Vanessa Ferrari Competes on Three Events in Italian Club Championships

The first Serie A (Italian club championships) competition took place in Pavia last weekend, and the most exciting thing about it would have to be Vanessa Ferrari's return to the scene. The 2006 world champion competed not on one or two events, as expected, but on three (all but floor), and did a pretty solid job for someone who has been out of action for a long time, scoring 14.15 on vault (Yurchenko-full), 13.45 on bars, and 14.50 on beam (the highest score of the competition). In so doing, she led her team, Brixia, to an easy victory in the first competition of the season (main rival Lissone finished second, 5.25 behind Brixia). We'll be interested to see when Ferrari will start competing floor again, and whether she will in fact make the team which will defend Italy's honor at the European Championships in Milan. She certainly outscored a few of her rivals for a spot on the team on Sunday.


Vanessa Ferrari has some reason to smile again
Photo: Sing Lo/Comaneci Salto)

While Ferrari's return to competition was good news for the Italian women's team, there was some bad news as well. European Championships hopeful Andrea La Spada (representing the home team, Pavia) reportedly broke the thumb of her right hand while doing a round-off double twist in training. She will have to wear a cast for 25 days, although she hopes to have it removed before the 25 days are up. La Spada hopes to compete at the Europeans, even if she's not 100% ready. In yesterday's club competition she was replaced by Belgium's Aagje Vanwalleghem, who, interestingly, was not chosen to compete on what is arguably her best event, vault, competing bars and beam only. Even more interestingly, the other foreigner in the women's Serie A (in this case, the A2, i.e. the second league), Romanian Raluca Haidu, only competed on what is generally perceived to be a weak event for Romanian juniors, bars. Huh?

Other noteworthy news from Pavia would have to include the fact that veteran Monica Bergamelli did not compete, thus reinforcing those retirement rumors (Brixia was represented by Ferrari, Galante, Fasana, and Carnessali instead), and that vault specialist Carlotta Giovannini earned the highest B score of the day, 9.25, on her strongest event, albeit for an easy vault: a layout Yurchenko (difficulty 4.4). Is the European silver medalist returning from injury as well?


Carlotta Giovannini vaulted a layout Yurchenko... (photo: AFP/Getty Images)

In the men's competition, Meda (the powerhouse team represented by Igor Cassina, Andrea Coppolino, Matteo Morandi, and Matteo Angioletti) scored an easy victory over Livorno. Highlights included Cassina's somewhat watered-down 15.55 horizontal bar routine (Kovacs instead of Cassina) and two more 15+ scores on rings by Angioletti and Morandi. Other noteworthy scores of the day included Enrico Pozzi's 15.25 on floor and Jordan Jovchev's 15.25 on rings (obviously).

Complete results of Weekend 1 of the Serie A can be found here. Hopefully some YouTube videos will soon surface as well.

Italian News: New Serie A Season About to Start; Bergamelli Retired?

We have some Italian news for you, courtesy of our Italian correspondents, Luisa and Giulia.

Firstly, it has been reported that Italy's WAG team captain, Monica Bergamelli, has retired from competitive gymnastics to take up a coaching position at her own club, Brixia (also home to Vanessa Ferrari, Paola Galante, and promising junior Erika Fasana). Apparently, news of Bergamelli's retirement was published in the print edition of La Gazzetta dello Sport a couple of days ago. Sadly, we have not been able to get hold of the newspaper, nor did an online search result in any confirmation of the news. Interestingly, Bergamelli is still listed on the Italian Gymnastics Federation's website as a competitor in the upcoming Serie A team championships (see below), so either the federation is a bit slow on the uptake or the 24-year-old has retired from international gymnastics but will continue to represent her club team in the Serie A. We guess we'll find out soon enough...


Monica Bergamelli: retired? (photo: AFP/Getty Images)

Secondly, rumor has it that Enrico Casella is no longer Italy's WAG technical director. We don't know whether this means Casella has also stepped down as head coach of the national team (they are two separate positions). The Federation's website provides no news either way. We'll keep you posted...

Thirdly, the Italian club championships, collectively known as the Serie A, are about to kick off. Like the German Bundesliga, the Serie A is a series of matches between club teams from all over the country. Most of the competitors are Italian, but clubs are allowed to hire foreigners, and some do. Over the years, several Romanian gymnasts have competed in Italy, including Simona Amânar, Florica Leonida, Sabina Cojocar, and Anamaria Tămîrjan. Dutchwomen Verona van de Leur and Loes Linders and Belgian Aagje Vanwalleghem (who also competes in the German Bundesliga) have also been known to make an appearance in the Serie A. This year, Vanwalleghem and Romanian junior Raluca Haidu will be among the foreign competitors on the women's side, representing Pavia and second-league Ginnic Bologna, respectively, while Bulgarian legend Jordan Jovchev will represent Varese in the men's league. Needless to say, anyone who is anyone in Italian gymnastics will represent his or her club team in the Serie A. All the usual suspects are listed (including Vanessa Ferrari, who is apparently about to make her comeback to competitive gymnastics), except Francesca Benolli, who is reportedly nursing a foot injury, and may or may not be contemplating retirement, depending on which source you believe.


Vanessa Ferrari: soon to make a comeback? (photo: EMPICS)

This year's Serie A competitions will take place on February 14-15 (Pavia), February 28-March 1 (Genova), April 18-19 (CR Emilia), and May 9-10 (Livorno). Our Italian spies have promised to keep us updated on the results.

A full list of Serie A competitors can be found on the Italian Gymnastics Federation's website.

Junior Watch (Again)

While the seniors were battling it out in Stuttgart, Tokyo, and Doha last weekend, a French junior squad from which nearly all of the members of the silver-medal-winning 2008 Junior European squad were missing traveled to Ponzano Veneto, Italy, to take on the Italian juniors.

As it happened, the hosts were clearly superior, beating the French, 224.350-211.000. In fact, the French were not just beaten by the "official" Italian junior team, but by the Italian junior-junior team (consisting solely of girls born in 1996). Sounds like Italy has a fair bit of depth, doesn't it?

Our favorite Italian junior, 13-year-old Carlotta Ferlito, only finished 3rd in Ponzano Veneto (55.100), mainly because she only had a 3.9 start value on bars (not sure what happened there). She did, however, post the highest scores on beam (15.000) and floor (14.350), where she does some very good turns and original stuff on her toes. Watch out for Ferlito - she could be another Vanessa Ferrari in the making.


Serena Licchetta (photo: Jasmin Schneebeli-Wochner)

With Ferlito underachieving on bars, the AA title went to Serena Licchetta (56.300), who does a promising floor exercise to Deep Purple's "Smoke on the Water" (here's hoping she'll learn to connect that front double twist and Korbut flip one day!) and mounts bars with a kip to Comaneci. You've got to hand it to the Italians: They do try to come up with original stuff.

Placing 2nd in Ponzano Veneto was 13-year-old Andrea Foti, who hails from the same club as Ferlito (G.A.L. Lissone) and has a very pretty beam exercise with a serious attempt at choreography. Watch her arms - they're nice.

The highest AA score of the day, 56.700, was amassed by 12-year-old Erika Fasana, who competed in the 1996 division. Fasana needs to watch her form, but if she ever learns to point her toes and keep her knees straight, she'll definitely be one to watch. Click here to see a beam routine she did half a year ago.

The top French competitors were Justine Crosato and Marine Brevet (the only member of France's successful 2008 Junior European team to make the trip to Ponzano Veneto). Both scored over 4 points less than the top-ranking Italians.

Full results of the ITA-FRA meet can be found here.