WOGA Classic was fairly interesting. Rebeca Andrade stole the show for me, utterly dominating the junior competition. She did not, however, win bars as the official results dictate - Lv Jiaqi did with 14.55, not 14.05. Her d-score was miscalculated by 5 tenths, but she was still given the gold. Rebeca showed a steady floor, with her DLO looking less piked, lovely dynamic DTY instead of the amanar she did not need, and solid improvement on beam and bars. The latter two badly need difficulty but it looks like she's on the right track.
Lv Jiaqi is recovering from a slight injury, so only did bars and floor. Glorious dance on a watered-down floor and her bars were great, so a good meet for her despite not being able to show off her beam - her best event. Tiny munchkin Flavia Saraiva was impressive too, despite a fall on her bars..though it'd be a fairly new routine for her so no worries there. Her line is great on bars and she has nice skills elsewhere..Andrade will more than likely get the YOG nod but I hope Saraiva gets the chance to fight for it. Amy Tinkler's floor was fantastic, great strong tumbling and not even her best- she has a double double in the works. GB has a surfeit of great 1999 girls to form the core of what's sure to be a super-strong Junior Euros team, and a difficult choice over who to send to YOG- Amy Tinkler, Ellie Downie or Tyesha Matthis.
Xie Yufen had a strong, steady meet. She's b-team I think but she could still surprise if she continues strong, at least this year when they're definitely not going to be able to field a stellar worlds team. Yuan Xiaoyang counted two falls which was disappointing, hopefully we will see improvements from her at later meets- after all, they're still in winter training. As for WOGA themselves, seniors Madison Kocian and Alyssa Baumann looked good on their pet events, so that will be interesting. I want a hybrid of those two for the ultimate UB/BB girl..Kocian is better on bars and Baumann on beam but neither are truly outstanding by themselves. There remains a Katelyn Ohashi shaped hole in the USA National Team. Her interview was sad and it sounds like getting back to NCAA level, nevermind elite, will be a very tough ask. The back injury must be very serious and it could mean she won't even be cleared for the full 4 years of college. With luck we will see her again at some level.
Newly Level-10 Kennedy Baker stole the show in that level, effectively crowning herself the Nastia Liukin Cup Champion in the process. I've always thought her gymnastics scream 'college', I think she will shine there. Irina Alexeeva sadly fell on her arabian but I like the composition of her new beam, utilising aerials etc. Last year's routine was too much for her. Still curious over whether she is settled on the US elite track or if she'll plump for Russia as initially intended.
If you're wondering about the obvious disregard for the new floor rules, they won't come into effect until April. Videos of the meet are here.
I haven't had a chance to see much of Elite Canada but I'm impressed by Aleeza Yu, and the sound of Ellie Black's upgrades - including a Shang and BHS-tucked full. I'm not too sure about Victoria Moors' new beam dismount. She's not too consistent on that apparatus and her routine doesn't have a huge amount in it, hopefully the rest of it improves to keep pace with the ending.
Romania have released some rosters of junior competitions, and confirmed Larisa Iordache will be on her way to the US soon. Linky link. I'm most excited to see Olivia Cimpian who is tragically too young for Rio. She is a star in the making, but I'll have my eye on the other girls too.
Speaking of which, Junior Euros could possibly be more exciting than Senior, in the team competition. 1999 and 2000 born are seriously strong years internationally, hence excitement. GB would quite easily be the ones to beat- a team of Tyesha Matthis, Ellie Downie, Amy Tinkler, Catherine Lyons and Georgia Mae Fenton/Teal Grindle is formiddable. Romania should be strong- maybe Laura Jurca, Madalina Blendea, Anda Butuc, Andra Stoica and Andreea Ciurusniuc? The Russian team will preferably have Maria Bondareva, Anastasia Dmitrieva, Seda Tutkhalyan, Ekaterina Sokova and I'm not sure of the fifth.
Seniors are murkier, hard to tell where half of the potential Russian team is at. Hopefully that will become clearer soon.
I cannot wait for American Cup! I'm thinking gold is Simone Biles' already, unless she falls..and she could, but having an incredible worlds will probably help her out in the nerves department. Really looking forward to the debut of her impressive upgrades although the Cheng will have to wait- no event finals of course. Ebee and Larisa Iordache should have a good battle for colour of medals I think, with Roxana Popa, Giulia Steingruber and Vanessa Ferrari right behind them. Bars rotation should be exciting - Roxana and Sophie have some of my favourite routines, Ebee is always good to watch, a hit routine from Larisa like she did late last year would be awesome, Vanessa might throw her newly-regained Comaneci, and Simone has at least one upgrade too. Vault also- 2 amanars, a Rudi and strong DTY's.
Who are you most looking forward to seeing at American Cup/Euros?
Showing posts with label Irina Alexeeva. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Irina Alexeeva. Show all posts
Sunday, 16 February 2014
Saturday, 16 November 2013
The United States of Extreme Difficulty
I freely admit that I am a giant hypocrite. I love seeing big difficulty once it's not scary and seeing juniors with crazy routines, like Katelyn Ohashi in 2011 with her beam and Norah Flatley with hers. But, enough is enough. There are too many now with routines that are just unnecessary at this stage, and others the same who are not even elegible for Rio. Injuries can happen to anyone but there's no real need to open the door and invite them in.
Look at Ariana Agrapides. She's not senior for another four years, so 2017 worlds would be her aim for the moment, and her Olympics would be 2020. With that in mind, she already has a DTY, double arabian and piked full-in. AND she's training an amanar. The first three skills are done very well, no doubt about it. Safe and secure and the DTY is one of the best I have ever seen. But that's not really the point. It's too much pounding at her age (12) and unfortunately, spells burnout. She went from not having an FTY to an amazing DTY in less than six months. Can this talent not be preserved? An amanar is just asking for trouble, and indeed, she currently has a fractured foot, not that I can tell the exact cause of that.
