Another warm day at Wembley Arena

Hi peeps,

Sorry I am late with my blog entry for yesterday. Early in the morning my sister and I were heading for St. Pancras station to get breakfast. We soon headed for Wembley Arena at a later time in comparison to the day before, so we didn't need to wait that long. Again, we got this real vibe upon entering the Arena, with the massive crowds around us. It was so funny we met Corina, a former Dutch group gymnast in the late '90s, and since we had an open seat next to us, we asked her to come sit next to us, and we had SO MUCH FUN.

The competition itself was really nice and thrilling to watch. In the individual qualification, the best 10 would advance to the final, but we're sad this Chinese girl Deng Senyue didn't make it by just 0.025. We were cheering for Son Yeon-Jae (KOR) (she lost her toe slipper in the clubs routine, and she was clearly distracted by that!!!) and Silviya Miteva (BUL) a lot. But also the rest of the contestants where in extreme good shape. If you take into account that even the gymnasts finishing in last (all wildcard holders) are so much better than the Dutch, you really start to wonder where the talent is in the Netherlands ;). Francesca Jones from GBR ofcourse was heavily supported by the British spectators. She ruined her last routine, where she lost one club during her fouetté pivot. Since the club was in the same shade of pink as the surrounding carpet, it was hard for her to find it - I read she was in tears afterwards. Back in the top 10, Kanaeva FINALLY managed to beat Dimitrieva in the last rotation, although Dimitrieva messed up her clubs routine. So, the individual final all around promises to be an exciting match point! Results - see below.

After the competition, I just had enough battery power to text my friends I would see them, and we agreed Ramona would join Corina. It was soooo nice to catch up with Jon, Cameron, Tom, Angy and Nuria! We stayed around the Arena a bit, Ramona took some photos of herself with the Bulgarian coaches, we took some photos of the Canadian team, before heading to a bar and later on, an Iraqi restaurant with delicious appetizers and main courses :).

I then went to Kings Cross again, stayed around for a while, before travelling with Ramona back to North London again. She stumbled on a guy from Capelle, next to Rotterdam, and another guy who used to live in the same residential building a few years ago. We decided we'd go to Alexandra Palace for the Holland Heineken House (HHH) to inquire whether there are any tickets left for Sunday's group final. It was a 30 minute walk uphill, only knowing that we still had to wait 2 hours to get a ticket anyway -- and the tickets for the HHH were sold out anyway. Those kooky Dutch eh, it's not really my cup of tea, but Ramona loved the orange madness around :P.

We decided to go back towards Turnpike Lane, but it would take more or less the same amount of time if we'd go to Wood Green, take the Tube (IF there was a service!) and walk to our place. So I insisted we should walk those 4km downhill this time. We reached our place around 0:30-ish I think, before heading to bed.

Check the photos and the video's I posted :).

Cheers,
Justin

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Individual qualification results:
Rk NOC Name Hoop Ball Clubs Ribbon Total
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1 RUS Evgeniya Kanaeva 28.100 (02) 29.525 (01) 28.975 (01) 29.400 (01) 116.000 Q
2 RUS Daria Dmitrieva 29.000 (01) 28.800 (02) 27.800 (03) 28.925 (02) 114.525 Q
3 AZE Aliya Garayeva 27.450 (08) 28.350 (04) 27.850 (02) 28.200 (03) 111.850 Q
4 BUL Silviya Miteva 27.700 (05) 27.800 (07) 27.325 (12) 28.100 (04) 110.925 Q
5 BLR Liubou Charkashyna 28.050 (04) 28.400 (03) 27.450 (10) 26.550 (14) 110.450 Q
6 KOR Son Yeon-Jae 28.075 (03) 27.825 (06) 26.350 (18) 28.050 (05) 110.300 Q
7 UKR Alina Maksymenko 27.300 (12) 28.125 (05) 27.800 (04) 26.800 (12) 110.025 Q
8 POL Joanna Mitrosz 27.425 (09) 27.250 (08) 27.625 (06) 27.450 (07) 109.750 Q
9 ISR Neta Rivkin 27.450 (07) 26.200 (18) 27.525 (09) 27.725 (06) 108.900 Q
10 UKR Anna Rizatdinova 27.350 (10) 26.800 (11) 27.750 (05) 26.950 (10) 108.850 Q
11 CHN Deng Senyue 27.150 (13) 26.800 (10) 27.575 (08) 27.300 (09) 108.825 R
12 BLR Melitina Staniouta 27.500 (06) 26.700 (12) 27.600 (07) 26.875 (11) 108.675 R
13 FRA Delphine Ledoux 27.100 (14) 27.150 (09) 27.250 (13) 26.675 (13) 108.175
14 ESP Carolina Rodriguez 26.900 (15) 26.625 (14) 27.175 (14) 26.100 (17) 106.800
15 KAZ Anna Alyabyeva 27.325 (11) 26.575 (15) 25.250 (19) 27.400 (08) 106.550
16 ITA Julietta Cantaluppi 25.200 (19) 26.675 (13) 26.850 (15) 26.550 (15) 105.275
17 GER Jana Berezko-Marggrander 26.300 (16) 26.575 (15) 27.325 (11) 24.900 (20) 105.100
18 AUT Carolina Weber 25.925 (18) 25.950 (19) 26.725 (16) 26.350 (16) 104.950
19 CYP Chrystalleni Trikomiti 26.300 (16) 26.250 (17) 26.375 (17) 25.800 (18) 104.725
20 UZB Ulyana Trofimova 24.650 (20) 24.625 (20) 23.275 (23) 24.800 (21) 97.350
21 USA Julie Zetlin 23.750 (24) 24.450 (22) 24.225 (21) 24.250 (22) 96.675
22 AUS Janine Murray 24.350 (21) 23.100 (24) 23.875 (22) 25.000 (19) 96.325
23 EGY Yasmin Rostom 23.925 (23) 23.775 (23) 25.050 (20) 23.500 (24) 96.250
24 GBR Francesca Jones 24.200 (22) 24.550 (21) 21.975 (24) 23.900 (23) 94.625

Rk NOC 5 2+3 Total Q
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1 RUS 28.375 28.000 56.375 Q
2 ITA 28.100 27.700 55.800 Q
3 BLR 27.900 26.850 54.750 Q
4 BUL 27.250 27.375 54.625 Q
5 ESP 27.150 27.400 54.550 Q
6 UKR 27.050 27.100 54.150 Q
7 ISR 26.500 26.600 53.100 Q
8 JPN 26.725 26.300 53.025 Q
9 GRE 25.875 26.000 51.875 R
10 GER 24.500 25.150 49.650 R
11 GBR 24.150 23.975 48.125
12 CAN 24.050 23.850 47.900