EF Day 1: Vault and Bars

For a mid-quad worlds, this is proving to be a truly exciting one in individual competition. Today for WAG, the vault and bars finals were contested.

Despite the fact that several of the people who ended up on podium were not a surprise, the competitions were very tight and very tense with some surprises thrown in. First, to vault!

Simone Biles has spent most of the year since Mckayla Maroney's latest batch of injuries as the known favourite for the vault title, which continued until Asian Games. At that competition, Hong un Jong of North Korea vaulted an extremely floaty amanar and a much stronger Cheng. Her improvement, and 0.8 d-score advantage were suddenly big threats to Simone. Would Simone go for the Cheng that has been in the works for quite some time, or even a Mustafina hinted at earlier in the year on her ask.fm? The idea of an upgrade was shot down, and so her execution would be the decider.

Hong un Jong is the 2008 Olympic vault Champion. Remarkably, she survived the long banishment of her country for cheating and emerged after the London Olympics with the same vaults, the Amanar and Cheng. The difficulty on both has gone down, to 6.3 and 6.4, but still makes a gymnast with them formidable. Last year, she used the difficulty to push through and take bronze behind McKayla Maroney and Simone Biles. Neither vault was particularly inspiring, with her Cheng especially struggled around. Considering the fact that she is now 24, the fact that she has improved the form and landings on both vaults is just incredible. It came down to the wire, especially with Simone only having a small hop on her amanar and just a tiny shuffle in place after a perfect Lopez, with Hong edging her out by less than half a tenth.

I'm very pleased for Hong un Jong and her coaches reactions were very touching. 6 years on, and just as good as ever. The absolutely tiny margin of victory just goes to show just how strong a vaulter Simone Biles is, to almost beat her. I'd imagine the death knell has been sounded on her Lopez, and while I'm sure an upgrade will look great, it is a pity as it just such an exceptional vault, so textbook and so pretty. There is something inherently pleasing about her vaulting, and it's the certainty. She isn't going to mess up, we're not afraid she will twist into the ground, land off the podium, not get her twist around in time, block completely wrong etc. etc. She'll block dead-centre with straight arms, lift into the ceiling, and land securely. Refreshingly great. I really look forward to seeing her develop on this event. Our gold winner showed that anything's possible.

A lot has been said about Mykayla Skinner and her vaulting, especially of course the block on her Cheng. Certainly the technique is quite wrong, she's twisting off one hand too early and the other hand is not repulsing her. We know this. But she has doing her job really well at her first world championships, a team extremely few would have put her in at the start of this year, and today was no exception. Her Cheng was very clean in the air with a great landing. It's not the most dynamic but it's still worthy of a good score, which she certainly achieved. Her DTY has improved quite a bit, form was tight and clean. She was much more pleasant to watch than those whose landings are far from a sure thing. Great effort from her and a well deserved bronze.

Alla Sosnitskaya vaulted the exact same vaults as Mykayla. Her Cheng is very new for her and it's quite dynamic, she looks to me to get more airtime than our other Cheng vaulters. It's such a tough vault! But it was from perfect, or even great. Almost a perfectly stuck landing but she was completely out of bounds, and it had loose sloppy form throughout. The DTY was much cleaner, but with bent knees. She has had a great competition and 4th here is a triumph that she can build on. I know she has an amanar in the works and I don't doubt that she's capable, but I hope they focus just as strongly on her execution. She could be really good.

Giulia on the other hand has been struggling a bit these worlds. Most notably, she has developed a block about twisting which threw her DTY out the window and has been limiting her at just the wrong time of year. Her Rudi certainly showed deterioration, very messy in the air and really fought around, and while her FTY was so much nicer, it was just an FTY really. Alexa Moreno fought valiantly on her vaults and so too did Phan Thi Ha Thanh but both really showed how hard their vaults are, and it wasn't surprising that their difficulty, especially Alexa's, didn't place them higher. Claudia Fragapane shows much more ease in hers, but they are relatively easy. It's strange how it looks like she's doing a completely different vault to Simone's Lopez BUT she really sharpened up her form on her DTY which I am very happy with.

