So I couldn’t let tonight go without mention. Just in case you didn’t catch it on my facebook or twitter feed, I was muchly cheered up tonight by the lads of British Gymnastics redeeming themselves from their mistake riddled performance at the World Championships Qualifying rounds.
Today they kicked some serious ass at the Olympic Test Event (the final qualifying round) and won the team competitition by almost 8 full points. The score they got today would have qualified them 4th to team finals in Tokyo. If that wasn’t enough my star of Tokyo (behind Kohei Uchimura of course), Daniel Purvis won the all-around, plus 2nd and 3rd place also went to British Gymnasts Kristian Thomas and Daniel Keatings.
All I can say is a HUGE well done. This is the first time since 1984 that Team GB will have sent a full mens AND womens team to the Olympics (and due to the Cold War the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles were boycotted by several countries who were pretty unrivalled in gymnastics).
I am soooo excited, and the fact that I’m not going to live my dream to see the competition in person when it’ll be just south of the border makes me want to cry.
Max Whitlock made his debut as a Senior at this event, and ranked 1st on Pommel horse – even ahead of his team captain, 2008 Olympic & 2011 World Bronze Medallist, Louis Smith. Go Max!
So just so you understand why I’ve been so glued to the gymnastics (even more than usual, because I confess I often don’t watch all the men’s events). Here is the King of Gymnastics, Kohei Uchimura, 3-time consecutive world champion who made 6 of the 7 individual finals. The montage is from the All-Around final, and the woman waving the flag at the beginning is Shuko Uchimura (his Mum).
The apparatus finals have been in the daytime rather than evening. Because of the time difference between UK and Japan, it meant getting up at 5.20 a.m. on Saturday and 5.50 a.m. on Sunday. I didn’t want to miss a thing, but I had to drink lemonade (I usually don’t drink sugary fizzy juice like that) because I felt so sick from sleep deprivation. At least I could watch it wrapped in a duvet in my pyjamas though, and went back to sleep until lunchtime as soon as the finals finished! Sunday was even tougher because my friend had made a surprise visit to Edinburgh which resulted in me getting to bed at 2 a.m. after spending the night in the pub speaking a mixture of Spanish and English (long story why).
I’ve been part of a team helping put all the results and details of the last week of competition on wikipedia, so you can get the results there.
Well. We knew it was going to be an exciting competition. We had two questions: Would Kohei Uchimura get his 3rd All Around medal to maintain his domination of Men’s gymnastics this quadrennium? And who would take Silver & Bronze?
The answer to the first question was a resounding YES.
Today, in front of a home crowd, we watched the best gymnast the world has ever seen prove just why he is exactly that. Kohei Uchimura truly showed us he is a top class champion. He dominated from the start, and even holding back on some difficulty he didn’t score below 15 all day. I would actually argue that he was underscored in a couple of rotations (particularly floor where they took away 0.9 marks for a basically flawless routine). His ending score? 93.361 He finished 3 points ahead of the silver medallist. Unbelievable. His ending high bar routine brought on a standing ovation from everyone in the arena, the applause was almost deafening and in the stands, people applauded his mother who turned and took a bow. Yes Mrs Uchimura – you did a terrific job!
It seemed like Silver was destined for Uchimura’s teammate, Koji Yamamuro. He performed consistently throughout the competition. And following in the Japanese footsteps meeting that consistency was the stalwart of British Gymnastics: Daniel Purvis. He’d lead off the first group on floor, and for the first two rotations was placing 2nd in the top group. The 2 Americans had qualifed in front of him at the weekend, but where they made mistakes Dan made none, hitting routine after routine.
After vault it became the question: who would take the Bronze? Would it be Dan Purvis bringing a medal home to Great Britain, or Philipp Boy bringing one home to Germany. We knew after Vault, Philipp had 2 strong events, where as Daniel had 2 of his weaker events. On the other hand, Philipp had not had a good week in competition suffering plenty of costly mistakes as had a few of the other German team members. We watched the gymnasts in the top group go up on the Parallel bars one by one…
Orozco (USA) had a fantastic routine bringing him back up the scoreboard. Yamamuro made some small errors. Uchimura was stunning as per usual. Philipp went up, and a couple of mistakes, and was scored very harshly. In fact, too harshly on my opinion. He was shocked at his score. And so was I. At the same time, I knew that if Dan could hit his routine, he could get a much higher score on PB to keep himself in medal contention. And he did. 15.200.
