Pictured: Adelina Beljajeva with team mates, fellow rythmic gymnasts Rayna Khai Ling Hoh (Malaysia) and Roza Abitova (Kazakhstan)
In the international mixed multi-discipline team event held in the Youth Olympics for the first time the gymnasts specializing in various sports (artistic, rhythmic, trampoline and acrobatic gymnastics) were divided into teams named after famous gymnastics figures, for example, Alina Kabajeva, Anna Bessonova, Nadia Comăneci, Oksana Chusovitina, Simone Biles, etc. Twenty-one routines in different gymnastics disciplines were included in the event.
By lot, Estonian rhythmic gymnast Adelina Beljajeva became a member of the team named after two-time Olympic winner Max Whitlock together with Malaysian rhythmic gymnast Rayna Khai Ling Hoh and Kazakhstan rhythmic gymnast Roza Abitova; the team also included the mixed pair of acrobats Madalena Cavilhas and Manuel Candeias (POR), male artistic gymnasts Fernando Espindola (ARG), Takeru Kitazono (JAP) and Pablo Calvache (ECU), female artistic gymnasts Camila Montoya (CRC), junior champion of Europe Kseniia Klimenko (RUS) and Zeina Ibrahim (EGY), and trampoline gymnasts Robert Vilarasau (ESP) and Jessica Clarke (GBR).
The fifteen-year-old Beljajeva said after the competition that the team medal is of great value for her. “It is important to be equal to large countries with long-term gymnastics traditions. I am very happy, and I would also like to demonstrate my skills in the adult category, where I am going to start competing next year,” said Adelina Beljajeva, who is this year’s junior champion of Estonia.
Points were gathered in accordance with the results in individual events. The winner team consisting of the leader of the qualification event in artistic gymnastics Daria Trubnikova (RUS) and Talisa Torretti (ITA), who qualified second, gathered 292 points. The bronze multi-discipline team got 352 points. Adelina Beljajeva’s team got 349 points. A total of 12 teams participated in the event.
Beljajeva received 14.050 point for the hoop routine, 14.250 for the ball routine, 13.975 for the clubs routine, and 12.000 points for the ribbon routine, 54.275 point in total. This result secured her the 18th place among 36 rhythmic gymnasts in the individual all-around event. The 8 best in the individual event in rhythmic gymnastics will start competing for medals in the finals of the Youth Olympics on 16 October.
The team medal in gymnastics is the second for athletes in the Estonian team: yesterday rower Greta Jaanson won bronze in the single sculls event. For Estonia, these are the first ever medals in the Summer Youth Olympics, which were first held in 2010 in Singapore. Estonia has two Winter Youth Olympics medals: biathlete Rene Zahkna won two silver medals in Innsbruck in 2012.