Matchy matchy! Source- John Cheng/USAG

All in all, a tense fight for gold and a very strong field. Vault finals seem to be getting stronger all the time, long may that trend continue! Next year we'll more than likely see an upgrade from super-vaulter Simone and maybe even another comeback from McKayla Maroney...?

Highlights

No falls!

No Produnovas!

No 'impossible' vaults like an amanar from Phan to rightly give everyone heart failure

Very strong field and difficulty

Good variety of vaults

Lowlights

Um..I suppose form loss on some vaults

Some vaults were a bit of a struggle to land

Favourite vaults

1. Simone Biles Vault 2 Lopez
2. Simone Biles Vault 1 Amanar
3. Hong un Jong Vault 1 Amanar

Leotards

Niiice effort by the US, a little too shiny for my liking but simple and striking and of course, not pink. I like the simplicity of the North Korean leotard and the matching podium looked well, again! Not a big fan of Alla's leo, Alexa's was pretty, Claudia's was nice but needed more oomph, Giulia's was pretty also and I'm undecided about Phan...I think I like it?

Bars

Well, that was an extraordinarily deep and exciting final.

First up was Aliya Mustafina in her Pikachu leotard, the strong colouring of which highlights the fact that she's not well. All things considered, I didn't think she would upgrade as expected, and she didn't. Playing it safe when you're not at the top of your game is always wise, and it was very clean and nice to watch, albeit (and I feel mean) boring. It's not a routine I would have thrilled with had it medalled, despite how clean it was. I hope she can return and show us just a little bit more on this event.

Another super-clean gorgeous routine from Daria Spiridonova which unexpectedly propelled her in front of Aliya. What was a highlight of the whole competition was how delighted the latter was about that! Daria's lines are superb but her score was still a surprise, a nice one.

Having Ashton Locklear right after those two showed just how Russian her routine is in composition. Luckily we have some Brits to shake it up a bit. Anyway, Ashton showed no signs of her inexperience and delivered another great routine, hitting her massive combination with ease. It really build the tension with 5 elements! Her sickled feet (and Mustafina's and Lisa Hill's..certainly Ashton's not the only one) put me off a bit but a very enjoyable strong routine to round off her great worlds. The scoring and placement was right too. I know she ended up 4th, but in a field like that...amazing.

Rebecca Downie has been great all year, after a very disappointing 2013 in which she struggled to hit her fantastic routine the whole year, coming to grief yet again in Antwerp's bars final. But the Euros and Commonwealth 2014 bars champion has come on quite a lot since then, and this jam-packed routine was another hit for her. I love her variety of releases. That said, this wasn't her cleanest and she seemed to have to fight through it, but no major error and that rounds off an excellent year nicely.

Having a Bhardwaj AND a Zuchold means you belong in every bars final in my opinion. The former skill has been cleaner for her and the latter threw off a subsequent pirouette forcing her to count a fall...but it's just a treat to watch this routine. Ruby is so dynamic and daring, and she finished it off so well with a stuck dismount, declaring afterwards that she was just so thrilled to make the final at all.

It's great to see Lisa Katherina Hill in this final, and she certainly had the skills for it. It wasn't the cleanest and she had to save it a bit and fight, but she got through it nicely and I really loved her Bhardwaj, very clean.

Dun dun DUN arrival of the big hitters. Defending champion Huang Huidan was up first, and really went for it. Great Jaeger, dismount, smoother on her turns than she has been, really getting the handstands and minimising deductions. Just fantastic work and a well deserved huge score as a result.

