Italy starts off strong at the European artistic gymnastics championships female of Rimini. Fairies qualify for the first place for the finals on Sunday and bring home a fantastic encore of medals with Manila Esposito and Alice D’Amatofirst and second respectively in theIndividual All Around. It had never happened in the past for the Italians. However, the passport rule (the podium cannot be occupied by three athletes from the same national team) prevents Italy from also winning the bronze medal in the ‘full lap’ because arithmetically it would have been classified in third place. Andreoli who however must give up the lowest step of the podium to British Alice Kinsella. Bitter note of the dayAsia D’Amato’s right knee injury who during the execution of a free body element must finish the exercise first and exit the platform touching his right leg. The athlete was then replaced by colleagues Iorio and Andreoli.
A hard blow for the Casella team, also in view of the upcoming Paris Olympics. In addition to the podium steps occupied, Italy takes home various apparatus finals which will be staged in the next few days. Italy was drawn in the fourth and final division and took to the stage together with Great Britain, Switzerland, Holland, Poland, Ukraine, Hungary and Iceland. The day’s champion Esposito took care of breaking the ice by giving her opponents a taste of the stuff she is made of. Then follows the floor exercise in which Asia D’Amato was injured, the vault and the beam which crowned Esposito and Alice D’Amato first and second in the individual competition.