This is fantastic. But it's a little early and an upgrade is asking for trouble for her knees, joints and ankles. They just don't need that stress that early, and for what gain? The Jr National Vault champion. Not much of a trade-off. The same gymnast had an utter meltdown at Nationals on bars and her highest e-score over both days on that apparatus was 6.7. Going back to basics there could well serve her better in the long run.
It hasn't escaped my attention that if Ariana does do an amanar next year, she wouldn't be the first, three years off from being a senior. This exclusive club also contains Lexie Priessman. McKayla Maroney and Jordyn Wieber also did it two years before becoming senior, at the age of 13, but they at least had London looming ahead.
Ariana has fabulous potential on vault and floor in particular. But what's the rush?
Irina Alexeeva has already attracted a lot of attention, Russian-born, WOGA gymnast with a flair for floor and beam. She competes at HOPES level, which is between elite and Level 10. Indeed she achieved the scores needed for elite I believe this year, but it was decided to not advance just yet. A wise decision given that she is 2002 born and therefore not senior until 2018. Yet, yesterday at Masillia she scored 15.850 on beam, with a d-score in the mid 6's. This score no doubt has a bonus included but think about it, 5 years from senior and she had more difficulty than anyone in the worlds beam final. It is like Aly Raisman trouncing seniors on floor, in 2005. I thought when Irina debuted this routine that it was too much for her and that she struggled a bit, and although the score from yesterday indicates that she must have mastered it totally, it is still craziness.
Not to mention Jordan Chiles, 2017 senior, who has a DTY and is also training an amanar. Not doubting her ability at all, and it looks good in the video, but I'm just hoping it stays in the pit until 2015. Or indeed Laurie Hernandez who showed up this year with immense upgrades on every event. Like Ariana her teammate, her skills look secure. But it could have waited another year.
What do you think? Am I fussing about nothing? Or is the trend for more difficulty younger and younger indeed worrying? We only have to look at examples like Katelyn Ohashi and Jordyn Wieber for athletes who it did no favours to. The code demands so much from gymnasts these days, but there has been no advancement in the structure of the body and how badly pounding can affect it. Look at the injury list before/during/after worlds. The longer gymnasts do these skills, the more likely an injury is. In the US, the depth of talent means you pretty much need to make a name for yourself. But pacing has never been so important. Being a superstar junior is not much good if it ultimately means that your senior career takes a huge hit.
Look at Ariana Agrapides. She's not senior for another four years, so 2017 worlds would be her aim for the moment, and her Olympics would be 2020. With that in mind, she already has a DTY, double arabian and piked full-in. AND she's training an amanar. The first three skills are done very well, no doubt about it. Safe and secure and the DTY is one of the best I have ever seen. But that's not really the point. It's too much pounding at her age (12) and unfortunately, spells burnout. She went from not having an FTY to an amazing DTY in less than six months. Can this talent not be preserved? An amanar is just asking for trouble, and indeed, she currently has a fractured foot, not that I can tell the exact cause of that.
This is fantastic. But it's a little early and an upgrade is asking for trouble for her knees, joints and ankles. They just don't need that stress that early, and for what gain? The Jr National Vault champion. Not much of a trade-off. The same gymnast had an utter meltdown at Nationals on bars and her highest e-score over both days on that apparatus was 6.7. Going back to basics there could well serve her better in the long run.
It hasn't escaped my attention that if Ariana does do an amanar next year, she wouldn't be the first, three years off from being a senior. This exclusive club also contains Lexie Priessman. McKayla Maroney and Jordyn Wieber also did it two years before becoming senior, at the age of 13, but they at least had London looming ahead.
Ariana has fabulous potential on vault and floor in particular. But what's the rush?
Irina Alexeeva has already attracted a lot of attention, Russian-born, WOGA gymnast with a flair for floor and beam. She competes at HOPES level, which is between elite and Level 10. Indeed she achieved the scores needed for elite I believe this year, but it was decided to not advance just yet. A wise decision given that she is 2002 born and therefore not senior until 2018. Yet, yesterday at Masillia she scored 15.850 on beam, with a d-score in the mid 6's. This score no doubt has a bonus included but think about it, 5 years from senior and she had more difficulty than anyone in the worlds beam final. It is like Aly Raisman trouncing seniors on floor, in 2005. I thought when Irina debuted this routine that it was too much for her and that she struggled a bit, and although the score from yesterday indicates that she must have mastered it totally, it is still craziness.
Not to mention Jordan Chiles, 2017 senior, who has a DTY and is also training an amanar. Not doubting her ability at all, and it looks good in the video, but I'm just hoping it stays in the pit until 2015. Or indeed Laurie Hernandez who showed up this year with immense upgrades on every event. Like Ariana her teammate, her skills look secure. But it could have waited another year.
What do you think? Am I fussing about nothing? Or is the trend for more difficulty younger and younger indeed worrying? We only have to look at examples like Katelyn Ohashi and Jordyn Wieber for athletes who it did no favours to. The code demands so much from gymnasts these days, but there has been no advancement in the structure of the body and how badly pounding can affect it. Look at the injury list before/during/after worlds. The longer gymnasts do these skills, the more likely an injury is. In the US, the depth of talent means you pretty much need to make a name for yourself. But pacing has never been so important. Being a superstar junior is not much good if it ultimately means that your senior career takes a huge hit.
Tuesday, 5 March 2013
Everything else :) Updated!
