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Saturday 30 June 2012

Curse of the beam: Trials Day 1

What a jittery Trials. Here's hoping these girls can knock out their full potential on Sunday. Cheers for no broadcast of Anna Li or Kennedy Baker. Jordyn wins! Poor Bridget Sloan, hurt her elbow in warm-up and had to scratch. Would have made a good alternate, though unclear if she can compete on Sunday yet.

McKayla Maroney- I like the leotard colour, not gone on the tie bit. She has her own vault scoring, she can do both those vaults better than that..amanar had a big step and Mustafina was underrotated slightly. But still incredible. Fell off bars, which looked great aside from that. Fell off beam, normally so steady on that! However she is still a lock..she HIT FLOOR! It was great :) That third pass was great and the 3.5 had the best landing yet..I'd call that stuck. Floor got a 15.2 and shows potential to beat Gabby in London. Falls are bad at Trials obviously but since she hit the two events she is needed for and fell on the ones nobody cares about that doesn't really hurt her..especially since both falls are very uncharacteristic.

Jordyn Wieber- Seriously so impressive. Not flawless but wow, she's amazing to watch. She's been 'on' since what, 2009? Looks better than Nationals, even with the slight struggle on bars and the missed connection on beam. Floor was great as usual, stuck landings! Deserved higher than Gabby's. Also wow on sticking the full-twisting DLO cold! Loved her old-school meets new-school leo. She is of course still getting a good but of the spotlight but she's being eclipsed a bit..not really fair.

Gabby- Uncharacteristic mistake on bars..hopefully a total fluke. Leg up on beam, great routine otherwise. Floor tumbling was great however the choreo is still to be honest, shit. Vault I haven't seen, wasn't broadcast? Or else missed it as the dodgy webcast did cut a few times. Am sure will see perfect bars on Sunday, but I'd question these mythical upgrades? Still too dodgy to trust on beam. Still overscored, but enjoyable to watch. Boring bling, never liked that leo.

Kyla- Kyla nailed floor and bars. Floor not helping her out much of course, still no upgrades. Beam had plenty of bobbles and subsequent missed connections, otherwise lovely. Vault- does that count as being sat? Hands down, incredibly low- only got a 14.4 so must have counted as being sat. GET RID OF THE AMANAR! She clearly cannot do it to a safe level. Wore Nastia's AA 2008 leo! Interesting.

Aly- Bars were fine, for her. Floor- great but had an OOB, uncharacteristic. Vault looks a little cleaner before she twists, probably the safest of the three dodgy amanars (G and K too). Beam again, looks like she spotted a coin on it, that's how ungraceful her low-to-beam is. Also had balance checks! Normally so rock solid, so that was surprising. But not damaging. Another tie leotard, looks good on her but she's worn nicer.

Nastia- It actually looked like she was going to get through the routine at one point, lovely clean lines. Unfortunately it was incredibly laboured and slow. She messed up a handstand, struggled and bent her knees and the stupidly flung herself into a dismount that was never going to happen and landed on her back. She needs to scratch bars on Sunday, that was scary and humiliating. It's ridiculous on both counts, a) actually got to Trials and b) competed bars when they are quite clearly in a state and she does NOT have the endurance. Beam had two big balance checks, looked good otherwise. Misses the last hope at an alternate spot.

Rebecca Bross- GREAT bars, she nailed it. Fell off beam, another wobble and then sat the dismount. That was obvious, as she was knackered. Sad that it ends here, she cannot be trusted after that as alternate.

Sarah- HEARTBREAKER! I've heard rumours she is injured, and it certainly seems so as she has looked sluggish all week and just not 'on'. Floor she took out the whip before the double arabian and almost fell on the last pass, poorly rotated. Bars were very good for her. Vault not seen. Beam she missed a connection and wobbled..I think. May have said goodbye to alternate. She looks tired, I wonder what's the story there. I love her, sad to see her not at her best.

Elizabeth/Ebee- Choreo on floor worse than Gabby's but WOW at her tumbling, it's unreal! Made a very strong case for herself as alternate. GREAT amanar, it looks amazing. I still do not see her touching McKayla though. Bars not shown, were great apparently. Beam neither, had a few checks but nothing major. Actually apparently bars were not great and only got got a 14.5, must have a a biased source where I heard they were great. That damages her chances at the team and displacing Maroney bigtime.

Alicia- I can't believe she wobbled on beam, soo unlike her! Looked fierce otherwise. Vault, Rudi shown looked great, more power in it. FTY not shown. I think throwing the double would break her, she has already said she can't train the Rudi as often as the rest are flinging amanars so I don't know people are constantly saying she should do the double..absolutely not if she is not capable of landing it safely or without having the endurance to repeat it.

Kennedy, Li and Dowell not broadcast. Vega had a decent floor and one or two wobbles on beam.

Beam had a great night for itself...it claimed McKayla, Anna, Rebecca and Kennedy. EVERYBODY else had either big balance checks, missed connections and/or small wobbles.

Best routine: Kyla's bars!
Favourite Routine: McKayla's floor
Worst routine: A toss-up between Rebecca's beam and Nastia's bars. Crap day for WOGA.

Looking forward to night two! Hoping it will broadcast earlier than 2AM for me...zzzzzz...very very thankful I got hold of a webcast for this, however illegal the quality was good. Hmm you can tell this was written at about 5AM. But so will the next one!

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