30th European Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships kicks off in Baku
Baku, June 13 (AZERTAC). The 30th European Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships has started at the National Gymnastics Arena in Baku.
The championship brings together more than 200 gymnasts from 33 countries.
This first day of competition starts with the individual junior gymnasts who line up for competition I which is the Team Competition and the qualification for CIII (apparatus finals) taking place on Sunday June 15th.
For the Team competition, 2 - 4 gymnasts per federation line up and present 8 free exercises according to the junior programme and in the order fixed by FIG.
A gymnast may participate with 2 - 4 exercises.
The team result will be calculated based on the best 6 of the 8 presented exercises. The junior gymnasts are between 13 and 15 years old (born in 2001, 2000 and 1999).
The first part of this competition is composed by the ball and hoop exercises.
After the last gymnast of the first group it is the host country, Azerbaijan, that is leading with 61.815, followed by Romania (54.190) and Estonia (54.050).
The two Azeri gymnasts started off strongly and take the two top positions of this provisional individual ranking with a nice 31.466 for Z. Piriyeva and 30.349 for Z. Ismayilova and Piriyeva is, at this stage of the competition, the provisional gold medallist on ball and hoop to the delight of her Azeri fans who are already extremely numerous in the spectator tribunes.
The second group presents again the same apparatus : hoop and ball ; it is now Belarus that takes the provisional lead of this competition with 62.923 followed by Russia with 62.366 and Azerbaijan keeps its provisional podium place with 61.815. The provisional rankings for hoop and ball change after this second group and it is the girls from Russia and Belarus that dominate on these to apparatus, leaving nevertheless the third provisional place on hoop to the gymnast from Azerbaijan, Z. Piriyeva.
In the individual ranking, Z. Piriyeva and Z. Ismayilova from the host country remain on the provisional podium with the 1st and 3rd places and it is M. Trubach / BLR who so far places second with 31.249 points.
The gymnasts of Group C did not really manage to change the top of the provisional ranking…. Noteworthy in the individual results is the arrival of L. Ashram from Israel on the provisional second step of these qualifications’ podium.
This team competition continues tomorrow, Saturday June 14th from 9h30 on (local time) with clubs and ribbon.
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