Worlds Predictions

Ahhh, that time of year :D I have a massive advantage on the last one as worlds are actually in a few weeks instead of a year.

I won't do teams as they are all largely in place or with very little room to manouevre, even the US. I will say that I don't see Brenna Dowell on the team. In my mind it's Simone Biles, Kyla Ross, Mykayla Skinner, Alyssa Baumann, Madison Kocian and Ashton Locklear.

Moving on to the fun

The All-Around

1. Simone Biles

Woah, unorthodox choice I know! She hasn't raised the roof on her difficulty level since Antwerp..bars and beam changes probably cancel each other out. What she has done is clean up, she's technically better than ever AND her landings are so much more precise. It will all help. I think she would need to fall and have a significant other error for someone to have a shot at catching up to her.

2. Aliya Mustafina

3. Kyla Ross

I'm not overly confident in the order of these two. Aliya looked super strong at Russian Cup, better overall than last year. Kyla meanwhile has downgraded further. It's hard to know. Larisa HAS upgraded her floor and beam and her bars look stronger than ever...so she could of course feature here. The reason why she doesn't is because she has never gotten it together in the AA when it really counts while the other two are absolute beasts in competition.

4.(th again) Larisa Iordache

5. Vanessa Ferrari

Vanessa still looks very strong. Larisa will fall off beam I think. 

Team Final

1. USA

SHOCKER. It won't be easy as we all would have imagined at the beginning of the year. Losing Ebee, McKayla Maroney and injuries to Peyton Ernst, Maggie Nichols, Lexie Priessman with no Fierce 5 comebacks...it's definitely not a glorious pool of depth. But they still have the goods..even though China technically has higher potential d-scores.

2. China

3. Russia

4. Great Britain

5. Romania

Now I'm really not confident in this..but at the moment it makes the most sense. China have killer, and I mean killer, bar routines. Their lowest d-score out of 4 is 6.7-8. If they all hit then it's a major boost. Likewise with beam, strong potential there as usual. Russia are just...not really a strong team. And just today they have lost Ekaterina Kramarenko. Viktoria Komova will almost surely be on the team now, but they'll still be weak. As ever, Aliya Mustafina does not a team make and she'll be carrying them. The second strongest team member is Maria Kharenkova. Together I can see them dragging the team above the twin onslaught of GB and Romania.

Romania recently spectacularly lost to Germany. It makes me very unsure of how equipped they are to deal with GB. GB are lacking depth in some areas but may still be able to surpass a greatly weakened Romania who didn't even choose a team as there was nobody to leave behind.

GB..hmmm, mystery. I'm not sure what the story is with Raer Theaker and Rebecca Tunney but I got the impression they're not going to be in contention? Gabby Jupp on the other hand is back! This could go either way for them. 4th would be an enormous achievement even with their new strength. 5th is just as likely. Romania veer from 3rd to 5th to me, they don't have 'it' for 2nd this year at least I don't think.

Vault Qualifiers

Simone Biles
Mykayla Skinner
Giulia Steingruber
Oksana Chusovitina
Hong un Jong
Phan Thi Ha Thanh
Ellie Black 
Maria Paseka

I'm a little stumped here, I feel a bit out of the loop. Hmmm. *Added Maria Paseka! We could see a suicidal Prod though of course. Perhaps Mahmoud as the last I saw of Pena she didn't look particularly strong and crashed a layout front if I remember correctly.

Bars Qualifiers

Ashton Locklear
Becky Downie
Ruby Harrold
Yao Jinnan
Huang Huidan
Aliya Mustafina
Daria Spiridonova
Kyla Ross

Madison has more difficulty than Kyla, but not as clean.

Floor Qualifiers

Simone Biles
Mykayla Skinner
Larisa Iordache
Shang Chunsong
Claudia Frangapane
Giulia Steingruber
Vanessa Ferrari
Roxana Popa

I haven't seen a huge amount of great floors this year. Mai Murakami is struggling at the moment, I don't see her getting her tumbles back and into this final, sadly.

Beam Final

Larisa Iordache
Kyla Ross
Simone Biles
Aliya Mustafina
Maria Kharenkova
Shang Chunsong
Bai Yawen
Andreea Munteanu 

I'm very confident in this finals line-up, out of all the EF ones.

Vault podium

1. Simone Biles
2. Mykayla Skinner
3. Giulia Steingruber

Ta-dah! So that was straightforward enough.


Bars Podium

1. Yao Jinnan
2. Huang Huidan
3. Becky Downie

Yeah so this is impossible! The Russians have lesser difficulty which could get Becky into the medals if she hits everything for hers. Much like Euros. This is one of those predictions that feels right, but so many variables involved..

