2012 European Team Finals

2012 European Team Final: click here for detailed results

1. Romania 176.288
2. Russia 175.536
3. Italy 171.430
4. Great Britain 167.763
5. France 164.295
6. Belgium 163.821
7. Spain 163.522
8. Germany 160.497

Romania won over Russia! I'm not surprised. Romania was exceptionally good tonight except for bars. Romania looked well prepared and ooooooozed confidence. The Russians were headcasey as usual. What does this mean? Not much in my opinion. Even with Russia's issues (which the judges were hammering them) they still managed to finish close behind Romania by -0.752 points. Of course though, Romania's new star Larisa Iordache did fall off beam but Russia wasn't too far behind Romania considering they weren't in 100% full force. Russia has a lot of work to do but I'm not too worried. Komova did not perform on all events and Mustafina is progressing well considering she is coming back from a serious injury. She showed more difficulty on floor. Mustafina's double arabian is fantastic. I especially liked her prelims double arabian + stag, so much power and aggression. Mustafina is slowly regaining back all her difficulty.

Russia still has time to get their gymnasts to be at their ultimate peak. Europeans is not the place to peak and dominate. Plus they still have other strong contenders sitting at home, while a team like Romania lacks less depth. Octavian Bellu, "Russia is Russia. We know what they are able to do when they are in big form." I'm also pretty sure that Romania will have some surprises up their sleeves come London time. Romania winning over Russia makes the Olympics even more exciting. Throw in the Americans and the Chinese and there will be a showdown. I've always heard the term never count out the Romanians and it's so true. I would also like to point out that China should never be written off too.

Aliya Mustafina on UB. Beast.