Japan’s Kenzo Shirai in action during the men’s vault yesterday. Picture: Syed Omar
DOHA: Romania’s 13th-place finish in the women’s team qualification competition might not seem like much but for Gymnastics lovers everywhere, it was arguably one of the most significant developments of the 2018 World Championships so far.
From Nadia Comaneci to Daniela Silivas andAndreea Raducan to Catalina Ponor, Women’s Artistic Gymnastics is littered with remarkable Romanian gymnasts.
In recent times however, the cupboard has been dispiritingly bare. The team has not won a world championship team medal since 2007 and failed to even qualify for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
That was a mighty fall for a nation used to topping Olympic podiums – the women’s team won a medal at every Games from 1972-2012 – and resulted in an intense period of soul-searching.
But in Doha’s Aspire Arena on Sunday, renowned medal-winning coach Nicolae Forminte (ROU) saw something he liked.
Romania’s Carmen Ghiciuc in action.
“Today was a nice present from the gymnasts because for the first time they did a big competition without major mistakes,” Forminte said.
“This is the moment I have been waiting for and from this moment I think we can re-build. First we had to rebuild trust in ourselves and our capacity to compete.”
Reinstated as head coach of the women’s team in September 2016, five years after quitting the post, Forminte has been battling hard to change attitudes.
Carmen Ghiciuc was part of the group that performed a succession of clean routines in Doha, propelling the team ahead of rivals including Ukraine, Spain, Hungary and the Republic of Korea. She knows the public want more but is adamant they are now on the right path.
The General view of the Aspire Dome during the 2018 FIG Artistic Gymnastics Championships.
Ghiciuc and her teammates all live, train and study together in Deva, Romania under the careful eye of their coach and, despite, according to Forminte, a continued lack of serious investment, the set up is starting to pay dividends.
The emergence of gymnasts like Denisa Golgota confirms Forminte’s words. The 16 year old is already the 2018 European Championship silver medallist on Floor and bronze medallist on Vault. Encouragingly, she was not overly delighted with her efforts on Floor on Sunday, despite scoring 13.400 and finishing 11th.
Despite not having the numbers – Forminte thinks he will only have eight or nine senior women to work with in 2019 – the coach does think Golgota’s arrival is just the start.
“From 2020 we will be better,” he said.
