The ladies from Great Britain posted the top score in the Senior European Team qualifications ahead of Romania and Russia. Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Belarus and Spain will also advance to the Team Final. 

Giulia Steingruber of Switzerland was the top qualifier on vault with a 14.674. Rebecca Downie of Great Britain lead the uneven bar qualifier with a 15.1. Aliya Mustafina of Russia also scored a 15.1 but Downie had a higher execution score, bumping Mustafina to second. Larisa Iordache of Romania had the highest score on beam and floor with pair of 15.0’s.

Release via Great Britain Below:
Great Britain’s senior women's artistic gymnastics team produced a sensational performance in the qualification at the 2014 European Championships in Sofia to top the team rankings.

Hannah Whelan, Rebecca Tunney, Rebecca Downie, Ruby Harrold and Claudia Fragapane all contributed faultless routines to the team total of 172.147 points which saw them sit proudly at the top of the scoreboard ahead of Romania (171.130) and Russia (170.621).

The mood was set starting off on beam, a notoriously nervy apparatus, where all girls showed fantastic composure which continued and strengthened throughout the competition. The team score was the main target for the girls but there were also outstanding individual performances that see gymnasts in to individual apparatus finals on Sunday.

16 year old GBR debutante Claudia Fragapane powered her way in to the floor (2nd scoring 14.766) and vault (3rd scoring 14.462) finals with Rebecca Downie 5th in the beam rankings (scoring 14.200) and top on bars scoring a magnificent 15.100. If it wasn’t for the two per country into final ruling GBR could have had three girls in the bars final, Rebecca Tunney joins Rebecca Downie placing in 3rd scoring 14.966 with Ruby Harrold missing out in 7th spot.

Hannah Whelan said, “We are all just so proud of that performance. We are a very close team and every girl produced for the team today.  The support for the British fans in the crowd really spurred us on and we couldn’t have asked for much more – to be top of the rankings is an incredible achievement.”
 

Subdivision 1: Norway, Azerbaijan, Finland, Sweden, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Ukraine and Latvia. 

Subdivision 2: Lithuania, Luxembourg, Croatia, Austria, Switzerland, Greece, Georgia and Cyprus.

Subdivision 3: Ireland, Iceland, Belarus, Portugal, Turkey, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Israel and the Netherlands

Subdivision 4: Germany, Russia, Romania, Belgium, Spain, Great-Britain, France and Italy.