Senior Women's Team Final - Historic Silver Medal for Great Britain
2 May 2010
Report Courtesy of British Gymnastics
For full results, provided by Longines, clicking here.
The big question going in to yesterday’s team final for senior women was whether the British girls could repeat the performance of Thursday when they qualified in an impressive and unprecedented third place. A medal in a team competition was, not so long ago, nothing more than a dream but today it became a reality. And it wasn’t even the bronze, it was SILVER for Great Britain.
In a competition where all three scores counted on each piece of apparatus there was little room for mistakes. The teams that suffered multiple falls, such as the Ukraine, found themselves rooted to the bottom of the final rankings. Great Britain, who had a completely clean performance, found themselves instead catapulted into the very thick of the medal hunt.
Starting on vault the team opened with safe flighty performances, the highlight of which was undoubtedly Becky Downie’s stuck one and a half twisting Yurchenko. This gave the team a solid start although put them behind France at this stage who had slightly more complex vaults. At the same time Romania had opened with some problems on what is normally a strong piece for them, the beam. Relying on two first year senior gymnasts, Raluca Haidu was visibly nervous and came to grief not once but twice. So even despite the strong routines from Racea and the classy Porgras this was not the start Romania would have hoped for. Favourites and top qualifiers Russia began on floor with beautiful and complex routines. Their high point was 14.475 for Anna Myzdrikova.
Romania opened the second rotation with entertaining floor routines but the senior girls did not quite have the difficulty that their juniors showed yesterday. Russia put in a commanding performance on vault with three double twisting Yurchenkos (although Kurbatova’s was adjudged short on twist and given a one and a half value), demonstrating their supremacy on this apparatus. The best was the sky high effort of Aliya Mustafina who scored 14.7, the top score of the day on this piece. Great Britain were the top team on bars in qualifying and so it proved to be the case again with all three of these classy bar workers going through cleanly under considerable pressure. The scores built nicely from Nicole Hibbert’s 13.575, through to Becky Downie’s 14.35 and of course capped by a huge 15.85 for Beth Tweddle to give the British team almost a two mark cushion over the next best team on the bars. At the half way point, with France and Italy losing touch, a medal seemed a strong possibility and now the debate appeared to turn to what colour it might be.
However, the wise amongst the crowd know never to get too ahead of themselves, especially when the toughest challenge of all, the balance beam, still lay in wait for Great Britain. There had been some mistakes here in the qualification round and the Romanians had posted a good vault total to add to the pressure. Nicole Hibbert again had the tough task of going first up for the Brits and appears to have an excellent competition temperament in going cleanly though her routine for 12.925 – a decent lead off score. Niamh Rippin had had a long wait to get her competition started but showed little sign of nerves as she safely negotiated her exercise. She was particularly delighted to handle well the two and a half twist dismount which had caused problems for her on Thursday. As the anchor gymnast on this piece, Becky Downie attacked her routine with plenty of positivity and aggression. She was rock solid on her landings and flowed through her combinations with probably one of the best routines she has ever done to pick up a big score of 14.1. This put Great Britian in a very strong position. Russia had enough in the locker to stay in front even despite a fall from Nabieva on bars, such was their existing lead which had been boosted by 14.9 from Mustafina but Britain were now clear in second place with something of a margin over the Romanians.
The atmosphere in the NIA was electric by the time the final set of routines got underway. Romania fought hard on bars, but did not have the quality here to break into the 14s and the total they set of 164.975 was one which the British girls could reach with clean floor routines. Russia managed to hold their nerve on beam despite the massive screams for the home team that were going around the arena as the British team took to the floor. Jocelyn Hunt probably did not expect to be competing here this year, which is her first in the senior ranks, but recent strong performances and the injuries of others have resulted in her becoming a key member of the team here. Jocelyn did not compete on floor in qualifying but got her chance today and seized it with both hands. She opened with a tidy full in back out, demonstrated an excellent triple twist and finished with a good double pike for 13.425. Niamh Rippin showed one of the best constructed exercises of the day with double Arabian to open, one and a half step out through to triple twist and excellent interpretation of the music for 14.35, leaving Britain’s captain Beth Tweddle to take to the stage to bring the competition to a close and secure a medal for her team. Showing excellent awareness on her landings and having the crowd in the palm of her hand throughout, Beth picked up a huge score of 14.925.
This gave Great Britain a team total of 168.275 and saw them leap over Romania by a considerable margin to take the silver medals behind Russia. All five of the girls and the coaching team played a key role in the team’s success and should all enjoy every second of this historic achievement.
All results are provided by Longines and are available by clicking here.
Back to News Archive