Highlights of #ACRO2023

A sunny week on the Black Sea Coast, an even sunnier week inside Varna’s Palace of Culture as Europe’s best Acrobatic gymnasts offered a marvellous 5-day show, witnessed by our mischievous mascot Luigi and thousands of people around the globe.

Here are our 8 highlights, in particular order!

Belgium’s finest

Truly in a league of their own, Sofie Jaeken, Mirte Vercauteren and Lauren Verbrugghe, outclassed the entire field. The trio showed by far the highest difficulty, in addition to the highest artistry and execution score to clinch their first title, in the Dynamic final. And there was no stopping them. A brilliantly choreographed combined exercise amassed a grand total of 86.780. More than 5 points more than their nearest rivals, for the All-Around gold. On the last day, the Belgium trio confirmed their ‘leaders of the pack’ status, returning home with not 1, not 2 but all 3 European titles!

Lifted by the crowd

The support of the very vocal Portuguese fans seemed to truly lift Monica Lima and Maria Marvao as they aced their dynamic routine, the most difficult one in this final. Their reward? The European title!

Twin power

Siblings in gymnastics? Not that uncommon. Twins in gymnastics? Also happens. Twins both becoming European Champion, each in a different women’s pair? Highly unusual! And yet, Mia and Leni Ohlsen did just that.

Leni Ohlsen partnered with Laura Karczmarzyk in the senior competition. The duo aced their balance routine for the win, followed by victory in the all-around and silver in dynamic.

Twin sister Mia Ohlsen competed in the junior category, together with Alisa Karsdorf. They showed the audience that the highest difficulty doesn’t always win. The talented ladies earned their merit due to excellent artistry and execution to clinch the European title for their Balance routine with 27.340.

How cool is this?!

The Land of Fire, Azerbaijan, truly was on fire in Varna! Topping the medal table with a whopping 7 gold and 2 silver medals.  

Difficulty combined with wonderful artistry and execution, experienced mixed pair Aghasif Rahimov and Raziya Seyidli impressed the crowd, comfortably claiming all three titles with gorgeous performances.

Daniel Abbasov and Murad Rafiyev also showed their worth, outclassing their rivals, on the way to scoring a hattrick of their own in the men’s pairs category.

The Greatest Show

When the men’s groups hit the floor, the audience knows it is in for a treat: entertaining choreographies, great music choice and a daring display of skills.

And competition was fierce! In the Dynamic final, for example, less than a tenth of a point separated the three medallists. Gold for Portugal’s recently crowned European All-Around Champions Vicente Colaco, Goncalo Sampaio, Nuno Antos and Joao Teles who beat Ukraine’s Stanislav Kukurudz, Yurii Savka, Yurii Push and Taras Yarush (UKR) by just 0.020. Great Britain clinched the bronze, courtesy of Harley Curtis-Lawrence, Hector Kinghorn, William Clark and Harry Hole.

History for Italy

In the junior Mixed Pairs dynamic final, the top 2 qualifiers Italy and Ukraine battled it out for the title. Both pairs posted the same difficulty score. While Ivan Labunets and Yevfrosyniia Kryvytska (UKR) ranked higher in execution, Edoardo Ferraris and Arianna Luca (ITA) ranked by far the highest in artistry. The first ever medal for Italy, and it is gold! The duo continued their wonderful efforts, claiming silver in the all-around and in the balance final. What a week for Italy!

Ukraine’s aces

On the last day of competition, Ukraine pulled a pair of aces out of its sleeves during the junior finals. First, Ruzanna Vecheruk and Anhelina Cherniavska produced a stunning dynamic exercise to easily win the title.

Next, Ivan Labunets and Yevfrosyniia Kryvytska outclassed the entire field, posting a whopping 28.400. Their execution and artistry truly was out of this world.

The SmartScoring Shooting Star award goes to … Alina Puhach (UKR) and Daniel Blintsov (GER)!

For Alina Puhach, life as she knew it ended on 24 February2022. That day the full-scale war in her country started. Training was interrupted by alarms and rockets flying. Finding refuge in Belgium the first months of the war, the young Ukrainian has since returned home to train with her coaches Yurii Golyak and Halyna Kovalchuk and teammates Elina Kozachanska and Karina Ostrovska. Studying at university, combined with high-level training, is never an easy feat. Add to that the repercussions of war and it becomes near impossible. However, Alina perseveres in this difficult situation, like last winter when there was no electricity due to bombing of the energy facilities. She’s grateful to participate in international competitions as she views it as an opportunity to remind the world about Ukraine.

To say that Acro runs in his blood, is an understatement when it comes to Daniel Blintsov. Coached by his parents Nina and Igor Blintsov, Daniel lives and breathes Acro. As a gymnast, success came in the mixed pair category with Pia Schuetze, winning medals at the 2021 Europeans, 2021 and 2022 World Championships and the 2022 World Games. Now partnering with Diana Lust, he continues to impress, winning medals at the World Cup stages and at these Europeans! Daniel is also the gymnast who participated in the most European Training Camps. As a person, Daniel actively contributes to sharing his knowledge and friendship with other gymnasts from European countries. Passionate about sport, Daniel recently got selected as volunteer for the Gymnastics competitions at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Who better to promote our sport than Daniel?!

Our heartful thanks goes to the Local Organising Committee and the Bulgarian Federation of Sports Acrobatic for putting on a fabulous display. And to all gymnasts, we couldn’t have asked for better promotion for our sport.