Rio Olympic Arena was a cauldron of contrasting emotions this Sunday (17 April), as thousands of spectators cheered on the Brazilian women's artistic gymnastics team to first place and Olympic qualification but watched in disbelief as traditional powerhouse Romania crashed out.

The Final Gymnastics Qualifier at Rio Olympic Arena, running from Saturday (16 April) to Friday (22 April), is the last chance for gymnasts to earn their places in the Rio 2016 Olympic Games in August. The Brazilian women seized their opportunity with style, putting in a confident and energetic performance that delighted the home crowd.  With a strong team including 16-year old Flavia Saraiva, who won three medals at the 2014 Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, and 31-year old Daniele Hypólito, who in 2001 became the first Brazilian gymnast to win a world medal, Brazil will be among the contenders for a medal at the Olympic Games.

The gymnasts said the support of the crowd of 10,063 was crucial to their success. 

“I was more confident in the competition arena than in the warm-up area. The crowd gave us the strength and the peace of mind to perform” 

Daniele Hypólito, Brazilian gymnast

It was a very different story for the Romanian team, who left the arena in tears without talking to the media. For a team that has won a medal at every Olympic Games since 1976, it was a difficult blow to take. The Romanians were unable to recover from a poor performance on the bars despite the best efforts of five-time Olympic medallist Catalina Ponor.

 

Today it was a sad day for us , Romania unfortunately didn't qualify for Olympics , so sad for me cause actually I come back from retirement just for this .... Well didn't happened ! I don't know what it will happened from now on but I wanna say Thank u for everyone for your support and wanna thank u first to all brasilians that they were calling out loud my name !That was the best moment , a feeling that I haven't feel from long time ago ! I fight for this team till the end I wanted to show that whatever wanna do , u can ! And yes I can still do gymnastics beside my age and not only to do , I still can do at high level ! Anyways thank u again for all your support it was an amazing feeling to compete here in Rio ! Love u all

Uma foto publicada por Catalina Ponor (@catalina_ponor) em Abr 17, 2016 às 2:11 PDT

Germany, Belgium and France grabbed the other three team berths for Rio 2016, pushing Australia and Switzerland into fifth and sixth places. Romania could only achieve the seventh position, with Republic of Korea in eighth.

The four qualifiers from the weekend join the USA, Russia, Great Britain, China, Italy, Japan, Canada and the Netherlands in the women's team competition at Rio 2016.

“The crowd was very involved and respectful. None of our opponents were booed, and all the gymnasts were supported and applauded”

Jade Barbosa, Brazilian gymnast

Individual excellence

Although Switzerland did not qualify for the Olympic Games in the team event, the country's Giulia Steingruber dominated the all-around competition to win the individual gold. Flavia Saraiva took home the silver and Tabea Alt of Germany won the bronze. 

Also coming to Rio will be Oksana Chusovitina of Uzbekistan, who will extend an Olympic adventure that dates back to Barcelona 1992, where she won gold with the Unified Team. Rio will be the 40-year-old's seventh Olympic Games, which would be record in gymnastics.

The full list of women's artistic gymnastics qualifiers for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games

Flavia Saraiva delighted the home crowd with her performance (Photo: Rio 2016/Alex Ferro)

Dutch men make history

In the men's event on Saturday (16 April), the first day of the competition, Germany, Ukraine, the Netherlands and France secured the last team berths at the Olympic Games. They joined Japan, China, Great Britain, Russia, USA, Switzerland, Brazil and the Republic of Korea in the line-up.

This is the first time that the Dutch have qualified a full men's team to the Olympic Games. Epke Zonderland, gold medal winner on the high bars in London 2012, steered the team to an unprecedented third place in the test event, which took place on his 30th birthday.

“We had a dream to go to the Olympics with a team and until a few months ago people didn't really believe it but we made it happen”

Epke Zonderland, Dutch gymnast

Ukrainian star Oleg Verniaiev was the best performer in the individual event, setting a commanding score of 92.107 and confirming that he is a force to be reckoned with in the all-around competition as well as on the parallel bars. Jossimar Calvo Moreno of Colombia came in second and John Orozco of the USA was third.

The full list of men's artistic gymnastics qualifiers for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games

More than 10,000 spectators watched the event at Rio Olympic Arena on Sunday (Photo: Rio 2016/Alex Ferro)

The Final Gymnastics Qualifier  continues this Monday (18 April) with the individual apparatus finals. On Tuesday (19 April) Rio Olympic Arena will host the trampoline event. The rhythmic gymnastics competition will take place from Thursday (21 April) to Friday (22 April).

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Follow the race to qualify for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games
 

Rio2016.com is not an absolute authority on qualification for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, which is an ongoing process. Final places will only be confirmed in July 2016 (for the Olympic Games) and August 2016 (for the Paralympic Games). The qualification systems are defined by each sport’s respective International Federation and the International Olympic Committee or International Paralympic Committee, and are subject to change. When an athlete or team wins a quota place for their nation, the final decision on whether this ‘slot’ is used and which athletes are sent is taken by the respective National Olympic Committee or National Paralympic Committee (NOC or NPC). Even when athletes win a ‘nominal’ place for themselves, NOCs/NPCs may have to decide who to send if the number of qualified athletes from one country exceeds the quota.