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Friday 29 March 2013

Bulimar V Iordache- Updated with entire Doha footage

I was anticipating a great showdown on floor, but I'm a little surprised at the result. Delighted for her of course, who would begrudge the adorable Didi a spot at the top of the podium? But even so, Larisa Iordache had a 0.2 difficuly lead on Diana Bulimar. Larisa threw 0.1 of that away for going out of bounds on her double double, but it would not have given her the victory had she stayed in. Both girls bounced out of their landings, and both had strong leaps. I would have given it to Larisa though, as her tumbling was cleaner. Diana is absolutely strong on floor, but her double layout has quite the leg seperation going on and her piked full-in was scrappy to say the least. I would have thought the cleaner tumbler with the difficulty lead would have won. That's not to say Diana's floor wasn't great, it was, just in my opinion slightly overscored compared to the silver winner. Larisa's scores have sure been interesting- she was slammed on bars and execution was a little harsh on floor, but she was overscored on vault and beam..

Both routines are here, I'll try to embed them if it will work later on. Who do you think should have won? Scores were 14.625 for Bulimar and 14.425 for Iordache.

In other news, Larisa threw a tucked full and layout full for a monster 6.7 d-score and 15.5 total, easily winning gold. The layout full does pike, but later then Katelyn Ohashi's I think, it's also higher in my estimation. Strong routine, very steady and she still has the triple full dismount. Katelyn does have the difficulty lead, and execution I think too- Larisa does not point her feet near enough. But it should still be close and interesting later on at worlds, as Katelyn's routine varies from 6.8-7.3 and she's not as sure on her feet as Larisa. Diana and Gabby nailed strong routines, Diana penalised a little harshly on execution I thought. When Gabby's routine is on youtube, wait for the slow motion part of her BHS-LOSO-LOSO. It's just perfection! The star of the show was Zeng Siqi (or Ziggy as the commentators call her) who nailed a glorious set with beautiful lines AND high difficulty- 6.6. Unfortunately, her double pike saw her bent in half and she took a three-tenths step, handing Larisa the victory. She also managed to get through floor without incident, though I fear for her legs on every tumble, especially the piked full-in. Hopefully she can build up her strength, but all in all a great week for China, gold on bars, silver on beam and bronze on floor. Gabby Jupp was edged to fourth for another very nice routine, though she too fell victim to the bouncy floor and stepped out. She and her coaches will be happy though with her placing here, and her bronze on beam and bars. The floor is a new bouncier type and will be used in Antwerp so they had better get used to it..hopefully some more competitions will use it in the meantime. Last year the Karolyi Ranch outfitted itself in Gymnova especially for London, but that's very expensive to do and worlds is not as important. 

Ilaria Kaeslin, who is not a relation of Ariella Kaeslin, had beautiful work on floor and beam. Difficulty nowhere near enough to challenge, but so enjoyable to watch. Such a pity she fell out of bounds on floor, her Memmel and switch ring were just stunning. I also really liked Kirsten Beckett of South Africa, who had really nice dramatic choreography, and a great double arabian. Speaking of which, the slow motion of Gabby's one showed up how neat it is, it's Anna Myzdrikova neat.

It's been a fabulous two days of gymnastics- with the above and Tan Jiaxin's bars, Giulia Steingruber and Phan Thi Ha Thanh on vault and Gabby Jupp and Ruby Harrold on bars.

Who else watched? What was your favourite beam- Iordache, Zeng or Jupp? Bars- Jiaxin or Harrold? Vault? Floor? How awesome was Iordache's leotard today?

If you haven't seen any Doha finals- and certainly the timezone did not favour America, all finals have been uploaded. You can see beam here, floor here, vault here and bars here.

There's a cute video here of Larisa and Diana being interviewed. Check out Diana's great English! And her translation for Larisa was so cute. I also loved how as soon as she was finished beam, Zeng Siqi was straight over with congratulations and a hug. It's going to be so much fun when Zeng appears at an international competition like worlds, she looks so young which will definitely be picked up on.


20 comments:

  1. Hmm pretty close between Didi and Larisa really. Their leaps are about the same. Larisa definitely has cleaner form on her tumbling but I think Didi had slightly - very slightly - better landings which are maybe more obvious from the judges' point of view, or make a stronger impression. They've both adapted well to the new corner rule though quite a lot of dance-y cheoro right in front of the corner, lol. Quite nice cheoro and music, the Romanians do know how to make the most of their gymnasts on floor.

    Looking forward to seeing Larisa's beam, it sounds good. The difficulty value of Ohashi's beam is outweighed for me by how difficult she makes it look - it IS difficult, but it looks like a fight to get through, while generally Bellu and Bitang seem to have been quite sensible with the difficulty Larisa does.

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  2. The channel where I said 'both routines are here' has Larisa's beam. The links at the end have all 4 entire event finals. I think her piked full-in had a better landing, but I didn't think that was enough. Larisa can definitely upgrade her routine though. She's bouncy on a normal floor so she was never going to stick on this one. I have to say I like when powerful gymnasts like her and Simone bounce out of their landings at unimportant competitions- sticks just aren't worth the added stress on the body and increased potential for injury.

