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Saturday 18 May 2013

Round-up of awesomeness

First; this picture of Xiao Sa from 2010. She is not Xiao Sha, and was injured and seems to have totally faded away.
Source- Gymjiajia

WOW does not cover it, I've never seen oversplit like that from an artistic gymnast. Just a work of art.

Here is Laurie Hernandez' DTY in training. Not explosively dynamic, but well done and she's still so very young anyway.

Vanessa Zamarippa doing a Lopez vault. This was McKayla Maroney's second vault from 2011. Amazing laid-out form on this. This is why I love PGC, gymnasts who don't have the inclination or endurance for full-on elite routines, but who can still bust out amazing skills, some of which they haven't attempted before.

Catalina Ponor doing front walkover, Kotchetkova and Omelianchik! BAMF as always.

Anna Pavlova with a stunning double stag and what's down as a Ruflova. I'd moreso call it a full-turning Korbut than full-twisting, but lovely nonetheless.

Speaking of Anna;
Source- n134
It looks like extensions, but whatever. What a goddess.

Here is a report from the PGC. I can't wait until some kind soul uploads the whole thing, it's airing (if you live in the US) soon.

This is part of Mykayla Skinner's new bars routine. It's old now but I just saw it this week, she's improved quite a bit though the full routine would need to be seen first. Impressed by her handstands and the height on her release.



23 comments:

  1. Thanks so much for this, I'd been trying to look for some of the PGC videos but hadn't had much success. Pity it sounds like Chellsie didn't do much but she has had a lot of injuries and surgery so probably for the better. The former NCAA gymnasts all sound like they are in very good shape, and Zam looks very sharp. Ponor is bad ass as usual. I love how Chuso looks the most ripped in the pictures of all the athletes together. Really looking forward to videos of the whole thing, it sounds like good fun and there's been a dearth of good gymnastics to watch so hopefully someone puts up vids soon!

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    1. I'd say she could have challenged Chuso on that shoulder-jam to handstand in a flash, but it really wouldn't be worth it given her injury history. She is getting married in a few months after all!

      I hope this competition returns, in a better area so more people can go. Sounds like it was in the middle of nowhere. I'm hopeful it will be uploaded after it airs..please...

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  2. ESPN 2 is airing pgc this week. May 20 to 22

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    1. Enjoy! I do have some US channels (here in Ireland) but nothing ESPN.

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    2. Apparently, they are going to post videos after it is aired on ESPN (according to Gymcastic)

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  3. I know this is unrelated but what do you think of Mai Murakami's chances for Worlds and making floor finals?

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    1. She has not in the last while performed strongly outside of Japan. It appears that they use bouncier floors and don't use harder floors in training as much as other countries do. She did well at Japansese nationals (beam fall though) and should be chosen for the team after the NHK cup coming up soon. I see her on the team and with a 6.2 routine and great execution she should easily make finals. But I'd hope to see her hitting internationally before then. Also her routine only being a 6.2 is silly; it needs to be codewhored. She's a great spinner, they need to make the most of it.

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  4. I honestly don't like the PGC.. I feel like I only enjoy watching these gymnastics legends at real meets and not entering this competition which makes them seem older and less impressive than they really are!! But that is my opinion.

    And about Laurie Hernandez... She is impressing me time and time again.. First she wins the junior verification (beating my favorite Bailie Key) and now that DTY looks great and it has potential!!
    What do you think her 2013-2014 will be like?

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    1. Fair enough, I know it won't appeal to everyone.

      She has to be preserved until her senior debut in 2016, so I'm hoping she won't fling crazy difficulty this year and next year. Work up to it, a DTY is fine but no really tough upgrades; except on bars since that's not pounding. I think she could overtake Amelia as one of the top few and catch up on Bailie this year.

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    2. SO who do you think is the us junior with the most promise??

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    3. It's still gotta be Bailie 'no weak event' Key for me.

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  5. I watched the PGC. Ponor beat team USA since the forfeited, since no one on that team can do that combo. Anna Pavlova beat Shayla Worley because Shayla was crooked on her full twisting korbut flip. Nastia was the team US coach and was arguing with Bogi(team world coach)about Pavs ring jump. She said that her leg was bent and ignored Bogi, so Bogi had to turn Nastia around with her hands to get her attention. At the end of the day's broadcast, Ponor did an interview in English. She was confident and said that she can connect 5 or 6 elements.

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    1. I'm watching it on youtube. Can't wait for tonight; I've already heard some interesting stuff. That whole Nastia thing was ridiculous and so rude. Must post up links in a new post actually.

