Italy dominated the first ever Mediterranean Junior Championships, held this weekend in Ragusa, Italy.

The host nation brought home six medals of all colors between the all-around and event finals, which included competition from twenty junior women from the eleven of the nations that make up the Mediterranean Gymnastics Confederation. Two WAG athletes from each nation were invited to attend in an effort to boost junior competition in a region with traditionally low participation in international events.

On Saturday, Italy’s Sofia Busato won gold in the all-around competition with a 54.2 while teammate Pilar Rubagotti brought home silver with a 53.9. In the event finals held earlier today, Italy stood out once again, where Busato earned two more gold medals on vault and floor in addition to a silver on bars, and Rubagotti won bronze on beam.

These young Italians showed a great deal of promise for their program’s future – especially Busato on vault, an event not typically considered outstanding for their nation. Busato’s Yurchenko 1.5 was absolutely gorgeous in the event final, and I have no doubt she can easily upgrade from there before she turns senior.

Melania Rodriguez of Spain completed the all-around podium, earning the bronze medal with a 52.85. She also took home bars gold, floor silver, and vault bronze.

The competition also featured medal wins from some of the Youth Olympic Games’ standout athletes, including Evangelia Monokrousou of Greece with vault silver and Tutya Yilmaz of Turkey with beam gold. Rounding out the podiums are Lucie Perdreau of France with bars bronze, Farida Walid of Egypt with beam silver, and Fiona Oke of France with floor bronze.

All-Around Results

Rank	Athlete	Nation	VT	UB	BB	FX	AA
1	Sofia Busato	Italy	14.100	13.100	13.150	13.850	54.200
2	Pilar Rubagotti	Italy	14.150	13.100	13.000	13.650	53.900
3	Melania Rodriguez	Spain	14.400	13.500	11.800	13.150	52.850
4	Tutya Yilmaz	Turkey	14.000	13.200	12.400	12.400	52.000
5	Eva Perez	Spain	14.050	13.200	12.650	11.100	51.000
6	Ekin Morova	Turkey	13.250	11.250	11.550	12.400	48.450
7	Lucie Perdreau	France	13.400	12.150	11.000	11.400	47.950
8	Fiona Oke	France	13.700	11.900	10.500	11.500	47.600
9	Chahed Sakr	Tunisia	13.050	11.800	11.150	11.300	47.300
10	Mina Vartholomaiou	Greece	12.750	11.100	11.800	10.900	46.550
	Evangelia Monokrousou	Greece	13.650	10.500	11.650	10.750	46.550
12	Farida Walid	Egypt	12.950	11.450	12.300	9.700	46.400
13	Rahaf Armia Zakaria	Egypt	12.850	9.600	10.950	10.700	44.100
14	Fatima Ahlem Mokhtari	Algeria	12.700	9.050	9.300	9.900	40.950
15	Chama Temmami	Algeria	13.800	8.600	9.400	9.100	40.900
16	Eleni Eliades	Cyprus	12.600	7.900	8.050	11.400	39.950
17	Anastasia Theocharous	Cyprus	11.850	8.050	8.250	11.050	39.200
18	Niamh Agius	Malta	10.850	2.800	7.350	8.900	29.900
19	Karen Bartolo	Malta	10.800	3.250	6.600	7.850	28.500
20	Imane Balad	Morocco	12.650	10.450	——	——	23.100

Vault Final Results

Rank	Athlete	Nation	D	E	ND	Total	Average
1	Sofia Busato	Italy	5.3	9.400		14.700	14.525
			5.0	9.350		14.350
2	Evangelia Monokrousou	Greece	4.8	9.050		13.850	13.950
			5.0	9.150	-0.1	14.050
3	Melania Rodriguez	Spain	5.0	9.050		14.050	13.775
			4.4	9.100		13.500
4	Tutya Yilmaz	Turkey	5.0	8.950		13.950	13.500
			4.0	9.050		13.050
5	Fiona Oke	France	4.0	9.100		13.100	13.450
			5.0	8.800		13.800
6	Chama Temmami	Algeria	4.4	8.700	-0.1	13.000	12.700
			4.2	8.200		12.400

Bars Final Results

Rank	Athlete	Nation	D	E	ND	Total
1	Melania Rodriguez	Spain	5.1	8.350		13.450
2	Sofia Busato	Italy	5.4	7.700		13.100
3	Lucie Perdreau	France	5.4	7.250		12.650
4	Chahed Sakr	Tunisia	4.2	7.450		11.650
5	Tutya Yilmaz	Turkey	5.1	5.950		11.050
6	Farida Walid	Egypt	2.9	7.350		10.250

Beam Final Results

Rank	Athlete	Nation	D	E	ND	Total
1	Tutya Yilmaz	Turkey	5.4	7.950		13.350
2	Farida Walid	Egypt	4.8	8.350		13.150
3	Pilar Rubagotti	Italy	5.4	7.250		12.650
4	Eva Perez	Spain	5.0	7.050		12.050
5	Chahed Sakr	Tunisia	4.2	6.950		11.150
6	Mina Vartholomaiou	Greece	3.8	6.100		9.900

Floor Final Results

Rank	Athlete	Nation	D	E	ND	Total
1	Sofia Busato	Italy	5.1	8.350		13.450
2	Melania Rodriguez	Spain	5.2	8.050		13.250
3	Fiona Oke	France	4.9	7.900	-0.1	12.700
4	Ekin Morova	Turkey	5.0	7.800	-0.3	12.500
5	Chahed Sakr	Tunisia	4.8	7.500		12.300
6	Eleni Eliades	Cyprus	4.3	7.400		11.700

Article by Valeria Violi
Photo thanks to Federazione Ginnastica d’Italia