Even Afan can't make this abomination work- Copyright RGF- Russian Gymnastics federation
LOVE- Both copyright of the RGF- Russian Gymnastics Federation
My observations here come from videos from a mix of all three events- quals, AA and TF. I missed the quals and AA livestream and gave up on the TF one because it was too laggy on my laptop. There seems to be suprise that Tatiana Nabieva did not do her named release. I'm not surprised, she has not done it in a good while. Good bars from her though and she scored well on vault. New face (to me) Alla Sosnitskaya had impressive difficulty on floor- a DLO (almost to her knees in the video I saw, but still) and triple full, looking forward to seeing more of her. Watching her TF floor now, her landings were out of control. Nice to see someone with a lot of power all the same! As for Mustafina, at this point of the year she is wisely not stretching herself too much. There's a lot of dissapointment that she's not selling her floor routine as well as she has her old routines, but I see no reason to do that this early. I'm sure it will be improved by Euros and stellar by the time Worlds rolls around. Her vault, DTY, was great- well landed and controlled. Bars were a delight as always, very clean and crisp. Totally watered down from London as expected. Aliya's beam was the highlight for me, she has some great new connections. She didn't connect them in the AA but they were much better in the team final which was great to see. My favourite is the Onodi-double turn. Glorious. Her arabian looks pretty solid too and it's nice to see a double back dismount in place of a twisting one. It looks like the new beam connections were designed for her, I'm sure she will have more up her sleeve. As expected, she debuted a new floor routine. At some points, she isn't selling the routine and looks disinterested. Again, not to beat a dead horse, but she's not in London and doesn't need to go all out. I do like the music though and it looks like it will be great. The double arabian-stag and triple full looked very solid though she had a deep landing on her second pass and lots of (now deductible) long pauses in corners. Really excited to see how this routine develops this year. Grishina did well to place second. Her first floor routine looked exhausting for her, low double-double and a double pike to her hands and knees. Thankfully she performed better in team finals- watered down with no scary passes or falls. She seems more mentally ready to compete, more confident. Bars were improved, and she has brought back her beautiful Onodi-illusion beam combination. Not many creditable connections present in the routine as of yet though and she's still shaky. It is a big victory that she stayed on beam all the same. She did crash a DTY, but she was still improved on what we saw of her all last year, and it's only just begun. I am surprised to see Afanasyeva compete AA. I thought she would specialise on beam and floor, but maybe she is planning to do that in the very near future.Nice new beam work from her apparently though the video has been taken down before I got to it. Thankfully someone described it- switch half (new), aerial (2 feet) to jump (dunno what one- split leap? scissone?), Kotchetkova- tour-jete 1/2 (fell in between), aerial-1.5 L turn (awesome!), Onodi-side somi. Now she did have major issues with the routine and barely qualified to EF but it seems like she was trying out a whole load of exciting connections. It sounds like a very interesting routine, especially with her execution. Her floor is the same from London, still with very strong tumbling. She is EF worthy on both events, excellent stuff.
I will always have a soft spot for Anna Myzdrikova who was just phenomenal on floor 2009-2010. She has resurrected her floor from that (perfect) time, and her double arabian is still great. She is still captivating to watch. Ekaterina Kramarenko seems to have improved, good for her. I didn't see any Ekaterina Baturina videos but word is she wasn't great and is recovering from an injury. Missing were Viktoria Komova, Yulia Inshina (back problem), Anastasia Sidorova (back problem) and Anna Rodionova (foot..I think)
Videos and more after the jump!
Sunday, 17 February 2013
News and stuff
The WOGA Classic has taken place. The Texas Dreams girls did not compete, which drastically lowered the amount of serious competition. They are being paced for camp later this month. Katelyn Ohashi did not compete floor, and vaulted an FTY. Probably a very wise decision this early in the year though it makes me think there's not a hope she will be the second AA spot at SCAM. She did compete a very ambitious beam, with numerous issues which hopefully will be ironed out. It did not have a dance series, the layout full needs to be replaced with a tuck version, and nothing was connected..so the score while it is too high, also reflects the monster d-score..in and around 6.5 to 6.7 for the routine shown, which can hit mid 7's in full. Similarly, her bars are a bit problematic too, the Healy turn is not working for her and is not worth doing if it remains like that. I really like Katelyn and hope she can be paced correctly this quad. Mariya Livchikova was second AA behind Abigail Milliet. Abigail is one of those elites you never hear much about, but she had pretty decent scores here. She was rumoured to be training an amanar but with a score of 15 on vault, I'm not sure if she did a very good DTY or a rough amanar. I'm inclined to go for the former, as overscoring was definitely evident at this meet. Really looking forward to seeing Mariya's beam and floor especially, though she did fall on beam. Krystyna only competed bars. Katelyn's beam is here and her bars are here. Senior results can be seen here.
Jordan Chiles missed qualifying elite by a tiny fraction, as she fell off bars. Seeing as she is 4 years off being a senior, this is far from a calamity, though dissapointing for her of course. She is very strong on all 4 events so if she avoids a fall in future there's pretty much no doubt she'll make it. Really looking forward to seeing her routines, I saw a beautifully clean DTY video recently. Pixie Brock, the girl in blue who was given short shrift in the MLT documentary, failed to qualify elite as did Alyona Shchennikova, Polina's sister. Madison Kocian managed it. There isn't a full list yet so I'm unsure if Irina Alexeeva qualified. She is even younger than Jordan by virtue of not turning senior until 2018 so again, plenty of time. She competed in the junior elite ranks later on in the day but seeing as she is from WOGA that isn't a chrystal clear indication..rules can be bent when it's your gym. Edit- Irina qualified elite! Well done to her. She just did beam and floor after doing the AA earlier, managing the highest scores on both events. I LOVE her beam. Seven juniors competed AA, with Meredith Sylvia of Parkettes in first. Laurie Hernandez counted a fall on bars and was second. Polina Shchennikova seems to have had a rough time on beam, coming in fourth. Full results are here. Irina's qualifying routines are here.