It was time for the last event. Philipp Boy knew he had to have the routine of his life…and he did. Scoring a whopping 16.066. He was elated as he stuck his landing. Dan followed with a great routine for him and scored much higher than he had done in qualifers (14.800), but it was not enough to stay ahead of Boy. Yamamuro went up choosing a less difficult routine with the hope of better execution score. He only scored 14.866, which put him behind Boy. We knew then who had one – even with a fall, Uchimura had won. And even more surprisingly, Philipp Boy had pulled off an incredible comeback to not just get the Bronze, but the SILVER medal.
Uchimura could have done half a routine and got the Gold, but he did not disappoint. Throwing several ‘Kovacs’ and other difficult moves he finished off in style.
And so it ended… Uchimura 1st, Boy 2nd, Yamamuro 3rd, Britain’s Dan Purvis in 4th and John Orozco in 5th.
But you know the best part – the great sportsmanship between the gymnasts in that top group. Throughout the competition you saw them clapping each other, shaking hands as one came off the podium and another went on, smiling and talking as they stood to get their medals. Yes, they are competitors, but they are gracious too. And that is something to be commended.
Tomorrow, it’s an early start as we have Day 1 of Apparatus Finals…Men’s Floor, Women’s Vault, Men’s Pommel Horse, Women’s Uneven Bars and Men’s Still Rings.
Well. We thought it couldn’t get anymore nail biting than it did yesterday, but once again it came down to the last few routines. EEK!
First of all…my star of the day award goes to Hannah Whelan. They weren’t going to pay much attention to her, and then she was at the end of the first rotation in 9th place. And then she kept creeping up in the standings to point that going into the last rotation she was in 6th place. Her last routine of the day was bars, her lowest scoring event, but she still finished in 9th. Very respectable! Hopefully she’ll stay healthy and be able to do some upgrades on Bars to be in with a chance to be in top 8 in London next summer. One thing is for sure: she did Great Britain proud today! To see her floor & vault click here (I think it will only work if you’re in the UK unfortunately).
The top 6 was where the drama was though.
The Americans both had huge vaults. Wieber pulled out the amanar, perfect but for a big step on landing. Raisman had the double twisting yurchenko, put to near perfection. It’s been said many times, but she does have many similarities in power, strength and style to her older teammate, Alicia Sacramone. The rest pulled good vaults, but from what I could tell did not come close in execution to the Americans.
Then it was onto uneven bars. The Russian star, Komova pulled out another great bars routine, though still not quite so well executed as we had seen in qualifiers, but much much better than she did in Team Final. The Chinese girls pulled out great routines. Wieber went up and made some huge mistakes and it really did cost her. Then Raisman went up. It was awful, I was yelling at my TV – I know that she, like Alicia, struggles on bars. Last year she had an awful time on Bars in AA finals. Today, she had a total meltdown again. Somehow she managed a good dismount, but she only scored 12.900. Ouch.
On to beam. Wieber had dropped from 1st to 4th. Komova went up first, and pulled a good routine having a number of wobbles – but no falls. Then Huang got up on beam – was doing well and then fell. All of a sudden, the door for an American medals opened back up. Then Afanaseva got up on beam and fell on her first move – a standing arabian. Raisman got up and performed a hit routine (she really can command that beam!) – a lot of gymnasts would have been so rattled after a performance like she’d had in the previous rotation, but her focus is such that she just moved on and fought back. Yao followed, and also had a fall. This was unbelievable – Chinese are known to be great on beam, and now both their gymnasts had fallen. Wieber got up on beam and had a near perfect routine, really just a small step on dismount putting her into 2nd place going into the last rotation…
Floor. Huang’s routine was charming but low on difficulty. Afanaseva had powerful tumbling – her first 2 passes (ending in a double straight and a triple twist) were breathtaking. She too had fought back after her fall on the beam. Aly Raisman killed it on floor hitting all her difficult passes with controlled landings and nailing her leaps and choreography. Yao hit her routine too – the precision was fabulous, the performance had the charm of her teammate, Jiang Yuyuan had in Beijing on floor. Wieber got up, and had a powerful routine, but took a step out of bounds on one of her passes. Her difficulty was high, and aside from her step out, the execution well done. But surely after the step, it would be silver?
