EPIC TEAM FINAL!

WOW USA win by five points!! Hit 12 for 12, you'd never know Gabby is shaky on beam or that bars are a weak point. Russia obviously gutted that they came second after a disastrous floor rotation, but I hope they will be proud that they came second after having to count not one but two disastrous floors. Not too thrilled they didn't congratulate USA..but it looks like only GB did! (Love that team). But they smiled on the podium apparently (didn't see victory ceremony :( ) good for them to pull themselves together for that.

So what happened to Russia, Romania and China?

Russia: Paseka's amanar had a huge step to the side, brought her down to 15.3 which is obviously high but they would have wanted 15.7 plus. Bars were great, though Grishina's was devalued to 6.3, which didn't help either. Beam looked shaky, Vika rocked her routine only to have a huge lunge on landing (how did I forget that when writing this originally???) and Musty had major wobbles everywhere, which I only found out after as it wasn't shown. Musty did not do an amanar- fantastic DTY but that keeps them 0.7 down on USA's three amanars. Floor is where it all came apart, Musty nailed it, Grishina missed her hand on a roundoff and subsequently could not do her double salto- expensive, and then Afan after a glorious routine, the best we will see at these Olympics (yes it trumps Victoria Moors, though well done to her for nailing hers again) came crashing down on her last pass. It was no suprise to see tears all around, how crushing for them. Could they have won if they hit everything? Quite possibly, but they didn't push out the difficulty boat fully and then had glaring errors so we'll never really know.

Romania: Romania played it safe, and saved their star Larisa. She did not do her amanar, so 0.7 down on Russia and 1.4+ down on USA on vault alone, I'm not sure what vault Sandra did as it wasn't shown but I would have heard if it was a Cheng by now. Larisa was not used on floor either, to save impact- Diana Bulimar stepped in and performed a charming routine instead, though difficulty down on Larisa's routine. Cata missed a connection on beam and didn't go for broke with her dismount, so she was 0.4 down on her full potential there but WHAT a routine anyway. Bars brings them way down, Larisa's were really good but the other two are well below standard. Fantastic floor and beam, but lack of amanars, crappy bars and not using full difficulty potential meant they could not catch the other two.

China: I did not see their bad routines (Here's what I did see: HKX YJN bars DLL YJN vault SL floor HQS beam, but counting Deng Linlin's beam fall and a diastrous floor routine was costly (12.5 I heard, don't know who??- Qiushuang?) Excellent bar routines clearly not enough for them to contend, but well done to He Kexin for nailing her bars! That's twice now when it counted, hope she hits again in what should be a super exciting bars EF. Yao Jinnan didn't crash her vault, but that bad landing was expensive too. All in all, a scrappy team and bad mistakes cost them a medal though they did have absolutely fantastic routines.

Well done to Canada! 5th just behind China, and their first team to qualify for a TF. What an achievement. Hopefully they can up the difficulty and continue being the one to watch. Two gymnasts into vault EF a great story too. Dissapointing for team GB not to contend higher, but Jenni Pinches fall from beam (I'm sure Danusia loved that) and lower difficulty counted them out. Their gymnastics programme should still be able to ride high on Beth Tweddle's bars (fairly certain to medal!) and their amazing MAG bronze.

Highlight of the whole competition
Goes to.........McKayla Maroney's amanar. Girl stuck it when it counted though I'm sure that wasn't easy as her huge height sets her at a disadvantage for a stuck landing AND she has a broken toe. Can't believe she stuck it. Just phenomenal! I hope it will be just as recognised as Gabby's bars and Aly's floor to their amazing victory. We saw lots of fantastic routines today but in my opinion, that vault was so exceptional that it beats them all. Vault EF gold in the bag.

Other highlights
- Gabby's beam. So nervewracking, and it WAS a huge gamble as I have already said but you wouldn't know it, most solid she's ever been, and when it counted most under huge pressure. Well done to her.
- Afan's floor. Devastating right at the very end but this is up there with best floor and best choreo certainly of the last few quads. Magnificent. Hope she kills it in floor EF- they would have given her 15.333 without the fall, that's enough to contend with Aly and the others.
- Cata's beam. (Note, her floor wasn't shown on BBC) It was obvious she had it in her to do a much better beam that she did on Sunday, and off she went and had a faultless beam. Amazing.
- He Kexin's bars. Thrilled to see her nail her release combo (STOP saying it's original Christine!).
- Beth Tweddle's bars. Fantastic, hope she can stick on the extra 0.2 in difficulty she has for bars EF, but she doesn't need it really
- Jordyn on floor, once again HUGE background noise for her, but she totally brought it. Clearly the toughest out there, who else would bounce back from being knocked out of the AA like that? No OOB this time!
- Victoria Moors floor. Enough said, it's amazing.
- Asuka Teramoto floor. LOVE her energy, delighted she was shown
- Aly Raisman's smirk on floor and her emotion as she nailed her last pass and saluted, great moment. I doubt she knew she only needed a 10.3 for USA to win, but just WOW.
- Sui Lu's beam and floor. Girl kept it together for her team, lovely on both pieces