Russia have pulled out of Jesolo. This is a bit of a blow both as an opportunity to see a wide range of seniors and juniors and as a means of seeing them face off against USA which they now won't be doing until worlds and then only individually, but it does make sense that they don't want to wear their gymnasts out this early in the quad. They have quite a bit on their plate- Russian Championships at the beginning of next month, the LRSY (Bercy) World Cup in the middle of March which has Aliya Mustafina, Ksenia Afanasyeva and Maria Paseka on its roster, and then Euros towards the end of April. Anna Rodionova is injured and won't be at Championships. She competed watered down routines with a cast recently..a leg injury, not sure if it was sustained when she fell on her Pak on bars at Stuttgart late last year or if it's unrelated. Also missing will be Viktoria Komova of course, though prognosis on her seems to be better than expected. Edit- Aliya has pulled out of LRSY. Paseka and Afan are still on the roster. I was looking forward to seeing a new floor from her- even just with back layout passes- but still there's a few opportunities to see her before summer so whatever keeps her healthy and paced correctly. I noticed Diana Chelaru is not on the roster anymore in the last update, but hadn't seen the February 14th update. It's here.
Elena Zamolodchikova has reportedly suffered a heart attack. She has been dealing with a lot of stress- the closing down of her gym, move to another multi-sports facility and friction there. She appears to stand accused of physically beating other coaches (??!!). The translations are pretty bad, but it appears that she has been released, still feeling weak, and will be observed until Wednesday. It is entirely blamed on the stress she has been under. Edit: It's been said on IG forums that a fluff piece stated she had a minor heart condition, which would make this attack at such a young age all the more likely. I'm waiting for a decent translation to fill in the gaps but you can read/translate the original article here.
While it's obvious that Oksana Chusovitina has not retired given her recent participation in meets, the latest news is that she plans to compete for Uzbekistan in Rio. This would be her 7th Olympics, and if she makes it to 2016, her 25th year competing as a senior elite. WOW. Oksana has said before that she wanted to focus on coaching the Uzbek team, which presumably she will combine with her own training. While she has German nationality from moving there for her son's treatment, Uzbekistan is her native country so presumably she has dual nationality and won't have to jump through hoops to be elegible. Wishing this incredibly inspirational athlete the best of luck.She really deserves to be recognised outside of her own sport..it's quite a bit different to someone competing that long in a sport like archery or equestrian..
USAG just posted a short interview with Kyla Ross. She talks about focusing on her all-around potential and her goals of performing strongly at SCAM and Nationals. There's footage of her on all four events at camp, though vault and floor are just warm-ups. She looks nice and sharp on bars, good to see.
I posted this 10 minutes after USAG uploaded it. Delighted this morning to wake up to ones with Lexie Priessman, Katelyn Ohashi and Simone Biles. Hopefully a Maddie Desch one too. Obviously Kyla is already a senior, the rest are new to the scene. You can see the others here.
The Nadia Comaneci International Invitational was won by Victoria Moors in the senior category and Rebeca Andrade in the junior category. I thought this was a Level 10 meet when I heard about it a while ago, so very happy to discover some great names competing. Another favourite is 2000- born Romanian Asiana Peng who is very clean and artistic on beam and floor. Routines have been uploaded here. The highlight is Victoria Moors on floor. So great to see her right back on form after an off day at the recent Canadian Nationals. Love the choreography right in the middle, and the turn before her last pass. Although she is an extremely worthy floor medal winner she needs a good bit more difficulty to contend, but I'm glad she isn't being overworked when she's not long back from a mild injury. Rebeca Andrade is once again extremely impressive on beam and floor, super height on everything. Nice to see she's keeping it easy though. Bars are her nemesis and she did not do her Comaneci- a shame considering the meet. Asiana Peng has a lovely sprightly floor and nice swing on bars. Plenty of time for the two of them to develop on bars yet.
The Tokyo World Cup roster has been released. (C'mon Jesolo!!). It's a nice mix and I'm most excited to see Asuka Teramoto, Elisa Meneghini and Shang Chunsong. Elisa is a brand new Italian senior who isn't far behind Enus Mariani in terms of promise. (Speaking of Enus, there's a dance run-through of her new floor routine and it's amazing! Epic, dramatic music and she really sell it.) I'm a bit dissapointed to see Huang Qiushuang because although I love her expression on floor and she can display gorgeous work elsewhere...I feel like she has had endless opportunities often with dissapointing results and that it's time to push Zeng Siqi, Huang Huidan and Wu Liufang forward for the international experience they need. Elsabeth Black recently had an extrememly dominant performance at Canadian Nationals, so she should be strong competition. Somehow I am not suprised to see Vanessa Ferrari on the roster as she is competing like a maniac saving up for a house..hopefully a mansion at this stage, she deserves it. I haven't seen much at all of Charlie Fellows so I'm looking forward to her. And last but not least...an unnamed American! Very exciting stuff and it's nice to see them participating in a greater number of international meets. February camp should be very interesting, names for SCAM, Jesolo, the Germany meet and now this, not to mention the much depleted Junior National team. I've named all the girls for the Tokyo Cup but you can see the roster and for MAG too here.
