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Thursday 23 May 2013

News

I'm sure most have already heard this but just in case- Victoria Moors is training a laid-out double double, which she has just competed at Canadian Nationals. This is majorly exciting first because of how incredible it is, second because Victoria has very good execution in general on floor and thirdly because she is much more likely to be at worlds than Mykayla Skinner who also has one. Unfortunately, Victoria was below par otherwise and had a disastrous beam routine where she fell twice and lost connections and compositional requirements all over the place. She also significantly watered down vault and her floor aside from her new skill must have been watered down too since it only netted her a 5.1 difficulty value. This was also the case earlier in the year too, but then she came out in top form at American Cup. So I wouldn't worry unneccessarily about her yet.
Sure she's soft in the knees, but she has plenty of time to hone it and it's definitely not enough to declare it tucked.

Kaitlyn Hofland placed first in the AA qualifiers at Canadian Nationals, followed by Ellie Black and Maegan Chant. Talia Chiarelli placed fifth and was deliriously happy to make bars finals of all things. Here's Mihai Brestyan's reaction:
Source- gymnasticscoaching.com- @taliachi

Her twitter, like Catalina Ponor's, is endlessly entertaining. In the junior ranks, wunderkind Shallon Olsen was victorious. Hopefully with sharper form. Second and third were Aleeza Yu and Brianna Clark. You can find senior results here and the junior ones here. Note that a bonus system was applied in the junior rankings. Shallon Olsen has very high difficulty, particularly for her age, but not THAT high. Edit- Woops, posted AA qualifier results as final ones. Final results have not been confirmed yet, though it's known that Ellie Black won in senior and that the podium in junior was unchanged, even though Shallon Olsen fell three times. Victoria Moors withdrew from competition, and Heaven Latimer (she of the superb layout full and very strong floor) and Jordyn Pedersen were both out with injuries.

Andreea Munteanu has won the all-around at the Lugano Cup. You can find the results here. The order is vault, bars, beam and floor. Andreea's pet pieces are unsurprisingly beam and floor, though it's heartening to see her vault and bars score, especially her improvement on the latter. Her bars had (wait for it...) the highest e-score! Which is amazing given that she was in the presence of some very lovely Russians. As can be seen from the scores, third place Anastasia Dmitrieva is that bit bit better than the much more hyped second place Maria Bondareva on three out of four events. And I believe she can close the gap on bars in time; to me she is the best junior they have. Certainly, sixth place Viktoria Kuzmina is top notch on beam and bars..but there she'll stay as she does not even have an FTY yet and floor does not look to be her strength either. But bars/beam specialists are still highly valuable. Check out her bars d-score, she obviously fell but 6.1 topped the difficulty field by nearly a point. Even better, she has her own dismount, an arabian double layout no less! I'm really hoping for a video. Andreea Munteanu will compete alongside Andreea Iridon, Laura Jurca, Diana Teodoru, Silvia Zarzu and Madalina Blendea at the France V Romania juniors meet coming up soon. There are some videos here (one Italian, the rest Romanian).
  
Nadine Jarosch of Germany has sadly torn her ACL. This is ACL tear number four, the others are Mariya Livchikova, Gabby Jupp and Yvette Moshage. It's happening far too often. In more positive German news, Tabea Alt won the all-around at the recent German Junior Championships.

Here is the first look at how all-arounders are shaping up so far this year/quad. The difference in scoring must be taken into account; for example Yao Jinnan is in eighth place under a notoriously harsh scoring system whereas the top 3 in particular had the opposite. Jesolo is known to be harsh but that didn't really happen this year. Also I don't see Kyla Ross getting that close to a 60 with her difficulty in a fair competition.

The last segment of the Pro Gym Challenge airs tonight in the US. I for one have really enjoyed it. Retired gymnasts, college gymnasts etc. showing off excellent skills with a team spirit of camaraderie (except a certain US coach) and no pressure? Yes please! It's up on youtube and some parts won't embed which is messy. This awesome uploader uploads frequently so I'll link to the very first one here to make it easier to navigate.

Yulia Belokobylskaya of Russia has retired, at just 17. She won bronze on floor at Euros 2011 and helped with team silver at Worlds the same year. Unfortunately, she struggled quite a lot in the Olympic year. Hopefully she will be happy with whatever she decides to do.Edit- Yulia has entered the world of ballet and is already en pointe!