And everything to play for Yao Jinnan, up last. The most nervewracking routine of worlds so far for me, as I really really wanted her to finally get a gold. It was thrilling to see her catch everything, nail her turns and the dismount. Her pirouettes are really stunning, just so precise. The Tkachev lets the whole routine down for me, it's flat, but the rest does make up for it. A very smartly constructed routine as it's so short..but 6.9 difficulty means she's far from messing about. And THAT SCORE! Finally a win for her! I understand that gold and silver could be argued for either way, but I was much more emotionally invested in Yao Jinnan winning so I'm very happy with the podium.

Highlights

7 hit routines

Tense, down-to-the-wire scoring

Lots of variety, transition heavy routines, balanced routines, rare skills, pirouettes..

Not-so-highlights

Ruby coming off bars

One or two routines sloppier than they have been prior to now

Russian routines were identical

Favourite routines

Our podium exactly. 

Leotards

Ashton looked good in USA's patriotic flavour of the day. I really like the red GB leotard and Lisa's was nice also, if slightly low at the neck. The winner is Yao Jinnan in lovely regal purple.

Source- Reuters/China Daily

Of course, we have to have some drama. First, Yao's lack of number. This was addressed after the competition in which it was stated that it fell off right before, and that it was presented to the judges and accepted. (This is what happens if you do back spins...Claudia Fragapane has permission to do this on floor). Even if it wasn't, too bad if the judges didn't catch it. Seeing accusations such as 'cheating again' is enraging. How could they possibly benefit? Who would risk an 0.3 ND? Seriously?

And, the tears. Huang Huidan was moved after her dismount and it was touching to see. Hitting a great routine when it matters most, it's perfectly understandable to feel such relief. This got ugly after Yao Jinnan's score came in and she was still crying, miserably this time, and STILL CRYING in the press conference, right beside Yao Jinnan. I have no patience with that. To hit such a fabulous routine and lose has got to be hard, but it should not have been such a surprise...Yao consistently beats her when they both it. It is perfectly acceptable to feel upset, but she should have sucked it up, sincerely congratulated Yao who after all, has just cemented her place on the Champions wall after years of trying and working though injury to do so, and waited until she was alone to let our her frustration and disappointment. It was quite in contrast to Aliya Mustafina who looked absolutely thrilled to be beaten by teammate Daria.

Nothing wrong with emotion, but there is when it dampens things for not just your teammate, but your friend...they train together in the same group. It's just...awkward. How is Yao supposed to reflect on a job well done and her triumph at last when she has to console her friend and no doubt feel misplaced guilt? It it just...annoying and unnecessary. In discussion earlier it was rightly pointed out to me that we cannot expect these girls to have the full maturity of their age due to their lack of socialisation, they are after all in a very insular and intensive training environment. Nevertheless, I am disappointed in Huang Huidan's inability to mask her feelings in public for her friend.

Now that I've got that way, I do want to emphasise that I am DELIGHTED with today's competitions. Only one fall, nothing too dangerous, and above all, lots of tense competition and nervous waiting for scores. Just as it should be.

What were your favourite routines/vaults? Do you agree with how Biles/Hong and Huang/Yao placed? Can tomorrow live up to today's competition? The US leotard for tomorrow has been described as 'fun'- does this scare you also?

Worlds Experience/Competition Part 2

Warning: This is longer than the previous post and only covers floor and vault Day 1 event finals as a result. Read part 1, the AA, here.

Saturday

OMG, the breakfast. Continental breakfasts in mainland Europe are always great, but this was just such an unbelievable spread. I've never seen such a varity of fruit, fruit salads, yoghurts and seeds on top of the excellent hot food and pastries- there were these tiny doughnuts which were amazing. Anyway. Event finals were starting a lot earlier than the all-around of course, at half 2. We got to the arena at about 2 and hung around it for a few minutes, magically hoping a stream of gymnasts would appear as spectators. But....Mai Murakami and Asuka Teramoto obliged!

