Spain closed its Frankfurt World Championship as it started: by getting on the podium. The Spanish rhythmic gymnastics team won the silver medal on Sunday in the final of three hoops and two pairs of clubs, the last event of the championship, with a score of 29.050 points (13.800 in difficulty, 7.150 in execution, and 8.100 in artistry). Only Brazil, with 29.450, finished ahead of the Spanish team that, just twenty-four hours after being crowned world champions in the all-around, once again demonstrated that their level is not a one-day wonder.
Read more The Government denies a health “collapse” and demands spaces in Ceuta to care for migrants
Inés Bergua, Andrea Corral, Marina Cortelles, Lucía Muñoz, and Salma Solaun were responsible for performing the routine with which Spain had already achieved its best score of the championship in the qualification phase. Bulgaria completed the podium with 28.750, ahead of Japan and Israel, who tied at 28.300, and Germany, the host of the World Championship, which scored 28.200.
The medal also comes after a more complicated morning. In the five balls final, held hours earlier, the Spanish team, with Andrea Fernández this time taking Cortelles’ place, could not repeat the solidity of the all-around and finished fifth, with 27.450 points (13.300 in difficulty, 6.600 in execution, and 7.550 in artistry). The gold went to Brazil, which posted exactly the same score that it would repeat hours later in hoops and clubs, 29.450, followed by China (28.900), Bulgaria (28.400), and Ukraine (28.300).
Read more A bull of triumph vanished in the confirmation of Antonio Puerta in Madrid
The final balance of the Frankfurt World Championship for Spain is, nevertheless, extraordinary: gold in the all-around competition, the second in the history of the Spanish team, thirty-five years after Athens 1991, a direct spot for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games, and now a silver that confirms that the team led by Alejandra Quereda and Ana Pelaz does not depend on a single routine to compete with the best in the world.
Brazil, champion in both apparatus finals this Sunday, reaffirms itself as the great threat of the upcoming Olympic cycle, after having already won bronze in the all-around on Saturday. For Spain, however, the summary of this week at the Festhalle is simple: they came to Germany seeking an Olympic spot and are leaving with that, a world title, and one more medal around their neck.
Read more Seized in Tenerife 13 tons of ‘laughing gas’, the second largest haul of this drug in Europe
