Ana Porgras

Ana Porgras (born 18 December 1993) is a Romanian former artistic gymnast. She won the balance beam gold medal at the 2010 World Championships in Rotterdam and the uneven bars bronze medal at the 2009 World Championships. Porgras was considered to be one of the most artistic gymnasts of her generation, reminiscent of the Eastern European gymnasts of the 1980s. She was awarded the Longines Prize for Elegance in 2011.[1]

Ana Porgras
Personal information
Full nameAna Porgras
Country represented Romania
Born (1993-12-18) 18 December 1993
Galați, Romania
HometownBârlad, Vaslui County, Romania
DisciplineWomen's artistic gymnastics
LevelSenior
ClubFarul Constanta
Head coach(es)Octavian Bellu, Mariana Bitang
Assistant coach(es)Liliana Cozma, Lucian Sandu, Florin Cotuțiu
Former coach(es)Nicolae Forminte
ChoreographerPuia Valer
MusicThe Second Waltz (2009-2010)
RetiredJanuary 16, 2012
Medal record
Women's gymnastics
Representing  Romania
World Championships
2010 RotterdamBalance Beam
2009 LondonUneven Bars
European Championships
2010 BirminghamTeam
FIG World Cup
2009 Stuttgart Balance Beam
2010 Ghent Balance Beam
2010 Ghent Uneven Bars
2011 Paris Balance Beam

Early life and career

Porgras began gymnastics in her native town of Galați with coaches Agripina and Paul Gâlea.[2] Later she joined the Romanian Junior National Team coached by Ramona Micu, Florin Cotuțiu and Daniel Nistor.[3] Porgras had a successful junior career, medaling at various international competitions. In 2007, she won the gold medal on balance beam, bronze with the team, and placed seventh all-around, fifth on vault and eighth on uneven bars at the Massilia Cup.[4] She also won the gold medal on balance beam at the 2008 Junior European Championships and placed ninth all-around and fourth with the team.[5] Towards the end of her junior career she needed knee surgery to repair a detached ligament.[6]

Senior career

2009
Porgras on the balance beam during the beam finals at the 2009 World Championships.
Porgras at the 2009 World Championships uneven bars podium

Not yet fully recovered after knee surgery, Porgras missed the 2009 European Championships. However, she had a promising senior debut at the 2009 World Championships in London. She qualified first on balance beam, second in the individual all-around, third on floor, and seventh on uneven bars.[7] Falls from balance beam in the all-around and balance beam finals prevented her from winning medals in these events, placing seventh all-around and on balance beam. However, she did end her first World Championships experience with a bronze medal on the uneven bars (tied with USA's Rebecca Bross). She also tied for fifth place with Bross on floor. Later that year, Porgras had an excellent showing at the DTB Cup in Stuttgart by winning the gold medal on balance beam.[8] In October 2009, during a ceremony at the Presidential Cotroceni Palace in Bucharest, Porgras received a medal honoring her achievements at the 2009 World Championships.[9]

2010

Still struggling with injuries,[10] Porgras was a member of the team at the 2010 European Championships. She helped the team qualify in second place by competing on balance beam and uneven bars. Individually, she qualified first on beam and seventh on bars.[11] She helped her team win the bronze medal by earning the top mark of the day on beam (14.800)[12] and by scoring 13.700 on uneven bars. During the team finals, Porgras suffered an injury from her balance beam dismount,[13] which forced her to withdraw from the beam and uneven bars finals.[14] After her return to Romania, she was diagnosed with a crack in her right fibula.[13] In September she made a successful comeback at the Ghent World Cup, winning the gold medal on balance beam and a silver medal on uneven bars.[15] One week later she defended her all-around title at the Romanian National Championships and also won gold on balance beam and bronze on floor.[16][17]

In October she was selected in the national team for the 2010 World Championships in Rotterdam. Here she helped her team to place fourth in the team finals by performing on beam, floor and uneven bars.[18] Individually, she placed fifth all around[19] and on uneven bars,[20] respectively, and won the gold medal on balance beam over Rebecca Bross and defending champion Deng Linlin. Porgras was the Romanian women's first world champion since Andreea Răducan won beam and floor in 2001.[21][22]

