Ukraine leads an All-round clean sweep at Blanc-Mesnil Tournament, 2011
November 18, the first day of the Daniel D’Amato Memorial Tournament, held in Blanc-Mesnil, saw Ukraine reign superior with five of the six all-round medals earned by its representatives. The country also won the team competition.
This was the 21st Daniel D’Amato Memorial Tournament, named after the gymnast turned coach from Blanc-Mesnil, who passed away in 2001. It is also known by the name of Blanc-Mesnil Tournament.
The competition was scheduled for November 18 and 19. Day one featured the team and all-round competitions and the event closed on Saturday with apparatus finals.
This year’s competition boasted of 56 gymnasts belonging to seven different nations.
The participating nations were: Ukraine, Monaco, Austria, Switzerland, Catalonia, host country France and the Czech Republic. Russia, one of the five countries that took part in the competition last year, was missing this year.
Ukraine’s women made a clean sweep in the Parisian suburb on Friday, securing all three medals in the women’s all-round. Khrystyna Sankova earned the title with her top score of 51.350.
She was followed by Yevgenia Cherniy with 50.900 points, while Alyona Vasilyeva was placed third (48.850).
The rest of the top 10 positions were dominated by the host country and the Czech Republic, with the seven positions split exactly half after Austria’s Eileen Lamprecht took the last spot.
On the men’s side, Oleg Vernyayev’s undefeated 86.550 won him the all-round title.
His namesake, Oleg Stepko brought Ukraine the fifth medal by capturing the bronze with 84.950 points. French gymnast Guillaume Augugliaro missed the bronze by 0.800 points.
Swiss gymnast, Pascal Bucher, managed to break the Ukrainian men’s streak by wedging himself between the gold and bronze with his 85.650 score.
The remaining seven positions witnessed France to be a dominant country with its representatives taking up the fourth, sixth, seventh and eighth positions.
Meanwhile, Catalonia occupied the last two of the top 10 spots and Switzerland’s Nils Haller stood fifth.
In the 2010 edition of the Daniel D’Amato Memorial Tournament, the strongest contenders were Ukraine, Russia and France.
Interestingly enough, this year has seen Ukraine and France somewhat consistent as the best and better performers, respectively.
It seems Russia, that took the women’s 2010 all-round title, has only given way to Ukraine by pulling out of the competition this year. Whether this assessment is true or not, it will never be known for sure.
New to the competition this year is Switzerland, and it definitely made its presence felt. It is yet to be seen if it will advance further ahead in the coming years.
Overall, Ukrainian gymnasts’ performance was undisputedly the best. However, it will not be wrong to say that France was the next most prominent nation in the event, keeping aside the only non-Ukrainian win that was snatched by Switzerland.
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