Beam Podium

1. Larisa Iordache
2. Maria Kharenkova
3. Bai Yawen

BOOM, Larisa has to hit beam in a final when it actually matters, just once. Maria is quite steady with a lot of difficulty...but I have big issues with silver and bronze. Where is Kyla, how will Bai Yawen be scored, what about Simone's higher difficulty now...all legit concerns. It's a tough one.

Floor Podium

1. Simone Biles
2. Larisa Iordache
3. Vanessa Ferrari

All 3 of these routines have 6.5 difficulty. Gold is obvious. Not so much the others. I dumped Mykayla Skinner after comments made me look harder at Vanessa Ferrari who I initially forgot about for floor finals altogether and needed reminding from Cordelia Price! Mykayla does have a good shot though at this podium.

Even when we're this close, there's still a huge amount of 'what if'. What's right here, what's definitely wrong? What's downright bizarre? 

The New Girls

I just updated this again. Time for a more indepth look at the new girls turning senior in a little over a week.

Polina Schennikova USA
Amelia Hundley USA
Veronica Hults USA
Heaven Latimer CANADA
Brianna Clark CANADA
Aleeza Yu CANADA
Maria Kharenkova RUSSIA
Daria Spiridonova RUSSIA
Viktoria Kuzmina  RUSSIA
Yevgeniya Zhukova RUSSIA
Kristina Levshina RUSSIA
Alexandra Yazydzhyan RUSSIA
Darya Kloptsova UKRAINE
Tea Ugrin ITALY
Enus Mariani ITALY
Lara Mori ITALY
Martina Rizzelli ITALY
Emma Larsson SWEDEN
Louise Vanhille FRANCE 
Claire Martin FRANCE
Dayana Hryhoryeva BELARUS
Silvia Zarzu ROMANIA
Diana Teodoru ROMANIA 
Paula Tudorache ROMANIA
Miriam Arabisoiu ROMANIA
Andreea Munteanu ROMANIA
Ioana Nicoara ROMANIA
Eythora Thorsdottir NETHERLANDS
Mariana Oliveira BRAZIL
Julie Kim BRAZIL
Alexandra Eade AUSTRALIA
Yuki Uchiyama JAPAN
Chen Li CHINA
Wang Wei CHINA
Chen Siyi CHINA
Zhu Siyan CHINA
Xie Yufen CHINA

First of all, it's not near as exciting a bunch as the 2015 and 2016 girls. But there's some real gems nonetheless. I have to mention that Enus Mariani, the 2012 Euros junior AA champion whose debut has been long-awaited..is dealing with injury and her future in the sport is unclear as of yet.

My favourite of the bunch (big surprise here) is Eythora Thorsdottir, the Dutch Icelandic-born Soviet-reborn.

The best floor worker is either Wang Wei or Andreea Munteanu. Special mentions go to Silvia Zarzu, Yuki Uchiyama,Mariana Oliveira, Maria Kharenkova and Amelia Hundley. And Emma Larsson.

This lot have a few interesting bars routines. Louise Vanhille shows potential, as do Martina Rizzelli, Nica Hults and Amelia Hundley. Nobody to make you go wow. It's a weak year for China with no bars queens amongst them and Viktoria Kuzmina does not look up to much anymore.

Beam is a runaway victory for Andreea Munteanu. Eythora wins the pretty award with her originality, Nica Hults has some lovely work also and Maria Kharenkova is solid.

Vault belongs to Mariana Oliveira so far anyway. There's a few other DTY's, but this is the best and the most upgrade-able looking.

Dance elements wise - Andreea Munteanu and Julie Kim have stunning leaps. Heaven Latimer is the current turn queen.

Russia and China are getting one new standout senior each. Romania should be able to eke more out of Silvia Zarzu and the others and net themselves much-needed promising new seniors. An off year for the USA surprisingly- Polina Shchennikova doesn't appear to have much to offer, Amelia Hundley is likely to be injured (she is at the moment) and Nica Hults is not really an all-arounder or a stand-out, though her bars and beam could be very useful. I'm hoping Eythora Thorsdottir will work well with Chantysha Netteb when the latter recovers, that Italy's new kids will rejuvenate their programme (and that Enus will be fine) and that Yuki Uchiyama continues to hold her own amongst her older compatriots.

Who do you like the look of? Who's your favourite?

Tired of RUS-bias vs US comparison posts? Here's the opposite!

