The women set to represent the Netherlands at European Championships have been selected following a second trial meet held over the weekend.

Eythora Thorsdottir was a no-brainer for the team, having performed excellently so far this year at the Sidijk Tournament as well as the first Euros trial last weekend. This week, she topped herself by earning a massive 57.3 in the all-around, which makes her a true contender for the podium in Montpellier.

This week, she was excellent across the board, competing a lovely FTY and showing a relatively clean bar set for a 14.250 and 13.933, respectively. She also brought in a 13.967 on floor, hitting a clean double pike, elegant dance elements, a triple full with a tiny stumble, a triple Y spin, and a 2.5, showing tremendous joy and artistry throughout.

Beam was the real show, however. She finally combined clean skills with her gorgeous and fluid movement to earn a huge score, going 15.150. It’s a major international event finals-worthy routine if I ever saw one, and includes a nicely extended side aerial, seamless switch leap to Y turn, a bhs loso, a split leap to wolf jump to front aerial to scale (just a gorgeous series that uses the whole beam), a ring leap to sheep jump, an Onodi to illusion turn, and a 2.5 dismount. Just breath-taking, and yet as good as it is, there remains room for improvement.

Also named to the team were Noel van Klaveren, Dyonnailys Supriana, and Sanne Wevers. Wevers wasn’t originally on the nominative roster, but Reina Beltman didn’t compete this weekend (she withdrew after a bad landing in warmups) while Wevers showed solid improvement on beam, despite a fall…though it was on her triple spin, something that can be easily swapped out at a major meet if she’s inconsistent on it in practice.

Even with the fall, the rest of her routine was clean, and she earned a 14.25 after hitting her side aerial to side aerial combination, a front aerial to wolf jump, full L turn to full pirouette to double pirouette to split leap (the definition of lovely…she spins from one end of the beam to the other!), a full-twisting back handspring, and a gainer layout dismount off the end of the beam.

Van Klaveren had a bit of a rough meet this weekend, counting a 10.533 on bars and an 11.000 on floor after falls on both to earn just a 49.683, but she’s still a strong contender to make the all-around final if she hits and also has a good shot at the vault final.

But even vault was a struggle this weekend, as she got a low block on her DTY and ended up landing on one knee for just a 14.150. She landed the second vault, the Lopez, with just a hop back, however, and looked mostly clean throughout for a 14.950. She also did a solid job on beam, hitting a side aerial to loso, switch to tour jete half, bhs layout, and a nice double spin for a 14.000.

On this team of veterans, the name you’re probably least familiar with is Supriana’s. Supriana is a first year senior who trains at SV Pax in Haarlemmermeer alongside Thorsdottir and shows tremendous promise. She has some great difficulty on beam, though needs to add consistency there and in general. I think sending her to Euros is the great way to give her the kind of international experience that tends to help young gymnasts along.

She earned a 51.817 in the all-around on Saturday, competing a clean FTY, and as I said, I was impressed with her difficulty on beam. She earned a 13.200 there after a fall on her standing arabian, but otherwise showed good work, including a switch leap to wolf hop, roundoff layout, slow and steady full L spin to full turn (showing shades of Thorsdottir in her fluid work there), a big punch front, and a near-stuck double pike dismount.

On bars, she looked aggressive, competing a shaposh, clear hip to bail to Ray, toe on to toe half to straddle Jaeger, and a double pike dismount, while on floor she showed promise in her tumbling, hitting a big double pike and 1.5 to front full, but putting her hands down on her double tuck. She had some interesting choreography as well, and I loved her “Smooth Criminal” music.

Missing out on making the team was Isa Maassen, the Netherlands’ entry at Youth Olympic Games last summer. The new senior has a pretty reliable DTY, but lacks a second vault keeping her out of a vault final, and doesn’t have enough combined difficulty and consistency on her remaining events to make her much of a threat at the moment.

Full results from Saturday’s trial are below.

All-Around Results

*Van Klaveren competed two vaults, earning a 14.150 on the DTY and a 14.950 on the Lopez for a combined vault final score of 14.550.

Article by Lauren Hopkins