TCG have confirmed the Japanese lineup for Jesolo and coupled with the source on weibo, I'll take that! I'm SO EXCITED to see Asuka Teramoto who is definitely making up for missing competitions with a minor injury last year, Mai Murakami as always, not so much new skills from her as it's very early..but consistency, the cleanest bars worker I've seen in a long time- Wakana Inoue, the girl with the layout full beam mount- Natsumi Sasada who has been missing in action for quite a while and Waikiko Ryu who I haven't seen much of. Superb lineup. They are also sending five juniors and as their juniors are completely unknown to me, an excellent opportunity to see what's coming up through their ranks.
Jordan Chiles missed qualifying elite by a tiny fraction, as she fell off bars. Seeing as she is 4 years off being a senior, this is far from a calamity, though dissapointing for her of course. She is very strong on all 4 events so if she avoids a fall in future there's pretty much no doubt she'll make it. Really looking forward to seeing her routines, I saw a beautifully clean DTY video recently. Pixie Brock, the girl in blue who was given short shrift in the MLT documentary, failed to qualify elite as did Alyona Shchennikova, Polina's sister. Madison Kocian managed it. There isn't a full list yet so I'm unsure if Irina Alexeeva qualified. She is even younger than Jordan by virtue of not turning senior until 2018 so again, plenty of time. She competed in the junior elite ranks later on in the day but seeing as she is from WOGA that isn't a chrystal clear indication..rules can be bent when it's your gym. Edit- Irina qualified elite! Well done to her. She just did beam and floor after doing the AA earlier, managing the highest scores on both events. I LOVE her beam. Seven juniors competed AA, with Meredith Sylvia of Parkettes in first. Laurie Hernandez counted a fall on bars and was second. Polina Shchennikova seems to have had a rough time on beam, coming in fourth. Full results are here. Irina's qualifying routines are here.
Russia have pulled out of Jesolo. This is a bit of a blow both as an opportunity to see a wide range of seniors and juniors and as a means of seeing them face off against USA which they now won't be doing until worlds and then only individually, but it does make sense that they don't want to wear their gymnasts out this early in the quad. They have quite a bit on their plate- Russian Championships at the beginning of next month, the LRSY (Bercy) World Cup in the middle of March which has Aliya Mustafina, Ksenia Afanasyeva and Maria Paseka on its roster, and then Euros towards the end of April. Anna Rodionova is injured and won't be at Championships. She competed watered down routines with a cast recently..a leg injury, not sure if it was sustained when she fell on her Pak on bars at Stuttgart late last year or if it's unrelated. Also missing will be Viktoria Komova of course, though prognosis on her seems to be better than expected. Edit- Aliya has pulled out of LRSY. Paseka and Afan are still on the roster. I was looking forward to seeing a new floor from her- even just with back layout passes- but still there's a few opportunities to see her before summer so whatever keeps her healthy and paced correctly. I noticed Diana Chelaru is not on the roster anymore in the last update, but hadn't seen the February 14th update. It's here.
Elena Zamolodchikova has reportedly suffered a heart attack. She has been dealing with a lot of stress- the closing down of her gym, move to another multi-sports facility and friction there. She appears to stand accused of physically beating other coaches (??!!). The translations are pretty bad, but it appears that she has been released, still feeling weak, and will be observed until Wednesday. It is entirely blamed on the stress she has been under. Edit: It's been said on IG forums that a fluff piece stated she had a minor heart condition, which would make this attack at such a young age all the more likely. I'm waiting for a decent translation to fill in the gaps but you can read/translate the original article here.
While it's obvious that Oksana Chusovitina has not retired given her recent participation in meets, the latest news is that she plans to compete for Uzbekistan in Rio. This would be her 7th Olympics, and if she makes it to 2016, her 25th year competing as a senior elite. WOW. Oksana has said before that she wanted to focus on coaching the Uzbek team, which presumably she will combine with her own training. While she has German nationality from moving there for her son's treatment, Uzbekistan is her native country so presumably she has dual nationality and won't have to jump through hoops to be elegible. Wishing this incredibly inspirational athlete the best of luck.She really deserves to be recognised outside of her own sport..it's quite a bit different to someone competing that long in a sport like archery or equestrian..
USAG just posted a short interview with Kyla Ross. She talks about focusing on her all-around potential and her goals of performing strongly at SCAM and Nationals. There's footage of her on all four events at camp, though vault and floor are just warm-ups. She looks nice and sharp on bars, good to see.
I posted this 10 minutes after USAG uploaded it. Delighted this morning to wake up to ones with Lexie Priessman, Katelyn Ohashi and Simone Biles. Hopefully a Maddie Desch one too. Obviously Kyla is already a senior, the rest are new to the scene. You can see the others here.
The Nadia Comaneci International Invitational was won by Victoria Moors in the senior category and Rebeca Andrade in the junior category. I thought this was a Level 10 meet when I heard about it a while ago, so very happy to discover some great names competing. Another favourite is 2000- born Romanian Asiana Peng who is very clean and artistic on beam and floor. Routines have been uploaded here. The highlight is Victoria Moors on floor. So great to see her right back on form after an off day at the recent Canadian Nationals. Love the choreography right in the middle, and the turn before her last pass. Although she is an extremely worthy floor medal winner she needs a good bit more difficulty to contend, but I'm glad she isn't being overworked when she's not long back from a mild injury. Rebeca Andrade is once again extremely impressive on beam and floor, super height on everything. Nice to see she's keeping it easy though. Bars are her nemesis and she did not do her Comaneci- a shame considering the meet. Asiana Peng has a lovely sprightly floor and nice swing on bars. Plenty of time for the two of them to develop on bars yet.