    I agree, Katelyn's beam looks like a struggle whereas Larisa makes hers look like a level 5 routine.

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    1. All of Katelyn's work looks like a struggle! Just watched Larisa's beam, it was really solid. She can definitely work on her form, it has that slightly unfinished quality to it with very slight bent knees here and there and not enough pointing of her feet but she is so talented. She was really attacking the beam routine tho, reminded me of Cata's style really - right before the dismount I always feel like "you mean we've come to the end already?" while with Katelyn I feel like "oh lord this routine is lasting forever"

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    2. Her feet are such a shame. I'm hoping Andreea Munteanu can equal or surpass her, as her beam is a bastion of perfect form. Larisa really showed great attack, but then they weren't pushing her with all of her previous withdrawals! It would be great if she do a whip-whip into her triple, and dump the double back for a double pike, or even something more if she can maintain her energy enough. Her bars I think have improved with her swing, which is very aggressive and flighty. A pity there is a lot of work left to do with them, I hope her e-score was a wake-up call..

      Katelyn definitely lacks ease in everything she does. Zeng lacks endurance big time but her beam at least doesn't show it.

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  3. LOVED Zeng's beam. That flight series was just so lovely

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    1. That layout. I want to see all the American layouts have the same height as hers.

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  4. zeng siqi on beam. connected switch ring to sheep jump. so hard!!!! and didn't even wobble.

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    1. Yes! That was incredible. And I've never been so frustrated with a front-on beam angle instead of side in my life. I hope someone in the stands uploads it.

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    2. And I want to see all Chinese girls have the same confidence and consistency as Americans.

      Zeng Siqi kinda reminds me of Tan Sixin- same body type and same lack of endurance. Lovely gymnasts. Do you see her at World's?

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  5. Just watched the video, Didi is so cute. Her English is great, better than the interviewer's I thought!

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    1. Haha yes, I had no idea what his questions really were...

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  6. Did you notice that Kirsten Beckett used Alicia Sacramone's 2011 floor music? I think it was the exact same cut. I'm not sure what to think of this, I'm okay with gymnasts reusing floor music, but Alicia is so well-known, and it's a little soon for it in my opinion.

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    1. We in South Africa buy our floor music via the internet. Kirsten really fell in love with the music the first time she heard it. It wasn't really in the fore of her mind whose music it was, she just chose it. She absolutely loves the music.

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    2. I didn't notice, but I don't mind when music is reused. There have been so many using The Assassin that I'm a little sick of it, but everything else is fine with me. Arlene- sounds like a great match to me! Looking forward to seeing more of Kirsten, I hope she can nab a worlds spot.

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    3. Arlene -
      If possible, please tell Kirsten that she has a new fan in the US! Upon re-watching her routine, I found that I liked her choreography and that it really didn't look anything like Alicia's. Like Catherine said, hope to see her at WC this year!

      Catherine, The Assassin is the Daria Joura/Victoria Moors tango piece, right? If so, I wholeheartedly agree. I like the song but it is a little overused.

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  7. Oh you're right. Larisa wins for best leo.

    Romania usually has the best leos/uniforms though. There are a few exceptions but their fashion sense appears better than everybody else's.

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    1. Sadly not the cut though..those leotards were verging on skimpy too, and both girls are so small that it shouldn't be an issue.

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    2. Cata's preference for thong-esque leos seems to have influenced the rest of the Romanians. Hopefully this trend will disappear by Euros.

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  8. Didi's leap was better than Lari's yesterday but her third pass NEEDS to be changed. I'm glad Didi won the floor title as she needs confidence (She was so nervous on beam yesterday... poor girl.)and coach's much attention! GOLD means a lot to Didi (Just look at Diana Chelaru who was less competitive last year but still has new floor routine) so it's okay to me that Lari didn't won floor as she already had VT silver and BB gold. New floor seems so bouncing, even Didi can't stick her landings. Let's hope this will make sense to Chinese gymnasts? :P

    A for Zeng, she looked confidence and did well but her dismount was bad as usual. Endurance problem is difficult to solve in short time and she doesn't have much room for upgrade like Lari so I don't know what to expect to her next comp...
    I think having new floor music at this moment is great for Zeng but someone told me that it was used by Nica Hults... It seems Adi Pop like to use second-hand music recently. (last year TSX use Lari's old music)

    I love Ilaria Kaeslin's style! Will she go to Euros?That she has decent form is rare to gymnasts from small country. And her floor music and choreo was the best yesterday to me:)

    Such a shame Jupp got .1 penal and that cost her a bronze medal but she still had a great comp:)

    Didi's new leo is suitable for her skin color! Reminds me of Mattie Larson, who has similar leo:) And do you notice that she kissed Lari after BB final? here→http://youtu.be/9v_3s7apvF8?t=4m14s So cute hahah
    Btw, I think Didi didn't know what the question was, either :P

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  9. Catherine, you can watch routines from Stella Zakharova Cup here:) → http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLKJpxVwAcjZnidc_0zbNUw?feature=watch

    The user is uploading though.

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