Azzurre on the platform today for the team final in artistic gymnastics, thanks above all to the splendid competition played two days ago by the veteran Vanessa Ferrari. The champion from Brescia, in perfect physical shape, appeared very concentrated right from the start and started a floor exercise that took her to the final in this specialty as well (August 7, at 17,20pm).
The appointment today is at 17,30 (Italian time) at the North Greenwich Arena in London and Italy makes its debut with the floor exercise, probably the most beautiful and fascinating "tool" of this discipline. Unfortunately, in recent years the free body has become more and more "gymnastic" and acrobatic and less and less "artistic". There are few athletes who, between one difficulty and another, between a double somersault and one with a twist, know how to put grace and body expression. Vanessa Ferrari has these qualities, she is capable of combining the perfection of the athletic gesture with the beauty of movement.
In order, Carlotta Ferlito, Vanessa Ferrari and Erika Fasana perform. Next try the vault, then parallel bars and finally the beam. Italy are starting from seventh place and their medal hopes are low, but having reached the final is already quite an achievement. The complete ranking sees the United States in the lead, followed by Russia, China, Romania, Great Britain, Japan, Italy and Canada.
Vanessa Ferrari and Carlotta Ferlito also qualified for the final in the Concorso Generale, Thursday 2 August, again at 17:30, thanks to a sixth and seventeenth place.
In this regard, however, it is inevitable to observe how unfair the Olympic regulations are. Only for reasons of rules and not of merit, the American world champion Jordyn Wieber remained out of the final, since she was "only" ranked fourth behind two colleagues from the same team. There are two places available for each nation and so a fantastic gymnast who could fight for the podium on Thursday will have to stay on the bench and watch athletes much less good than her.
The shadow of the regulation extended yesterday also over the men's team final, won with full merit by China. One of the favourites, Japan, looked set to finish first of the non-prize winners after a series of mistakes. Much depended on the pommel horse exercise by Kohei Uchimuraha, who, after a clean exercise, even if not brilliant, completely missed the exit, slipping with his hand on the horse's back, without being able to complete the vertical and finishing in a very messy way.
The score left no doubts: first China with 275.997 points, second Great Britain, 271.711, third Ukraine, 271.526, fourth Japan just a few hundredths behind their opponents. A penalty point, for that missed vertical, was the only difference that separated Japan from a medal. The appeal of the Japanese and the dispute between the judges immediately started: was the vertical really to be considered completely missing, as assessed immediately? On the monitors the footage of that truncated exercise was broadcast over and over again, leaving few doubts in the viewers, but instilling many, it seems, in the judges. It is cruel to waste years of effort and effort in a single exercise, in a single trivial mistake, but sport has no heart. Yet the protest of the Japanese made inroads: the vertical was recognized at least halfway and the score of the exercise retouched from 13.466 to 14.166: that was enough, because thanks to this rethinking Japan, with a total of 271.952 points, even finished second , knocking Ukraine off the podium and demoting the hosts to third place.
Two episodes, that of Wieber and that of Uchimuarha, which leave a little bitterness in the mouth, in a sport that fascinates the public more and more and which could have an even more important future than the present, two episodes that question the The only imperative that should govern every sport: may the best man win.
However, men's artistic gymnastics will be back in the limelight tomorrow, again at 17,30 pm Italian time with the All Around individual final, and the blues Enrico Pozzo and Paolo Ottavi. The next appointment is for 5 August at 16:30, it is the pommel horse final, where Alberto Busnari is fourth; then on 6 August at 15 pm for the final in the rings, with Matteo Morandi, in contention for a medal, second just one tenth of a point behind the Olympic champion, the Chinese Yibing Chen (15.858).