The Tokyo World Cup roster has been released. (C'mon Jesolo!!). It's a nice mix and I'm most excited to see Asuka Teramoto, Elisa Meneghini and Shang Chunsong. Elisa is a brand new Italian senior who isn't far behind Enus Mariani in terms of promise. (Speaking of Enus, there's a dance run-through of her new floor routine and it's amazing! Epic, dramatic music and she really sell it.) I'm a bit dissapointed to see Huang Qiushuang because although I love her expression on floor and she can display gorgeous work elsewhere...I feel like she has had endless opportunities often with dissapointing results and that it's time to push Zeng Siqi, Huang Huidan and Wu Liufang forward for the international experience they need. Elsabeth Black recently had an extrememly dominant performance at Canadian Nationals, so she should be strong competition. Somehow I am not suprised to see Vanessa Ferrari on the roster as she is competing like a maniac saving up for a house..hopefully a mansion at this stage, she deserves it. I haven't seen much at all of Charlie Fellows so I'm looking forward to her. And last but not least...an unnamed American! Very exciting stuff and it's nice to see them participating in a greater number of international meets. February camp should be very interesting, names for SCAM, Jesolo, the Germany meet and now this, not to mention the much depleted Junior National team. I've named all the girls for the Tokyo Cup but you can see the roster and for MAG too here.
TCG have confirmed the Japanese lineup for Jesolo and coupled with the source on weibo, I'll take that! I'm SO EXCITED to see Asuka Teramoto who is definitely making up for missing competitions with a minor injury last year, Mai Murakami as always, not so much new skills from her as it's very early..but consistency, the cleanest bars worker I've seen in a long time- Wakana Inoue, the girl with the layout full beam mount- Natsumi Sasada who has been missing in action for quite a while and Waikiko Ryu who I haven't seen much of. Superb lineup. They are also sending five juniors and as their juniors are completely unknown to me, an excellent opportunity to see what's coming up through their ranks.
Saturday, 9 February 2013
Competitions :D and more things
The Italy Serie A competition is taking place now. It's a competition between the various gyms,and will see Vanessa Ferrari, Erika Fasana, Georgia Campana, Chiara Gandolfi, Carlotta Ferlito, Elisabetta Preziosa, Serena Bugani, Enus Mariani, Elisa Meneghina, Tea Ugrin, Anna Pavlova and more battle it out. I'll add videos if and when they become available, I'm most excited to see any upgrades the juniors have as out of the countries battling their way into the top 4, Italy have the biggest chance I think. Time will tell. Edit: Fasana, Ferlito and Anna Pavlova did not compete, the latter due to a problem with her flight and the others due to minor injury/illness. There's a full report with scores on TCG but no videos as of yet. Great to hear that Enus Mariani had such a strong showing, though it appears to have been a meet full of falls as it's sooo early in the season.
Elsabeth Black decisively won the AA at Elite Canada. Ellie was injured in the London vault final, so it's thrilling to see her back on form. Victoria Moors did not compete AA, but since she is down for SCAM it would be unwise to go all out now. Some videos here. Hope to see more from their juniors. Edit: Moors' floor is up, and it's a bit worrying. Not because she has watered down, but because she looks sluggish, tired and just not interested. She seems to have grown quite a bit in a short space of time and was dealing with a minor back muscle injury at the end of last year, so hopefully she'll recover soon. Black has watered down too and has issues with coming up a bit short on her tumbles, but she seems much more 'on' than Moors. Yay, junior videos are going up here. I really like Heaven Latimer, she is such a great tumbler and has the best layout full on beam ever done. As I'm typing, there's only 3 routines up. Shallon Olsen needs to have her coach back AWAY from new skills and clean up her form, it was already bad and seems to be getting worse. And I haven't even seen her beam yet..it's so dissapointing given the enormous natural talent she has.
The WOGA Classic is taking place next weekend. Its main star will be Katelyn Ohashi of course, with an ideal chance to show what she has planned for her first year as a senior. She's known for her beam and bars but her vault will be the most interesting aspect, as it looked extremely troublesome last year. If she actually does vault as she may not do AA. What I liked most is that Mariya Livchikova and Krystyna Sankova of Ukraine are both competing and that their trip was mostly funded by WOGA due to Ukraine's gymnastics federation's money problems. Mariya's strengths are floor and beam, with some gorgeous original combinations on beam and beautiful elegance and textbook tumbling on floor. Krystyna is quite powerful and has done Arabian double pikes recently, so she'll be interesting to watch too. Other international competitors are Ellie Downie and Ryhannon Jones of GB and Kristina Yaroshenko and Alexandra Yazydzhyan of Russia. Domestically, ones to watch are Laurie Hernandez, Madison Kocian, Nica Hults, Kennedy Baker and Peyton Ernst. There are tonnes of girls attempting to qualify elite as well. The ones I'm most interested in are Jordan Chiles and Irina Alexeeva. Irina is only 10, but so promising. Lots of videos to come hopefully. IG forums are down, which is where I got both rosters from, and WOGA's own links open in Excel which I'm not happy with linking to. Edit: Nevermind, TripleTwist have all rosters written out, divided into junior and senior. Important to note that Irina will have to qualify as an elite to compete in the junior session later in the day, though since she is from WOGA they might be able to have her compete if she doesn't make it. Rosters are here. TripleTwist also have a nice succinct guide on what the girls trying for elite have to achieve here.
Lloimincia Hall got a perfect 10 on floor, LSU vs Mizzou. It's the third 10 this season, after Mackenzie Caquatto on bars and Vanessa Zamarippa on vault. I know that on first viewing this routine is baffling, and seems like an insult to the name 'artistic' in the sport. Like, WTF is she doing? It takes a few goes. I am in love with it and her and I want her to win the national floor title. She is living her routine, so involved, so passionate, and selling the life out of it. It is the definition of artistry, taking your music and bringing it to the next level. In general for NCAA the time difference makes it very difficult for me to watch meets, as well as only a handful of them being free. I catch up with the odd routine on youtube and follow quick hits. That's why I'm thrilled that UCLA's meet tomorrow is both free like theirs always are (THANK YOU..and since they're hosting national championships..any chance of them being streamed free??) and on early.. it starts at 10PM for me, much better than the usual midnight, 1AM starts..bleurgh.
