Elze Geurts has competed at the Universiade in both 2015, when she was the sole Dutch WAG gymnast there and made the AA final, and in 2017, where her team took 5th place and she made the vault final. She was well on track to represent her country at the Universiade once again and working on upgrades. However, in February, she broke her foot in two places after an unfortunate beam dismount. This was quite a setback for her but she managed to recover fast and is competing in the Flanders International Team Challenge this week as a part of her preparation for the 2019 Universiade in Naples.
Geurts talked to The Force is Grace about her injury and recovery.
After the Flanders International Team Challenge, she will compete at the Dutch Nationals:
“During those competitions, I want to show a good program, maybe even with some upgrades.”
Some of the upgrades that she originally planned won’t come to fruition because of the injury, but, generally, she feels that she’s in a good shape at the moment and pain-free:
“On floor, it’s still a bit hard when it comes to endurance, but it’ll be fine. On vault, I’m working on a Yurchenko 1.5 again, landing it on a hard surface. Before my injury, I was working on a Yurchenko double and a Lopez. If I hadn’t gotten injured, maybe I would’ve been a step ahead. But I’d rather not think about that.”
She and Kirsten Polderman will be the Dutch team at the Universiade, as only two scores on each event counts towards the team:
“I form a team together with Kirsten Polderman. Because of the 3-3-2 format, all our scores on every event count for our total team score. It would be great if we were able to achieve a good result together. That’s the main goal.”
Individually, Geurts also set some goals for the Universiade:
“I would like to qualify to the all-around final and maybe a floor or vault final. The chances for that also depend on who is going to participate. That’s not known yet. When it comes to that, we’ll have to wait and see, but I’m ready for it.”
Translation from Dutch by Kim.
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