Komova got up. Her first pass was great, but she fell out of a spin on her dance moves, and though the choreography had that Russian grace and elegance, it seemed like she was tired as she wobbled and landed deeply on some of her tumbling passes. Though improved from Team Finals, it still wasn’t going to get a good execution score. However, most of us thought it could be enough for Gold.
But when the score came – it wasn’t. Wieber had beaten her overall by a mere few 100ths of a point. Wieber burst into tears, and so did Komova. But for very different reasons. And rather than the massive cheering you’d normally hear, the arena was strangely quiet with a few audible gasps as most of them thought Komova had done enough for Gold.
For sure there is debate going on about scoring at these championships! Yesterday some suggested USA men’s team should have got Silver over Japan. Today some are saying that Wieber was overscored on floor or Komova underscored and that Komova should have got Gold over Wieber.
In the end it was Gold to Wieber, Silver to Komova and Bronze to Yao.
All I know is: Gymnastics at London 2012 is going to be one to watch. The Russians will want to get their Golds the Americans won here. Beth Tweddle will want her medal in Uneven Bars. Lauren Mitchell (who scored highest on Floor today improving her score again) will want her medal on Floor. Ana Porgras who scored high on Beam will want a medal there. Because none of them will have the chance to reclaim their world titles on those events this week despite their high scores in Team and All Around.
Tomorrow: Men’s All Around final. If the last 2 days are anything to go by – it’s gonna be dramatic!
So a few of my twitter friends have commented on the sudden increase in tweet volume today. Yes, I was sitting waiting with the Red Button on tv and the BBC sport homepage ready and waiting for the coverage of the Team Final to start this morning and was tweeting the play by play. I’m gutted they didn’t show the opening ceremony because it sounded fun, they even had a ‘Happy Birthday ceremony’ for all the gymnasts competing to have birthdays during worlds…singing Happy Birthday to them and giving them all a birthday present. Don’t the Japanese people totally rock?!
Anyway. The American women gave a solid performance on all four events. There really weren’t any weak events for them at all. Their vaulting was fabulous, their beam routines solid (though I think they missed Alicia Sacramone on this event most of all for her dance & artistry which was perhaps the only thing a little lacking), their floor routines strong with choreography that fit the music, their style. Great leaps, good landings. I was a bit ratty about the BBC commentating. Firstly for mispronouncing the names of several team members but also for trying to make out like the Americans were rubbish on Bars. Yes, it is one of their weaker events at the moment, but actually they gave 3 solid performances on that apparatus – most teams gave one really good one, and 2 crap ones on bars. They also made comments that the Americans don’t really have a good swing. Perhaps then, they might have wanted to show Gabby Douglas’ routine (which the BBC didn’t) because the girl simply flies. She doesn’t have the highest difficulty of the competition, but is higher than most PLUS she’s in the bars final. They also have another amazing bars performer, Anna Li. Unfortunately we didn’t get to see her as she got injured during training in Tokyo so they didn’t put her up on podium. So BBC – please get your facts straight. Score wise, the Americans did better on bars than they did on beam.
Gabby Douglas on Bars earlier this summer…
Anyway.
Russia’s star, Komova had a good start but fell on beam then made mistakes on floor. To be honest she looked tired and dejected – I wonder if perhaps she is in need of some rest. I remember Aliya Mustafina looking similarly exhausted in some of the individual finals last year at worlds. Russians did well though overall, and I really admire their elegance and artistry on events like bars, beam and floor. I’d love to see them have a bit more of that ‘tidiness’ on Vault. Though they had power, they lost marks for untidiness through the air. Winning silver was not what they came for, and I think when Mustafina returns from her injury they’ll be wanting that Gold even more next summer. And they could easily get it.
China. Oh China. 2 veterans – Jiang Yuyuan and He Kexin – didn’t really get the chance to perform today (Jiang only did vault, and He did nothing). They had 2 major falls and a big mistake on floor which I didn’t see. However it does say a lot that even with these massive errors, they still won the Bronze medal. I suspect there have been some injuries in the team and I reckon that by London 2012 they’ll be a stronger better oiled gymnastic machine!
Romania. I love watching the Romanians on beam and floor. Their vaults were powerful, but again, a little messy. Almost like they need to learn how to control their power a bit. It was fabulous to see Catalina Ponor back – an Olympic champion in 2004. She’s not been back long, so I expect if she stays healthy she’ll be even better for London 2012. Her beam routine was even better than qualifiers and her floor was as well.
