This weekend’s Danish Championships in Copenhagen saw Victoria Gilberg win the senior all-around title in her first year at the senior level after defending champion Linnea Wang suffered a neck injury in training.

Gilberg, who trains at VIK, scored a 48.05 in the all-around on Saturday, defeating silver medalist Emilia Kristjansdottir, who tallied a 45.1, by nearly three points in what was a super secure win. Freja Frandsen, meanwhile, won the bronze with a 43.45, ahead of Clara Meincke in fourth with a 43.15 and Josefine Henriksen in fifth with a 41.35. Mette Hulgaard, the 27-year-old eight-time national champion who was injured just before worlds last year, competed only bars and beam here.

In addition to her all-around win, Gilberg was the silver medalist on bars with a 10.6, and then went on to win the beam and floor titles with scores of 12.85 and 13.0, respectively. Hulgaard, who trains at KG66, had the highest bars score of 12.9, but a fall in the beam final gave her the silver medal with an 11.3 while Frandsen won vault gold averaging a 12.975.

In the junior division, the rising star Marie Skammelsen of KG66 won every title but beam, including getting the highest all-around score of any age group with a 50.95. Skammelsen excels on vault and floor, getting scores of 14.1 and 13.75 there respectively, and she hit both bars and beam though her scores were a bit low on both. In event finals, her vaults – a Yurchenko 1.5 and a tsuk full – averaged 14.2 and her floor earned a 13.6, and she also got bars gold and beam silver with scores of 11.95 on both.

Sofia Bjørnholdt won the silver all-around medal with a 44.9, Victoria Kajø won bronze with a 44.7, Lea Strauss placed fourth with a 44.4, and Isabella Bøckhaus was fifth wtih a 43.35. Strauss also managed to outscore Skammelsen in the beam final by just two tenths to win the senior title there with a 12.15. Amalie Rosendahl had a bit of a disastrous routine on bars, getting only a 3.45 to place last with a 37.0 in the all-around, though she’s so strong on her remaining events, she should still be in the mix for the junior Euros team.

In the espoir division, Camille Rasmussen – another KG66 girl – won the all-around title with a 49.2, showing very advanced skills for her age level. She also won all four event medals, including vault with a 13.325 average, bars with a 10.75, beam with a 12.55, and floor with a 12.6, making her actually quite competitive at the senior level, let alone in the youngest division, so I can’t wait to see what she can do as she gets older.

Only five gymnasts competed in espoirs, with Mathilde Bentsen winning silver with a 42.75, Liv Strauss winning bronze with a 41.25, Louisa Lorentzen placing fourth with a 35.05, and Astrid Breckmann coming in fifth with a 34.7.

Next up for the Danish team will be the Nordic Championships in early May, where Hulgaard and Skammelsen both have strong medal chances. From there, they’ll continue preparing for European Championships at the end of May, where Skammelsen should be able to make a couple of finals.

Full results from this year’s Danish Championships are available here.

Article by Lauren Hopkins