Sick of seeing hilariously Russian biased comparisons against the US, like this one and that other one on tumblr that I can't find now? Introducing, a US biased version! The point is, it's extremely easy to do (though it is tough to find a bad picture of Viktoria Komova), and highly inaccurate to pit one nation against another in this way, especially when the worst example of one side is taken, versus the best or one of the best of the other. Or you know, not even the same skill. Apologies that they're not formatted brilliantly, or at all, but you get the idea. In the last one, the point is back flexibility, though yes Maria Kharenkova's hands and arms are nicer. Disclaimer- This is pretty much a joke post, though not without a valid point- how easy it is to skew something. Also, Viktoria Komova does not know how to do a bad leap, correct. She is obviously not near her apex, and nor were the photos of Simone Biles featured in both of the other comparison posts.

Maroney- source- justjared.com

Nabieva- source- stillsport.com

Maroney- source- lazygirls.info

Nabieva- source- spannysbigfakesmile

Sacramone- copyright- AP

Mustafina- source- sportskeeda.com

Finnegan- copyright- Melissa J Perenson

Komova- copyright- Alexandr Wilf/Ria Novosti

Ross- source- coolspotters.com

Shelgunova- copyright- MINKUSIMAGES

Key- copyright- USAG/John Cheng

Kharenkova- copyright- Thomas Schreyer

Kocian- copyright- USAG/John Cheng

Mustafina- copyright- Xinhua/Shen Bohan

Ernst- source- gymnastike.org

Kharenkova- source- ffgym.com

Japan Jr and US training

No livestream emerged from Japan Junior, not that it would have been much good to me in the end when I discovered the AA started at 5am my time. Unfortunately, nobody was allowed to make videos either, and only two have emerged so far. First, results!

Unsurprisingly, Bailie Key won with a huge 58.4. Bailie fell on beam and still scored a 14 there. She scored a 15 on floor with a 6.1 routine, and nailed her DTY also, 15.05. It's so surprising to hear that Bailie fell..she counted no falls this year at Jesolo, Chemnitz, Classics or Nationals and the European competitions had event finals too. Despite the fall here, she still finished 1.5 points ahead of her nearest rival, continuing her streak of domination.

Sadly, Laurie Hernandez fell, paving the way to silver for the one who wasn't mentioned at all in the live tweets...Wang Yan! She has been dealing with an injury but appears to be fully recovered, scoring huge on vault and very respectable elsewhere..though I don't think she could have been at her best on floor and beam given her scores there, a bit lower than expected. Wang Yan has a DTT and Rudi under her belt belt (Rudi not consistent...yet) whereas most of her competitors will be doing a DTY and FTY, or even less. A great result for her after a disappointing National Games, and she's in a good position to take vault gold and place on beam.

I was very curious about how Laurie Hernandez' floor would score under international judging for the first time..not to worry, she got 14.7 for 5.9 difficulty. She came to grief as mentioned on bars but seems to have done well otherwise. Aleeza Yu of Canada snatched fourth place which was thrilling but unexpected, I hope a video or two of her appear despite the ban on them..after all, we do have two already.

Fifth-seventh place consist of Andreea Munteanu, Maria Bondareva and Maria Kharenkova. Andreea had hand surgery a while ago so as expected she wasn't at the top of her game, and her teammate Andreea Iridon had a bit of a nightmare with at least one fall and counting a piked yurchenko but she's also having issues with growth pain in her wrist. We don't know of any excuse for the fairly poor performances of the two Russians though. Kharenkova is slightly concerning given that she's turning senior in a few months. It's hard to see her excel as an all-arounder, but certainly she continues to show a lot of promise on beam and floor in particular. Bondareva is younger, and lovely, but her scores indicate that she hasn't really progressed- she seems to be in a rut. Hopefully both girls can advance with their gymnastics and not be struck down by the horror show that is Russian gymnastics politics (and health!) and a certain person/dragon.

Catherine Lyons was eighth, a respectable result given that she has lower difficulty than the girls of the top 4. She seems to have grown a lot but I'm very hopeful for her future, I see her as the elegant antithesis to powerhouses Tyesha Mattis, Amy Tinkler and Ellie Downie. Compatriot Georgia Mae Fenton has been dealing with injury unfortunately and as such only competed two events.

Here are some more snippets from Japan's gymnastics federation:

1) Key maybe did piked circle 1/1 stuck the tsk dismount 
2) Laurie fell on Ricna and didn't do Pak salto 
3) Janas almost fell off beam. 
4) Munteanu under rotated her triple twist on floor. 
5) Maybe Kharenkova did Arabian to jump 
6) Sae Miyagawa changed her first pass from "1 1/2 to dbl front" to "front layout to tuck dbl front" and maybe dlo 
7) Wakana Yasui upgraded her first pass to 2 1/2 to front layout, second pass to tuck full

I'm so happy Wang Yan had a great competition! I'll update with event finals results tomorrow.