Natsumi Sasada won the all-around at the recent Japanese Nationals. She also had a strong meet at Jesolo this year after practically disappearing last year with injuries, so that's great to see. Not only is she back with a vengeance but she's brought her layout full mount with her! I was so sure it would have been ditched with the onset of puberty, it's great to be wrong sometimes. Second place went to veteran Yu Minobe who will compete at Universiade this year and third was Mai Murakami who would have won had she not fallen on beam. I have tried to give up hope in Mai, who performs quite strongly in Japan but nowhere near that internationally. But then I see a video of her huge smile during her floor routine and it's impossible to write her off. I still want her to win floor and the AA at worlds this year, however irrational that may be! Asuka Teramoto crashed her second pass and almost sat her first, which along with her vault difficulties is pretty worrying. These results will be coupled with those of the upcoming NHK Cup on June 8-9th in deciding their worlds team and East Asian Games team. As we saw last year, they don't hang around in deciding teams. Because this is a specialist worlds they won't just pick the top few all-arounders, but in this case I think it will serve them very well, though I'd like to replace Yu Minobe with Wakana Inoue..though the latter fell twice. Some videos after the jump; and the information as to how they will choose the team is there too (with thanks to an awesome source).



Glorious, so beautiful.
Hope..inexorably rising..And she fell out of her quad, so the SV would be higher. Oh and leaped out of her double double!
Ignoring the fall..wow. Love her lightness and she's very quick. 7.15 execution shows how harsh the scoring was.

Ahhh..that mount! Wobbly but so forgiveable.

Japanese Worlds WAG choosing rule:
Nationals(AA): May 11th to May 12th
NHK Cup: June 8th to June 9th
Nationals(EF): June 29th to June 30th
◎AAer:1
Nationals(AA) Day 2 * 1/2 + NHK Cup Day 2, the highest one
(June 9th announce)
◎Specialists:3
1.Win at least 2 titles
2.Win 1 title and the other events in Top 8
3.Win 1 title and the other events:Nationals(AA) * 1/2 + NHK Cup Day2 in Top 8
4.Win 1 title and AA ranks higher in NHK Cup
(Announce at June 30th)
May 11th 72 gymnasts → May 12th 24gymnasts → June 8th 24gymnasts → June 9th 24gymnasts → June 29th ??? (8 + gymnasts who didn’t compete in Nationals(AA) or NHK Cup but recommended by JGA) → June 30th 8 gymnasts each event
After NHK Cup, JGA will announce 4 gymnasts each event who can compete in Nationals(EF) Qualification and 3 gymnasts each event who can skip Qualification and compete in Final. And we already know that 2012 Nationals EF Gold medalist can compete in Final.
(VT: Ryu Wakiko, UB: Koko Tsurumi, BB: Shintake Yuko, FX: Murakami Mai)
Standard of skipping qualification:
Nationals(AA) * 1/2 + NHK Cup Day2 Top 3 of each event
If tie for third, it depends on who has higher score in NHK Cup Day2
Standard of qualifing to qualification:
1.Nationals(AA) Day1 + Day2 + NHK Cup Day1 + Day2 Top 8
2.Recommended by JGA


I'm working on 'The State of Russia/Romania'. Russia will be up in a few days but I'm waiting for the Romania/France juniors meet for the second.

46 comments:

  1. Two things...
    First: As much as the scores of certain meets are not that objective, that first look at all arounders is really helpful in determining how the field is really looking like. Though I still have a feeling Yao will be much better come worlds...

    Second: I have to take my words back. On the previous post I mentioned how i didnt like the PGC. Well, I watched it all three days on ESPN and I have to admit I actually liked it and was really excited. As much as was heavily biased toward team USA (I mean,audience tiebreaker? come on!), I was really happy to watch Chusovitina, Ponor, Pavlova and Lopez in action. Of course I was rooting for team world so I wasn`t exactly thrilled with the result... But the best part had to be seeing Bogi again. She has not lost her drive and her passion yet. And she is still gorgeous.

    PS: Nastia was completely arrogant and disrespectful. How dare she scream at Bogi like that? Does she know the legend she has in front?

