Rhythmic Gymnastics Qualifications – day 2 

LONDON (GBR), FIG Office, January 17, 2012: Some of the world’s leading Rhythmic gymnasts turned on the style for the crowd at London’s North Greenwich Arena on Tuesday, as the Qualification rounds for Individuals and Groups concluded at the Visa International Gymnastics test event. The competition was the last chance for gymnasts to qualify for the 2012 London Olympic Games.

There were fantastic performances from the Individual gymnasts on Clubs and Ribbon today, with Daria Kondakova confirming her pole position. The Russian gymnast wowed the crowd with a display of dazzling choreographies to fast-paced music which featured a wide range of patterns and shapes.

Kazakhstan’s Anna Alyabyeva, who was in third place after yesterday’s competition, was in convincing form again with some lovely routines, including spectacular throws and catches, exact execution and well-set accents. She moved up in the ranking to qualify for the Final in second place. "I'm happy and relieved to have finished. I wanted to finish in the top five so this has been really good," she said of her performance."I really enjoy it when the audience supports me,” she added. “It's very important to me."

Ganna Rizatdinova of Ukraine finished as the competition’s highest scorer on Clubs. She began her brilliant routine with an unusual start position, her music starting slowly, then gathering pace and the crowd responded with a buzz of appreciation at the spectacle of her beautiful body movements and her strong expressiveness. Rizatdinova, who finished third, said:  "I am super happy and delighted. I was excited just to come here. It's my first time in London and my first time trying to qualify for the Olympics. I couldn't be happier. My best routine was the Ribbon. It was a new routine and I'd only been practising it for two or three weeks. I tripped over at the World Championships in Montpellier so I was nervous today."
Once again theever-smiling Carolina Rodriguez delighted not only her fellow Spaniards in the grandstands with her captivating performance, the whole crowd delighting in her expressiveness and the very precise accents she set in her routine.

Chrystalleni Trikomiti of Cyprus maintained her high performance level here in London, displaying some breathtaking pirouettes and adopting well to the different tempos of her music. On Clubs she impressed with her sound apparatus handling.

Germany’s young blood, Jana Berezko-Marggrander, showed her consistency by producing two more clean routines today. She caught the eye with her beautiful pirouettes, fast and exact movements and her flexibility.

Individuals – Qualification Results

1 KONDAKOVA Daria RUS 109.475 Q
2 ALYABYEVA Anna KAZ 108.650 Q
3 RIZATDINOVA Ganna UKR 108.600 Q
4 RODRIGUEZ Carolina ESP 107.375 Q
5 TRIKOMITI Chrystalleni CYP 107.350 Q
6 BEREZKO-MARGGRANDER Jana GER 105.650 Q
7 PISCUPESCU Alexandra ROU 104.750 Q
8 FEBBO Federica ITA 101.950 Q
9 VASS Dora HUN 101.900 Q
10 RAKHMATOVA Djamila UZB 100.925 Q
11 FILIOU Varvara GRE 100.775 R
12 GURBANOVA Anna AZE 100.450 R
13 POH SAN Wong MAS 99.600 R
14 STOYANOVA Tsvetelina BUL 98.950 R
15 VEINBERG FILANOVSKY Victoria ISR 98.825
16 ZETLIN Julie USA 98.175
17 CZARNIECKA Anna POL 97.750
18 YAMAGUCHI Runa JPN 97.000
19 PENG Linyi CHN 96.450
20 GIM Yun Hee KOR 96.075
21 VALDEZ Cynthia MEX 95.725
22 MOUSTAFAEVA Kseniya FRA 92.500
23 SEME Tjasa SLO 90.075
24 RUPRECHT Nicol AUT 89.225
25 JONES Francesca GBR 88.600

The top ten Individual gymnasts proceed to the Finals. Check out the start list!

The Groups performed their routines on three Ribbons and two Hoops today, pleasing the crowd with a show of excellent choreographies and surprising combinations.

Spain’s routine showed the highest level of difficulty, yet was superbly executed, with precise positions at each point in a beautifully choreographed performance. Alejandra Quereda said of her group's display: "We're very happy. We were really excited and nervous about coming here. We found the ball complicated and hard to hold but we enjoyed the hoop and ribbon because we put a lot of effort into them and we finished with our best routine.”
Spurred on by the rhythmic clapping of the spectators, Ukraine’s group displayed a wide range of throws and techniques and an overall fantastic standard of collaboration work.
Viktoriya Lenyshyn said of the Ukrainians: “We are very pleased with our performance. We enjoyed performing the Hoop and Ribbon routines because they are emotional pieces and we've got a good team spirit."

Third-placed Israel’s performance stood out for a very interesting lift of one of the gymnasts, while their routine also included many risky throws of the apparatuses.

A very complex choreography was a feature of Greece’s performance. They impressed with their superb synchronisation and accuracy and Stavroula Samara was delighted with their efforts, saying: "We had a very good competition and we believe we have done enough to qualify for the London 2012 Olympic Games.”

The final ranking shows little change from yesterday’s standings, with the exception of Switzerland, who moved up into fifth place edging out France by .2 points.

Groups – Qualification Results

1 ESP Spain 53.850
2 UKR - Ukraine 53.250
3 ISR - Israel 51.900
4 GRE - Greece 51.125
5 SUI - Switzerland 49.350
6 FRA - France 49.150
7 AZE - Azerbaijan 47.500
8 GBR - Great Britain 44.950

All Groups proceed to the Final at this event. Check out the start list!

The list of Olympic qualifiers will be published in due course after confirmation by the FIG authorities.

The Rhythmic Gymnastics competitions at the Visa International Gymnastics continue with the Finals for both Individuals and Groups on Wednesday starting at noon local time.

Fans may subscribe to the playlist on the Gymnastics YouTube channel in order not to miss any of the numerous high quality video clips that are posted during Qualifications and Finals.

Competition photos will be added to www.fig-photos.com as well as to the gallery on the FIG Facebook page regularly and timely updates can be followed via Twitter.

The web-based Commentator Information System (CIS) allows everyone, who cannot be at the competition, to follow the results live on the Internet. Find out how!