Lago Notches Olimpiada Win in Monterrey

After an impressive Mexican Championships last month, where Elsa Garcia dominated while Ana Lago and Alexa Moreno finished strongly as well, the Olimpiada Nacional de Gimnasia held on Wednesday was slightly disappointing.

Lago, the 19-year-old who missed out on an Olympic spot in 2012 and spent much of this quad dealing with injury, won the meet with an all-around score of 53.421, well below her potential after falling on bars and beam. She still managed to pull out the top score of 12.767 on beam in a field that made quite a few mistakes, and she brought out a sweet revenge floor routine, posting a 13.67 to also nab the title there. But for the most part, it was a rough meet especially considering how well she did at nationals.

Karla Retiz pulled ahead of Moreno for a surprise silver with her all-around score of 51.417. Also 19, Retiz competed nearly at her best everywhere but beam, where she counted a fall and a score of 12.217, though again due to the sloppiness there in general, she made it to the podium there, picking up bronze. In addition, she also nabbed the silver on bars with her steady 13.0 performance there.

The country’s vault hero Moreno placed third with a 50.724, nearly five points below what she’s capable of, after a veritable disaster on beam. Her score of 9.234 came after several falls and was four points lower than her beam score at nationals, though she did have some redemption with the highest scores on vault (14.85) and bars (13.4) in addition to the second-highest score on floor (13.24), proving that one bad event doesn’t throw her off completely, a good quality to have considering she’ll likely be one of the headliners at worlds this fall.

Otherwise, no gymnast posted above a 50 in the all-around, a scary thing to note in a year where their team performance at worlds could make or break their Olympic chances in 2016. Hopefully with Garcia back in action they’ll add some higher scores and a leader who will demand consistency from her teammates, but as of right now this program has quite a long way to go before they’re ready to fly to Glasgow.

Miriana Almeida was fourth with a 49.454 and won bronze on floor with a 12.9, Amaranta Torres was fifth with a 49.191 and won silver on beam with a 12.567, Paula Heredia was sixth with a 48.887 and won bronze on vault with a 14.1, Karla Vielma was seventh with a 48.807, Ahtziri Sandoval was eighth with a 47.664 and won bronze on bars with a 12.84, and Olga Lopez was ninth with a 44.354.

The next time we see Mexico will be at the Pan American Games in Toronto this July, and due to a lack of depth, they’ll likely bring their entire potential worlds team, most likely a mix of Garcia if she’s healthy, Lago, Moreno, Torres, Retiz, and Sandoval, the team that also made up last year’s worlds squad for the country.

The 2015 Olimpiada Nacional de Gimnasia was held on May 13 in Nuevo León, Monterrey. Full results are available here.

Article by Lauren Hopkins

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