The 20-year-old from Asu Udine enchants in Baku by winning the specialty of the ball. First success in the competition. Coach Dragas: “Good, but not at the top”
BAKU. Mameli’s anthem resounded at the Milli Gimnastika Arenas in Baku, Azerbaijan, and it was all for Alexandra Agiurgiuculese, protagonist of a prodigious competition in the third stage of the World Cup of rhythmic gymnastics. After the spectacular qualifications, which had allowed her to obtain the fourth place overall in the all around and four out of four specialty finals, the Air Force Airman managed to put the gold medal on the ball around her neck: the first for her in a stage of the World Cup (she had already won in Portimao, but it was the World Challenge Cup).
The performance of the twenty-year-old Udine star at the ball was rewarded with a score of 26,350, putting her in front of the Russian Daria Trubnikova and the Bulgarian Boryana Kaleyn. «I am very happy with the medal – says Alex – and also with the fourth place on Saturday in the all around. I have changed the exercise to the ball many times and I think this is the decisive version, the one that gives the chills and excites. I am proud of the path I am taking, step by step. I hope to continue like this, indeed to improve further to reach the Tokyo Games in top condition ».
The Baku appointment was in fact the first international competition in which Agiurgiuculese participated after more than a year and a half and after the long stop caused by Covid which had practically forced her to start from scratch, also questioning her presence at the Olympics, given that the qualification is not nominal, but per nation. «It was a more than excellent start – specifies the coach Spela Dragas, who follows her together with Magda Pigano and the choreographer Laura Miotti – because in this competition there was so much at stake. If he had failed, the possibility of participating in the next World Cup in Pesaro and even in the European Championship and, therefore, also in the Tokyo Games would have been removed. Alex had not only the first international challenge ahead of him, but also an internal confrontation to confirm himself in the blue “top two”. The victory in Baku does not really mean anything in this sense, the physical form is not yet ideal and the same goes for the program, but I am happy because at the first exit we have already shown that we have a competitive program, which we will fix again ».
The performance of the Asu Udine butterfly at the clubs was also good, where he nearly won bronze finishing in fourth place with 25,300 points, just 0.500 points from the podium.
Alex then finished seventh in the circle (22,500) and eighth in the tape (17,500), where she ran into several errors and losses of the tool. –