About the juniors at nationals
The absolute best was Tess Moonen. She qualified for the Youth Olympics in Singapore. Let's see what she can do there against Didi Bulimar. I give Tess a good chance to medal again on beam! She is a lovely gymnast. Good form, poised, easy style. High front pike vault and straight yourchenko. An upgrade with a twist will be the next step. Bars is also nice, shaposhnikova, high yeager, double pike off. Beam is great, the only weak point is her DM: front full. Being a junior she still gets the 0.5 credit for a c-dismount, but next year she needs a D (same as bars and floor). My guess is they are working on that very hard. Floor is her weakest event. She needs to upgrade her tumbling.
videos here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mHviJ2YSwg bars AA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blDsAsC4BRU vt AA
beam AA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2fknKNLLnI
fx AA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqK_2vqELo4
in Ef's she won bars and beam
Surprise of the year is Lisa Top (96). Last year she medalled in youth category on vault. In the summer she switched clubs to Heerenveen. She trains with Celine van Gerner, Jocelynn Kraan, Joy Goedkoop and junior Saskia Meekma. She cleaned up her form and learned new elements like full in on floor. At her old club there were not many elites. Now she lives in a host family during the week and goes home friday night. Sunday morning she goes back.
She was 2nd AA, won VT and floor. On vault she has a high front half and front piked. She is working on upgrades. On bars is is still a bit messy, and has to work hard, but is also a lot better than last year. On beam she is much more consistent. Nice work, already pretty dificult. 1,5 DM, but used to be a double. Maybe she is working on a 2,5? Floor is her best event, with full in, double pike, 2,5 twist and double front twist. definately one to watch, if injuries stay away!
Third was Tessa Gerrits, who was also in the junior euro team. She also surprised me. Her form is great, beautiful toe-point. She trains at Turning Spirit Amsterdam, who have a nice crop of juniors coming up. She is always smiling, I like her beam routine best, She stuck her FTY!
4th: Ayla Wilbrink (also in junior euro team). Powerful girl. Has a DLO from bars, but last year she did one with a full twist! Hopefully she can get is back. FTY and nice floor. Beam is clearly her weakest event. Trains at Bosan TON with the Wevers sisters, Wyomi Masela, Sanne de Smet and Yvette Moshage.
5th: Melissa Scherpenisse, teammate of Ayla. A couple of years ago she won the little gymnasts nationals, but her progress seems to stock a bit. She transfered to Bosan TON 2 years ago and needs to learn new techniques. She is struggling with bars the entire season. I cannot remember one single routine that she finished without falling. Sadly she fell from bars in warm ups for event finals and broke her elbow. Poor girl. Hope she recovers soon. Best events are VT and FX. She certaintly has the potential, but it has not come out fully yet. Maybe next year will be better.
6th: Noël van Klaveren, my sentimental favourite. Very small but powerfull girl. Will already be senior next year, unbelievable. She comes from a small club, where she cannot train a lot. Only 12 hours a week. Since a couple of months she is also training at Turning Spirit Amsterdam, to be able to make more hours. She has great skills, esp on floor (triple twist, double pike) but lacks a bit of consistency due to limited trainingtime. She was injured (hand and hamstring) but is on her way back. Now she is training more, I think we will hear much more fromher, if you see what she can do with only 12 hours of training. Best event is floor.
7th: Serena Vlijt. Beautiful gymnast from Bosan TON. Had a horrible accident last year at nationals. With beam DM she crashed on her head. Still does only a front somi of the beam, maybe she is still scared. Has a DLO dm from bars though, so seems also on her way back.
8th: Nikki Olijve, teammate of Serena. She announced her retirement after nationals. A wrist injury that even after 4 months of rest was not getting better. she has grown a lot since last year. Not a little girl anymore but a beautiful young woman. She chooses for her health now and want to go to a dance academy. She came back just for nationals, to leave gymnastics with a good feeling. She was 5th in BB and FX finals and feels satisfied. Good for her.
9th Saskia Meekma (heerenveen). Had a terrible accident 2 years ago with a crash from bars. I still remember her scream. Her elbow was completely broken. On her way back. beam is er best event, but she lacks difficulty elsewhere. Her coaches take it slowly with her, but in the future with a bit more time she can be a very good gymnast. Not a surprise that beam is her best event. She was adopted from Romania when she was little. She is from Turgu Mures and her official name is Szasz Imola Meekma.
10 Julia Bombach (hazenkamp nijmegen). Quite tall for a gymnast
11 Elise Bats (Bosan TON). Has not the difficulty of her teammates, but is a nice one to watch.
12 Shirley de Boer. From the former club of Lisa Top. Had been injured all year, on her way back.
13 Elze Geurts, very tall, and does not have the difficulty or form to be the best. But nice she tries!
14. Maartje Ruikes. Very small gymnast. Lovely to watch. did not compete floor, hope she is not injured. Beam is her best event and FX is very funny. She should grow a bit to get some more power. Then she can be very good.
15 Tessa Alberts. (Pro patria). Only competed beam due to an elbow injury. she can hardly use her arm but maneges to have already nice difficulty and form. needs a bit more stability, Took the bronze medal on beam.
Originally Posted by TessaW
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