Source- beautifulgymnastics.blogspot.com

!!!!! :D :D :D :D Nothing like elite gymnasts to make you feel like an awkward giant, at the lofty height of 5'3. This practically made my year, seriously. Both girls went unnoticed by those outside and seemed very surprised when I asked them for a photo. Probably as I have a big red Caucasian head on me - they'd be far more used to just an Asian fanbase I think. They thanked me afterwards! It's odd to be beside someone I've written so much about and fangirled over. I wasn't very interested in actively trying to find gymnasts though. A bit, but not super stalky or anything. So random encounters seemed more fun for that reason.

Our seats were the same as yesterday, 2 rows further back, so the same view. Great for MAG floor, which started off the day. The noise of them warming up was astoundingly loud, like BAM..BAM..BAMMMMM. No music obviously so of course the landings were exemplified. It was really exciting to even think of seeing Kohei Uchimura's routine and Kenzo Shirai's AMAZING twistathon live and of course, they didn't disappoint. Mindblowing stuff. Every single roll-out skill was nervewracking, I'm delighted they're being phased out. I felt that it was a great honour to see Kohei Uchimura competing live and although his difficulty was a good bit lower than some, he was incredibly impressive and so clean. I don't really watch MAG floor and after watching so much of WAG floor, it's refreshing to see the differences - like the amount of great twisting combinations that we just don't see in WAG. However, I think I'd get bored of the lack of double backs if I watched or saw it in person more often. The fact that Kenzo Shirai was competing last was wonderful, it allowed the tension to build nicely. Everybody definitely got the memo about his crazy routine, huge cheer when he saluted. That quad twist...just incredible. Almost the best part of his routine though was Kohei Uchimura's reaction to the landing of the quad twist and the sheer joy when his score was posted. It's fantastic to see such sportmanship in action.

Thanks to Agnes Suto for mentioning the name of the marching in and out song, Martin Garrix- Animals. The cut the arena used is better than the video I found on youtube. The beat of it really fired up the crowd and I was thrilled when the vault finalists marched in...and there was no hot pink from the Americans. No red, white or blue from them either which I know bothers people but uhh such a stunning leotard, and I just love purple so much. So glamorous and regal with the jewelled neckline/bodice. Each time Simone Biles marched out at these worlds, at all five possible finals, I was blown away by how much shorter she is than the average gymnast. It's a reflection moreso on the changes of gymnast's builds over the years I think. Did you know that Shang Chunsong is actually taller than her? Barely, but still, hilarious :D

Sadly no timers this time around of course, I really think it's stupid and possibly dangerous not to allow it for event finals. Giulia Steingruber got the competition off to a great start with a fabulous Rudi. Yes, her feet are messy and she's a little bit too piked in the first half twist or so, but it looks amazing from the side and she almost stuck the landing. It's a weird experience to experience firsthand how little time a vault takes! And to be close enough to gymnasts that I could hit them with my water bottle if I so wished, people I've written so much about having only ever seen them on screens. Not to mention the weirdness of seeing yourself in the audience on footage! Back to Giulia, I'm so impressed that she learned the DTY in such a short space of time. A very wise decision as the DTT hadn't been working out, famously keeping her out of vault finals in London when she crashed it. And what a great DTY it was! She barely had leg separation on the block and she kept her legs glued together throughout the vault, which as we know is very rare, especially on vaults more difficult than a FTY. Again with the flexed feet...but again with the great landing, though she was bent over a little too much at the waist. A worthy contender for bronze.