Team GB – The British girls finished in 5th today. The highest finish a British team has ever had at worlds. Beth Tweddle who had issues on bars in qualifiers got the highest score of the day on bars showing that she is still Queen of the uneven bars. It’s a real shame she won’t get to compete in the bars finals. She also did well on floor. Her routine was not perfect, but it was strong and gave Britain a great boost. The other girls on the team also performed well with no major errors really compared to several of the other teams. With some upgrades on Vault and some more consistency on beam (their weakest event often) they could really shine in London next summer.
Other stars of the day: Oksana Chusovitina of Germany. A powerful vault from her though a little messy. However great to see her back again (she didn’t compete last year). If she stays for London 2012 it will be her 6th Olympics. Lauren Mitchell of Australia – gave a good performance on Beam though had some wobbles, I noticed her ankles were taped, so again I think she may have had some more injuries in the last year. Her floor performance was fabulous and I think may have been the highest scoring of the day. She got even higher than Aly Raisman (USA) did in qualifers so it really is a shame she won’t be in floor finals.
Imagine this routine with fewer mistakes and stronger leaps! (she scored about 5-6 tenths higher today than she did in qualification round shown here):
Tomorrow is the team finals for the men, no British there, so who to root for? Hmm…
Well, there were more surprises today. Great Britain expected to qualify easily. Not so much. It was a horrible day for the British men’s team, and they didn’t make team finals. There was a little bit of hope though – Louis Smith made Pommel Horse finals, and despite lots of struggles & mistakes his teammates made, Daniel Purvis kept his cool and made all his routines…and into the All Around final. But yeah, I was glad not to be watching today. China also had some ‘eek’ moments today, and the current world champions only qualified 3rd – this was unexpected.
Here are the rankings after Qualifers. In brackets at the top of each category are the current World Medallists for each event.
Team Finals (G: China S: Japan B: Germany)
1. Japan
2. USA
3. China
4. Germany
5. Russia
6. Korea
7. Romania
8. Ukraine
Ranks 9-16 will go onto the test event in London next year to compete for the last 4 spots in the Olympics. These teams in order of ranking are: France, Great Britain, Spain, Canada, Brazil, Puerto Rico, Italy & Belarus
3. Fabian Hambüchen GER (Olympic Bronze Medallist in this event)
4. John Orozco USA
5. Philipp Boy GER
6. Kai Sou CHN (Olympic Gold medallist in this event)
7. Epke Zonderland NED
8. Chenglong Zhang CHN
Individual All-Around (G: Kohei Uchimura JPN; S: Philipp Boy GER; B: Jonathan Horton USA – DNQ)
The following gymnasts ranked ahead of some of the gymnasts in the All-Around Final, but will not be allowed to compete in the final because of the 2-per-country rule: Jonathan Horton USA (5th), Fabian Hambüchen GER (19th), Steven Legendre USA (24th)
Group 1:
1. Kohei Uchimura JPN 2. John Orozco USA 3. Danell Leyva USA 4. Koji Yamamuro JPN 5. Daniel Purvis GBR 6. Philipp Boy GER
Group 2:
7. E Garibov RUS 8. Mykola Kuksenkov UKR 9. Marcel Nguyen GER 10. Rafael Martinez ESP 11. Cyril Tommasone FRA 12. Luis Rivera PUR
Group 3:
13. Flavius Koczi ROU 14. Anton Fokin UZB 15. David Belyavskiy RUS 16. Seungil Kim KOR 17. Haibin Teng CHN 18. Soo Myun Kim KOR
Group 4:
19. Marian Dragulescu ROU 20. Alexander Shatilov ISR 21. Tomas Gonzalez CHI 22. Oleg Stepko UKR 23. Andrey Likhovitskiy BLR 24. Pascal Bucher SUI
I don’t follow men’s gymnastics as much as I do women’s. So a confession from the outset here, that I’m not so informed on the men’s side of the sport. That and the fact that I was at church this morning (and asleep overnight) so was not able to follow the action as easily!
There were a few stars today: Teamwise, the Japanese and Americans stood out the most and qualified 1st and 2nd respectively. The Hungarians dominated the Pommel Horse – current PH world champion, Krisztian Berki scored even higher today than he did in last year’s finals. His performance today was stunning.