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    1. Yes, it's good to see them in the one place. The All Around did this last year, but it was fairer approaching the Olympics because they were compiled from so many competitions at that point. Hopefully the scores will get tighter in the next few months.

      Ha yes, I thought it would be really good but it was just amazing! It just doesn't sound as good until you're actually watching it. However, there was quite a lot of BS points being awarded, and height/landing overriding everything.

      Yeah, and on two occasions!

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  2. I think Moors' new skill is likely to be credited as a double twisting double pike than layout. It is in severe danger of getting downgraded. It's a cool skill but I think I'm the only person on the gymternet that doesn't adore her, due in part to all that "Queen Moors" crap, general overratedness(sp?), and her use of an aerial for her front tumbling (le sigh).

    Any idea of the d score on Mai's floor?

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    1. I was so focused on her leg form especially the knees that I did not really notice her hips. However, I would think Lexie Priessman is more in danger of having her full-in DLO's (bars, floor when it materialises again) downgraded rather than this. Hopefully she can tighten up her form though, Skinner is more laid-out in hers, but probably has had it for longer overall. I like her, but quite a lot of her fans are crazy. She's a lovely light gymnast (light in skills! couldn't care about body type..) with some really good skills and execution.

      Ah, but Afan uses one too! Most do actually, though the Romanians favour the side somi. I agree it's a cop out, but I think it's better than the alternative; forcing them to compete actual front tumbling- high difficulty too no doubt.

      She got 6.2. Fell out of the quad for one..I'm bad at judging leaps myself but apparently the full potential is 6.5- not sure the spin alone could knock it down three tenths.

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    2. Afan only does the aerial when she waters down - she did a 2.5 punch layout front at Euros. I am a sucker for front tumbling, so I have trouble liking any routine using an aerial. The only front passes we see anymore are 2.5 punch layout/layout full and double arabian (which is only halfway front), which makes me sad. What is the point of having front tumbling as a requirement if there is an obvious way around it? I think that next quad they will either get rid of the requirement all together or ban the use of cheating aerials/side somis.

      I'm not sure, but I think that Mai's stag jump out of the double double may not have been credited, which would account for the missing tenth. It wasn't the fastest or the highest (but plenty of time to improve it before Worlds.) I think she could handle a turn connection or two as well to boost her d score.

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    3. Oh yeah, I forgot she brought it back. I just think that true prowess at front tumbling is rare so I don't mind cheating, it's better than injuries. Simone Biles is working on punching out of her 2.5 so presumably she'll ditch the aerial.

      Surely it doesn't matter how high it is if the correct shape is achieved? I only say that because plenty of Lauren Mitchell's were just as bad if not worse and she still racked up high d-scores with them..

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    4. Yeah, I agree about the injuries, but I would rather see gymnasts at least do a punch front (remember when those were all over the place?). This makes me miss Podkopayeva and Produnova - I love their front tumbling. No one really does it anymore, aside from Brenna Dowell's double front pike.

      Japanese scoring is pretty harsh. Lauren's leaps, especially at the olympics, were crap, and I have no idea how they got credited at all. I blame her for all these fugly Shawn Johnson-esque split(less) leaps out of passes.

      Is it true that jumps out of tumbles have to be B or higher if the salto is a D, but still A jumps with E or higher saltos? I don't know much (nothing really) about the new code. I would love to see Larisa add a wolf jump one of her passes since she is bouncy and flexible enough.

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    5. Yes, D salto + B dance (must be in this order) or E salto + A dance (must be in this order) can get 0.1 bonus. D salto + A salto also worth 0.1 bonus. (i.e. 2 1/2 to front tuck)

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    6. I'd love to see double stag myself, Atler style! The new slightly adjusted rule means no more double pike-split leap thankfully.

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  3. PGC was fun to watch! I loved all the athletes on both teams...but Nastia and Blaine imo were very disrespectful and lacked class...so disappointed that they were chose as coaches to "represent" team usa.

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    1. Yeah they did themsevles no favours- particularly Nastia; Blaine did just live up to expectations I suppose. I was rooting for worlds because they had better athletes on the WAG side.

