News 1999

Monica Bergamelli gave an outstanding performance during the all around competition, and finished 15th, with a total of 37.299 points (9.250 on vault, 9.462 on bars, 9.150 on beam, and 9.437 on floor). Her placement is the best ever finish by an Italian gymnast at the World Championships -wow:)!! Martina Bremini, Italy's other competitor in the AA, finished 21st.

Italy qualified a full team to the Sydney Olympics by virtue of their 9th place-finish in the team preliminaries in Tianjin. Monica Bergamelli was the top all-arounder from Italy, finishing 20th overall (37.405). Martina Bremini also qualified for the all-around finals, to be held on Tuesday. Irene Castelli barely missed out on qualifying for the AA, but her performance in the team competition helped Italy's team tremendously. The other team members were Adriana Crisci, Elena Olivetti, and Francesca Morotti. Francesca was originally supposed to be the alternate, but a last minute injury suffered by Alice Capitani (she pulled a thigh muscle during the last podium training), meant that Francesca had to compete. Enrico Casella attributed Italy's succes to "the great relationships between the gymnasts and the coaches" --further proof that team spirit goes a long way :o).
You can find the latest results from Tianjin at FIG 's website.


The Italian Team for Tianjin has been decided. For the moment, 8 gymnasts and 4 coaches are scheduled to go to Tianjin. Monica Bergamelli, Martina Bremini, Irene Castelli and Adriana Crisci are expected to compete all four events, and the the rest of the line-up is yet to be determined.

Gymnast's name	Club	Training city
Monica Bergamelli	Brixia	Brescia
Martina Bremini	Artistica 81 Trieste	Trieste
Alice Capitani	Balduina Roma	Milano
Irene Castelli	Brixia	Brescia
Adriana Crisci	Pro Novara	Milano
Francesca Morotti	Brixia	Brescia
Elena Olivetti	La Fenice Roma	Milano
Federica Spadone	GAL Lissone	Milano

Coach's name	Club	Training city
Enrico Casella	Brixia	Brescia
Rodica Demetrescu	GAL Lissone	Milano
Diego Pecar	Artistica 81 Trieste	Trieste
Paolo Pedrotti	CAGI Milano	Milano

All the coaches and gymnasts enjoyed training together for the past 3 months, and they are very satisfied with the team's progress. The Italian team hopes to be in top form by the time the World Championships start (October 9th), and they are leaving for Tianjin on the first of October.

The Italian Nationals concluded this week-end, and the Brixia gymnansts performed extremely well. Here are the results, provided by Enrico Casella.

All-around
1. Martina Bremini
2. Irene Castelli
3. Adriana Crisci
4. Monica Bergamelli
8. Francesca Morotti

Vault
1. Monica Bergamelli
2. Adriana Crisci
3. Martina Bremini

Uneven Bars
1. Martina Bremini
2. Monica Bergamelli
5. Francesca Morotti
6. Irene Castelli

Beam
1. Adriana Crisci
2. Martina Bremini
3. Irene Castelli

Floor
1. Irene Castelli
1. Elena Olivetti (tie)
3. Martina Bremini

The Italian team will finish their preparation for Worlds in Milan. They are leaving for Tianjin on October 1st. Good luck!!

Enrico Casella, Brixia's head coach, recently sent me some updates about his gymnasts. Monica suffered a stress fracture in her foot while training in Milan, but she is expected to be back to top form in time for the Italian Nationals. Francesca has a shoulder injury which kept out of the meet in Trieste, but she hopes to compete at Nationals, which will be held in Cesena (September 18-19). Overall, the Italian gymnasts are enjoying training together and they expect to be even more competitive as the World Championships approach. They will conclude their preparation for Worlds with another training camp in Milan, following the National Championships.

As a side note, after the meet in Trieste, Spain's head coach referred to the Italian team as the main adversary to Spain's bid for making team finals (top 6) at Worlds --which is just one more reason why Italy's team has high hopes for Tianjin.