This channel has videos of Munteanu and Kharenkova on floor, and hopefully more to be uploaded...You can see the breakdown of scores here and the list of event final orders here. Event finals will start in about 6 hours or so.

The US worlds team are currently training in the Netherlands. Here are some observations from Judith, who was present..this training session was open to the public, but like at US sessions, it didn't include floor tumbling or vault.

"Ok quick summary. Biles does a 2.5 wolf on beam now, I believe she nailed it every time. The bhs bhs layout is gone I think because she did bhs - loso. Full-in dismount. She did a double wolf on floor and added a front aerial. The girls didn't do any tumbling or vaulting so I can't say anything about that.
Kyla didn't change anything I believe. Looked solid on bars as usual and her beam too. No sign of the aerial cartwheel to loso or bhs-arabian. The switch ring - back tuck seems to be gone too, the back tuck is after the switch leap.
Brenna looked cleaner on UB and she hit the Tweddle - straddle back every time I think. After the straddle back she does a toe-on half but she had some trouble with that one. She also added the Maloney half back into her routine. Her beam was blah as usual. I believe she only did a double tuck dismount(2 bhs's) today instead of the double pike at Nats. I've seen her splits while sitting on the floor, and I don't think she can do a proper split....
McKayla didn't look so good on UB actually. I believe she starts with a weiler half on the low bar but she couldn't quite get it. maloney - pak, maloney half, gienger, piked jaeger, full turn, full-in dismount(not all of those were good) Her beam was ok, just not as clean and consistent as the others due to lack of training I think. front pike(puck..), bhs loso, front tuck, switch leap switch half, side aerial, eeh just the usual. I saw one double pike dismount from her, wasn't too hot. Apparently she cried a bit too but I didn't see it.
As a whole, the girls looked fit, strong and healthy and they looked focused. We were behind glass during beam and bars, but not for floor(dance-throughs and dance skills etc) and it was dead quiet."

EYOF in a nutshell

Highlights

- Eythora Thorsdottir on beam. Refreshingly Soviet and glorious.
- Kim Janas' floor choreography. Not so much that it flowed wonderfully, it didn't, but the actual movements were great.
- Laura Jurca's DTY! Really excellent first showing.
- In general, 2 more DTY's for Romania. They now have 3 in the junior ranks.
- Tyesha Mattis' double double. So unneccessary (skills are capped at E value) but awesome, great landing.
- Solid Russian beam. How very unusual! Great routines by Maria Kharenkova and Maria Bondareva.
- Andreea Iridon's beam. Love.
- Quality performances by Britain. Team gold, AA gold and silver, rings and pommel gold, parallel bars and floor silver in MAG, team silver, AA bronze and vault gold and bronze in WAG. Awesome! They could have done even better but they had some issues in WAG team finals.
- Maria Kharenkova's double arabian. Lovely and neat. Jury's still out on her double pike- sheep jump. She needs a B jump for that connection so your average leap won't do but the very nature of a sheep jump makes it slow. Maybe a double stag if that's a B? Any other suggestions?
- Martina Rizzelli on bars. Deserving bars champion. She's a new one on me and I really loved her swing and lightness.
- Emma Larsson's bounciness on floor. Great tumbles from her.
- Eythora Thorsdottir on floor. Because who can't be enthralled even from the way she walks on before saluting?
- Silvia Zarzu on floor. She looks better, more 'on'. Despite the loss of her much-loved floor music from last year (to me anyway) I really enjoyed her on this event.
- 2/3 hit routines for Eythora Thorsdottir on beam, and no falls! Her usual beam routine is almost guaranteed to have a fall. Nice 2.5 upgraded dismount too.
- The resurgence of Laura Jurca. She's been relagated to an alternate type but she really showed what she's made of at this competition. Sadly she wasn't great in the AA but did so well on the first day and in vault finals. Super DTY!

Not-so highlights

- The absence of Andreea Munteanu (hand surgery), Madalina Blendea (stomach issues), Enus Mariani (back problems) and Elizabet Vasileva (???).
- Tiebreakers. Particularly the AA one, a tiebreak for gold is extra unfair. Poor Kim Janas! Does everything with Olympic in the name employ tiebreakers?
- Falls, like Andreea Iridon on bars, Russians on bars, Silvia Zarzu on vault, Tutya Yilmaz' meltdown on bars in the AA and more.
- Russian steadiness on beam seeming to come at the cost of their bars. Even Viktoria Kuzmina was not great, short handstands, no upgrades. They do have good basics of course..
- Very harsh scoring, particularly on floor. Scores were also too close, which resulted in several ties.
- The livestream. Would not work on firefox, had to use Chrome. Way too much focus on the audience and on gymnasts after their routine. Nice variety of gymnasts shown but many of the top contenders had only 1 or 2 routines, or in the case of Maria Bondareva- none, shown.
- Super bouncy floor. This is the floor that was used a few times so far this year with numerous out of bounds, and will be used in Antwerp. There's getting used to a different floor and then there's a floor that is just too bouncy.

