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Affichage des articles du juin, 2016

The 2016 Olympic team is known!

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Today, the GymFed and the FfG presented the 2016 Olympic team to the press. Here are the gymnasts that will represent Belgium at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio! Credit: Mathias Hikketik Gaelle Mys (OTV Nazareth) - 24 Gaelle is undoubtedly the leader of this team. The two-time Olympian will lead a rather young group to its first Olympic Games as a team. Gaelle's best event are balance beam and floor exercise, but she can definitely bring good scores on vault. her weakest event is bars. Multiple European finalist, Gaelle has the experience to lead the way to her teammates. Laura Waem (Sportiva Sint-Gillis-Waas) - 18 Credit: Mathias Hikketik   Laura is the second most experienced gymnast on this team. All-around finalist at Worlds, she can bring big scores on bars, her best event, but also on beam. Axelle Klinckaert (GymMAX) - 16 Credit: Els De Nil Axelle is one of the new comers but she's already one of the strongest gymnast Belgium ev

Dutch Open 2016: 8 medals in event finals for the Belgians!

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After an all-around competition on Saturday in Rotterdam, our gymnasts were in action on Sunday for the Event Finals. A successful day for them as they grabbed 8 medals! Credit: Mathias Hikketik The uneven bars final was litterally a battle of the Belgians with our three best gymnasts all competing there. And Laura Waem successfully won the gold medal and redeemed herself after a rough day on Saturday. With a great score of 14.550, she placed 1st ahead of Nina Derwael (14.200) and Senna Deriks (14.150). Rune Hermans tied for 4th place with 13.850. Cindy Vandenhole seemed to have had a mistake there and placed 7th (13.300).  Uneven bars final standings GOLD Laura Waem (BEL) 14.550 SILVER Nina Derwael (BEL) 14.200 BRONZE Senna Deriks (BEL) 14.150 4. Rune Hermans (BEL) 13.850 7. Cindy Vandenhole (BEL) 13.300 Credit: Mathias Hikketik On balance beam, all eyes were on the Netherlands' Sanne Wevers , who is the World silver medalist on that event. She d

Dutch Open 2016: last Olympic trial for the Women's team

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On Saturday 25 June, our National teams competed in Rotterdam, in a competition that served as the last Olympic trial before the Olympic team announcement. Credit: Els De Nil On the Men's side, the Olympic spot went to Dennis Goossens . But on the women's side, a full team will be sent to Rio. In Rotterdam, the only criteria that could give you a spot on the team was to break the 56+ mark. But on Saturday, none of the gymnasts manged to do that. There were still some mistakes here and here but nothing that can't be fix in time for Rio. Axelle Klinckaert impressed me with her recent upgrades. On vault, she now has a double twisting Yurchenko, which boosts her start value from 5.0 to 5.8. On beam, she added a standing Arabian, and a full twisting double layout on floor exercise. With 55.584, she was ranked 1st among the Belgians. She had a fall on beam and didn't had the best floor routine we've seen from her, but she has time to clean up a bit. Cre

Dennis Goossens en route to the 2016 Olympic Games!

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On Saturday 25 June, both our National teams were competing in the Dutch Open in Rotterdam, a competition that would serve as the last Olympic trials. If we don't know yet who will make the Women's team, Dennis Goossens on the other hand secured his ticket to Rio! Credit: Liesbeth Coremans During the week, the Federation had published the criteria our gymnasts had to meet in order to qualify for the Games. In case none of them would achieve those criteria, the best all-arounder would have been selected to represent Belgium at the Olympic Games. Known for his beautiful work on rings, Dennis Goossens (TK Kerels Waasmunster) took everybody by surprise by meeting the minimum score set on that event, the last one for Team Belgium yesterday. With 15.800, he secured his individual spot on the Belgian delegation with style. With a personal best (if I record right), Dennis earned his Olympic spot fair and square, as he was brilliant and flawless yesterday. He hit when it

The 2016 Dutch Open: the last Olympic trial!