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    2. Yes, Nastia was rude. She doesn't know that is how a stag ring jump looks and couldn't identify the skill. You would think she would no how it looks since she use to do it and bent her leg too. I'm eleven and not even a gymnast and know more about the skills than her. Bogi actually has knowledge. BTW I'm the same person.

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    3. I've heard another theory; that Nastia was actually just explaining it to everyone else on the US team. Not sure that holds up? Either way, very snotty to Boginskaya. You're 11, wow! I'm kind of jealous. I discovered gymnastics (aside from doing it myself for a few weeks) at 12- sydney, but it wasn't until 2011 that I really got into it. I should have been an obsessive fun years and years ago!

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    4. Thanks! I discovered gymnastics when watching the 2012 US Olympic Trials. Then, I became obsessed with it. Of course I can't do it. I can't even do a cartwheel. At first I was pro USA and very biased since I live there. Then, I discovered the old gymnastics from way before I was born. I loved Ukrainian, Romanian, Chinese, and Russian gymnastics. I was also a ballerina and a fan of the artistry, even though I was a bad ballerina. For US gymnasts, I LOVED Shannon Miller. Nastia was kinda rude to Bogi again. Bogi was civilly arguing whether it was a delchev or gienger, even though I thought it was a delchev. Nastia was rude and kept yelling that it was a delchev.

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    5. I used to be able to do a cartwheel, and one time I actually HELD a handstand. It's fun to remember how ridiculously hard that was for me and then be totally underwhelmed by them now. (Though handstand-pirouettes on beam and floor will always be awesome). I am a fan of US gymnastics as well as everyone else but Soviet gymnastics is just..unbelievable really. They will always be top for me. Yeah Miller is the best gymnast US have ever had. Vise is a big favourite of mine too. I thought it was a pretty crappy looking Deltchev, though moreso one than a gienger. But then, Boginskaya has seen so many Deltchevs..how familiar with them would Nastia be by contrast really, I can't think of any competed in the last 5 years.

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  6. Queen Catalina and Shayla did the back handspring with a full twist. The judges said it was a tie, so the pro-American crowd chose Shayla. I was SO MAD! But, Bogi made a protest and Catalina won! Is it weird that I favoring the World when I'm from the US and most US kids are pro American. Well, Catalina, Chuso, and Pavs are awesome!

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    1. Of course I love Bogi more than Nastia too!

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    2. Shayla was a good beam worker, but no way was that her point. Yes, Boginskaya who was certainly not afraid to cry foul in her day remained very classy and calm. Not at all- after all, Mustafina alone has a ginormous fan base in the US. I do think it's a shame that several excellent bloggers only focus on the US though. This happens for other countries too- though often those blogs do a lot of work translating and providing news and information, rather than opinion. It's great when you look forward to what ANY country will do, rather than fixating on someone 'beating' yours. So yeah, it's a good attitude to have!

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    3. Thanks! I know that wasn't Bogi's point. I was just stating that the crowd was pro American and that's why Shayla won. Most of my friends think I'm obsessed with gymnastics which is true, but I don't know a lot about the juniors or countries besides the powerhouses. That's why it's great to have a blog like yours. I love it! Yours is certainly my favorite since it isn't biased, there's nothing inappropriate, and it focuses on multiple countries. I as well love Musty even though she has flaws that annoy me (twisting form), but she doesn't have noticeable flaws on bars except for the one leg sep before the piked jaeger and the giants. My friends can be a bit ignorant when it comes to gymnastics. Some of them think its easy and bad, some think that the Russians are divas (not their faults, just 4 year fan NBC brainwashing), and some think Gabby has great floor choreography/music. However, I convinced them that Russians are great and NBC has terrible commentators with the Dr. Phil, socks, and saying Nastia had a slender body bits.

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    4. Thanks anon :) I definitely focus on the top 4, but they make it too easy with their dominance! I did this series to highlight juniors http://beautifulgymnastics.blogspot.ie/2012/08/new-kids-on-block.html The Chinese one though is really not great- their best juniors I would say are Liu Tingting, Mei Jie, Lv Jiaqi, Yuan Xiaoyang and Wang Yan with gymnasts like Lou Nina, Chen Siyi, Wang Wei, Xie Wenwei and Fan Yilin behind them in terms of importance.

      I've noticed this year that Mustafina is sickling her legs quite a bit on bars. It's not near as obvious in her London routines, so maybe just laziness? But it's a real pet peeve of mine. I don't have anyone with the slightest interest in gymnastics; it's just nothing in this country. I bore my boyfriend sometimes; though that lessened when I started this blog.

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  7. Team USA won the competition, but I thought team World should have. On the last round team World was leading when the had to do double front half out dismounts. They both stuck it., but the person from team World had better form, but the US still won. If the world won that point, they would have won.

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