2011

In April, at the 2011 European Championships Porgras competed on two events only (beam and uneven bars) and failed to make the finals.[23] However, in August 2011 she had a good showing at the Romanian National Championships, winning her third consecutive all-around national title.[24] After a good performance at two friendly meets in Germany and Great Britain, Porgras was selected to the team for the 2011 World Championships. In the qualification day she had a weak performance, grabbing the beam on her switch ring and falling on her double layout dismount on uneven bars, failing to make the event finals.[25] However, in the team finals competition she helped Romania place fourth by receiving the highest marks on beam (15.300) and uneven bars (14.066) among her team.[26] Individually, she managed a good performance in the all-around final, but she only placed sixth due to small mistakes on floor and the low difficulty of her vault exercise.[27] She was awarded one of the two Longines Prize for Elegance in 2011.[1]

After injuring her elbow during a training camp in France she announced her retirement from gymnastics in January 2012, only seven months away from the 2012 Olympic Games in London, England.[28]

Competitive history
Year Event Team AA VT UB BB FX
2007Elite Gym Massilia3rd7th5th8th1st
2008European Championships (Junior)4th9th1st
2009Stuttgart World Cup1st
World Championships7th3rd7th5th
2010European Championships3rd
Ghent World Cup2nd1st
Romanian National Championships1st1st3rd
SUI-GER-ROU Friendly1st1st
World Championships4th5th5th1st
2011Romanian National Championships1st
SUI-GER-ROU Friendly1st1st
World Championships4th6th

References
  1. International Gymnast Magazine Uchimura takes third world all around title, Amanda Turner, October 14
  2. Steliana Nistor Unofficial website Archived 2012-02-16 at the Wayback Machine Ana Porgras and Anamaria Tamarjan are both struggling with injuries, English compilation of articles (Romanian) in Prosport by Mirela Basescu, November 2009
  3. Steliana Nistor, Unofficial website Archived 2011-10-04 at the Wayback Machine Provisional list for Europeans, March 2008
  4. International Gymnast Magazine Galante Wins Massilia Cup, November 25, 2007
  5. European Union of Artistic Gymnastics Statistics 2008 European Artistic Gymnastics Championships
  6. International Gymnast Magazine Three Romanians face recovery, Amanda Turner, November 26, 2008
  7. International Gymnast Magazine Prelims Conclude: Bross takes top ranking, Dwight Normile, October 14, 2009
  8. International Gymnast Magazine China takes four as DTB cup concludes, Amanda Turner, November 14, 2009
  9. Epoch Times Romania Marian Drǎgulescu and Mihai Covaliu decorated at Cotroceni (Romanian), October 20, 2009
  10. Prosport With bleeding hands (Romanian) April 27, 2010 by Mirela Băsescu
  11. Longines Timing 28th European Artistic Gymnastics Championships: List of qualifiers
  12. International Gymnast Magazine Russian women reclaim European title, by Amanda Turner, May 1, 2010
  13. International Gymnast Magazine X-rays reveal broken bone for Porgras, by Amanda Turner, May 5, 2010
  14. International Gymnast Magazine Tweddle, Russia bid golden farewell to Birmingham, by Amanda Turner, May 2, 2010
  15. International Gymnast Magazine Guo golden in Gent as world cup concludes, by Amanda Turner, September 12, 2010
  16. International Gymnast Magazine Porgras, Koczi defend Romanian titles, by Amanda Turner, September 18, 2010
  17. Romanian Gymnastics Federation Final events dominated by Sandra Izbașa and Flavius Koczi
  18. International Gymnast Magazine Russian women win firs world team title, by Amanda Turner, October 20, 2010
  19. International Gymnast Magazine Uchimura, Mustafina win all around titles, by Amanda Turner, October 22, 2010
  20. International Gymnast Magazine British best in day 1 of event finals, by Amanda Turner, October 23, 2010
  21. International Gymnast Magazine Bouhail, Mitchell make gymnastics history, by Amanda Turner, October 24, 2010
  22. LIVE: Finalele pe aparate la Campionatul Mondial. Ana Porgras este campioana mondiala!!! Archived 2012-07-16 at Archive.today Onlinesport.ro
  23. International Gymnast Magazine Mustafina dominates Berlin qualifications, by Amanda Turner, April 6, 2011
  24. International Gymnast Magazine Archived 2012-06-06 at the Wayback Machine Porgras takes third Romanian title, by Amanda Turner, August 29, 2011
  25. International Gymnast Magazine Romania leads gymnastics worlds after day one, by Amanda Turner, October 7, 2011
  26. Gymnastics Results Archived 2012-02-08 at the Wayback Machine 2011 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships
  27. "Wieber wins women's all around title". International Gymnast Magazine. October 13, 2011.
  28. International Gymnastics Magazine Romanian star Ana Porgras calls it quits, by Amanda Turner, January 16, 2012
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