Next up, the cannonball Produnova from Yamilet Pena. I admire her spirit a lot and I do think she does have a lot of innate vaulting talent, but this is a waste, and still so dangerous on her knees and ankles. It's especially surprising that she's still doing it after suffering setbacks with injury and with her coach leaving this year, and the fact that she could not land a handspring-layout front at Pan American Games not that long ago. Predictably, it was scary both in the air with her insufficient height, and on the ground though there was no doubt she got her feet under her and bearing weight enough to get a score. Huge groan of course from the crowd. I wonder what people like Oksana Chusovitina and McKayla Maroney who have been watching her splat this vault in the same finals for years think when she goes for it. It was upsetting to see the anguish on her face when she got up afterwards, though also maddening, I wished I had a stock of rotten tomatoes to throw at her coach and any other officials encouraging this gigantic hot mess. Even worse when she fell backwards on her second vault, sigh. I wish she could do an exchange programme with a US gym for a few months (not WOGA..) or just plain change citizenship.

Unsurprisingly, a huge roar greeted Oksana Chusovitina. Another legend I got goosebumps to see competing in front of me. She must like the springboard being set further back than usual, but this looked a bit like overkill as she hit the horse very far forward and the vault was consequently a struggle which she landed low. Still, she landed it, very impressive! It was hilarious when her coach was speaking to her right after and you could almost imagine Oksana thinking 'Be quiet, child!' It's got to take nerves to give constructive criticism to her. Happily, her second vault, Tsuk 1.5, was great! So straight and with great leg form. When you think of the pounding vault entails at her age, I highly doubt she does half the repetitions in training that her fellow competitors do. Which just serves to highlight the brilliance of that second vault, and indeed the ability to get around the first when the takeoff was wrong. What a privilege to see her in action.

Fourth to vault was Phan Thi Ha Thanh in another stunning leotard, pink this time. I've no issue with the colour when it's not sickly pale, hot pink, or pepto-bismol. She is so, so beautiful. I was gutted when she didn't make London finals last year, so it was great to see her here. She does pike her Rudi as we all know by now, and the last half twist is wild but it's really lovely in the air, very dynamic. At least from the side, which does mask quite a bit of what you see from the straight view on replay. Easier than ever to imagine why the judges don't deduct for things fans see on these replays. A pity she couldn't get her chest up on landing the Rudi though. And...I had a heart attack when 6.3 flashed up for her second vault. It never crossed my mind she would go for an amanar, because her DTY is not particularly great, or even secure. Madness to try it. Predictably, she barely got the two twists around and it was the scariest thing ever because it was the worst case of twisting into the ground I have ever seen. She's very lucky she got up and walked away after that. I'm all for difficulty and going all out, but they need to be skills you can actually do and do consistently. That was just frightening.

Chantysha Netteb qualified with low difficulty vaults, ahead of teammate Noel Van Klaveren who failed to make the final after practically landing her gorgeous DTY off the mat entirely. Chantysha has had issues with the DTY with a bad fall at Euros, and did revert to a 1.5 Yurchenko after. But the final is the time to bring it, so she went for the full 5.8. It looked good in the air and very clean and secure so it was a huge shock first of all when she fell backwards and a second, sickening shock when she grabbed her knee in agony. Just awful. My view of her face in intense suffering was all too clear and the big screen on my right which was too close to block out replayed it over, and over, and over again. The obvious pain on her face, the replay of her landing and the knee grabbing all screamed ACL tear, sadly. Chantysha is so promising, especially on vault, and it's just gutting to see her world championships go like this. What discipline it took for her not to make a sound.

After Chantysha Netteb was carried off on a stretcher (the worst sentence I think I've ever written here), it was Simone Biles' turn to vault. It's unnerving to be first up after that, harking back to Aly Raisman who had to go up on beam after Rebecca Bross dislocated her knee on vault at Nationals two years ago. But no problem for the new world champion, who launched her amanar up to the ceiling and had a better landing than the all-around, with just a small bounce back. The noise of her block is just BOOM, so explosive. Amazing. Her second vault, the Lopez, is the best I've ever seen. Her block is perfect, much superior to McKayla Maroney even, and she never once wavered from her pencil-like straight form. Her Cheng when we see it will no doubt be even more mindblowing.