Best routines

Beam- Eythora Thorsdottir, EF
Floor- Ooh. Kim Janas, Emma Larsson or Eythora. 
Vault- Laura Jurca, EF
Bars- Martina Rizzelli, EF

Best leotards- Netherlands TF, Romania TF

A great competition, though marred by notable absences, falls and tiebreakers. Not the best competition for Russia and Romania though a valuable experience for them I think. What were your highlights? Has Eythora won over the masses yet?

Nothing else will embed! A pity she doesn't have the difficulty for gold but a silver is such a boost anyway for her most troublesome apparatus, and in front of a home crowd too.




 

Universiade and other stuff

There's a heatwave (seriously rare here to get anything even approaching 20 degrees more than two days in a row) so motivation for blogging has been seriously lacking. But here's my super-late thoughts on Universiade and a round-up of other news anyway.

We need to talk about..

Afan. Source- fanofmusty.tumblr.com

..Afan. First, a new floor routine! Same spectacular tumbling with crazy height. I can watch those passes all day. The music itself is nice and pleasant, certainly much more subtle compared to her last routine. The choreography is lacking and there's a lot of disappointment as a result. But we need to remember a few things; Afan has upgraded her routine since London, she now does two whips into her triple and two turn combinations- the latter also taking up a good bit of time. She wisely conserves her energy for the tumbles, especially the troublesome third pass and the double pike which gets way more height this year...possibly because it failed her so spectacularly last year. She's also not in peak shape since we're still a bit away from worlds. Am I hoping she will do more with it than arm waving? Absolutely, but I wouldn't give up all hope yet. Let's not forget Universiade is a gruelling competition with the gymnasts competing days in succession- Afan for one competed 10 routines over 3 days and with her ending pose on floor in event finals looked like she wanted a blanket for a nap and only got up with the greatest reluctance.

Her bars, of which we saw two routines, are definitely still hit and miss, but she was not originally supposed to do them as she was planning on taking more time to prepare and get used to grips after Euros. A fall in team finals/quals was followed by a pretty decent routine in the AA the next day. She still had nice lines and form on this event, the major flaws being a muscled up handstand and the still unsteady dismount. Noticeably better than when she crashed it sideways in Euros however. She also missed a requirement in the AA, a full turn. She fell on this the previous day so probably wise to swallow an 0.5 deduction rather than take the full point for a fall. This also happened in the Russian Cup this year when she missed the front tumbling requirement on floor. Beam is still shaky, but hopefully when she gets to grips with the new combinations it can be as steady as she was in London.

Her DTY's were lovely and clean but sadly I couldn't watch the EF's live to be shocked when 4.35- 6.3 flashed up for her amanar in event finals. It's quite clean aside from tucking too early in the last half twist and she gets it fully around but the landing was not great, fairly injury- friendly really. Hopefully she can get more height and improve. It's very new for her of course, and seriously impressive when you think of how long she's been in the sport and the fact her DTY used to be nothing special. Her second vault was great, again not magnificent height wise but great form and kick-out. It too was new and it means that she matches the vault difficulty of McKayla Maroney- as seen in the ranch videos of the latter. After Aliya Mustafina fell in the AA, it was hoped Afan could comeback and potentially snatch gold off her but a wobbly mess of a beam routine and her low difficulty bars were not enough even when coupled with a spectacular floor routine. It's bewildering to think that she could not only make Maria Paseka redundant but also Anastasia Grishina.

It was the competition Aliya Mustafina had been looking forward to all year, then she was out with flu after being hospitalised and missed a crucial week of training and was replaced by Ekaterina Kramarenko then she was back in..but in what condition? Her first routines, floor and vault, showed a noticeable deterioration in her twisting- the infamous triple full having bypassed its usual hideous triple-axel form and gone straight to dangerous. She performed this tumble three times in competition and each time the landing was scary, unlike other times where she has managed the landing very well regardless of her leg form. The DTY lost some of its dynamics, but the landing is no bother to her- great spatial awareness. On bars she lost momentum on one of her transitions, being too close to the bar but she didn't make that mistake again and her next two routines on bars showed her usual stellar work, though unfortunately with no upgrades which was unsurprising given her recent illness.

