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

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) who didn't had the best day as she put her hands down on her bars dismount and went out of bounds on floor but she delivered clean routines on beam and vault (huge 14.325). Maellyse has been consistent lately, also placing second in an internal test. Imke Wolthuizen (De Gympies Keerbergen) placed 3rd, only 0.3 behind Maellyse. She had a really good day and only placed 3rd due to a lack of difficulty. But Imke is a first year Juniors so she still has plenty of time to upgrade.

Myrthe Potoms (GymFlex), who will also compete in Bern in June, came in fourth while Alysha Senders (TK Sta Paraat-P.H.H) didn't had the best day and placed 7th. European Championships alternates Britt Vanneste (Sirene Middelkerke) and Manon Muller (Gymplus) were 5th and 6th.

Credit: Els De Nil/GymFed

Juniors podium:

1. Rinke Santy 52.400

2. Maellyse Brassart 50.900

3. Imke Wolthuizen 50.600

On the Seniors' side, the competition was wide open as the TeamBelGYM didn't compete this weekend. It might seem strange, now that they qualified for the Olympic Games, but Yves Kieffer said many times that Belgium won't go to Rio to just be there. They want to achieve something and in order to do that, they want to preserve the girls as much as possible. Julie Meyers, Nina Derwael, Cindy Vandenhole and Gaelle Mys did perform exhibition routines, tho. And with the rest of the team and coaches, they also got flowers and celebrate their historic performance with the public.

Credit: Belgian Gymnastics

But back to the competition... Dorien Motten (Turnkring Bilzen) was the favourite to win the title but two falls on bars and beam prevent her to win the gold. Adelia Galofaro (Club Boussu Gym), despite a fall on bars, came in 1st and became Belgian Champion for the first time. The battle for the 3rd place was really tight between Chloé Beha (Gym Phénix) and Laura Aerts (Gymgroep AS). Beha won bronze just 0.050 ahead of Aerts.

Credit: Liesbeth Coremans

Seniors podium:

1. Adelia Galofaro 47.700

2. Dorien Motten 47.275

3. Chloé Beha 43.350

Full results here

Videos here

Pictures here