The current world all-around champion, Kohei Uchimura did not disappoint but I have to say looked a bit tired. Apparently he tweaked his ankles during the competition today and I was told by a journalist he looked a bit disheartened when he interviewed him afterwards. I hope that over the next few days he’ll be able to get some rest time. I imagine being the Olympic silver medallist, and 2-time consecutive world champion is a lot of pressure for a ‘threepeat’, especially with these championships being in his home country!
I felt for the German team as they faced a lot of challenges today and were disappointed with their performances. Although in 3rd currently, there is a 5 point gap between them and USA who are ranked 2nd. With 5 countries who were in the top 8 performing tomorrow – anything could happen. I was also gutted for both Jonathan Horton (USA) and Fabien Hambüchen (GER) who will not be in the All-Around finals because teammates qualified ahead of them.
The current standings in the Team Rankings (last years rankings in brackets):
1. Japan – 364.291 (ranked 2nd/finished 2nd)
2. USA – 361.583 (ranked 3rd/finished 4th)
3. Germany – 354.132 (ranked 5th/finished 3rd)
4. Romania – 350.900 (ranked 9th)
5. Ukraine – 350.434 (ranked 13th)
6. Brazil – 350.434 (ranked 19th)
7. Puerto Rico – 344.460 (ranked 12th)
8. Italy – 343.642 (ranked 10th)
The lowest team ranking last year was 350.284. However, a lot of the teams have really upped their game this year.
Current All-Around standings (last years rankings in brackets):
1. Kohei Uchimura JPN – 92.256 (finished 1st)
2. John Orozco USA – 90.532
3. Danell Leyva USA – 89.848 (ranked 12th/finished 18th)
8. Luis Rivera PUR – 87.831 (ranked 14th/finished 23rd)
9. Flavius Koczi ROU – 87.732 (ranked 7th/finished 16th)
10. Anton Fokin UZB – 87.698 (ranked 28th/finished 14th)
11. Marian Dragulescu ROU – 87.032
12. Tomás González CHI – 86.665 (ranked 24th/finished 15th)
The lowest score for a gymnast qualifying for the all-around last year was 86.790. Uchimura only scored 0.2 points higher in qualifiers this year compared to last year.
Tomorrow, 5 teams who were in last year’s Top 8 (Great Britain, France, Russia, China & South Korea) will be competing for places in the finals and the London 2012 Olympics. COME ON GREAT BRITAIN!! I’m very excited that Daniel Keatings is back, and excited to see how newbie, Sam Oldham does.
Because I’m working and then at Girl Guides tomorrow, it may take me a while to get the summaries up of the Day 2 Qualifiers. Then on Tuesday I’m off work and will hopefully be able to watch the Women’s Team Finals!!
Thanks Team GB and FIG for making me so darned nervous…felt sick as I waited for scores and summaries of the routines come up on my twitter feed. Can I just take this opportunity to say thank you to Gymnastike, Ollie Williams and International Gymnast for their tweets this morning. The most important thing for me was that Team GB would qualify for the women’s team finals and with that, the London 2012 Olympics. This will give our British girls time to rest and recover from injuries and they won’t have to peak again before London 2012. They just scraped through into the 8th spot. Phew!
The stars of today were the American women – I was anxious to see how they’d do. I knew Wieber would be fine, but the rest of them didn’t have the most consistent performances at the US Nationals, plus there were questions over whether Raisman was injured in training. All 5 girls ranked in the All Around – unfortunately only 2 of them can compete. The other star of the day was Viktoria Komova of Russia, who without doing her Amanar vault (just doing a DTY instead) scored the highest out of all the women all-around, as well as qualifying first on both Bars and Beam. This is her first time at Worlds having just turned 16 this year.
So the rankings for Team Finals are:
1. USA 234.253 (a very young team, but also USA have won worlds in both 2003 & 2007)
2. Russia 230.995 (they have most potential for improvement to win a 2nd consecutive Gold)
3. China 230.370
4. Romania 227.228
5. Japan 223.543
6. Australia 221.846
7. Germany 221.163
8. Great Britain 220.553 (also room for improvement from the Brits)
Those who ranked 9-16 will have a chance to compete for the last 4 spots at the Olympic Test event next year. In order of ranking those teams will be: Italy, France, Canada, Spain, Netherlands, Brazil, Korea and Belgium.
Possibly the most shocking thing of the last 2 days is that none of last years Individual champions will have the chance to defend their world title. In fact, only one of the 2010 individual medallists made a final this year.
