Brazil’s gymnasts offered a global warning by beating the host nation on three out of four events at a Spain-Brazil-Romania tri-meet in Pozuelo de Alarcón near Madrid on June 7, 2003. Held in the hot and humid Polideportivo El Torreón, the competition was won by the Romanian team, who posted 148,400 and was impressively stable on all events. Missing Ioana Petrovschi, currently rehabbing injury at home, the Romanians were lead by Oana Ban and Silvia Stroescu, both of whom went clean for the top two AA places. Ban scored highest on beam, where she upgraded her full-twisting back tuck to a layout (slight pike in the hips), while Stroescu was in good shape and competed with an extra degree of maturity. On floor, Stroescu earned her squad’s only 10 SV. The Romanians had brought Andreea Munteanu, Daniela Sofronie and Madalina Rapeanu for experience- all three youngsters competed in a mixed group with Spanish gymnasts. Munteanu’s floor routine to “The Mask” was well received by the audience, but she suffered a disaster on vault when she balked two attempts and scored a zero.

Brazil outscored the two other nations on bars (three 10 SVs) and kept ahead of Spain on vault and beam. Falls on floor from Daiane Dos Santos and Merly de Jesus as well some steps and low landings from Daniele Hypolito meant third place overall. However, the South Americans were impressive throughout with a high level of difficulty and clean execution. On floor, Dos Santos sat down her new opening tumble of front layout to double front, but landed her three other passes of double layout, Arabian double front and triple twist. “This was only the second time Daiane attempted this pass in competition,” Brazilian head coach Oleg Ostapenko told Gymworld after the meet, “and the other time was only a mock competition for the squad at home.” The hosts had to do without Laura Campos, but Sara Moro was back after a long break to contribute strong sets on bars and beam to the team effort. Competing only four gymnasts on floor, the team had the two highest scores of the entire meet on this event with world champion Elena Gomez and Patricia Moreno receiving a 9,675 and 9,600 respectively. Beam proved to be the Spaniards’ downfall with many missed connections and sub par gymnastics elements.

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