Olympic champion Nina Derwael exchanged her trusted place on the gymnastics mat for this European Championship in one in the comment booth. There she saw how her teammates reached the final of the team competition without any problems.
Belgium owed this, among other things, to good exercises by Jutta Verkest on beam and floor, but especially to the regularity of Lisa Vaelen. On the bridge with uneven bars, the 18-year-old Vaelen already set the tone and the final chord came on the last device, the jump.
With 13,616 (14,200 for her first jump!) she achieved the fourth best result on that device. In addition, the hair catapulted to the top of the individual ranking.
For a moment, Vaelen was allowed to dream of a medal, but the Italian women were superior. Martina Maggio made a crucial mistake on her last device, the bridge, which forced her to make peace with bronze instead of silver or gold. The European title went to Asia D’Amato, ahead of British Alice Kinsella.
