I certainly wasn't the only one who observed events in Rio yesterday. And what a sad day, to see Romania fall out of contention for a team place in the Rio Olympics, so suddenly and so brutally after months of anticipation. Although the team's performance was consistent with their result at the Glasgow World Championships, it was especially hard to hear how they fell at the very first hurdle, to read of the failures on bars, for so long a bugbear of the Romanian system. After that, the team spirit was set and it was always going to be hard to lift them to more winning ways. Romania's fate really echoes so much that has happened to Russia in recent years: an over reliance on a handful of star performers, many of them now injured and veteran; juniors difficult to transition to senior level responsibility; distinct technical weaknesses on one or two apparatus; and, for the Romanians especially, a volatile internal political situation resulting in frequent staffing changes
I think some movement are more on the circus-act side than gymnastics ones though. But certain moves are breath taking. Thanks for sharing...
ReplyDeletemore specifically, it's probably classified as 'acrobatics.'
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