UPDATE. Catalina Ponor and Larisa Iordache win medals in the beam finals at the European Artistic Gymnastics Championships 2017

Romania continues the good results at the European Artistic Gymnastics Championships 2017, held in Cluj-Napoca. On Thursday’s event, Catalina Ponor succeeded in qualifying in the beam finals, having received 14,066 points for her exercise.

UPDATE: Ponor won the gold medal, while Larisa Iordache got the bronze medal during Sunday’s final.

She has also qualified in the floor, from the fourth position, with a score of 13,566 points, but after the end of the competition the Jury revised the note. Short time after the end of the qualifying rounds, Ponor was announced that she will not be taking part in the floor finals anymore, due to the fact that The European Gymnastics Union (UEG) intervened and downgraded the gymnast’s exercise with half a point, due to the lack of a compulsory element.

Last year, at the European Championships held in Berne, Catalina Ponor took home 2 bronze medals, at the same apparatuses (floor and beam).

On her turn, Larisa Iordache, who only competed in the beam and uneven bars qualifying rounds, received the biggest score in the competition for her beam exercise, making her the favorite in Sunday’s final. In her first year as a senior, Iordache won two gold medals at the 2012 European Champions with her team and on floor. In 2013, she won the European title on beam. She was the most successful gymnast at the 2014 European Championships, winning gold with her team and on floor, silver on beam, and bronze on vault. She is a nine-time gold medalist in the World Cups.

On the beam final the two prestigious Romanian gymnasts are fighting strong competition coming from Sanne Wevers and Eythora Thorsdottir from The Netherlands whom qualified second, respectively third, with scores of 14,300, respectively 14,233 points. In the final are also present the Downie sisters from the UK that qualified from the 7^th and the 8^th position and that are a strong presence in the uneven bars finals. Moreover, Ellie Downie received the highest score in the qualifying rounds for her vault and floor routine.

Romania will be also present in the individual all-around final with Olivia Cimpean and Ioana Crisan who qualified in the 26th (50,481 points), respectively 29th (50,199 points) positions.