The 2008 Olympic vault champion, Hong Un Jong, the only gymnast North Korea brought, has the second highest difficulty of all- 6.4 and 6.3 (Yamilet Pena just a tenth higher..), but her execution leaves her in contention for nothing more than bronze and the Cheng is a bit beyond her at times. Her first vault, the amanar, was better than I expected though. Very clean in the air but an uncontrolled landing marred it. It's a different story for the second vault, which was scrappy in the air, and so piked. The execution score she got was kind of hilarious, but then they mostly were in this final. Certainly it should not have approached a 9, a clear case of the judges afraid to penalise difficulty, again. Still, at least we weren't treated to a carcrash TTY, after an already scary few vaults! She's quite broad in the shoulders, and is definitely healthy and strong. The same can't be said of her coach, who looked like a doll by comparison- and basically, undernourished as a result of living through the famine in the 90's. I wonder how closely their delegation is watched at international competitions like this?

Last but not least, the reigning world champion, she of the stupid meme, McKayla Maroney appeared at the end of the vault runway. It was quite a tense moment seeing her focusing and getting ready after what happened the last time she appeared in an international vault final. No white leotard this time! The step back, the incredibly fast and powerful run...no fear for her amanar, which was just unbelievable. She still has the most incredible block and airtime, even though she's not getting the same height as last year. And another almost (soo..close) stick! She knows how to please a worshipping crowd, such an exciting moment. That said, I have issues with that score. Her hips and knees are bent, she was off direction by quite a bit and she didn't quite stick it..so her score being higher than the TF vault in London last year, taking into account the lowering of difficulty on it, is funny, and not in a good way. Yes, yes, she will beat Simone Biles on difficulty. There's no need to be ridiculous about it though. Also, Simone's own amanar was better, but scored worse. McKayla's second vault was a great vault for anyone else, but it was a bit poor from her, her block was really quite wonky. The important thing was that she landed it, and it was really good otherwise, great explosive distance I thought. That must have been one great sigh of relief to banish the ghost of London with a second consecutive world title. Onwards and upwards hopefully, her execution and height are even better than what we witnessed here.

The Podium
 
And the world champion is...big surprise here...McKayla Maroney! Silver of course went to Simone Biles with what were to me, easily the best two vaults of the competition and in third, Hong Un Jong beat off stiff competition from Giulia Steingruber and not so stiff from Phan Thi Ha Thanh, given her bad fall. It is absolutely fantastic to see somebody retain a title, and so magnificently. We shouldn't forget McKayla's string of injuries in the last year, and she had just 8 months of training to get to this point. I'm not sure we'll see a Cheng but I think a TTY is definitely possible, and I'm hopeful she can brush up just a bit on her execution and/or height. She absolutely deserved her gold..BUT..there's usually a but, it should have been closer as both of Simone Biles' vaults were in fact better. It's great to see these two sparring in international competition as well as internally, good motivation. Don't be fooled by gamefaces and Simone's polite but disinterested looking clap for McKayla after the latter landed her second vault. After the competition they marched out smiling and talking and when they came back for the medal ceremony, there was a great camaraderie between the two. What incredible vaulters, what a pleasure to see them raise the roof like this.

Many are saying Giulia Steingruber was robbed, and it's easy to see why. But although her vaults were great she did throw marks away with her low landings, and form issues particularly on the Rudi. It just wasn't enough to best a girl with seven more tenths of difficulty. I cannot but be happy for Hong Un Jong to take away a world championship medal. She is surely celebrated as an Olympic gold medallist, and entitled to live in the capital etc...but it's got to be miserable all the same and another prestigious medal cannot but be a good thing.

Here is a ridiculously great stop-motion photo gallery of every vault finalist in action. Love it!

Favourite Leotard

Simone Biles and McKayla Maroney's glorious purple leotard. Perfect on both.

