Italy on Power (4th September, 2006)

The Italian women and Russian men underlined their ambitions for the upcoming World Championships winning their respective dual competitions in Trieste, Italy at the end of August.

On a roll after taking the European title earlier this year, Italy’s women were led to a convincing 231.300: 223.350 victory by the amazing Vanessa Ferrari, who posted the highest total to take the all-around title with 61.050. The tiny Ferrari didn’t put a foot wrong all night, with her highest score coming on bars where her routine includes a Comaneci that comes out of nowhere. The Italian women’s squad had been training in Trieste for a few weeks prior to the dual meet in preparation for the upcoming Worlds.

Sadly, European team champion Lia Paolari injured herself on floor and most likely tore her ACL, keeping her out of Worlds. In her first competition after a long break due to injury 2005 European vault champion Francesca Benolli competed in front of an enthusiastic home crowd but suffered a bad fall on her full-twisting Yurchenko vault. What initially looked to be a serious injury turned out to have only been a massive scare for Benolli, who was walking again by the end of the competition.

The Russians had left Yulia Lozhechko and Irina Isayeva at home, nursing minor injuries and to prepare for the Russian Cup, while visa problems kept Polina Miller out of Italy. Veteran Anna Pavlova had a night to forget with a total of four falls. Landing her opening double layout on floor on her knees, she opted for a simple layout as a middle pass and fell from bars twice and beam once. Kristina Pravdina hinted at her strong potential with clean and difficult gymnastics (double layout and double Arabian on floor). Anna Grudko showed nice lines and extension as well as content. The team had struggled with the bars in training, which were too soft for their liking.

Their male counterparts showed high level gymnastics throughout with newcomer Dmitri Gogotov proving that men can point their toes, too, on his way to the all-around title with a 88.750. The Russians took the team title 359.100: 355.700. The guests and hosts split the events between them with Russia winning floor, pommel horse and bars whereas the Italians were best on rings, vault and high bar. On the latter, Olympic champion Igor Cassina thrilled the audience with a routine that included four Kovacs releases (layout full, layout, tucked full and tucked). Returning to international competition Alexei Bondarenko came off pommels once and had a disaster on high bar with two falls (4.1 A score) but finished off in style with a fantastic handspring-double front vault to huge cheers.

The competition, which drew a substantial crowd, was interrupted twice due to power cuts which may have unnerved some of the gymnasts. The audience pulled through remarkably, waiting for the victory ceremony until well past midnight.