Friday, preliminaries day ...
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Kanaeva leading in all positions! |
23 Junior groups started at the morning and showed their exercises with five ropes and in the afternoon 27 teams from all over Europe competed at the Team competition.
<< Evgenia Kanaeva was on the top of qualifying with hoop and ball and of course also Russia is in the leading position of the team event
But the day started directly with a surprise in the junior's category ..
Opening Ceremony of the 2011 European Championships in Rhythmic Gymnastics in Minsk
(c) Photos: Dirk ZIMMERMANN
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Israel on second position after the first routine |
27th ECh RHYTHMIC GYMNASTICS 2011
- Minsk Arena, Day1 - May 27-
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* Junior Groups
... Russia's juniors that beforehand seemed to have definately the best routine, winning all other junior groups competitions before these European championships, made a big mistake that costed them 0.40 points deduction from the final score and left them on the third place before tomorrow's second passage, behind Belarus and Israel.
On fourth place came Azerbaidjan, fifth placed Bulgaria and sixth Switzerland, the new uprising rhythmic gymnastics nation according to the results of their groups over the last months. Germany placed fourteenth that makes nearly impossible achieving a rank between the best eight groups classified for the finals.
Results Junior Groups after Rotation I:
1- Belarus 26.100
2- Israel 25.550
3- Russia 25.300
> Results Junior Groups after Rotation 1
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Jana Berezko-Marggrander helped Germany to a provisional 7th place |
* ELITE: Senior Team Competition Day 1
In the afternoon started the Team competition, where a maximum of three individual gymnasts and eight exercises per nation are allowed.
In groups B and C competed those countries that placed from rank 11 in the 2009 European Championships in Baku. The ones placed from rank 11 to 22 in group B and all others, plus those countries that didn't start with a team in 2009, like Germany, or only have one individual gymnast this year, like France, Serbia and Croatia, have been drawn into group C.
In group A start the best 10 teams from the last Europeans and the big favourites for the European title are again the Russian gymnasts, Evgenia Kanaeva, Daria Kondakova and Daria Dmitrieva will be quite unbeatable, this is quite sure already at this time of the event, because of their difficult compositions and the body elements that nearly no others are able to perform.
Even if the girls from Belarus surely still hope for the gold medal and won't give up to fight for it, it will be nearly impossible for them to hear their national anthem on Saturday evening with the standing on the first place on the podium. The gap between them and Russia is already too big. Interesting will be the fight for bronze between the Ukraine and Azerbaidjan.
Results after 4 out of 8 routines:
1- Russia 116.325
2- Belarus 112.150
3- Ukraine 106.900
> Results Team Competition Day 1
>>> Results Senior Individual Qualifying Hoop
>>> Results Senior Individual Qualifying Ball
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> > Startlist, Junior Groups
> > Startlist, Elite
* all pictures (c) Dirk Zimmermann 2011