Last weekend, the Rheintal gymnasts Lea Schefer and Marilena Nikaj from RG Berneck took part in the Guimagym Cup in the northern Portuguese city of Guimarães with the regional performance center RLZ RG Ost St. Gallen. And they returned with precious metal: Lea Schefer won gold in the ball final of the elite category among the FIG seniors, and ten-year-old Marilena Nikaj won bronze with the ball in the 2014 class.
The competition was held in the impressive Multiusos Arena, where the FIG World Acrobatics Championships took place in September. The first big competition of the 2024/2025 season left the two gymnasts noticeably nervous, despite the low expectations of head coach Rita Vasconcelos from RLZ RG Ost.
On Saturday evening, the all-around competition was held in the FIG senior women’s category with the four hand devices: hoop, ball, clubs and ribbon. Lea Schefer didn’t have everything as she hoped – she came in fourth place behind her teammate Mia Engel.
Gold to music by the King of Pop, Michael Jackson
Marilena Nikaj showed her two competition exercises on Sunday. She deservedly won the bronze medal with the ball, and in the exercises without hand equipment she came in eleventh place. At the end of the competition, the apparatus finals for the FIG juniors and seniors were on the program. In the senior women’s category, Lea Schefer won the gold medal thanks to an improvement with her spirited ball choreography to the music of Michael Jackson.
On the weekend of December 7th and 8th, the two gymnasts from RG Berneck will take part in the Winter Cup in Ems. Leni Leufen from Berne, who has been training at KTZ Ems since the summer, will also compete there with the seniors.
