New Kids on the Block: China

It's quite a bit harder to get an 'overall' look at China's juniors, as it's difficult to find all four routines from any of them. From what I can see, China has a lot of incoming talent on bars and beam but not a huge amount of power, as per usual. They really need a mini Cheng Fei or two in the works! I also cannot find images or birth dates of any of them, not a huge suprise due to how low-key Chinese juniors are and to my inability to decipher the chinese alphabet. There are also a lot of seniors who did not get on the team this year, generally for headcase reasons but injury played a part too. Wu Liufang, Tan Sixin, Zen Siqi, Huang Huidan, Luo Peiru and Shang Chungsong are all still in contention too.


Wang Wei

Wang Wei is probably the most mentioned Chinese junior. She has beautiful style and form, but a lot of issues and very low difficulty. It will be very interesting to see how she progresses, as she certainly has a lot of potential. A good prospect all-around. She will turn senior in 2013 or 2014.

Dodgy landings aside, she is quite nice here but needs much more difficulty and improvement.

Difficulty of 4.4 here, though that's a big improvement on the 3.3 she was showing last year. Lovely form, needs a lot of work on handstands, dead hangs and difficulty, but the base for a great bars routine is there.

Far too many pausesbut some lovely work here



Zhu Siyan

Siyan won the AA at Chinese Junior Nationals this year, as well as uneven bars and floor. Unsurprisingly, she shines on bars where she has really decent difficulty, 5.9, the same as she has on beam. More difficulty on floor and some greater confidence and she could quite easily be China's best junior, especially if she ups her vaults. She will turn senior in 2013 or 2014.

Lovely work, bursting with potential here

Needs a lot of work, but still decent. 4.9 difficulty

Again, too many pauses, but some really gorgeous work here.




Yuan Xiaoyang (reminds me of Deng Linlin)

Xiaoyang is a very sparky little gymnast. Not turning senior until 2015-16 but she is showing decent power in her tumbling and lots of places that she can build on for the future. The 12-13 age group junior AA and vault champion isn't fantastic on beam (can't find any bars videos) but still a really good all-arounder moving up through the ranks. Her very nice handspring vaults and how much more upright she lands on everything compared to her peers shows nice promise for a more powerful gymnast to complement the beam-and-bars stars.

Great style and height on her tumbling, lovely work

Shows good ability to upgrade these vaults



Lu Jiaqi

Jiaqi came second in the 12-13 all-around, so is another who remains a junior until 2015-16. She is a  fabulous beam worker with exquisite form, lovely and speedy on bars but floor is a weak point. Lots of time to improve on the other two though. Really my favourite Chinese junior on beam, even with the fall.

Beautiful work, very exciting to watch

The fall doesn't really diminish this masterpiece at all!

No real power here, and the difficulty (4.7) reflects it. Hoping for a miracle here but she still managed to come second in the all-around so I don't think all is lost..


Other juniors to watch: Fan Yilin, Mei Jie, Lou Nina, Liu Xing and Xie Wenwei
Next up: Future stars of Western Europe: Britain, Spain, Italy, Netherlands