Verona van de Leur put another title under her belt at the Hypotheekshop Gymnastics Top in Zoetermeer October 26-27. Hosted by van de Leur's club Pro Patria in its home gym, the competition brought together 26 juniors and seniors from eight countries in a friendly atmosphere in front of a sell-out crowd. A relaxed looking van de Leur took time to chat with friends in the audience during rotations but was focussed enough to win the gold. An uncharacteristic slip on beam, where she fell on a layout, dropped her score to a sub-37 but she was confident on the other three apparatus. Club mate Laura van Leeuwen gave an impressive demonstration on bars, an event she is the national champion on, with a stalder to immediate Tkachev and good lines. In the hunt for a medal after two rotations, van Leeuwen suffered a disaster on beam, dropping her to seventh place in the final standings. Renske Endel opened floor with a 2 1/2 twist to punch pike 1/2 but fell on her double pike dismount. Originally on the roster, an injured Gabriella Wammes sat out the meet but joined the other Pro Patria gymnasts in a display at the end of the competition.

Tiny Romanian Oana Ban took the silver medal after tumbling up and down the code on floor (double layout; Arabian double front, two whips through to a double pike; tucked full-in) and beam (two ffs to a full-twisting back tuck). The perky Ban was an instant crowd favourite and was hounded for autographs after the competition. The difference in size between her and van de Leur literally brought the Dutch star to her knees on the victory stand to accept a congratulatory kiss. The bronze medal went to lanky Ukrainian Alina Kozich, who started well on vault with the inevitable piked Lucconi and showed some of the smoothest bars work of the competition before coming undone on beam. She fought back well on floor with a routine that included a double front as a second pass. The second Romanian Andreea Munteanu tied van de Leur for the highest vault score for her high double twisting Yurchenko and was confident on beam for fourth place overall. Sarah Shire was the top US finisher, her highest mark coming on vault for a 1 1/2-twisting Yurchenko.

Germany's Yvonne Musik was solid on all four pieces, wobbling only her beam sequence of ff-layout and was visibly pleased afterwards. "I took two weeks off in the summer, so I'm still working to get back into top physical shape and I'm training new skills. I'm a bit sad I didn't put the Arabian double front into my floor routine, I usually do it in competition. That said, I'm happy with what I did here today." Coach Dieter Koch couldn't agree more: "Our main goal here was to hit four for four and be stable, and Yvonne did just that. She still needs more experience, but she works very, very hard in training and has a great attitude."

nora

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