Italy's team (150.873) finished second in the tri-meet which took place in Trieste. Spain was first with a score of 151.424 points. Italy's team consisted of Adriana Crisci, Martina Bremini, Monica Bergamelli, Irene Castelli and newcomers Alice Capitani and Sara Modugno. Irene had a great meet, scoring 37.95 pts in the all-around -the third highest score of the night. She scored a 9.225 for her Hristakieva on vault, 9.5 on bars, 9.5 on beam and a 9.625 for her new floor routine. Monica had to count a fall on beam (she fell on her punch front), scoring an 8.85, but she did very well on the other events, scoring a 9.237 on vault, 9.550 on bars and 9.350 on floor. Her new floor music is a Chinese folk song, which should definitely help her win the fans over in Tianjin :). Francesca Morotti didn't compete, but I don't know why. Hopefully, she'll be ready to compete by the time the Italian Nationals start. The Italian team was very impressive and Martina Bremini proved she is definitely back, winning the all-around with a score of 38.387 pts.

A big thank you goes out to Alessandro for sending me such a detailed report of the meet.

The Italian team is currently training in Trieste, preparing for their upcoming tri meet with Spain and Israel (Romania's team withdrew from the competition). The Italian team mebers are: Monica Bergamelli, Irene Castelli, Francesca Morotti, Alice Capitani, Modugno, Ilenia Santoni, Federica Spadone, Laura Trefiletti, and Martina Bremini, recently recovered from her knee injury.

The gymnasts from the National team are currently training at Deva alongside the Romanian team (2-16 August). They will reurn to Italy with the Romanian team and train in Trieste from August 18th to the 28th. The training session will be followed by a tri-meet, where Italy, Romania and Spain are scheduled to compete.

After passing their final exams with flying colors :), Brescia's gymnasts are currently training in Milan preparing for their upcoming competitions. The 10 gymnasts from the National team who are in Milan are working hard on strength and conditioning exercises, hoping to be in top form when the all-important World Championships start.

The draw for the World Championships team competition has been announced. Italy's team will be in the 6th group (out of 8 groups total), along with Taipei, Japan, New Zeeland, North Korea and a mixed group. You can find the full draw on FIG's web site.

Italy's national team is set to start a training program in preparation for the upcoming World Championships on the first of July. Brescia's gymnasts will spend 15 days in Milan, then 15 days in Trieste, followed by a 15-day stay at Romania's national training center --Deva. Both teams will return to Trieste and train together in Italy. The last stage of the program will be a 15 days-long training camp in Milan, after which the Italian team will leave for China.

At the same time, Brixia's gymnasts will have to take their their school exams, so they will not be able to compete in the European Gymnastics Masters in Patrasso, Greece. Italy will be represented by Adriana Crisci and Laura Montagnolo.

Brescia's gymnasts performed extremely well -and that probably qualifies as an understatement- in the recently concluded Italian Category Championships. As always, thanks to Enrico Casella for providing the results:

Under 13

Under 15

Over 15

Irene Castelli won a bronze medal for her wonderful floor routine at the Romanian International. Monica finished 8th in the all around with 37.738 points. The webmaster of the Romanian Gymnastics web site, was kind enough to provide these results.

WomenÕs Individual All-Around Competition

Event Finals

Vault
1. Simona Amanar, ROM, 9.725
2. Tatyana Yarosh, UKR, 9.381
3. Claudia Presacan, ROM, 9.375
5. Monica Bergamelli, ITA, 9.269

Uneven Bars
1. Claudia Presacan, ROM, 9.763
2. Simona Amanar, ROM, 9.625
3. Yulia Korosteliova, RUS 9.563

Balance Beam
1. Simona Amanar, ROM, 9.775
2. Claudia Presacan, ROM, 9.770
3. Laura Martinez, ESP, 9.625
4. Monica Bergamelli, ITA, 9.620

Floor Exercise
1. Simona Amanar, ROM, 9.825
2. Claudia Presacan, ROM, 9.800
3. Irene Castelli, ITA, 9.650
4. Monica Bergamelli, ITA, 9.600

Irene Castelli won two silver medals in the event finals of the Hungarian International. She finised second on beam with a 9.250 and floor -9.250.