You can see part two of Gymnastike's Off the Mat series with Nia Dennis here. I love seeing how well grounded her and her family are. GREAT height on her releases. I'm so excited that one of her coaches is Li Li, the exquisite former Chinese gymnast with killer extension, leaps and DAT back spin. It bodes well for Nia's form, beam and bars work. You can hear and see her in the footage but she isn't interviewed, sadly.
European Championships are going to be streamed live, via eurovision, the same crowd who did the Olympics (without commentary, but still). I will give the link and timezone information closer to the time. I will say that it will not be possible to watch it outside of Europe unless you *cough* shield/change your IP to a European one. The timezone will be gross for Americans, Moscow is 4 hours ahead of me currently (might get clocks going back before that) and therefore 9 hours ahead of EST and 12 hours ahead of PST. I suppose it depends what time the competitions start at for how non appealing that is to those in the US. Still, EXCITING :D
Florida vs Alabama from last night is on free replay, thanks to Spanny Tampson for broadcasting that info. YES! I was so sure it was free and then when I got on the site and found out it wasn't..very dissapointing. But here it is, and at a much more suitable time for me ha. I'm going to subscribe to the growing view that Florida are going to win this year. The link should be here. If not, just click on game replay and it should show up there at the side. Considering Florida had to drop Kytra Hunter's scores on bars and beam (she's had stomach flu this week but that beam fall is just..so odd and unlikely), the fact that they broke 198 is HUGE. A team with Bridget Sloan, Ashanee Dickerson, Kytra Hunter, Marissa King, Alaina Johnson and Mackenzie Caquatto looks unstoppable, as they don't have a weak event at all. If you do rewatch the meet, make sure you read Aunt Joyce's hilarious live hits.
Alexander Alexandrov did NOT sign a contract with Brazil. There will be more negotiations at another stage. Personally, and obviously not knowing anyone involved, I think he'll wait until Aliya is done before moving on. He clearly has a lot of motivation to leave the gymnastics federation that screwed him over like they frequently do their head coaches, but the bond those two share is very strong. I hate the idea of her being dumped a second time. The original source is in Portugese, but you can read/translate it from here.
My laptop might break in two at any time so blogging might have an abrupt hiatus (can't blog on phones outside US). A DIY screen replacement weakened the hinges and now more than a year later it falls back and has to be propped up. Damnit! I'm going back to college in September (unrelated to my degree, but much more likely to get a job out of it..) and obviously this one won't withstand transportation. Check this out:
Looking healthy. I'm not sure what the silver thing stabbing my screen is, but it needs to GTFO. Or back in, whichever. The other side is lifting too. Sigh. Also, 200th post! 200 posts in just under 8 months of blogging is pretty good going, though since a lot of my obsession burst in a torrent in the first 2 months, I don't expect to maintain that frequency.
Elsabeth Black decisively won the AA at Elite Canada. Ellie was injured in the London vault final, so it's thrilling to see her back on form. Victoria Moors did not compete AA, but since she is down for SCAM it would be unwise to go all out now. Some videos here. Hope to see more from their juniors. Edit: Moors' floor is up, and it's a bit worrying. Not because she has watered down, but because she looks sluggish, tired and just not interested. She seems to have grown quite a bit in a short space of time and was dealing with a minor back muscle injury at the end of last year, so hopefully she'll recover soon. Black has watered down too and has issues with coming up a bit short on her tumbles, but she seems much more 'on' than Moors. Yay, junior videos are going up here. I really like Heaven Latimer, she is such a great tumbler and has the best layout full on beam ever done. As I'm typing, there's only 3 routines up. Shallon Olsen needs to have her coach back AWAY from new skills and clean up her form, it was already bad and seems to be getting worse. And I haven't even seen her beam yet..it's so dissapointing given the enormous natural talent she has.
The WOGA Classic is taking place next weekend. Its main star will be Katelyn Ohashi of course, with an ideal chance to show what she has planned for her first year as a senior. She's known for her beam and bars but her vault will be the most interesting aspect, as it looked extremely troublesome last year. If she actually does vault as she may not do AA. What I liked most is that Mariya Livchikova and Krystyna Sankova of Ukraine are both competing and that their trip was mostly funded by WOGA due to Ukraine's gymnastics federation's money problems. Mariya's strengths are floor and beam, with some gorgeous original combinations on beam and beautiful elegance and textbook tumbling on floor. Krystyna is quite powerful and has done Arabian double pikes recently, so she'll be interesting to watch too. Other international competitors are Ellie Downie and Ryhannon Jones of GB and Kristina Yaroshenko and Alexandra Yazydzhyan of Russia. Domestically, ones to watch are Laurie Hernandez, Madison Kocian, Nica Hults, Kennedy Baker and Peyton Ernst. There are tonnes of girls attempting to qualify elite as well. The ones I'm most interested in are Jordan Chiles and Irina Alexeeva. Irina is only 10, but so promising. Lots of videos to come hopefully. IG forums are down, which is where I got both rosters from, and WOGA's own links open in Excel which I'm not happy with linking to. Edit: Nevermind, TripleTwist have all rosters written out, divided into junior and senior. Important to note that Irina will have to qualify as an elite to compete in the junior session later in the day, though since she is from WOGA they might be able to have her compete if she doesn't make it. Rosters are here. TripleTwist also have a nice succinct guide on what the girls trying for elite have to achieve here.
