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Friday 18 January 2013

AYOF and News

The team final at the Australian Youth Olympic Festival has taken place. Predictably, China won, with a two point lead. Second was Britain and third was Australia. (Australia fielded two teams). Girls elegible were 1998-2000 born. Britain's team was the youngest- including the lovely 2000-born Catherine Lyons and her gorgeous form. China consisted of Mei Jie, Chen Siyi, Luo Huan and Liu Zhilin. Sadly, they suffered a collective nerves meltdown on beam, all of them fell- though Mei Jie managed her whole routine only to fall on the dismount. These four are extremely talented, and will be a strong part of the Rio squad. Unsurprisingly, they shone on uneven bars. The competition is not over yet, with an AA and event finals still to come, so hopefully they can learn from TF and stay on the beam!
Stunning. Especially the mount and scale into turn. Shows a lot of presence for a 12 year old.

Luo Huan Uneven Bars Her toepoint! Great dismount too.
Chen Siyi Uneven Bars Not as strong, but still lovely.
Liu Zhilin Uneven Bars Sooo precise.
Mei Jie Uneven Bars Great release combo! Needs to take a lesson from some of her teammates in toepoint, but I love it. So tiny, 3 releases, beautiful dismount...maybe she could do one of the old hardcore releases??
Liu Zhilin Beam Obviously not the routine she wanted to show, but I can't help but think she will develop beautifully on this event. Gorgeous lines, and nice Nastia-esque mount! A pity she broke form on it slightly, but at least she didn't topple off on it like eh..Nastia.
Mei Jie Beam  Okay I love the fact her name is translating as Team Major. Kept the team beam flakiness in check until the last. She works the beam very strongly, reminds me of Deng Linlin. Promising!
Luo Huan Beam Clearly feeling the nerves, but still divine. Great acro series and Onodi. They really were dominoes on this event, but they're so young..they'll be fine!
Chen Siyi Beam The tuck front is not her friend, hopefully she can improve it. Beautiful layout!

They all either vaulted FTY's or layouts, but then that's not altogether dissapointing due to their age and the fact that nobody did anything more difficult than a FTY in the whole meet.

Floor is harder to find so far, but here is Luo Huan. very weak in difficulty as expected, but so elegant! Love her arm movements.
 

Lavinia Milosovici has had a baby boy, Mihai. Lavinia suffered the loss of her daughter some years ago from illness. Shannon Miller has announced her second pregnancy, said to be a miracle owing to her ovarian cancer.

British 2000 Olympian Lisa Mason has announced a comeback for the 2014 Commonwealth Games. Lisa is now 31 with a 7 year old daughter. Good for her :)

Here's a great article about some controversy at the 1981 Worlds. Just substitute some names and bam, it's 2008 all over again! It's worth noting that they were in fact correct on both counts, but still a fascinating read.

Larisa Iordache and Diana Bulimar will compete at the La Roche sur Yon World Cup (formerly Bercy, a snappier title...) on March 16-17. Larisa will do beam and bars, Diana just beam. Seeing as Larisa will be coming off SCAM a fortnight before, I'm not surprised she is doing the 'easier' events pounding wise. Not sure what the deal is with Diana though, I'd love to see her do AA or 3 events..

McKayla Skinner is training a Cheng. Into a mat on a pit, but very upright! Bit of bent knees, but it's a new skill and I'm hoping she can straighten them in time. She has a similarly very upright competition ready laid-out double double, and already has an amanar and tucked double double under her belt. McKayla turned senior last year, but did not yet get her chance to shake things up. Looking forward to the debut of these skills! You can see the Cheng here.

Unfortunately my laptop charger has died a death, and because of Blogger's US only phone service, I can't update. Hope to have one within the week :) Thankfully can still look at everything on my phone, so I won't be starved of news...

8 comments:

  1. Just watched Catherine Lyons routine in couch gymnast. Kudos to GB. They look to have some promising Juniors. Not bad at all for a junior. Ive been searching for the Chinese womens routine on YouTube but can't find it.

    Im really excited for this quad. I think Rio TF, AA, and EF will be the most exciting competitions Ive ever watched.

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    1. I've just seen her beam, I'll put it up. Chinese bar routines are hosted on another site, it's not great..if they load for me now I'll put them up as well. Yes, Catherine shows a lot of promise for a 12 year old. Great presence and flair, and flexibility and form (except for the back foot on her leaps).

      GB have great juniors (and new seniors)- some of them look much better than Tunney tbh, as if they will outrank her soon enough in presence. Jupp, Romaeo, Theaker and Lyons are my favourites.

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  2. australian gymnastics seems to be on the crack right now. rife with internal issues/politics/fear of change. im nervous for us in the next quad. GB seem to be unstoppable, they are just getting better and better!

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    1. Hmm, interesting! All I have heard is that they are bent on restructuring. Hopefully they can iron out issues at the same time. There's a lot of hope for Darcy Norman, have not heard enough about other Juniors to be excited. Australia are just not exposed enough, and I think lack of experience is an issue. They do not of course, have the brilliant exposure/experience Euros and Junior Euros offer, and are not a part of the Asian and East Asian Games and Championships. It's a pity. I think they should aim for greater inclusion in meets like Jesolo and other World Cups that have team competitions.

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  3. I might be confusing her with someone else but is Mckayla Skinner the girl from NL Cup in 2010 or 2011? The one they were hyping up and marta was supposedly keeping her eye on?

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    1. She was there both years. I don't remember a fuss about her though, she did not place in the top 3 either year and I only ever really hear about the outright winner.

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  4. TF FX

    梅杰 Mei Jie
    http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNTAzNzg2MDQ0.html

    陈思怡 Chen Siyi
    http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNTAzNzc3NjY0.html

    刘芷琳 Liu Zhilin
    http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNTAzNzg3MDMy.html

    罗欢 Luo Huan
    http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNTAzNzc5NDI4.html

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    Replies
    1. This is exciting to see who's up and coming.

      Thanks for ferreting out these videos

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