Inside The Netherlands Camp (16th November, 2005)

The Netherlands women gymnasts Suzanne Harmes and Verona van de Leur may be close friends at training but in the arena they are each other’s biggest rivals. And they have the inside knowledge on each other!

‘Verona gets nervous before a big event, either she’s very quiet or she just talks non-stop,’ said Harmes.

Harmes favourite piece of apparatus is floor and she believes it’s her best. But Van de Leur said her favourite is floor but ‘my best is beam.’

After almost 24 hours on the flight over, both girls are feeling a bit jetlagged, particularly Verona, who only managed to get two hours sleep. The team have been training steadily back home in the lead up to the Championships but their training has slowed down as they focus on perfecting their routines.

Both girls are hoping for success in their events but aren’t giving away too much information.

‘We’ll just have to see how we go,’ they said.

Look for complete coverage of the 2005 World Championships in issue one of Backflip Gymnastics Magazine. Subscribe today!