Not so highlights (must get snappier name for this)
- Afan crashing her last pass, gutting
- Grishina messing up her roundoff and unable to do her double salto..though thankfully she didn't try and then crash horribly
- Vika having a dissapointing meet, with bad landings on her amanar and Patterson. Quality bars of course but still dissapointing for her
- Paseka with her really bad landing on her amanar. Sigh of relief they didn't get Musty to amanar it as well, Paseka was only brought to do her amanar and scored only a few tenths higher than Musty's DTY
- Musty wobbling on every skill on beam, she has been great and solid on beam all year so very dissapointing for her
- Ferrari crashed her easiest pass on floor! Didn't see it, but I am shocked. Hopefully she can nail it in EF
- Jenni Pinches fall off beam. It looked scary, and it does confirm the dubious nature of her selection. (I have mixed her up with the excellent Rebecca Tunney in the past, but I know now!) Danusia Francis must be pissed
- Deng Linlin's fall off beam, that was a shocker, I would suspect Yao, Lu or Huang of this before her. Very dissapointing for China
- China on floor, Deng's routine had very low landings and Huang apparently fell apart
- Russia and China in tears at the end. Gut wrenching to see their dreams end like that.  
- Very sad to see that Victoria Moors floor score today would have gotten her into EF if it was her quals score 
- Jordyn nailing her routines brought it home that these would have gotten her into the AA if she did them on Sunday 

Favourite leo
Great Britain! It's amazing in blue too, delighted not to see that pretty crappy flag one they were showing earlier in the year. Canada and Japan are equally second, loved both. Italy next, love the blue and flag colour combination, beautiful. Surprisingly nice leos from them so far, but Ferrari can still show us how horrible they can be in floor EF. USA's and Russia both were decent, the silver rib skeletor USA one is better than it was in that photo, but would have preferred a blue one, or a flag one. Russia's was nice, but they have nicer up their sleeve! Did not like China's or Romania's, I want China to be more original in how they use their national colours, and Romania's was too shiny, with a not nice pattern.

Great victory by USA, what a team this is. Let's hope we can get away from Mag 7 neverending famewhores now.. I'd also like to take this opportunity to say STOP searching 'McKayla Maroney sl**/ McKayla Maroney sl***y' to end up here. Seriously getting out of hand now. McKayla is 16, and an elite gymnast. Do you think she has TIME to be a sl**? Just because she looks down in photos...Christ. Disgusting.

Crushed not to see the victory ceremoney, BBC cut off before it. Understandably there's no Brits on the podium, so why would they show it when they lots of other sports to get through but I REALLY wanted to see it. Considering how much of a big deal America's win is, I am sure some kind soul will stick it up on youtube. Please please please...Edit: Watched it on eurosport's live stream. Not a huge fan of USA's outfit, but great to watch nonetheless.

TF- 3 hours to go!

WOW, what an unbelievable men's team final. Very dissapointing for USA, who had a fantastic day in qualifying where they placed first. Absolutely delighted for Britain, who could not really have expected to place. Slipping to bronze after winning silver is unfortunate, though not nearly as much as Ukraine, who were bumped out of their bronze entirely. They are the ones we really should feel for. Judging unfortunately seems to be a bit peculiar these Games, but a mess-up like that is unforgivable. This has shown to expect the unexpected!

Women's TF is not as open though. 8 teams have qualified, but only the top 4 can expect to place- USA, China, Romania and Russia. The others just do not have the difficulty. China would be lucky to place, their star is injured and off form and the team just isn't as good as it was in 2008. Although this could be unpredictable, here are the routines I will be nervous for:

China's third beam worker. Sui Lu and Deng Linlin are relatively safe, but whichever of Yao Jinnan and Huang Qiushuang go up will be nervewracking, both are inconsistent here and Yao is absolutely not able to bring her full potential at the moment.

Musty on vault. Will she bring that amanar? They could well need it to sneak ahead of USA and it has been said she will. Her DTY is good and looks to have the height needed, so we'll see!

Gabby on beam. I would put McKayla on beam ahead of her (Jordyn first choice of course) and even Lauren Tanner, queen of the beam. Gabby has a difficult routine and it does look great when she hits it, but she never hits it perfectly in competition. She is clearly nervous up there, solidity is needed even if it sacrifices a few tenths- Jordyn's connections. A few tenths down is better than the potential for a fall, which unfortunately USA is now risking.

Komova on beam. Managed her routine fine in quals, but shows herself to be very tempermental here in training. It's typically Russian to be a mess in training and then hit when it counts, hopefully we will see that here.

He Kexin on bars. Could be great and a much needed boost for China, or could be a disaster. Her hit rate has been pretty good this year, but still a gamble.

No Romanians? No, not nervous for them. Nervous that they will not bring all of their upgrades and therefore not fully contend with USA and Russia, but not nervous for a fall. Final prediction? Can't call it. Bring it on!

Update: Thrilled Romania will use Diana Bulimar on floor in TF. She wasn't used in prelims, but has a great routine, looking forward. Have just seen Afan's, WOW. Absolutely love it.