Vanessa Ferrari wins Italian Nationals

Vanessa Ferrari 57.9 UB FX
Erika Fasana (jnr) 56.2 FX UB
Andrea Foti (jnr) 55.1
Paola Galante 54.9 UB (rather laboured, no piked-stalder tkatchev)

Ferrari had barely worked on floor since the European Championships, but decided to risk it at the last minute. She praised Erika Fasana, "she is very nice. If she can follow in my footsteps? I don't know, she's very different from me; her style is more American."

This is the fourth national title for Ferrari. She won in 2005, 2006 and 2007, but was overcome by Lia Parolari last year.

Enrico Casella was satisfied with the performances. He only had one disappointment - the fall on beam from Paola Galante, where she threw away the third place, preventing a sweep of the medals for Brixia.

He said Erika Fasana has great potential, "Vanessa came 5th in her first national championship, in 2003. Erika won the championship of Category Allieve (not sure what this is) and then finished behind the giant Ferrari, only by two points."

More routines here and here.

Roster for Europeans

Turns out Italy is not sending Vanessa after all. And Russia is not sending Maxim Devyatovsky. I'm not surprised, actually, especially after he did very poorly at the Russian championships.

The list is far too long to post here (and I can't recognise all the flags) so here is the link.

I'm looking forward to seeing Ksenia defend her two titles from last year, and also new French senior Youna Dufournet. Hopefully she'll do better than in the American Cup.

Amelia Racea wins junior all-around at Jesolo

At the Jesolo meet on Saturday, Olympian Lia Parolari won the senior all-around title, while Amelia Racea won the all-around in the junior section. The Italian team as a whole performed very well, but Vanessa Ferrari wasn't there after all! EuroEmily Army and Paola Galante also performed very well, both scoring less than a point below Parolari. Elisabetta Preziosa and Serena Licchetta both took falls.
The officials were hoping to use Ferrari in two events at Europeans, but the team here performed very well without her, so she may not be included in the team.

The Brazilians performed all right, but not brilliantly. Dos Santos, Barbosa and Souza are still too injured to compete.

My computer won't display any more of the article, but here are results from the all-around:

Senior AA
Lia Parolari 54.75
He Ning 54.6
Bruna Leal 54.5 (despite a fall on beam)
Paola Galante 54.5
Ana Maria Tamarjan 54.15
Emily Army 53.9
Ethiene Franco 53.25
Serena Licchetta 53.05
Diana Chelaru 52.7
E. Rando (ITA) 51.95

Junior AA
Amelia Racea 55.55
C. Ferlito (ITA) 54.85
E. Fasana (ITA) 54.6
F. de Agostini (ITA) 53.6
Niamh Rippin (GBR) 53.5
Nicole Hibbert (GBR) 53.05
J. Silva (BRA) 52.0
Danusia Francis (GBR) 52.9
Raluca Haidu (ROM) 52.7
A. Rupini (ITA) 52.25

Sandra performed her new floor routine as she did in the Nadia Comaneci Invitational, but didn't do very well, ending up with only 13.7.

amc81 has many of the routines posted.