“No big deal, this is part of the process”: Nina Derwael falls from bars and beam at the European Championships, Maellyse Brassart takes Olympic ticket

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Team Belgym achieved its main goal at the European Championships in Rimini: Maellyse Brassart (22) can go to the Olympic Games in Paris, together with the previously placed Nina Derwael (24). The Walloon was the bright spot with four strong exercises, which she performed under very heavy pressure. This made her eleventh all-round, but the best of those who had not yet qualified for the Games. She can still go to Paris with Derwael. However, a bridge final was not possible.

“It was good, I brought the exercises I wanted to bring,” Brassart said. “I had a lot of stress, especially on Wednesday evening it was difficult for me to get it under control. But this morning I got up and went for it. I’m so happy it worked out.”

For the rest, Rimini mainly delivered disappointments. As a team, Belgium (ninth) made too many mistakes to reach the final. Spearhead Derwael fell twice. For her comeback on the parallel bars, the ambitious Truiense had opted for an exercise with a starting value of 6.0, much more difficult than the 5.7 that coach Ulla Koch had promised. The Olympic champion performed well, until she lost her balance shortly before the dismount and lowered herself from the high bar to the ground. That cost her a point deduction and her planned starting value dropped to 5.8. A final score of 12.833 was far too low to reach the final with the best eight, she was only 47th.

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Derwael: “We knew in advance that this European Championship was actually a bit too early for my bridge exercise. I was two weeks short of starting that race with a confident feeling. But I started very well and actually the hardest part was over when I still went into the fog. Did I lack fitness? Yes and no. I had done very few full exercises in training. But it could also have been a moment of inattention. I was almost there, the hardest part was over and then it all went wrong. I will have to pay attention to that in the near future. The fall of the beam, on the other hand, should never have happened.”

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The Truiense also started well on that beam, but she fell during her triple pirouette. Instead of third, she finished twentieth with 12.833. She had the most difficult time with this mistake. “I was well prepared on beam and I also started very stable. But at the start of my triple pirouette I felt myself becoming unstable. I wanted to stop after two pirouettes, but I still fell. I have to watch the footage again because I don’t even know what happened.”

Derwael had come to Rimini with the ambition to reach two finals. That did not work. “I had a fairly utopian trajectory in my career so far: I stood where I wanted to stand at almost all major championships. Today is the first time that things have been disappointing at a championship. That’s a lesson for myself, but I won’t let that get to me.”

“This means nothing to Paris”

Derwael was quickly able to put aside the disappointment and continued to look positively ahead to the Games. “This means nothing to Paris. I came here to compete again and demonstrate a bridge exercise. I did that, albeit not perfectly. But I had passed the part where I had the most doubt during training. I look back on this experience positively. At the bridge this was an intermediate step, an exercise that was specially put together for today. If I can do what I have in mind, the bridge exercise in Paris won’t be anything like this. I have had a good training week here that has given me a lot of energy. If I were to be at my peak now, it wouldn’t be good for the Games either. This is a process, and just under three months before Paris, we are on schedule in that process. “We have drawn up a very good plan with my team for the Games.”

Derwael also recalled that the run-up to her gold medal in Tokyo was far from smooth, with slip-ups in Osijek and Ghent. There were tears involved then, not now. “History repeats itself. There is a lot to learn from it. And just like then, we will continue to work. I don’t regret my choice to participate here. The training of the past few days has given me a lot of energy. It didn’t go as planned, but I can only take positive things with me.”

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Finally, Erika Pinxten fell from the bars, but scored well on beam and floor. She finished 36th all-round. “Not completely flawless, but an okay match,” said the Hasselt native. She remains the first reserve for Paris and can come in until the last minute. That’s why she will approach the Games as if she has been placed. “I will rest my back after this European Championship, but then I will train for a possible substitute in Paris.”

Bilzer’s Dorien Motten competed in her first championship for her adopted country, Georgia. With a wrapped knee and incompletely repaired elbow, she did not reach her highest level. She finished 71st all-round, but was ecstatic. “I am very proud that I was able to experience a European Championship at the age of 32, all-round. I feel sixteen years old and am now going to start working towards the Los Angeles Games in four years.”

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