Vault (G: Alicia Sacramone USA – injured; S: Aliya Mustafina RUS – injured; B: Jade Barbosa)
1. McKayla Maroney USA – 15.083 (beat current World Champion, Sacramone in VT at US Nationals earlier this year)
2. Oksana Chusovitina GER – 14.833 (World Champion in ’03, Olympic silver medalist on VT in ’08 & been in 5 Olympics – yes. Five. She’s 36 years old. And a mother.)
3. Yamilet Peña DOM – 14.466
4. Giulia Steingruber SUI – 14.299
5. Jade Barbosa BRA – 14.266 (Bronze Medallist in 2010)
6. Alexa Moreno MEX – 14.249
7. Tatiana Nabieva RUS – 14.224
8. Thian Phan VIE – 14.216
Uneven Bars (G: Beth Tweddle GBR – DNQ; S: Aliya Mustafina RUS – injured; B: Rebecca Bross USA – injured)
1. Viktoria Komova RUS – 15.733 (won the World Cup on this event this year)
2. Youna Dufournet FRA – 15.066 (Bronze medallist on VT in 2009)
3. Koko Tsurimi JPN – 14.933 (All-Around Bronze & UB silver medallist in 2009)
4. Quishang Huang CHN – 14.900
5. Tatiana Nabieva RUS – 14.833
6. Gabrielle Douglas USA – 14.866
7. Jordyn Wieber USA – 14.800
8. Asuka Teramoto JPN – 14.683
Balance Beam (G: Ana Porgras ROU – DNQ; S: Rebecca Bross USA – injured; S: Linlin Deng CHN – not competing)
1. Viktoria Komova RUS – 15.400
2. Lu Sui CHN – 15.400
3. Jordyn Wieber USA – 15.233
4. Jinnan Yao CHN – 15.066
5. Catalina Ponor ROU – 15.00 (Ponor was 2004 Olympic champion in this event)
6. Alexandra Raisman USA – 14.933
7. Amelia Racea ROU – 14.733
8. Yulia Inshina RUS – 14.566
Floor Exercise (G: Lauren Mitchell AUS – DNQ; S: Aliya Mustafina RUS – injured; S: Diana Chelaru ROU – DNQ)
1. Alexandra Raisman USA – 14.833
2. Lu Sui CHN – 14.600 (Bronze medallist in 2009)
3. Jordyn Wieber USA – 14.566
4. Jinnan Yao USA – 14.533
5. Viktoria Komova RUS – 14.491
6. Vanessa Ferrari ITA – 14.466 (Bronze Medallist in ’06. AA Champion & UB Bronze medallist in ’06, Bronze AA in ’07)
7. Beth Tweddle GBR – 14.433 (Gold medallist in 2009 also UB Gold medallist in ’06 & ’10)
The following gymnasts would have ranked ahead of some of the gymnasts, but will not be allowed to compete in the final because of the 2-per-country rule: Gabrielle Douglas USA (5th) Sabrina Vega USA (9th) McKayla Maroney USA (15th) Sixin Tan CHN (15th) Yuyuan Jiang CHN (20th) Yuko Shintake JPN (21st) Yu Minobe JPN (23rd) Anna Dementyva RUS (31st).
Group 1
1. Victoria Komova – RUS 2. Jordyn Wieber – USA 3. Jinnan Yao – CHN 4. Alexandra Raisman – USA 5. Kseniia Afanasyeva RUS 6. Qiushang Huang CHN
Group 2
7. Elisabeth Seitz GER 8. Raluca Haidu ROU 9. Koko Tsurumi – JPN 10. Lauren Mitchell – AUS 11. Vanessa Ferrari – ITA 12. Nadine Jarosch – GER
Group 3
13. Hannah Whelan – GBR 14. Celine Van Gerner – NED 15. Rie Tanaka – JPN 16. Ana Porgras – ROU 17. Emily Little – AUS 18. Jessica Lopez – VEN
Group 4
19. Ana Maria Izurieta – ESP 20.Christine ‘Peng Peng’ Lee – CAN 21. Daniele Hypolito – BRA 22. Giulia Steingruber – SUI 23. Aurelie Malaussena – FRA 24. Carlotta Ferlito – ITA
Over the next two days, the men will be going through the qualification rounds. Team GB have a strong team this year, so hoping they will also qualify for the Olympics in this round. Go Team GB!
