Brassart, Georgiou Earn Olympic Berths at European Championships

Maellyse Brassart

The Olympic qualification process is slowly wrapping up over the next few weeks with the continental championship qualifiers, where one WAG and one MAG athlete from each continent will earn an a nominative berth based on their performances in the all-around competition at each meet.

With the Pan Am Games serving as the qualifier for the American continents wrapping up last fall and being officially confirmed following the conclusion of the world cup series last month, next on the list were the European Championships, where Maellyse Brassart of Belgium finished 11th in qualifications and first on the list of eligible WAG athletes while Marios Georgiou of Cyprus won the men’s all-around title outright to seal his spot.

Brassart, who also attempted to qualify through the world cup series, came into Euros as one of the top contenders for a spot, and she did not disappoint with her performance, earning a 51.932 with a steady set of routines in the first subdivision. While there were a few other athletes who seemed capable of getting the upset in later subdivisions – most notably Nathalie Westlund and Jennifer Williams of Sweden and Vanesa Masova of Czechia, all of whom performed exceedingly well – ultimately Brassart was able to hang on until the end, snagging the spot just five tenths ahead of Westlund and six tenths ahead of Masova, while a fall from Williams on her beam dismount held her back by just under a point (though the incredible performances from the Swedish team in general helped them to a first-ever team finals appearance!).

Outside of Olympic qualification, Euros were an exciting and devastating event for the Italian hosts, who took home a total of eight medals, nearly sweeping the golds – including the team title two points ahead of the Brits – though missing out on a vault medal after yet another devastating injury to Asia D’Amato, who landed badly on her final floor pass to re-injure her ACL, taking her out of the conversation for the Olympic Games.

On a happier note, the meet was a star-making performance for Manila Esposito, who won the all-around title with a 55.432 in addition to snagging the gold medals on beam with a 14.4 and on floor with a 13.833 with truly brilliant work at every step of her competition. Meanwhile, Alice D’Amato, who was crushed watching her twin sustain yet another season-ending injury on a major international competition floor, fought through the pain to win the all-around silver medal with a 54.831 and then the bars gold with a 14.6.

Elisa Iorio stepped up to contribute on two events in the team final after also winning the silver medal on bars with a 14.366, and Angela Andreoli, who came onto the team last-minute to replace Giorgia Villa and then stepped into an all-around role last-minute to replace the injured D’Amato, ended up with the bronze on floor with a 13.666 and also finished third all-around with a 53.766, though she was unable to medal there due to the two-per-country limitations.

With Andreoli not eligible for the podium, Alice Kinsella was able to come in for the bronze with a 53.599, and she again proved to be an incredible leader for the British team, contributing well on all four events to help them to the silver medal. Georgia-Mae Fenton also went home with an individual medal with a 13.9 on bars to take the bronze, while Becky Downie went for broke with a big difficulty routine in that final, and though she fell there, she came back with a big hit in the team final to earn a 14.633.

Ruby Evans again proved her worth with big numbers on vault and floor in the team final, while first-year senior Abigail Martin, who stepped onto the team as the alternate replacing the injured Ondine Achampong, really impressed with her performances, making the floor final with a super powerful set that landed her in seventh.

The team bronze medal went to France, led by two-time Olympian Marine Boyer, who showed an especially stunning beam set in the apparatus final to win the bronze with a 14.033. The team was a bit hit-or-miss as a whole, but Coline Devillard was strong and consistent on vault to win another continental title there, while first-year senior Ming van Eijken also brought a rudi to the table to stand alongside her on the podium with the bronze. With the best floor routine from the French team, van Eijken also made that final, and showed why she might be pushing for one of the “regular’s” spots when it comes time to pick the Paris team this summer. Morgane Osyssek has been super valuable with the ability to contribute on every event, but lacks the level of vault and floor scores van Eijken is capable of, while Lorette Charpy didn’t look a hundred percent here and struggled even on her best event. Once Mélanie De Jesus Dos Santos returns to the picture, I think Charpy and van Eijken are most at risk of being replaced, but right now I’d go with van Eijken based on potential top team scoring simulations.

The other individual medalists in Rimini included Valentina Georgieva of Bulgaria, who became the first Bulgarian woman to win a continental medal since 1990, and the second Bulgarian woman to win a silver medal on vault, following in the footsteps of Milena Mavrodieva who won in 1989; and Sabrina Voinea of Romania, who won the silver medals on beam with a 14.166 and on floor with a 13.7, showing routines that weren’t always form-perfect, but had a level of difficulty, confidence, and fight that went unmatched.

