It’s the moment we’ve been waiting for – the famous Italian juniors turned senior and competed at their first major senior competition. Of course, they did not stay as dominant as they were at junior competitions, but they showed some very impressive results. Alice D’Amato and Giorgia Villa took fourth and sixth place in the all-around final respectively. Alice D’Amato then won bronze on uneven bars while her sister Asia was fourth in the floor final, after three very experienced vaulters. Giorgia Villa came to the beam final as the top qualifier, even though she then had an unfortunate fall in the final itself. Clearly, big things are in the future of this young team and, hopefully, they will continue competing for many years to come.
Enrico Casella also said that the main focus of the team this year will be the World Championships and the Olympic qualification, so the team plans on skipping the upcoming European Games altogether. Since Italy did not place in the top-6 in the qualification at Euros last year, they do not have non-nominative spots, and they would only be able to send the gymnasts that were on the team at the 2019 Euros (Alice D’Amato qualified a spot through AA, Asia D’Amato – through vault, and Giorgia Villa might qualify a spot through beam EF). It seems to be a wise decision to rest them and avoid future injuries.
Asia D’Amato said after the qualification that she was quite happy with her routines:
«I made a mistake on beam, but I am happy anyway because afterwards I managed to stay focused and fight to deliver the rest of my routines well: my vault was great, I’m very happy with it.»
Elisa Iorio, unfortunately, did not make any finals and had to downgrade vault because of incorrect steps:
«My competition started on vault: I was going to perform a DTY but I missed my run, so I went for a FTY just to be safe. On bars, I wasn’t able to show what I can do to the best of my abilities: I expected more from myself, but unfortunately that’s just what happened today. Beam and floor went fine – I just focused on performing as well as I could.»
Giorgia Villa managed to improve her results in the all-around from 8th place in the qualification to sixth place in the final:
«I started on bars, where I had a good routine. On beam, I made a mistake after the tuck full – it’s a new skill, and I’m still working on perfecting it – but other than that, I am happy with my performance.On floor I thought my routine was fine, except for the first landing, which was a bit short. Vault was good. Overall, I’m happy with the way I performed today.»
Her main difficulty in the beam final was competing without a one-touch warmup:
«It’s not easy to come out and compete without warming up, I was also very nervous because this was my first beam final as a senior. I think this was the worst routine I’ve ever done in my life! But I’m sure I’ll do better next time.»
Alice D’Amato managed to place fourth in her first major senior all-around final despite having some mistakes:
«The competition went well – it actually went better than even I expected! I made a mistake on beam, but the final score was okay, and I’m especially happy with my routine on bars.»
She then went on to win bronze on bars, sharing the podium with two Russian gymnasts:
«I didn’t expect to win a medal, I am very happy. When I connected the Ricna to the Pak salto I wasn’t thinking of the medals, I just went for it. I wanted to give my all, because in the past I have made many mistakes on bars, especially while performing this connection. In 2015 I injured my knee for the first time: it was a very difficult year for me, and last year I injured my ankle as well – both injuries happened while I was training a double twist on vault. At this Championships, though, my vault was one of the best I’ve ever done: that shows that we can always fight through any setback. This medal has made all my effort and sacrifices worth it.»
Enrico Casella, the head coach of the women’s team was quite pleased with their performance:
“‘Happy’ is not enough to describe how I feel: Alice got fourth place and Giorgia finished in sixth. It was a great competition. They both made mistakes on beam, but other than that they were excellent. Asia and Elisa also have amazing potential – I’m glad that the team can rely on four strong athletes, all of whom have managed to perform well here, even if they lack a bit of experience. Giorgia competed very strongly, even though she had a fever; we need to commend the girls for what they were able to do. Hopefully, we’ll be in better shape by Worlds, especially on floor, where we need to improve on a few things. We will skip the European Games in order to focus on preparing for Worlds and perfecting our routines.”
“Melanie De Jesus Dos Santos deserved the win, the podium is absolutely fair: even if she hadn’t fallen, Alice couldn’t have gotten bronze, but that is completely fine for someone who has fought through two very difficult years and came back from an ACL tear. I’m happy for her, she deserves it.”
“I’m very happy for Alice [winning a medal on bars] because until recently she was held back by her injuries. Anyone, in her place, would have lost hope. But we never doubted her strength and she proved her worth today. I hope this result gives her confidence, because she has the talent already. We want more from her, we’ve already talked about it: I believe that now she will have the necessary confidence and motivation to fight for it.”
“My main focus was the overall score of the girls during the qualifications, because we are preparing for the World Championship and, of course, aiming to qualify for the Olympics. Anyway, getting a medal is always great, so this has truly been a fantastic European Championship for us.»
“Giorgia couldn’t train as much as usual for the past month, she wasn’t in top shape. It wasn’t easy to do another great routine on beam, like the one she did during qualifying, and it was even harder because she couldn’t rely on the 30” touch warm up. Nevertheless, this was an important experience, she tried her best and will return home stronger and more experienced. She’ll definitely be wanting to do better than this. The next important competition is Worlds, we’ll be ready by then.”
Translation from Italian – Gaia B for Gymnovosti.
Video interviews in Italian are posted on Federazion Ginnastica d’Italia.
Photo: Federazione Ginnastica d’Italia.