Already it’s been an interesting day. First of all, Ana Porgras (ROU) and Lauren Mitchell (AUS) haven’t made beam finals as both had falls on the beam . A gymnast from the Dominican Republic performed a handspring double front vault – I wish I’d seen it, and I hope that Peña manages to make vault finals. She is currently ranked 1st, but there are a number of excellent vaulters still to come tomorrow. Catalina Ponor (ROU) rocked the beam. Even with a very deep landing she still earned the highest score of the day: 15.000
The current standings in the Team Qualifications are as follows (in brackets are rankings at the 2010 worlds):
1. Romania – 227.228 (ranked 4th)
2. Australia – 221.846 (ranked 6th)
3. Canada – 215.328 (ranked 13th)
4. Netherlands – 212.828 (ranked 9th)
5. Mexico – 206.751 (ranked 21st)
6. Venezuela – 202.294 (ranked 22nd)
7. Uzbekistan – 201.897 (ranked 24th)
8. Greece – 197.611 (ranked 19th)
The lowest qualifying score last year was 218.895.
The current standings in the Women’s All Around are (again last year’s rank is in brackets):
3. Ana Porgras – ROU 54.832 (ranked 6th finished 5th)
4. Emily Little – AUS 54.732 (ranked 23rd, DNQ due to 2 per country rule)
5. Jessica Lopez – VEN 54.731 (ranked 15th finished 10th)
6. Peng Peng Lee – CAN – 54.632
7. Vasiliki Millousi – GRE – 53.416 (ranked 41st)
8. Joy Goedkoop – NED – 52.998 (ranked 33rd)
9. Valeriia Maksuita – ISR – 52.915 (ranked 55th)
To give you an idea of what the lowest score was of a gymnast qualifying to the All-Around last year, it was 54.566. Though personally I think the judging is getting harsher.
Of last year’s top 8 teams, only 2 competed today and the rest are in the 5 subdivisions that will compete tomorrow (China, USA, Russia, Italy, Great Britain and Japan). Many teams are concentrating on qualifications first as they want to make the top 8 so they qualify for the Olympics now. Those who are ranked 9-16 will have to send teams to London early next year to the test event to qualify for the last 4 spots in the Team Competition.
Tomorrow we’ll be looking out for those 6. Though Germany did not make top 12 last year, having Oksana Chusovitina back may make a difference and bring them higher up the rankings. There are a few stand out gymnasts from Korea, Brazil, Germany from previous worlds this quadrennium that I’ll certainly be looking out for.
After a year of seeing tweets and facebook statuses about rugby, cricket, tennis…now it’s my time. Because today the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships started.
For the last few days I’ve been reading updates on gymnastike and various twitter feeds I follow connected to the sport. I don’t follow the men’s side as closely. But I know that on the women’s side, last year’s Gold and Bronze medallists in the All-Around have been injured this year (Aliya Mustafina at European Championships and Rebecca Bross at the USA Nationals). In training a couple of days ago the current Gold medallist in the Vault got injured as well (Alicia Sacramone) and she’s now flying back to the USA for surgery. It must be like deja vu for the Americans – one of their star gymnasts injured their achilles in training at worlds in 2003 as well. With their alternate injured too, and it being too late to fly out their non-travelling alternate, Shawn Johnson with such a huge time difference they really only have 5 gymnasts now in a 6 person team. Sandra Izbasa (ROM) is also out with injury – she is the Olympic champion on floor and the current European Vault champion.
So…this could be an interesting competition with so many veterans out of the picture.
We’ve also got probably the best teams from Great Britain that we’ve ever had. Last year both teams came 7th – the highest they’ve ever ranked at worlds, and this year so far has been good for Team GB. Daniel Keatings is back from injury and back in the picture with the goal of 2012 in mind, and from all reports I’ve heard so far, Beth Tweddle is still kicking arse on the Uneven Bars.
The qualifications started today, and the finals begin on Tuesday…by this time next week we’ll know who’s qualified for the Olympics in 2012.
(And yes, I’m off work next week so I can watch as much of the action as possible!!)
There was a little bit of hope though – Louis Smith made Pommel Horse finals, and despite lots of struggles & mistakes his teammates made, Daniel Purvis kept his cool and made all his routines…and into the All Around final. But yeah, I was glad not to be watching today. China also had some ‘eek’ moments today, and the current world champions only qualified 3rd – this was unexpected.
