Preview July 25, 2009
KAOHSIUNG (TPE), FIG Office, July 25, 2009: Coming up shortly in the Jhihde Hall Cultural Centre, participants are getting ready for the Women’s Individual, Trio and Group Aerobic Gymnastics competitions!
Individual Women
The Women’s Individual Aerobic field looks to be every bit as spectacular as the Men’s last night! 2008 World Champion from Brazil Marcela Lopez, runner-up Cristina Simona Nedelcu (ROU) and Bronze Medallist Angela McMillan (NZL) will be battling it out with FIG World Ranking front runner Aurélie Joly (FRA) and World Championship finalists Hang Jinxuan (CHN), Giulia Bianchi (ITA) and Elmira Dassaeva (ESP). 19 year old Denitsa Parichkova from Bulgaria completes the line-up.
We talked to Romania’s Cristina Simona Nedelcu, who will compete in the Individual Women’s and Group categories.
The 22 year old professional gymnast has set her sights high today; she’s aiming for no less than the Gold in both categories, and she knows what it feels like to stand at the top of the podium. Though she ranked first with the Romanian Trio at the last World Games 2005 in Duisburg (GER) Nedelcu has withdrawn from the Trio category to concentrate on Individual events. She feels very well prepared for the competitions tonight. As part of the Romanian national team she practices in Bucharest, her home town, where the team enjoys impeccable training conditions and the support of a fantastic and devoted staff. When asked about her future, Nedelcu, who studies sport sciences, wants to continue competing as long as she feels fit enough to do so. And once her active sports career is over, she plans to coach small children.
Trio
Word on the town is that this is going to be a nip-and-tuck race for Aerobic Trios. Although Brazil had to withdraw their Bronze winning Trio, 2008 World Champions Romania and runner-up China are facing some tough competition tonight. The strong French and Italian Trios will likely spice up this event quite nicely! Keep an eye on the up and coming Vietnamese who ranked 7th at the 2008 World Championships; they don’t intend to stop there! And who knows what the Russian Trio’s got up its sleeve. Local spectators can’t wait to see the Trio representing their own country here in Kaohsiung.
We met with Italy’s Trio, composed of Vito Iaia, Antonio Caforio and Emanuele Pagliuca prior to the competition.
The training conditions for these gymnasts can be challenging, since Pagliuca lives in Rome, while Iaia and Caforio are based in the southern part of the country. They get the chance to practice together not more than twice a month, which is why their results were so low at the 2009 World Cup in France. But the Trio says they’re ready for these World Games, which feature the most important competition for Aerobics this year! They come from a 10 day training camp and feel they are at their best. Iaia, Caforio and Pagliuca have worked as a Trio for one year now and say they like the changes that have been made to the new Code, which place more importance on artistic elements. We had a chance to see them at last year’s test events in Kaohsiung, where Iaia also competed in the Individual category. Concentrating exclusively on Trio now, Iaia left his place in Individual to 19 year old Caforio, who ranked 6th at last night’s Final.
Group
China’s ultra precise World Champion Group of 2006 and 2008 is coming up against the French runners-up, known for their imaginative choreography, and the more classically designed Romanian Group, ranked 4th. 2008 Bronze Medallist Russia will line up with a newly formed Group, while Hungary, Italy and Japan deliver their usual intriguing performances, giving spectators exactly what they bargained for. The all-woman Group from Germany is starting as an outsider here, having failed to qualify at the World Championships in their home country. A withdrawal gave them their opportunity to complete today’s field.
Like the Chinese and Romanian teams, France is represented in all categories at these World Games. We met with Benjamin Garavel and Gaylord Oubrier, reps for the French Trio and Group respectively.
A few changes were made to the original entries of France’s Trio and Group in Kaohsiung; Morgan Jacquemin, Benjamin and Nicolas Garavel will start in the Trio category and the Group will be composed of Dorian Alimelie, Julien Chaninet, Mathieu Deliers, Gaylord Oubrier, Aurélie Joly and David Orta.
Explaining the structure of their sport in France, Garavel and Oubrier told us something about the two training centres in their country located in Aix-les-Bains and Paris, the latter of which opened in 2007. Almost all of the French Aerobic gymnasts have a background in Artistic Gymnastics, which provides them with good technique. On top of that, they have a strong theoretical knowledge of the sport and precise physical preparation in terms of strength and flexibility training.
With such perfect preconditions and a Silver medal from this year’s World Cup in their home country under their belts, the French Trio aims to win another medal in Kaohsiung. 29 year old Oubrier, who has been part of the French Group since the beginning in 2004, won Silver at the 2006 and 2008 World Championships and Bronze at the last World Games in this category. But after changes were made to the Group’s composition, he no longer considers them favourites in tonight’s competition.
Read the interviews conducted at last year’s test events to learn more about the competitors:
Day 1
Day 2