Lloimincia Hall got a perfect 10 on floor, LSU vs Mizzou. It's the third 10 this season, after Mackenzie Caquatto on bars and Vanessa Zamarippa on vault. I know that on first viewing this routine is baffling, and seems like an insult to the name 'artistic' in the sport. Like, WTF is she doing? It takes a few goes. I am in love with it and her and I want her to win the national floor title. She is living her routine, so involved, so passionate, and selling the life out of it. It is the definition of artistry, taking your music and bringing it to the next level. In general for NCAA the time difference makes it very difficult for me to watch meets, as well as only a handful of them being free. I catch up with the odd routine on youtube and follow quick hits. That's why I'm thrilled that UCLA's meet tomorrow is both free like theirs always are (THANK YOU..and since they're hosting national championships..any chance of them being streamed free??) and on early.. it starts at 10PM for me, much better than the usual midnight, 1AM starts..bleurgh.
You can see part two of Gymnastike's Off the Mat series with Nia Dennis here. I love seeing how well grounded her and her family are. GREAT height on her releases. I'm so excited that one of her coaches is Li Li, the exquisite former Chinese gymnast with killer extension, leaps and DAT back spin. It bodes well for Nia's form, beam and bars work. You can hear and see her in the footage but she isn't interviewed, sadly.
European Championships are going to be streamed live, via eurovision, the same crowd who did the Olympics (without commentary, but still). I will give the link and timezone information closer to the time. I will say that it will not be possible to watch it outside of Europe unless you *cough* shield/change your IP to a European one. The timezone will be gross for Americans, Moscow is 4 hours ahead of me currently (might get clocks going back before that) and therefore 9 hours ahead of EST and 12 hours ahead of PST. I suppose it depends what time the competitions start at for how non appealing that is to those in the US. Still, EXCITING :D
Florida vs Alabama from last night is on free replay, thanks to Spanny Tampson for broadcasting that info. YES! I was so sure it was free and then when I got on the site and found out it wasn't..very dissapointing. But here it is, and at a much more suitable time for me ha. I'm going to subscribe to the growing view that Florida are going to win this year. The link should be here. If not, just click on game replay and it should show up there at the side. Considering Florida had to drop Kytra Hunter's scores on bars and beam (she's had stomach flu this week but that beam fall is just..so odd and unlikely), the fact that they broke 198 is HUGE. A team with Bridget Sloan, Ashanee Dickerson, Kytra Hunter, Marissa King, Alaina Johnson and Mackenzie Caquatto looks unstoppable, as they don't have a weak event at all. If you do rewatch the meet, make sure you read Aunt Joyce's hilarious live hits.
Alexander Alexandrov did NOT sign a contract with Brazil. There will be more negotiations at another stage. Personally, and obviously not knowing anyone involved, I think he'll wait until Aliya is done before moving on. He clearly has a lot of motivation to leave the gymnastics federation that screwed him over like they frequently do their head coaches, but the bond those two share is very strong. I hate the idea of her being dumped a second time. The original source is in Portugese, but you can read/translate it from here.
My laptop might break in two at any time so blogging might have an abrupt hiatus (can't blog on phones outside US). A DIY screen replacement weakened the hinges and now more than a year later it falls back and has to be propped up. Damnit! I'm going back to college in September (unrelated to my degree, but much more likely to get a job out of it..) and obviously this one won't withstand transportation. Check this out:
Sunday, 7 October 2012
America's new wunderkinds
Not content with the huge talent moving up through the ranks in time for Rio, attention is begining to hone in on those who are too young for it. Jordan Chiles who is 11 will barely miss Rio. She has quite an incredible arsenal of skills in training which you can see here. These include a front triple twist-layout front which is my favourite and which I will embed because it's awesome, a double layout, 3.5 twist, double arabian, DTY, double layout bars dismount and a triple twist beam dismount (currently competing a fabulous 2.5). She has nice lines and hopefully will be able to achieve better extension and form. Twisting appears to be her strong point..and tumbling in general too. Weak points I would say handstands on bars and leg form on LOSO's on beam, but hey, she's 11. Seeing as she is not a senior until 2017, I hope she is preserved very well and doesn't burn out, because similar to Shallon Olsen of Canada who is a 2016 senior, her skill level is already extremely high.
Irina Alexeeva is being hailed as the second coming of Nastia Liukin. Interesting fact, Irina and her family moved from Russia to America to follow Dina Kamalova- the coach who abandoned Aliya Mustafina for WOGA. She is just 8 and is a Level 9. Looks to have a gorgeous floor routine in her, very balletic. Hopefully she can keep her Russian style..BUT..Irina has expressed the wish to compete for Russia, not USA. However, the longer she stays at WOGA the more unsuited she would be to the training style of Round Lake, and she may of course wish to compete for USA in time. She will just about be elegible for 2020. Her only bars on youtube are level 7 unfortunately but she looks like the type to be strong on beam and bars, maybe strong on floor, and weak on vault. Probably too early to tell at her age.
Irina Alexeeva is being hailed as the second coming of Nastia Liukin. Interesting fact, Irina and her family moved from Russia to America to follow Dina Kamalova- the coach who abandoned Aliya Mustafina for WOGA. She is just 8 and is a Level 9. Looks to have a gorgeous floor routine in her, very balletic. Hopefully she can keep her Russian style..BUT..Irina has expressed the wish to compete for Russia, not USA. However, the longer she stays at WOGA the more unsuited she would be to the training style of Round Lake, and she may of course wish to compete for USA in time. She will just about be elegible for 2020. Her only bars on youtube are level 7 unfortunately but she looks like the type to be strong on beam and bars, maybe strong on floor, and weak on vault. Probably too early to tell at her age.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)