Beam was the real test and her 15.2 was a great sign. She's still pausing for a cup of tea before the dismount though. Falling off in the AA seemed to galvanise her for the rest of the routine but it of course still means her steadiness on the apparatus is in question. I'm very surprised she didn't pull out of floor finals given that she's pulled out of every other so far this year and also her obvious exhaustion, evidenced when she put her hands down on her last pass. Two times out of three, her double arabian was short which I found almost shocking as it is by far her strongest pass usually. This was lost in the storm of what the hell is the triple full still doing in the routine. Her focus and determination is great and a well deserved AA gold and bars gold were added to her team gold. But I'm not so sure about her beam silver. All systems go for Antwerp now. She's clearly better than this, but I still see no argument for keeping the triple full in.

Highlights

- North Koreans on beam. Sure their acro is not great but they are so light and floaty.
- Yu Minobe and the rest of her team. Not a huge amount of difficulty but so much style and great form.
- Kang Yong Mi's bars. Gorgeous.
- Afan getting through her bars in the AA. Hopefully a nice boost while she continues to adjust to using grips in the future.
- Hong Un Jong winning gold with the highest vault difficulty. Dodgy landings but it's impossible not to root for her.
- Maria Paseka's block on her amanar has improved.
- Maria Paseka being so thrilled when Afan hit her vaults, despite the fact that it means she could technically replace her.
- The glorious return of Tatiana Nabieva- for her facial expressions alone! So much gold. Lovely bars, some nice tumbles on floor and a pretty good beam. Impressed.
- Tatiana Nabieva's face when the anthem played was a college anthem, rather than the country's anthem. Hilarious.
- Anna Dementyeva hitting beam so well in quals/team. Also ditching her troublesome old dismount.
- Danusia Francis being amazing to watch as always. Really magnetic performer, even though her music and choreography was not her NCAA one. Presumably Nellie Kim would have ordered an immediate zero for that. Hoping for a beam video of her.
- Hannah Whelan hitting in the AA. It took some downgrades but a great gutsy performance from this veteran.
- Ellie Black and Kim Bui hitting their routines out of the park. So steady.
- Elsa Garcia and everything she does. Wonderful gymnast.
- Especially her double layout
- Whackjob Japanese floor music as usual. Hey, big spender!
- Medals for Hong Un Jong, Tatiana Nabieva, Zhang Yelinzi, Elsa Garcia and Kim Bui.
- Really awesome vault final. 3 amanars, 2 Chengs, DTT's, Lopez', Rudi's.....
- Gymnasts other than Aliya Mustafina qualifying for 3 event finals.
- Zhang Yelinzi showing a 6.6 routine years after she was in the hunt for a major team. She used to have a 6.9 routine!
- And of course, lots of older and quite a few inexperienced gymnasts getting their chance to shine and showing some amazing routines.
- Yang Hak Seon's vaults. Like..what.

Not-so highlights

- That triple full
- Some scary vaults. Yu Minobe, the Afanar, Ri Un Ha..
- Inconsistency. I really wanted to see Kim Un Hyang in the beam final, and for Yu Minobe to medal in it. The beam final falls sucked.
- No Rie Tanaka. Any competition she isn't at is a little lacking.
- Three days of competition one after the other. It's too much all in one go. They could intersperse competition with rythmic if they cannot afford the extra days if they used the usual system of having the men alternate with the women.
- Non-broadcast of any subdivision except the one Russia was in.
- Some underscores. I thought Alexa Moreno deserved higher execution in vault finals.
- Exhausted gymnasts.
- An attitude of 'HA! Russia beat Japan by 10 points, way more than USA beat Russia in London!'. If Russia did not wipe the floor here with their nearest competitors it would have been an utter disaster and they might as well have shut down Round Lake and gone home- an A team versus much lesser gymnastics programmes B and C teams? Not to mention that the calibre of competition at an Olympics is on a different scale entirely.


I'm sure I'll think of more.

Favourite routines

Vault- Ksenia Afanasyeva, vault 2
Bars- Kang Yong Mi EF
Beam- Yu Minobe AA
Floor- Ksenia Afanasyeva AA

Favourite leos

Elsa Garcia TF/Quals, Heo Seon Mi AA, Elsa Garcia EF and Danusia Francis EF. Aliya Mustafina's bumblebee leo is a no from me, I think she's too pale for it.

Here is the best photo ever.

What are your thoughts on Universiade? Favourite routines? Why have North Korea latched onto the hot pink of their enemies?

In other news, Alexander Alexandrov has been officially named head coach of Brazil's WAG programme. He will first assess a group of gymnasts at a camp. It's a bit late to make miraculous changes before worlds, so hopefully he will concentrate on improving bars as a whole amongst the juniors. And starts to hone Rebeca Andrade into even more of a superstar.

