December 18, 2020 – The Croatia women’s gymnastics team will fight in four finals at the European Championships in Mersin on Sunday!
Namely, T.portal reports that Tijana Korent, Ana Đerek, Christina Zwicker, Tina Zelčić, and Petra Furač will fight in the Croatia team final, and in the hunt for individual medals, Korent will perform on the vault and Zwicker on uneven bars and balance beam.
The Croatia women’s team took sixth place in Thursday’s qualifiers with 140,064 points and will fight in the final among the six best European teams in Mersin on Saturday.
The Croatia women’s gymnastics team’s only individual final so far was achieved by Tijana Korent in the European Championships in Moscow in 2013. Now, seven years later, Tijana has achieved another final, after she was eighth in the qualifiers with 13,383 points.
“I am overjoyed and very pleased to qualify for the final on the vault. I am also looking forward to the team entering the final because it is a special result. We haven’t played as a team for a long time, so I’m really looking forward to the final on Saturday. I am happy that I could be here at all after everything that happened to me; we finally needed a little luck in this competition. Waiting for this result was really good to train the nerves because waiting until the last gymnast in the qualifiers to see whether you entered the final or not, after already having performed, is something that this sport brings. Still, it is not the most comfortable feeling,” said Koret.
Croatian Gymnastics Federation
Christina Zwicker will be in two finals on Sunday. She was seventh on the uneven bars with 12,600 points. At the same time, she finished 10th on the beam (12,100) but entered the final as the seventh, as there were four Romanians and three Ukrainians ahead of her, and only two representatives of one country can be in the final.
“This turned out better than expected. I performed as I planned; the bars and beams were excellent, resulting in the finals. But still, two finals… That was not expected. I knew that if I did well and if everything was arranged properly, it would be possible, but in two… I didn’t expect that. Plus, we also made it to the team finals; I’m really very happy and satisfied. I have no words. I start talking, and there are tears of joy,” said 18-year-old Zwicker.
Croatia’s best gymnast, Ana Đerek, came to Mersin only a few hours before the qualifications. She was fatigued, out of training, and uncertain of whether she would come to Turkey at all (she only received a negative COVID result on Wednesday).
“For me, these qualifiers have not been very successful, but we have a team final, and that is great. I made two mistakes that cost me two finals but considering everything I went through last week and what I did is quite OK. I know I can do a lot better, and I know it’s not fair that everything was so complicated and went the wrong way for me, but it’s also a part of life, and I know you don’t always get what you deserve. However, gymnastics taught me the most times how to get up after you fall, and now I am repeating the material,” said Ana Đerek.
On Friday, the junior qualification program will be held where Croatia is represented by Sara Šulekić (ZTD Hrvatski Sokol), Emi Matoščević (GK Rijeka), Nika Kukuljan Frleta (GK Rijeka), Antea Ercegović (GK Marjan) and Katerina Strinić (GK Marjan).
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