Recap: Belgian gymnasts at the 2015 EYOF

Better late than never, here is a recap of the results of our Belgian gymnasts at the European Youth Olympic Festival which took place in Tbilisi (Georgia). And what results! 6 medals (2 golds, 3 silvers and 1 bronze) and 11 individual finals. These results, from both teams, show that the Belgian gymnastics program works and produces results. Each year, women's and men's national teams improve their performance during major events such as European and World Championships.

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If all the medals came from the girls' side, our boys did an excellent job too, reaching 4 finals! Takumi Onoshima (Athanor Gym Club), Iliaz Pyncket (Vaste Vuist Lauwe) and Noah Kuavita (Silok Deurne) ranked 8th in the team competition. After a rough start on pommel horse where they all fell, our gymnasts quickly came back strong and ended the competition in style. In addition to the 8th place finish as a team, Takumi and Noah have qualified for the all-around final, while Iliaz qualified for the floor exercise and horizontal bar finals.

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In the all-around final, Noah finished 13th while Takumi ranked 15th. As for Iliaz, he improved his qualifications results, ending 5th on floor (7th in qualification) and 5th again on horizontal bar (8th in qualification).

The women's team composed of Nina Derwael (TK Sta Paraat-P.H.H. Hasselt vzw), Axelle Klinckaert (GymMAX vzw) and Julie Meyers (TK Sta Paraat-P.H.H. Hasselt vzw), impressed the crowd and the gymnastics fans. While all eyes were on Nina Derwael, the current Belgian Junior champion, Axelle Klinckaert had the best results for team Belgium.

Injured at the beginning of the season, she did not compete at the Belgian Championship and only competed on uneven bars at the FIT Challenge in May. In Tbilisi, she won no less than three individual medals and a team silver.

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In the all-around final, she got the same score as Russia's Daria Skrypnik, but  due to the tie-breaking rule, the latter won gold, ahead Axelle and another Russian gymnast, Anastasiia Iliankova. Nina Derwael ranked 4th.

In addition to her team silver medal, Nina Derwael won two individual medals, silver on uneven bars and bronze on floor exercise. She also finished in 5th place in the balance beam final.

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The last two medals for Belgium came from Axelle Klinckaert, winning two more golds for a total of 4 medals for Axelle. Finalist at the 2014 European Junior Championships (AA, beam and floor ), she proved that she has the potential to become one of the future stars of Belgian gymnastics.

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Nina, Axelle, Julie but also Senna Deriks, reserve for this EYOF and 2nd at this year's Belgian Championships, will all turn Senior next year and therefore will be among the gymnasts who could be selected to participate at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games!

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Results here.

Reports (in French) here.