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On Saturday, our gymnasts will compete in the Netherlands, at the 2016 Dutch Open, a last Olympic trial. The women's team and the man's representative will then be announced on June 29th. Find out here all the criteria to qualify for the Olympic Games! KNGU.nl The wait is almost over. In 10 days, we'll know the name of the gymnasts selected to represent Belgium at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio. But first, they will have to compete one more time to earn their spot. On Saturday, they will travel to Rotterdam for the Dutch Championships. If they meet the expectations, they could earn a spot on the team immediately. If not, they will have to wait until June 29th. Let's find out what those criteria are. On the men's side,  Jimmy Verbaeys (Blauwput Omnisport), Maxime Gentges (Gymclub Malmedy), Daan Kenis (Turnkring De Eik Lommel), Florian Landuyt (Sportac Deinze), Bram Louwije (Turnkring Vlamertinge), Dennis Goossens (TK Kerels Waasmunster), Siemon

Gilles Gentges announces his retirement

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26 years old Gilles Gentges was on Tele Vesdre set last weekend for a last interview during which he announced that he will be moving on from his competitive career. Here is a look back at Gille's performances through the years. Credit: Mathias Hikketik In 2008, Gilles was still training in his hometown club, in Malmédy. As a Juniors, he was selected to compete at the European Championships in Lausanne, where he placed 15th with the team. He then joined the Elite Center in Ghent. He competed in his first World Championships in 2009 in London and then became Belgian Champion in 2010. That year, he flew to Birmingham for the Europeans and then to Rotterdam for Worlds, a crucial step leading to the 2012 Olympic Games. There, the team failed to qualify for the next World Championships, and thus, the hopes of qualifying a team for the Test Event and/or the Olympics were crushed. Gilles then decided to take some time off. To have surgery and to concentrate on his studies. Th

2016 EC: Gaelle Mys 6th on beam, 7th on floor in event finals

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European Championships concluded on Sunday in Bern. Belgium was still represented by one of its most fierce gymnast in event final, Gaelle Mys . Credit: Full Time Gymnastics Gaelle has been around for over a decade now, proving herself to be one of Belgium's most decorated gymnast. Gaelle is in the mix to make her 3rd Olympic Games. And given her performances at this year's European Championships, I'd say she can already pack.  Gaelle 's favorite event is beam, a tough event where one single balance check can cost you a medal or a place in final. She knows that very well and little mistakes in the past prevented her to qualify for a spot in final. But in Bern, Gaelle was the steadiest gymnast from Team Belgium. In qualifications, she posted a 14.133 to grab the last qualifying spot. She also placed 8th on floor, with a 13.800. Now, we knew that it would be difficult to reach the podium, but as she said and as Yves Kieffer often says too, "anythin

2016 EC: top 15 for Rinke in Maellyse in the AA final!

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Yesterday, two belgian gymnasts were competing in the Juniors all-around final. All they wanted was to do as well as they did in qualifications. They did better. Credit: Full Time Gymnastics Rinke Santy and Maellyse Brassart entered this final in the 3rd group, with the gymnasts that placed from the 13th to the 18th place in qualifications ( Rinke was 15th, Maellyse 16th). The group started on beam. This aparatus is always difficult to start on, and on top of that, Maellyse was the first gymnast to go. She wanted to repeat her performance from day 1, but unfortunatey, she fell on her acrobatic serie, two backhandspring to a layout step out. The rest of her routine was good and she still managed to get 12.400 with that mistake. Rinke went right after her, and didn't have any kind of troubles. She scored 13.066 for her backhandpsring to layout step out, a back tuck and her Gainor piked dismount. On floor, Rinke received a 12.600, more because of her low diffic

2016 Euros: 4 finals for our gymnasts in Bern!

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Both our Juniors and Seniors were competing in Bern this week. There were good and less good things. But together, they qualified for 4 finals! Credit: FfG On Wednesday night, our Juniors were in action in the last subdivision of the day. Rinke Santy (Sportiva Sint-Gillis-Waas), Maellyse Brassart (Gym Phenix), Myrthe Potoms (GymFlex), Manon Muller (Gymplus) and Alysha Senders (Sta Paraat Hasselt-P.H.H. Hasselt) started on beam. Manon got the highest score (13.233) for a solid routine with a back handspring layout step out, a wolf turn and a double twist dismount. Maellyse Brassart was not far behind (13.166). She presented a switch leap with half turn, a free cartwheel and a double back tuck dismount. Unfortunately, Myrthe fell on her acro series and only scored 11.933 while Rinke seemed a bit nervous and had to count some wobbles (12.533). Credit: Full Time Gymnastics On floor, Alysha Senders presented a dynamic and expressive routine to score 12.600. Myrthe