Ana Perez

At the start of 2021, just as the world was getting to be a little more normal in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and with the Olympics back on schedule for the coming summer, Ana Perez was preparing for Tokyo after helping Spain qualify its first full team to the Games since 2004.

Had she made the team, as she was expected to do, it would have been the second Olympics for the then 23-year-old after making her debut in Rio five years earlier. But one day during practice, a freak accident caused her to break both of her ankles, leaving her confined to a hospital bed and unable to walk on her own, and leaving her in a state of uncertainty about whether she’d ever be able to do gymnastics again.

It’s been a long road back for Perez, who returned to competition for the first time in more than two years this February, competing bars for her club in the Spanish League series in an emotional performance that left her in the happiest tears. A couple of months later, she returned to the all-around at the City of Jesolo Trophy, scoring a 49.533 with a downgraded vault but otherwise strong routines, and her major international comeback came at Euros in April, where she contributed routines on bars, beam, and floor.

After winning the silver medal on beam at the Tel Aviv Challenge Cup and leading her team to bronze with the top all-around and bars scores at the Spanish League finals, the biggest test for Perez would come at national championships, which kicked off on July 19. If there were any doubts as to whether she could once again be back on top for Spain, especially with so many young competitors climbing the ranks and having major international success over the past couple of years, Perez showed us that there was no need to worry.

Perez, now 25, won the fifth senior all-around title of her career and her first since 2019 by more than a point, scoring a 52.750 with her routines on bars, beam, and floor all hitting above a 13. While her vault still isn’t quite where it used to be, the rest of her work is so strong and confident, she doesn’t need to throw major difficulty there when she’s capable of such brilliance on her other three. Her beam score of 13.6 was the highest in the competition, and she also put up the second-best score on bars with a 13.35 and the third-best on floor with a 13.05, proving herself as a lock for the upcoming world championships.

Taking the silver medal was Alba Petisco, the national champion in 2020 and again in 2022 who’s been a rising star in her own right after making her Olympics debut in 2021 and qualifying to multiple Euros finals over the past couple of years, finishing 6th on beam in 2022, and 11th in the all-around this year. Petisco showed mostly great work to score a 51.500, including putting up the top floor score of 13.5 in addition to winning silver on vault with a 12.975 average, and like Perez, she’ll almost certainly snag a sport on the worlds team this fall.

The battle for bronze ended up being an exciting one, but ultimately it was first-year senior Laia Font who landed on the podium with a 51.300 after debuting a Yurchenko double on vault to win the title with a 13.250 average. Font also showed great work on beam to put up the third-best score of 13.05, and while she’s been a bit inconsistent this season, with Spain hoping to again qualify a full team to the Olympics, her newfound vault prowess could be exactly what the program is looking for, though I do think she’ll need to fine-tune it a bit.

Lorena Medina in fourth with a 50.800 was a bit of a surprise, especially as she managed to get an upset over 2022 worlds all-around finalist and 2023 Euros all-around and floor finalist Laura Casabuena, who ended up fifth with a 50.450. Casabuena was a favorite for the podium – and potentially even the title – here, though a miss on beam held her back considerably. She won bars with a 13.55, put up the second-best floor score of 13.2, and averaged a 12.85 on vault to win the bronze there, but she couldn’t fight her way back from her beam struggles, giving the well-balanced and solid Medina, who won the silver medal on beam with a 13.1, a chance to take advantage of her mistakes.

Rounding out the top eight were first-year senior Sara Pinilla in sixth with a 49.700, Maia Llacer in seventh with a 49.650, and Irene Calle in eighth with a 48.050. Nearly all of the apparatus medals went to the gymnasts who ranked among the top five, with one exception – Sainza Garcia, who competed only on bars, won the bronze on that event with a 12.25.

In the junior competition, Leire Escauriaza, who had a breakout competition at junior worlds this year, won the all-around title with a 46.600. Escauriaza missed out on landing a medal in her first junior season last year, so this marked a big improvement for the 14-year-old, who also won the bars title with 12.0 and the silver medal on vault with a 12.6 average.

Also on the podium were Claudia Torrent with a 45.400 to take the silver and Marina Escudero with a 45.050 for bronze. Rounding out the top eight were Leire Vicente in fourth with a 44.550, Aitana Pacheco in fifth with a 44.000, Ines Muñoz in sixth with a 43.800, Abril Sayavera in seventh with a 43.650, and Jana Fernandez in eighth with a 43.550. Escudero won the vault title with a 12.725 average, while Sayavera won beam with an 11.95, and Pacheco won floor with a 12.0.

The men’s competition saw an incredible battle between 2020 Olympians Thierno Diallo and Nestor Abad, with Diallo ultimately prevailing with an 83.467 to Abad’s 82.834 after Abad struggled on pommel horse. In addition to his all-around gold, Diallo won the gold on pommels with a 14.367 while also taking the silvers on floor, rings, and parallel bars and capping off his haul with the bronze on high bar, and Abad picked up a handful of apparatus golds, including floor with a 14.267, rings with a 14.6, and parallel bars with a 14.767 (and despite not looking a hundred percent on pommels, he still managed to snag the bronze with a 12.667).

Pau Jimenez, the 20-year-old who made his senior international debut this year with a couple of world cup appearances and a spot on the Euros team, did a fantastic job to get the bronze, earning a 78.766. There were a few mistakes throughout his competition, but he really impressed on his top events, winning the vault title with a 14.217 average, and also getting a pair of bronze medals on floor and rings.

Rounding out the top eight were Dietmar Reinhardt in fourth with a 77.967, Joshua Jack Williams in fifth with a 77.667 (he also won silver on high bar with a 13.0 and bronze on parallel bars with a 13.933), 2020 Olympian Nicolau Mir in sixth with a 77.666, Daniel Carrión in seventh with a 77.265 (and the second-best pommels score with a 13.2), and Adria Vera in eighth with a 76.632.

Sergio Kovacs dominated in the junior men’s field, winning the all-around with a 78.516 in addition to getting golds on floor (13.7), vault (14.125 average), and parallel bars (13.533), and the silver on high bar (12.733). He was followed by Marco Bencomo with a 76.749 for the silver, and Alvaro Giraldez with a 76.717 for the bronze, with Giraldez capturing gold on rings (12.667) and on high bar (12.867), though he fell a bit short on floor and pommels, leaving him a bit below what he’s capable of.

Rounding out the top eight were Alberto Lopez in fourth with a 74.750 (he also won the pommel horse title with a 12.3), Gabriel Barris in fifth with a 74.034, Aitor Gomez in sixth with a 73.167, Pau Sucias in seventh with a 70.165, and Anthony Diaz in eighth with a 68.317.

Sadly missing from the senior competition was last year’s national champion Joel Plata, who suffered a leg injury and had to undergo surgery following a car accident in Portugal shortly before Euros. A number of his teammates were in the car with him, including Olympic medalist Rayderley Zapata, who also sat out this weekend, but Plata was the only one with a serious prognosis. The good news is that he’s training again, and while he’s not yet competition-ready and may not be for some time, I hope seeing what Perez managed to do here after two years of pain and setbacks and recovery can inspire him to return better than ever when he’s ready.

Complete results from the competition are available in our coverage guide.

Article by Lauren Hopkins