World Championships
Wednesday night in Tianjin was a historical day for Romanian gymnastics. Maria Olaru won the all around title, becoming only the second-ever Romanian gymnast to boast this accomplishment, after Aurelia Dobre. Maria had a nearly flawless performance, without any obvious mistakes, her consistency being the main reason why she won, as she later said at the press conference. Her victory meant she also won the $3000 first-prize. Scoring a 9.625 on vault, 9.587 on bars, 9.737 on beam, and 9.825 on floor, Maria's point total of 38.774 was 7 tenths of a point higher than that of second place finisher, Viktoria Karpenko of the Ukraine. During the four rotations, Maria's teammates kept busy encouraging her from the stands, and keeping track of her scores. "That's it, no one can beat her now. If she gets anything above a 9.6 on vault, she'll be the world champion, " explained the nervous Corina Ungureanu and Andreea Isarescu. They were right about Maria, but unfortunately for them, all their predictions about Simona Amanar's chances of winning a medal, were for naught. After 3 hit sets (9.625 on vault, 9.687 on beam, 9.812 on floor), she needed a decent performance on bars. She ended up falling on a pirouetting skill, taking herself out of contention. We should note that before her routine, Svetlana Khorkina jumped in to help Simona chalk up the bars, when she saw Simona was setting them up all by herself.
A similar gesture belonged to Romanian head coach Octavian Belu, who went up on the podium to spot Germany's Brigitte Schweigert, who competed without a coach, during her bars routine.
Andreea Raducan also had a great meet, finishing 5th with 38.617 points, and getting the highest score awarded during the all around, a 9.837 on floor.
The Romanian team had a very interesting good luck charm, paper icons (as in a representation of a sacred Christian figure), which they wore underneath the right shoulder of their leotards. (This sounds really uncomfortable, but maybe they were very small). The icons were a gift they received at the Monastery of Cozia, the church where they stopped by on their way to the airport. " Us, coaches, had the icons in our right pocket", said Octavian Belu. The head coach of the Romanian team compared Maria Olaru to Aurelia Dobre, saying both gymnasts "are less acrobatic and more fluid (in their movements), just like Svetlana Boginskaya. Right now, Maria will have to work twice as hard, because the judges will expect more from her."
As a reward for Maria Olaru's win in the all-around, the Romanian team went out to dinner, and the coaches bought the gymnasts them ice-cream and cookies -a welcome change from the strict diet they have to follow the rest of the year.
Andreea Isarescu was asked what was her favorite memory from Tianjin, and she said she loved getting up on the podium with her teammates, and the "yummy ice-cream".
This page hosted by 
Get your own Free Home Page