New Kids on the Block: Western Europe

Hopefully there will be some dominance by the girls from these countries. Given up all hope on Ireland until at least 2024 or so, but there really is some awesome talent from Britain, Italy and others.


Britain

Gabby Jupp

Gabby is being toted as the next British great and not without reason as she could easily be the best all-arounder Britain has ever had. Currently performing low difficulty, yet everything looks to be easy to upgrade as she has has plenty of power behind her. Some form issues on bars, and needs more toepoint on beam. Aside from that and the need to upgrade further, she really has all the makings to be a great all-arounder. Gabby places 5th in the European Championships junior all-around and will turn senior in 2013.

Fabulous. Just better toepoint and confidence and this is ready to go. Especially great to see as Britain are usually really weak on beam (the lovely Danusia aside).

Good technique on both and lands completely upright, so seems well capable of upgrading both substantially.

Nice expression here. Needs more extension to really shine here. Again, such an upright landing on the full twisting double that it looks nearly ready to be a double double. Lots of room for upgrades.

Awesome dismount! Nice form and flight.



Angel Romaeo

Angel is a really nifty beam worker with great attack on that apparatus, so perhaps Britain's beam curse will be broken in the new quad. Floor is lovely but needs much more difficulty as it stands, bars are a weak point at the moment. Quite a good vaulter too, good height and form. Maybe won't be an all-arounder, but an excellent beam and vault or floor specialist would be fantastic too. She will turn senior in 2013.

AMAZING. Just lovely and so precise. Straighter legs on her acro skills would be the only real issue, as well as more difficulty needed. She has struggled a bit this year, probably down to growth but this just screams huge potential.

Whoever chorepgraphed this should be taken out and shot. Ughh. She can move though, and shows really nice form here. Tumbles are very weak but I LOVE her whip-whip double tuck. More of this please.

 Very nice, and looks good for an upgrade



Germany

Sophie Scheder

Sophie really shines on bars, definitely looks like she could place in future event finals here. Great long lines help her on beam and floor but both need a lot of work. Vault looks half decent. Could go either way at the moment, event specialist or else massively improve to be a great all-around prospect. Sophie will turn senior in 2013.

Great work, currently has 6.0 difficulty.

Needs a lot of work, nice style and presentation though.

Lovely height




Italy

Enus Mariani

Enus has already shown what a superstar she is, winning the all-around at Euros. She is a little shaky on beam but does not really have a weak event. Great sass and floor choreography, and lovely on bars. Here's hoping she makes the transition to senior just as strongly as her junior performances. Enus turns senior in 2014.

Very exciting to watch, great confidence in her quirky choreo.

Textbook form, great fluid swing too

Once she can iron out the shakiness this is great and Italy are usually strong on beam so hoping for good things here.

This is her second vault, she gets very good height on both and lovely form again



Elisa Meneghini

Elisa placed fourth in the all-around at Euros, counting a fall on beam no less. She really sparkles on floor but like Enus, doesn't have a weak event- which shows in that as well as her high place in the all-around with a huge mistake, she also made all four event finals, the only gymnast to do so. The future looks bright for Italy with these two moving up. Elisa will pave the way first, as she will turn senior in 2013.

Excellent energy, lots of power and room for upgrades. Needs toepoint on her leaps.

Great precision, love how speedy she does everything. Again, toepoint..but this is fabulous.

Lovely clean form and lines. In love her dismount, needs work as she fell on it in event finals as well as the big save it needed her. Bursting with potential though.

Other Italian junior of note: Tea Ugrin



Netherlands


Eythora Thorsdottir

Eythora  is wonderful on beam in particular, with beautiful original combinations. Magnificent elegance, to die for.  Hopefully she can go one better than recent beautiful beam workers from non-gymnastics countries and make event finals. Also lovely on floor, just needs more difficulty on both to really contend. Unfortunately she's quite inconsistent so far, but hopefully that can be ironed out. Can't find when she turns senior, 2014 seems the most likely.

It's never really mistake free, she has tanked quite a few times so this is the best one I can find. Truly the most exciting beam worker in quite a while, stunning grace and lovely turns from her. Beautiful.

More fabulousness. You could quite easily mistake her for a former Soviet great if the video quality was bad. Such grace! More fantastic spins. Great choreography, even if the music freaks me out because it was in Stephen King's IT. 5.2 difficulty here, which isn't that bad for a junior. Needs to upgrade her tumbles of course, but this NEEDS to be seen at world and Olympic level.



Chantysha Netteb

Chantysha is weak on three events but really good on vault, she won the vault title at Euros and is alreayd upgrading. Hoping for good things from what looks like a Kaeslin/Steingruber type gymnast, and it also ties in nicely with Eythora specialising on beam/floor. She turns senior in 2013.

Beautiful form




Spain

Roxana Popa

(only actual photos of her are way too distant)

Roxana had a rough time at the Euros AA, counting a beam and floor fall. Mistakes aside, she is definitely one to keep an eye on, particularly on vault and floor but she could be strong all-around either as although beam and bars are weaker, they are by no means awful. One of the very few juniors outside of the USA with a DTY, in fact she might be the only one. (Well aware USA have some juniors with amanars, but they are an exception!) This ball of energy is great to watch, turning senior in 2013.

Great DTY, no need for an upgrade at all with the new code

Love how bouncy her choreography is, wish she would get into it more though. Very clean tumbling and decent power, lots to work with here.



Next up: The future stars of Eastern Europe and anywhere else