As we all know by now, Romania beat Russia for the 2012 European team title on May 12th. Now everyone is seeing them as potential Olympic medalists! The team consisted of the veterans; Catalina Ponor and Sandra Izbasa, 2011 World team members; Raluca Haidu and Diana Bulimar, and the newcomer Larissa Iordache. Earlier this year, the Romania star Ana Porgras retired. Many people thought that Romania was done and lost their shot at any medal. But at Euro's, Romania is proving that that's not the case!
In the team final, Romania took home the gold medal with a score of 176.288 which beat the Russian team by near 8 tenths! In fact, they had the highest total score on every event except bars, which went to Russia. It's no surprise, that Romania came into the team final with the highest qualifying score, beating Russia by almost 5 points. So winning the title wasn't just luck!
But it doesn't stop there! In the event finals things started off on vault where Sandra Izbasa won the gold medal with a total score of 14.833. On beam, the gold went to Catalina Ponor who scored a 15.200. Larissa Iordache was close behind her with a 15.133. In the floor final, things flipped and Iordache took home the gold with a huge 15.233. Ponor got the silver with a 14.633!
So basically, Romania stole the show at this year's European Championships and left us all wondering what their capable of in London. For the team, it may not be a gold medal, as they will have to out score the Americans, but they could be looking at a silver or bronze medal in our opinions. I think it's finally safe to say...Romania is back!
All photo's belong to Grace Chiu
Written by: Ashlee
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