Wang Yan of China has just won AA, vault and beam at a very recent China-Russia youth friendly. She also came third on floor. I feel obliged to share that her nickname amongst Chinese fans is potato. Nicknames tend to based on looks, and although we would find them offensive they are not really in that spirit. Tan Sixin is called big head also. Anyway, Wang Yan is not your average Chinese gymnast, she's quite strong and has Shawn Johnson's acro line on beam- BHS 2feet- BHS 2feet- LO. Her full beam difficulty is 6.7. One to really watch, she also has decent bars.

The Russian WAG EYOF team is Maria Bondareva, Maria Kharenkova and Viktoria Kuzmina. It was not announced but a photo emerged as they're actually there now. I was kind of hoping for Seda Tutkhalyan but this is such a stellar team. The Romanian team has sadly shed Madalina Blendea in favour of Silvia Zarzu. It's not known if this is because she's injured- like the fact Andreea Munteanu isn't on it as she just had hand surgery- or if they're relying on Silvia's floor score to bring them up. Watch out for a certain German junior- Kim Janas- to make a splash individually and for the entire British team to make their mark.

Both Silvia Zarzu and Laura Jurca have DTY's! This means that they have a 1.6 lead over Russia in the EYOF TF (2 scores count) right off the bat. It will be interesting since Andreea Iridon is great on bars and Laura Jurca is half decent. And now Madalina Blendea not being there makes more sense.

Jennifer Pinches will compete for UCLA, starting this year! I did hope she would consider NCAA after retiring and quite aside from the excellent choreography she will get there, she'll also be with fellow Brit Danusia Francis. Congratulations to her.

News

It appears that Sabrina Vega has moved to GAGE. She is as of now training at GAGE and although twitter exploded with the news that this is a permanent move etc., there is another train of thought that maybe she is just training there temporarily in preparation for the Kansas City stop of the Kellogg's Tour. We'll see. Sabrina's longtime coach is probably my favourite Romanian ever, Teodora Ungureanu. Sabrina has nice presentation and choreography and is lovely on beam and floor in particular. However, she desperately needs more difficulty if she wants to contend in the elite scene in the new quad, so a gym change is not exactly surprising if that is what has happened.

Stuttgart World Cup roster is out! See here Larisa Iordache, Vanessa Ferrari, Victoria Moors, Elizabeth Price, Elizabeth Seitz and Rebecca Tunney make for an AMAZING floor lineup. Hopefully none of those pull out. Larisa will I'm sure only compete if she is fully healthy and not in pain. The two empty spots will be interesting too I'm sure but Russia have effectively ruled out any of their Olympians competing. Maybe Anastasia Sidorova or Yulia Inshina might be in line for a spot though. I'd like to see representatives from Asia and South America. Mai Murakami and Jessica Gil Ortiz would be my picks. The men's lineup is equally impressive as it stands at the moment. The competition takes place 1-2 December and consists only of all-around, no qualifications. If back to her best and depending on who fills the other two spaces, Larisa should win. If she's still a bit off, then Price should be able to take it.

Diana Chelaru has left the national training centre and returned home to her local club to train. It has been stated that she is unsure of whether or not she wishes to continue. It is sad to see Romania lose talent, or in this case potentially lose it depending on Diana's decision, especially when they are not bursting with top gymnasts. Diana's pet piece is floor, on which she has won world medals as well as team medals in general. Hopefully she makes whatever decision is right for her.

Dityatin Cup results are out. For Juniors, Alexandra Yazydzhan of Russia took first in the AA. Kim Janas of Germany took second and Mariana Oliviera of Brazil was third. Senior AA results don't seem to be available yet. Ekaterina Kramarenko won bars EF with 14.5, Anastasia Cheong of Russia won floor with 13.9, Alina Sotnikova took first on vault with 13.813 and Anna Pavlova won beam with 14.275. Anna also took second on vault with 13.313 and second on floor with 13.725. Those scores are not that high and the competition was not not what you'd call deep, but still a great outing for Anna. Hoping to see videos of her especially. Evgeniya Shelgunova of Russia was second on beam with a 13.75. In the more junior category (2013 seems to count as senior), Kim Janas of Germany was first on floor and second on vault. Alexandra Yazydzhan, the AA champion, was first on bars and beam. Not sure about the senior AA yet as no PDF is opening from that page, but all in all it seems like a bit of a Russian domination.