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  4. PGC wasn't bad at all. Im American but the scoring for the us most of the time was bs. I rooted for the worlds team.
    The way nastia spoke to Bogi was disgusting. I understand as coaches for the opposite team you'll have disagreements but don't be an asshole.

    Cata and Tommy look so cute together and her English is really good.

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    1. Yes, it's the number one rule! 'Just don't be an asshole' :D

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  5. I really like Munteanu. She's like Iordache but more polish and better lines, quite Porgras-ish in that way. Sadly I thought her bars form was much better than Iordache's at Euros.

    I wonder with the injuries in the German camp whether they regret letting Chuso go to compete for UZB again... but I suppose with Worlds this year being individual only it's less of a big deal than if it was team.

    I like Moors, hope she will be at her best at Worlds. She's got a nice set of skills and I like her attitude, she seems really positive and happy in competition which is really nice to see.

    Just started watching the PGC and it's pretty good stuff!

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    1. Yes, I'd be quite happy for her to overtake Iordache because her execution is quite a lot better. Those turning straddle jumps- swoon. And I really love Iordache and her style to begin with. She's come on quite a bit on bars. Hopefully she can get her swing even smoother, she should be capable of strong releases and dismount at least.

      They could well be, she's quite a good bet for vault medals still. Crazy when you think about it.

      I hope she's able to shine. She will only be 16 then, good to know she's so young.

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  6. I agree with everyone who said PGC was fun, but biased. The audience deciding the tiebreakers was unfair since, the competition was in the US. Team World should have won. There were some wrong points given to the US. Marissa King had a better double layout than Chellsie. Jessica Lopez had better bars than Kat Ding. They should have won rope climb, since Wynn released early and fell to the ground. And as I stated in your older post, Laura Ann Chong had a better double front.

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    1. BTW I also love that mount! It's so difficult and refreshing! Although she did pike it down a little bit, but most gymnasts do!

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    2. I also love Moors. She just needs to fix the form and landing. I think she will get it named after her at worlds since Skinner might not make it to worlds. Moors is a lock if she isn't injured.

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    3. Yeah, Chong only lost on the landing. Kat and Marissa should have won their points too, though since it is Chellsie's 'skill' I knew that was never going to happen. I'd love if Marissa went back to elite, floor and vault at least, GB still have a great big vaulting hole.

      Yes, though I think it's actually better than Katelyn's which is amazing considering it's a mount! Moors did fairly badly in AA qualifications and final at Canadian nationals, hopefully she can redeem herself soon. If she's healthy they'll have to take her. Moors, Black, Chant and..someone, Woo, Vaculik or Douglas.

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    4. Aha, Moors pulled out of the AA final actually.

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    5. Yeah it is better than Katelyn's! She pikes it down so much. Heaven Latimer does a really nice one when she lands it.

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    6. Heaven's is fantastic. Check out Dong Fangxiao 2001 too. Heaven is injured right now unfortunately.

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  7. I love the way Romanian coach pacing their gymnasts. I don't need to worry if she can really handle the routine. I always enjoy watching Munteanu's gymnastics. She has beautiful execution and decent difficulty day by day. I now is imagining how she looks like when she uses slow tempo music:P
    (You took off colorful banner? I remembered you said you wouldn't change it? but this typeface really suits your background pattern. :D )
    (btw, I just logged in my google account haha.)

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    1. I'm very impressed with her bars. Bars champion 2014! :D Nahh, but they should not be able to stop her continuing as a strong all-arounder.

      Yes it turns out I can get sick of it! And then I realised the supports on the beam were back to front haha. I'm not sure I'll ever get a 'forever' one but the background could well be. I'm looking for a super-awesome font to use in the header, I'll hold off on MS paint..difficult enough when I use linux all the time and windows on this laptop is just awful. You should consider blogging! A Chinese/Romanian blog :) And your english is seriously great, so don't let that put you off. The world needs more Chinese gymnastics blogs in English!

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    2. Yes, please do a blog about Chinese and Romanian gymnastics!! I love Chinese WAG, and there are not a lot of good blogs in English about them ...

      -Brouhaha

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    4. I've heard a lot about the extremely high standard of education in your country and it definitely looks like you have high standards! An 85 or more/100 is our top grade so I'd be delighted with that ha. Oh that's great, a teacher like that makes all the difference.

