Tonya Paulson finished 14th and Emily Westlund finished 20th in the all-around finals at EC.

– 14th place is so much fun! I was very close to beating my previous place, which is a bit sour in retrospect, but I am happy with my race, I felt very calm and a better feeling than in qualifying. A lot of independents are jumping around today, Tonya comments.

Emily had this to say about her first EC final:

– It started to shake a bit on the beam, I felt very nervous there and shook a lot and the two falls were not so good. But after bars, I calmed down, I’m really happy with my freestyle, which was a bit better than the qualifiers, and I crossed bars again. So it was great to get to my first final, it was a good experience. Now I am ready for the upcoming matches.

Federation President Helena Andersen Melander commented on today’s final:

– Amazing to have two Swedes in the top 20 in Europe! Tonya drives faultless today and has a fantastic race. Emily had a tough start on the bar but a good fight from her to move and run three good branches.

Although Swedish women have a great EC, Helena believes this is just the beginning.

– We are few in the national team, but it is not only one person at the top. This time it was us, Great Britain and three gymnasts from the Netherlands were in the top 24, which is huge! The rivalry between the girls to make it to the finals is fun, and the most amazing thing is that everyone continues to have great growth potential.

Congratulations to the entire Swedish team for a strong Election Commission!

Today’s all-around competition was won by British favorite Jessica Kadyrova, followed by Hungary’s Sofia Kovacs in second and Italy’s Alice D’Amato in third. The full results list with all points for the day can be found here.

Photograph: Filippo Tomasi