Tag Archives: gymnastics

Men’s Artistic Gymnastics Championships: Day 1 Qualifications

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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)

4. Koji Yamamuro JPN – 89.765 (ranked 30th)

5. Phillip Boy GER – 88.697 (finished 2nd)

6. Mykola Kuksenkov  UKR – 88.648 (ranked 11th/finished 4th)

7. Marcel Nguyen GER – 88.464

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!! :)

Women’s Artistic Gymnastics Championships: Day 2 Qualifications

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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)

8. Diana Bulimar ROU – 14.400

Individual All-Around (G: Aliya Mustafina RUS – injured; S: Yuyuan Jiang – DNQ; B: Rebecca Bross – injured)

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!

Women’s Artistic Gymnastics Championships: Day 1 Qualifications

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Well…

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):

1. Raluca Haidu – ROU – 56.465 (ranked 12th finished 9th)

2. Lauren Mitchell – AUS – 56.324 (ranked 7th finished 6th)

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.

Until tomorrow,

Your wannabe-gymnast-koala blogger. 8)

You may all love rugby, but I love gymnastics

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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!!)

:)

Low fat soya lattes

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One of the sports I love is gymnastics. I think because it’s the closest to dance you’re going to get in an Olympic Sport. I can’t even do a cartwheel, but I can totally relate to the training and learning to control your body to do what you want it to do – always pushing the boundaries.

What has really ticked me off though – as I’ve watched some videos of some of the recent competitions (catching up to see who I should be looking out for in 2012!) is the comments people have made about some gymnasts saying that they are fat.

I think you’ll find that they are pure muscle!

Plus, many of them if they have stopped their intense training will not be as skinny – but they are certainly not fat.

At the same time, it’s something I’m struggling with. I struggled a little bit after I gave up dancing when I was 16 – I probably put on a few pounds after I stopped, which was to be expected. Even though I didn’t expect it! I stupidly began starving myself for a while, and was lucky I didn’t make myself seriously ill. I’ve realised that since South Africa, I’ve put on a fair bit of weight. Last year, I had a panic when Powerpoint returned when I discovered that none of my jeans fitted anymore, and I needed to be able to clip a powerpack onto my clothes for my in-ear monitors.

I’ve hated seeing photos of myself taken from the Powerpoint events last year, because I look so much bigger.

And at Christmas, and over the last 2 months I no longer fit into any of my clothes. It’s really upset me if I’m honest.

I know that the main reason for the weight is because of an injection of hormone I get every 3 months – and started getting in March 2009 so I would be able to go to South Africa (that wasn’t the only reason, but it probably sped the process up a bit!). It’s normal for people to have appetite changes, metabolism changes and higher blood pressure after a while. I just didn’t think it would happen when I never had those issues with any other treatments they’ve given me which are similar.

I know part of it means I just need to get out there, do more exercise and be much more aware of what I’m eating.

But I confess that I’m finding it stupidly tough to adapt or accept.

There’s the other side to as well – I’m getting older, and with that comes a slowing down of metabolism anyway. It’s been cool chatting to some of my female friends who are my age (or older) about the whole thing, and discovering that they are finding getting used to their body changing tough too. I’m not the only one – phew!

I guess I thought that these kind of issues I’d leave behind at 13!

I am not looking forward to the grey hairs coming in… :)