a nice uneven bar routine, finishing 9^th and being an alternate for the final on Sunday. Sandra Izbasa qualified 2^nd in the floor final, while she missed the beam final because of a fall (her first fall on the beam in a big competition in the last 4 years…). 

The complete results from the WAG qualifications can be found here.
Here are some videos from the qualification round:
– Diana Chelaru (UB, BB, FX)
– Gabriela Dragoi (BB)

In the MAG competition Flavius Koczi, our big hope for the AA, vault, pommel horse and floor finals had a couple of falls and only managed to qualify in the first two, but on quite good positions, with real chances for medaling (5^th AA and 3^rd on vault). Daniel Popescu, our world vice-champion on vault from 2007, but injured most of 2008, is making his coming back and showing what has been working for in the last months. He qualified 1^st (!) in the pommel horse final and 6^th in the vault final, with the same score as his colleague, Alin Jivan. Unfortunately a choice will need to be made between the two, in order to follow the two-per-country rule (EDIT: The choice has been made: Dani is going to the final, due to his higher A scores). Marius Berbecar will be our second representative in the AA final from tomorrow (he qualified the 22^nd). Robert Stanescu, our ring finalist from Beijing, did not succeed in qualifying in the ring final, where he is going to be the first alternate. Cosmin Popescu, the last-minute replacement for Razvan Selariu, had good evolutions on parallel bars (qualified 5^th in the final) and on the pommel horse (9^th – first alternate). 

The complete results from the MAG qualifications can be found here. 

This weekend the finals will take place, according to the following schedule:

Saturday, April 4

• 13:00 – 15:00 AA final WAG

qualified: Anamaria Tamirjan (2^nd – 57.275); Diana Chelaru (15^th – 54.750)

• 15:30 – 18:00 AA final MAG

qualified: Flavius Koczi (5^th – 86.950) and Marius Berbecar (22^nd – 83.225) 

Sunday, April 5

• 10:30 – 13:30 Event finals 1

MAG: floor, pommel horse and rings

qualified: Daniel Popescu PH (1^st – 15.500)

WAG: vault and uneven bars

• 15:00 – 17:30 Event finals 2

MAG: vault, parallel bars and high bar

qualified: Flavius Koczi VT (3^rd – 16.125); Daniel Popescu VT (6^th – 15.950); Cosmin Popescu PB (5^th – 15.150)

WAG: beam and floor

qualified: Anamaria Tamirjan BB (2^nd – 14.525); Gabriela Dragoi (6^th – 14.350); Anamaria Tamirjan FX (5^th – 14.200); Sandra Izbasa FX (2^nd – 14.475).

Unfortunately the qualifications weren’t broadcasted by any TV channel, but we were lucky enough to have the quick hits from The-All-Around site/forum. We would like to thank them for their effort, as we know it’s not at all an easy job to report on sometimes even 6 gymnasts working at the same time.

Ioanavol