Danusia Francis, former British gymnast (check out her great beam and floor) and current UCLA 1st year has a (newspaper hosted) blog. The first one is here. It's not very interesting and is just talking about how she came to be there. Future ones discussing training and of course competing will I'm sure be more worthwhile. She is a very sparkly gymnast and is just as exciting as new teammate Peng Peng Lee. 

Not exactly news, but I was waiting for Dityatin Cup results that are still not forthcoming. Brenna Dowell won the Mexican Open, Essenia Estrada of Mexico was second and Anna Dementyeva of Russia was third. Brenna, despite being quite sloppy, convincingly won due to her high difficulty. Her opening pass on floor, a front double pike is awesome. Demy was hampered not only by her scary FTY, but also by a fall on beam. Coming only third is not going to do her case any good for future Euros/possibly Worlds teams any good, unless she vastly ups her difficulty- her bars were lovely, but so weak in difficulty. Alexa Moreno of Mexico performed a piked Deltchev and a double arabian piked! Great stuff. The gala performed after is also available on youtube. Highlights are Anna Dementyeva's charming floor routine, and Daniel Purvis of GB's pommel routine wearing a kilt. Brenna did a sort of ballet class barre routine using the beam, which was puzzling given how unsuited she is to ballet work. Jessica Gil Ortiz and Jorga Giraldo swapped apparatus, competing on the parallel bars and beam respectively. Here is the whole competition in 4 parts: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 And the gala and award ceremony: here.

At the Eva Sanyo Memorial, Team Russia (Anastasia Sidorova, Anastasia Dmitrieva and Maria Kharenkova- senior, junior, junior) took the team title by about 16 points. The other teams were mostly Hungarian. Maria Kharenkova beat Anastasia Sidorova for highest AA total..but Hungarian junior Noemi Makra beat them both! She is going to be an interesting senior. Sidorova took vault and beam in event finals, Dorina Boczogo of Hungary took bars and Maryna Kostivchenko of Ukraine took floor.

McKayla Maroney will be on crutches for another 8 weeks. The boot for her toe will be for another 5 weeks, and the stabiliser for her other leg another few weeks after that. As expected, she is just appearing at the end of the tour shows and waving, and signing autographs. Kyla Ross is headed to camp! Hopefully with some planned upgrades in tow if she wants to compete at SCAM and be seen as an all-around threat next year. Elizabeth Price and Kennedy Baker are also headed, along with the vast majority of juniors. As before, it is expected that some juniors will be named to the National Team. The major suspects for this would be Nica Hults, Nia Dennis, Arianna Guerra, Alexis Buecler, Laurie Hernandez and Polina Schennikova.

New Kids on the Block: Russia

Russia's best juniors will not begin turning senior until 2014. Only one stand-out turns senior next year. This of course gives Komova and Mustafina a greater chance to continue dominating! And for Paseka to continue, as vault could easily be an issue for the next quad.


Maria Bondareva

This tiny munchkin has superb elegance and extension. Not without errors, but she has a long way to go and improve overall as she does not turn senior until 2015. Another who is being paced very well. Beam is a stand-out event for her, but she has all the makings of a true all-arounder as even though bars are currently an issue for her, they don't look unfixable.

Her odd round-off technique may be what makes her landings out of control, hard to tell. Such expression and potential here.

Just fabulous. A real star on beam. I have seen better dismounts from her also.

It's usually her first release that does her in. I think when she grows a bit she might have a more fluid line also. Another apparatus full of potential for her, and I LOVE her shape on her pak, incredible.


Viktoria Kuzmina (reminds me of Viktoria Komova)

Viktoria will turn senior smack in the middle of the quad, 2014. She is strongest on beam and bars (Russia will be STACKED on beam next quad) but shows nice potential elsewhere too.

Really nice potential here, great energy

Even with a fall this is great to watch

Beautiful!


Yevgeniya Shelgunova

Yevgenia is the junior to watch who turns senior in 2013. Though she is not oustanding on one event, she is pretty strong on all four.

Very nicely done, choreography not great though

Hopefully she can become more confident in all of the skills she has checks on, makings of a very good beam here


Maria Kharenkova (Reminds me of..Mustafina! Serious makings of a champion here)

Maria is set to be one of the stars of the next quad, let's hope she can stay healthy! One of the very few new Russians who can execute a decent vault, which along with the rest of her high potential on other events make her very valuable. She will turn senior in 2014.

Awesome, great expression and command of her unusual choreography. Fabulous twister too.

Wonderfully floaty here

Fabulous long lines here and I love her piked transitions

Truly one who has it all. Lovely form and attack, and I am in LOVE with that spin.



Other Juniors of note: Daria Spiridonova, Yulia Tipaeva, Anastasia Dmitrieva
Next: Future stars of Romania