The capital of Bulgaria, Sofia, will be organizing the 30^th European Women’s Artistic Gymnastics Championships from May 12^th to 18^th, 2014.  A total of 288 female gymnasts (juniors and seniors), representing 37 European countries, will compete in these Championships for the medals that are up for grabs.

Via Facebook – Event Page

Some general information about the 2014 European Championships

Schedule (GMT + 2:00)

Monday, 12^th May : Juniors’ official Podium Training (10:00  – 19:30);

Tuesday, 13^th May: Seniors’ official Podium Training (10:00 – 19:30);

Wednesday, 14^th May: Juniors’ Qualifications (with Team Finals):

• 10:00 – 12:00 – Subdivision I (ISR, HUN, SLO, DEN, AZE-BLR, AUT, IRL);
• 12:10 – 14:10 – Subdivision II (GEO-LUX, BUL, NOR, ESP, LTU-CYP, FIN, BEL, SWE-SVK);
• 15:20 – 17:20 – Subdivision III (ISL, POR, LAT-CRO, CZE, TUR, GRE, POL, SUI);
• 17:30 – 19:30 – Subdivision IV (FRA, NED, RUS, GER, ROU, UKR, GBR, ITA).

Thursday, 15^th May: Seniors’ Qualifications:

• 10:00 – 12:00 – Subdivision I (NOR, AZE, FIN, SWE, BUL, CZE, UKR, LAT);
• 12:10-14:10 – Subdivision II (LUX-LTU, DEN, SLO-SRB, CRO, AUT, SUI, GRE, GEO-CYP);
• 15:20 – 17:20 – Subdivision III (IRL, ISL, BLR, POR-TUR, HUN, POL, SVK-POL, NED);
• 17:30 – 19:30 – Subdivision IV (GER, RUS, ROU, BEL, ESP, GBR, FRA, ITA).

Friday, 16^th May: Juniors’ All Around Final (15:00 – 17:00);

Saturday, 17^th May: Seniors’ Team Final (15:00 – 16:40);

Sunday, 18^th May: Event Finals:

• 09:30 – 10:00 – Vault Final (Juniors);
• 10:05 – 10:30 – Uneven Bars Final (Juniors);
• 10:50 – 11:20 – Balance Beam Final (Juniors);
• 11:25 – 11:55 – Floor Final (Juniors);
• 14:00 – 14:30 – Vault Final (Seniors);
• 14:30 – 14:55 – Uneven Bars Final (Seniors);
• 15:20 – 15:50 – Balance Beam Final (Seniors);
• 15:50 – 16:20 – Floor Final (Seniors).

Useful links

• Official Directives – link;
• Drawing of lots – link;
• Nominative entries for each country – link;
• Longines Results Page – link;
• Live scoring by Longines – link.

Ways to Follow/Watch

Television and live web-streaming

In Romania, the public broadcaster, TVR, will carry the Seniors Finals on its second channel, TVR2, and on its high-definition version – TVR HD – live on Saturday (17^th of May) from 15:00 to 16:40 and on Sunday (18^th May) from 14:00 to 16:30.  Down below you can watch their promo, or click here to watch it on Youtube.

The European Union of Gymnastics announced on their Twitter account that the Seniors’ Finals will be live online. Because of that, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) launched an app that will feature live events from the UEG, like the 2014 European Championships. The app, EUROVISION Sports Live, is available on the App Store for iPad, iPhones 4 and 5 and iPod touch, and on the Google Play Store for Android phones and Tablets. More information here.

Online and Social Media

By visiting the official website of the competition (link) or the UEG website (link), fans can easily find everything they are interested into, from start lists to live scores and other news.

Our blog, Fangymnastics, is going to provide live updates from the WAG European Championships on Facebook (link) and Twitter (link). Also, on blog we will be posting reports with results and other news from Sofia. We will be there starting with the final subdivision of the Juniors’ Qualifications, on Wednesday, 14^th May.

Also, our friends from Puzzle Gymnastics will be there: Website|Facebook. If you know any other gymnastics blogs/websites that are covering live the event, please let us know to add them here.

The official hashtag of the event is #EchSofia2014.

More to come…

Mihai