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  8. I don't know how you think what Moors did will get credit. It wasn't laid out. I agree with the person who said she was not getting credit for that skill.

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    1. I never said it would get credit. I said she needed to fix her form and landing, but she will most likely get it named after her. I'm assuming that is she fixes it since Mykayla Skinner might not make the worlds team and Moors is a lock on the Canadian team (besides injury)

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    2. I'm really only saying it's incredible that she actually training it, and that though her knees are soft and hips not completely open that she has plenty of time to fix that. She IS trained by Elvira Saadi after all, coach of Groshkova of the double full-in back out. I wonder did they consider that but then disregard it since it would more than likely just be declared a Silivas. And Moors was clearly not 100% in prelims anyway.Dos Santos never did her DS2 fully laid out, no issues there. As long as it doesn't look like Klyukina's 08 DLO then it will probably be given. BUT I think it will have improved before worlds.

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  9. Did you see the couch gymnast preview of Jordyn. She was training a yang bo jump, but she bent her leg and when you compare it to Yang Bo's it was very ugly and bad. She also did a front ariel to layout stepout. Clearly, John Geddert is bad with connections once again. Didn't he learn the no arm swing rule for the code?

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    1. You mean Triple Twist :) I only saw it on my phone so the Yang Bo attempt went over my head. Not a skill anyone would think of for her! fair play to her if she can manage it but her back flexiblity isn't brilliant so..it's a weird skill for her. Must watch it again actually. I hope she gets a decent beam in the end!

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    2. Her leg flexibility isn't much to write home about either, she always struggles to hit 180. I would like to see her do some forward combinations (like front aerial to front tuck). Whatever she does, I'm just glad that she's trying for 2013, since I don't find myself rooting for any of the other USA seniors this year.

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    3. I think she usually hits it, certainly never oversplits but definitely better than Raisman and a few other similarly muscled gymnasts. Or at least enough to go 'is that 180? Yeah we'll give it'.

      Yes! She could do a bit of Livhikova/Netteb's connections.

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    4. It seems like most muscular power gymnasts have issues with flexibility - the only exception I can think of is Chellsie Memmel.

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    5. Simone seems to hit splits fairly easily. Given how unbelievably ripped she is it's kind of amazing. Now turning split leaps are a bit of a different story, but bog standard split leaps are fine for her. I think muscular gymnasts should utilise straddle more, it seems easier for them.

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  10. Yulia Belokobylskaya doing ballet? good for her.

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    1. I'm wondering how serious it is? Presumably if she wanted to wake it into the corps or something she'd be up against those doing it since they were 4/5. She does have great dance and expression though.

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    2. Well I guess anything is possible. She could have been learning for a while, and there are some people who pick those things up quickly.

      How did you find out? an article?

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    3. That's really pretty interesting though quite difficult.. the main problem is that gym is done almost entirely internally rotated in the hips while ballet almost entirely externally rotated/turned out, so that will take quite awhile to get used to and build strength in different muscles. By no means do ballet dancers have long careers, but compared to gym it's definitely long! And some famous principals were former artistic gymnasts though they switched over at about 10/11 - Sylvie Guillem and Natalia Osipova for example.

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    4. Yes an article though I didn't translate it myself so it's more accurate than googletranslate. Yes 17 seems quite late! And the thoughts of 5th position, ughh..

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    5. She does learn ballet now.... look a this pic https://www.dropbox.com/s/ye51jg3acx296q9/uGV1Hxnq_VY.jpg

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    6. Wow stunning photo, thanks! Love it, she (and her feet) look great.

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    7. Thanks for the link Peggy - nice picture. Who knows maybe she had started ballet as a child and switched to gymnastics and now back to ballet. Either way she looks great.

      Hopefully we hear about more of her in the future.

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  11. Have you seen Nia Dennis? She has really nice dance on floor and good form. She is great on beam and bars too. She gets a lot of height. This isn't surprising because one of her coaches is Li Li! That's so exciting. I hope Li Li teaches her the back spin. On bars she reminds me of Gabby Douglas cause of the height on release moves. However, she has a much better floor. Awesome dance! And of course Gabby's dance is terrible and inartistic.

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