Highlights

- The two amanars of the Americans, great to watch for different reasons.
- The clean fabulousness of Kohei Uchimura's floor.
- Everybody survived their roll-out passes.
- Kenzo Shirai's quad twist, because it's insane.
- And his entire routine, so exciting. I don't care how one-sided it is.
- Simone Biles' Lopez, it's just fantastic with the perfect block and technique.
- Giulia Steingruber's lovely DTY, despite the haste in which it was learned.
- The atmosphere before McKayla Maroney vaulted, so tense and expectant- waiting, wanting, hoping for the usual magic.

Not-so Highlights

- What looks like an ACL tear for Chantysha Netteb.
- The constant replays of her injury.
- A totally unneccessary and dangerous amanar from Phan Thi Ha Thanh.
- The cannonball from Yamilet Pena and her fall on the second vault. :(
- Roll-out skills. So fearful of them.



Who do you think has the best amanar now? Who should have gotten bronze? HOW CUTE is it that Kenzo Shirai and Mai Murakami are a couple and have been for years? How much crack are Yamilet Pena's and Phan Thi Ha Thanh's coaches on?

I had to split this post in half, so coming up soon will be the second half of Saturday, and hopefully some of Sunday if I can squash it in. Being closer to vault helps me blab on more about it, not to mention their being so kind as to take it in turns to compete, rather than all at once in the AA :)

Introducing the new He Kexin

I'm exhausted just watching her. Hindorff-Geinger, Jaeger, Tkachev-Pak, full twisting double layout. I know that the new bars code will see sloppy release-release and release-combination connections but this routine, Ruby Harrold's and Becky Downie's make me absolutely not care at all. Now obviously her form is not exactly brilliant, she has nice lines but her knees are soft in some skills, her Pak is dumpy, some handstands are suspect etc. She essentially does not have the precision of her famous uneven bars specialist predeccessor, He Kexin. Maybe that will come- she's in the same coaching group as Wu Liufang and Huang Qiushuang so hopefully her coaches can work some magic on her form. It seems less forgiveable for a Chinese gymnast to have anything less than perfect form on bars compared to other nations somehow. She is also less useful than Kexin because she only competes bars, Kexin had a DTY and a somewhat decent floor. Word is that Jiaxin is training both events, so that would absolutely increase her likelihood to make major teams. As it is, if she performs like this all year then she should take a spot at worlds. She has a huge amount of strength and endurance, wherein her value lies as that doesn't come around everyday for China. For now though, let's just bask in a Chinese gymnast hitting..qualifying first and then taking gold, and with a spectacular routine at that. Edit- Jiaxin's missing transition from the video is a toe hecht to high, you can see an uninterrupted version here but it's a bit smaller and not as good quality I think.

Here is the excellent silver medallist, Ruby. Delighted to see her pacing working out..she's been named to the Euros team and her bars keep improving as it gets closer. Only a slight arch after the Zuchold this time, and she planted the troublesome double front, which was beautiful. Automatically I'm more forgiving of her form errors than Jiaxin's, and I'm not sure if it's my imagination but the leg seperations don't seem as bad as quals and British Championships.

Sadly, would-be bronze medallist Zeng Siqi crashed her dismount. She doesn't seem to have half the strength and endurance of her teammate, but hoping for a decisive beam victory from her tomorrow.

Vault gold medallist Phan Thi Ha Thanh showed two exquisite vaults. Minus some foot crossing they were beautiful in the air. She has improved quite a lot since her 2011 worlds bronze win I think.

Videos are going up here. I was hoping Diana Bulimar and Larisa Iordache's bars would be better. Larisa at least looks capable of a stronger bars routine, the composition is not her friend and leaves her open for deductions they should be able to avoid.

In other news, GB have named their Euros team as Gabby Jupp, Becky Downie, Ruby Harrold and..Charlie Fellows. Great to see someone new get a chance, but I thought Hannah Whelan would get the benefit of the doubt owing to her veteran status, despite being plagued with falls so far this year.