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Affichage des articles du mai, 2016

2016 Women's European Championships: all you need to know and what to expect

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After a successful edition for our Men's teams, this week is all about the Women's, coming into action tomorrow in Bern. What are the goals of our Belgian teams? Let's find out. Credit: em-bern2016.ch/en/ The Juniors team is composed of Rinke Santy (Sportiva Sint-Gillis-Waas), Maellyse Brassart (Gym Phénix), Myrthe Potoms (Gymflex), Alysha Senders (Sta Paraat Hasselt-P.H.H. Hasselt) and Manon Muller (Gymplus). Muller is replacing an injured Imke Wolthuizen (De Gympies Keerbergen). The main goal for this young team is to reach the top 8 as a team and to have at least one gymnast in the all-around final. Two years ago, in Sofia, Belgium placed 6th. This year's team is a bit inexperienced, except for Maellyse Brassart , who competed at the Top Gym and the Elite Gym Massilia, and for Myrthe Potoms , who also competed in Marseille last year. But the team can also count on its National champion, Rinke Santy .  Beam should be a good event for them, as Mael

2016 Euros: 7th place for Dennis Goossens on rings!

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Dennis Goossens was the only Belgian gymnast in final this Sunday. And he did amazingly well on rings! The level on still rings is always super high. A lot of gymnasts choose to become specialists on this event, which gives the audience a chance to see amazing performances. Dennis Goossens is the first ever Belgian gymnast to qualify for a rings final and he has nothing to be ashamed of. On Sunday, he was first up, and it is always a tough position to go, as the judges haven't seen anyone yet. With an amazing routine and a stuck full-in dismount, he scored 15.233, a 0.1 less than in qualifications.  Greece's Eleftherios Petrounias , the reigning European and World Champion, won gold, ahead of Russia's Denis Abliazin and Armenia's Vahagn Davtyan . Still rings final standings 1. Eleftherios Petrounias (GRE) 15.866 2. Vahagn Davtyan (ARM) 15.633 2. Denis Abliazin (RUS) 15.633 ... 7. Dennis Goossens (BEL) 15.233 Those European Champi

2016 Euros: Onoshima 14th, Kuavita 21st

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Noah Kuavita and Takumi Onoshima both competed in the Juniors all-around final in Bern where they wanted to improve their scores from the qualification round. Credit: Mathias Hikketik 16th after the qualifications, Noah ranked 21st yesterday night, scoring 78.189 with a fall on parallel bars. There were no stuck landings, and it was a source of problems for our young gymnasts. Noah 's best score tonight came on vault, with a huge 13.933. He was also very good on floor exercise, scoring 13.766. Credit: Mathias Hikketik Takumi placed 14th with a total score of 78.931. That's a bit less than a point higher than in qualifications but most importantly, he gained 10 places in the rankings, as he was the last gymnast to qualify for the final on Wednesday.  Takumi had a better day overall than in qualifications, even tho he still had troubles on some of his landings. He first competed on vault were he scored 13.366 for a great start. His best score came on pommel h

2016 Euros: 3 finals for our Juniors and Seniors

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The Juniors kicked off the competition in Bern on Wednesday! Today, our Seniors were in action at the PostFinance Arena. And they performed really well on the big stage! If both teams failed to reach the top 8, two Juniors qualified for the all-around final, while Dennis Goosens will advance to the rings final! Credit: Mathias Hikketik On Wednesday, Takumi Onoshima , Noah Kuavita , Jonas Delvael , Ward Claeys and Justin Pesesse competed in the last subdivision of the day. They were first up on pommel horse, a tricky event to start with. Onoshima had a fall but the other gymnasts delivered consistent routines. This was the only fall of the competition for Team Belgium, while Jonas Delvael had troubles on horizontal bar. Their best total was on vault, with 40.899. Credit: Mathias Hikketik The team targeted a top 8 finish and they fell short, placing 9th with 236.694, less than 0.5 from the 8th position. Our gymnasts had a clean competition overall (except for the tw