France and Italy were the standouts of the junior competition, with France taking the team title in addition to seeing Elena Colas win the all-around with a 53.265 and Maiana Prat winning the bronze with a 50.899, while Italy won the silver team medal led by Giulia Perotti, who took silver in the all-around with a 52.498.

For France, Colas also won gold on bars and bronze on vault, Prat won gold on beam, Lola Chassat won bronze on bars, and Perla Denechere won bronze on floor, and for Italy, Perotti took home a pair of gold medals on bars and floor, while Benedetta Gava and Emma Puato won the gold and silver on vault, and Emma Fioravanti won the silver on floor. Also medaling here were Sien Ghekiere of Belgium with the bronze on bars, with Belgium also surprising to take the team bronze, and Madita Mayr of Germany with the silver on beam.

Marios Georgiou

In the men’s competition, Georgiou also came in as a top contender, so it wasn’t a surprise to see him earn the berth, but watching him get it done while also winning the gold medal with an 84.265 was a thrilling finish. Georgiou also helped Cyprus qualify to the team final for the first time in history, and went on to win three more medals in the apparatus finals, including silver on parallel bars and a pair of bronze medals on pommel horse and high bar.

Behind Georgiou on the men’s podium was also a bit of a surprise, with Oleg Verniaiev of Ukraine winning the silver with an 84.031 and Yumin Abbadini of Italy winning the bronze with an 83.765.

In the floor final, the gold went to Luke Whitehouse of Great Britain with a 14.866, edging out Artem Dolgopyat of Israel with a 14.833 for silver, while Krisztofer Meszaros of Hungary won the bronze with a 14.6. Rhys McClenaghan of Ireland nailed his set to win gold with a 15.3, ahead of Loran de Munck of the Netherlands with a 14.933 for silver and Georgio with a 14.8 for bronze, while on rings, we saw a super tight battle led by Eleftherios Petrounias of Greece with a 15.0 for gold, followed by Nikita Simonov of Azerbaijan and Adem Asil of Türkiye both with score of 14.9, though Simonov won the tie-break by a tenth on execution to take the silver ahead of Asil with the bronze.

On vault, Jake Jarman of Great Britain stunned with big difficulty to average a 14.883, getting the upset for gold over Artur Davtyan of Armenia, who wound up with a 14.85 for silver, while Nazar Chepurnyi of Ukraine won the bronze with a 14.749. Illia Kovtun of Ukraine wasn’t completely at his best here, though still put on an impressive show on both parallel bars and high bar to take the titles on both with scores of 15.633 and 14.6, respectively, while Georgiou won the parallel bars silver with a 14.866 and the high bar bronze with a 14.366. The bronze medal on parallel bars went to Noe Seifert of Switzerland with a 14.833, while the silver medal on high bar went to Robert Tvorogal of Lithuania, who qualified to the Olympics on this apparatus via the world cup series, and who put up a 14.566 here.

In the team final, Ukraine ended up getting a massive upset over the team from Great Britain, winning the gold just three tenths ahead despite Kovtun being unable to compete floor or vault due to a nagging injury. The British team looked much better than they did in qualifications, thanks especially to some improvements from Joe Fraser on his three events, but a weaker high bar rotation than the Ukrainians held them back in the standings. Coming in for the bronze were the Italians, who came in a bit shy of difficulty compared to the top teams, but showed especially strong work on pommels and high bar.

The junior competition saw Anthony Mansard of France win the all-around final with an 81.499, ahead of Tommaso Brugnami of Italy with an 80.832 for the silver medal, and Gabriel Langton of Great Britain with a 79.564 for bronze. Mansard also won the gold on high bar and a pair of silver medals on floor and parallel bars, while Brugnami won the floor and rings titles along with the silver medal on vault, and Langton won silver on rings.

Also winning apparatus titles were Hamlet Manukyan of Armenia with a 14.5 on pommel horse, Sol Scott of Great Britain with a 14.466 average on vault, and Uzair Chowdhury of Great Britain with a 14.066 on parallel bars. The British team won the team title by just two hundredths ahead of the Italians, while France took the bronze a little over a point back from the top two programs, and we saw a fantastic performance from one of Austria’s strongest teams ever, seeing them finish fourth place ahead of many teams that generally far outscore them.

Complete results for the women’s competitions are available here and for the men’s competitions are available here. You can also see a full list of all who have qualified to the Olympic Games on our WAG tracker and MAG tracker.

Article by Lauren Hopkins

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By: Lauren
Title: Brassart, Georgiou Earn Olympic Berths at European Championships
Sourced From: thegymter.net/2024/05/09/brassart-georgiou-earn-olympic-berths-at-european-championships/
Published Date: Thu, 09 May 2024 14:17:44 +0000