2016 Men's European Championships: all you need to know and what to expect

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The 2016 European Championships start tomorrow in Bern (Switzerland)! The competition will kick off with the Men events, on both Juniors and Seniors side, before welcoming the Women's gymnasts next week. Credit: em-bern2016.ch/en/ This 2016 edition will be a big one as both Juniors and Seniors gymnasts will compete in the PostFinance Arena. Remember that Juniors only compete once every two years. This is a great opportunity to see where they are at the moment and how they will do against the strongest team in Europe. The Belgian Juniors delegation is composed of Takumi Onoshima (Athanor Gym Club), Noah Kuavita (Silok Deurne), Jonas Delvael (Gym Izegem), Ward Claeys (Vaste Vuist Lauwe) and Justin Pesesse (La Vaillante Tubize). Iliaz Pyncket , on the team at first, had to withdraw due to injury. Nevertheless, this team is still a strong one with Onoshima , the 2016 Belgian Champion, Delvael , three time medalist at the Junior Team Cup, and Kuavita , who recently

The 2016 Gympies Gymnova Cup is happening this weekend!

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De Gympies Keerbergen gymnastics club is hosting an amazing International competition for Youngsters and Juniors this weekend. This meet is also an occasion for younger gymnasts to make their debut on the international stage. Credit: gymnovacup.eu The competition will start on Saturday with the Youngsters at 10am. The Juniors will make their entrance at 4pm. Events finals will take place on Sunday with a very interesting format: the 6 best Juniors and the 2 best Youngsters on each events, allowing the younger ones to compete against more experienced gymnasts. This year's edition will gather teams from Belgium , Romania, Spain, the Netherlands, Great Britain, Italy, Israel, Danemark, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Switzerland and Turkey. This meet is well known in the gymnastics circuit and has seen a lot of young gymnasts participate at European and World Championships! Italy's Enus Mariani became Junior European Champion in 2012, Laura Jurca and Andreea Iridon fr

2016 Belgian Championships: Onoshima, Verbaeys are the 2016 National champions

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After the report of the Women's competition, let's have a look at the Men's results at this year's Belgian Championships! Credit: GymFed There was no real surprise on who won the titles in the Juniors and Seniors categories as both titles were won by favourites. On the Juniors' side, Takumi Onoshima (Athanor Gym Club) won gold ahead of Lukas Fickers (Turn- und Sportverein Rocherath) and Justin Pesesse (La Vaillante Tubize). Noah Kuavita (Silok Deurne), Iliaz Pyncket (Vaste Vuist Lauwe) and Jonas Delvael (Gym Izegem) didn't compete this weekend but even with their absence, Onoshima was on the top of the list to become national champion as he really stood up for himself in the past few weeks, winning an internal test and the all-around at a friendly meet against teams from Sweden and the Netherlands. The young gymnast proves he is ready for the upcoming European Championships, where he will compete along with Kuavita , Delvael , Pesesse and Wa

2016 Belgian Championships: Santy, Galofaro crowned on the Women's side

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Last weekend, Ghent was hosting a gigantic Belgian Championships that gathered all the disciplines: artistic, rhythmic, acrobatic, trampoline, tumbling,... This 2016 edition was a success and new Belgian Champions were crowned. Credit: GymFed I'll only focus on the artistic gymnasts (Juniors and Seniors) but I would like to congratulate all the amazing athletes who competed this weekend! Let's start with the Women's Juniors! This competition served as a preparation for the upcoming European Championships. All the gymnasts selected to compete in Bern were there (except for reserve's Chloé Leblicq ) and the battle for the title was fierce! Rinke Santy (Sportiva Sint-Gillis-Waas) was super consistent and delivered her routines with no major mistakes, allowing her to become National champion for the first time! Her best event was vault, where she scored 13.975. She also was good on beam, earning 13.075. In second place was Maellyse Brassart (Gym Phénix) w

2016 Belgian Championships: all you need to know!

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After some great (and amazing and historical) results on the international stage, it's time to bring back our gymnasts in Belgium for the National Championship. And this year's edition will be huge!   Credit: GymFed Not only there will be artistic gymnastics, but also rhythmic, trampoline, tumbling and acrobatic gymnastics! It is the first time (I think) such a huge event is organised in Belgium. As I am not an expert in the other disciplines (not that I am an expert in artistic gymnastics either, but I know a bit more about it), I'll only talk about Juniors and Seniors artistic gymnasts competing this weekend.   First thing to know, the Women's team that was sent to Rio for the Test Event won't compete this weekend. Same goes for the alternates/injured gymnasts. But Team BelGYM will be in Ghent for a special meet and greet with the fans on Saturday at 8pm. There will be 5 gymnasts competing for the title: Dorien Motten , Adelia Galofaro , Estelle P