Worlds post #1

This is a big posting gap at such an important time of year but it's been a very busy week and I don't even know how I'm going to squash watching quals (archived) in. Anyway, the start list is out! Here.  

Subdivisions 1 and 2 will compete tomorrow, the other three on Wednesday. Here's a little breakdown of the ones to watch from each:

Subdivision 1- Kyla Ross, Zeng Siqi, Huang Huidan, Sophie Scheder, Stefania Alina Stanila, Sanne Wevers, Kaitlyn Hofland, Maegan Chant, Hong Un Jong.
Subdivision 2- Yao Jinnan, Rebecca Tunney, Elizabeth Seitz, Anna Rodionova, Mai Murakami, Jessica Lopez, Yu Minobe.
Subdivision 3- Simone Biles, Shang Chunsong, Tatiana Nabieva, Noel Van Klaveren, Phan Thi Ha Thanh, Oksana Chusovitina, Ilaria Kaeslin, Carlotta Ferlito.
Subdivision 4- McKayla Maroney, Aliya Mustafina, Roxana Popa, Noemi Makra, Ruby Harrold, Larisa Iordache, Vanessa Ferrari, Natsumi Sasada, Elsabeth Black.
Subdivision 5- Sandra Izbasa, Victoria Moors, Hannah Whelan, Giulia Steingruber, Asuka Teramoto, Chantysha Netteb, Kirsten Beckett, Vasiliki Millousi, Marta Pihan-Kulesza.

I am really disgusted Brenna Dowell is not competing, even just on bars. Once the team was named, that should have been it. Yes it was known Marta had the other three doing the AA in mind but this is leaving it cruelly late, after she had been training in Antwerp for several days. Her interview where she is clearly upset attests to the unfairness of this decision. Ideally I would like all four to do the all-around, sigh. Anyway, McKayla Maroney is so unlikely to qualify into the all-around anyway, whereas Brenna stood a chance of qualifying to bars final, and picking up valuable experience along the way.

Russia have had more of a shakeup, Anna Rodionova will now compete AA - and so will Tatiana Nabieva, who was in question after hitting her head on floor. Aliya Mustafina will do two vaults, the second of which is her old one which looked in podium training to be too tucked to be credited as laidout. It will be really interesting to see how qualifications goes for her, since she seemed 50/50 in podium training, with issues on bars of all things.

There are three super-scary vaults, Fadwa Mahmoud's and Yamilet Pena's Produnovas, and Hong Un Jong's triple twisting Yurchenko. I can hardly wait to watch through my hands if any or all qualify to vault finals. It will be kind of hilarious if Hong Un Jong successfully completes the TTY and steals some American thunder. Other interesting submitted elements are Shang Chunsong's piked Hindorff, Simone Biles' double layout half out (and mystery Weiler 1/1 on bars which she has not been seen doing) and Aliya Mustafina's triple Y turn.

Victoria Moors' is back in the all-around! She hasn't appeared in the list to do it ever since they started coming out and then it was confirmed she wouldn't be doing it as she hadn't gotten her DTY back. Either it's solid now or they're going to use the FTY.

The all-around looks like a serious battle! Simone Biles is on fire, even controlling her energy on floor as we have seen. Aliya Mustafina has some upgrades though- but seems tired and/or not in the best of health and although I would agree that she always trains worse than she competes and that she shows full mettle when she needs to- she has also really sucked on beam in competition. It doesn't look like Shang Chunsong has brought a DTY to the table (see what I did there) but as I have said, she is still a big contender. Kyla Ross has added a connection on beam which brings her to 6.1 there, infinitely better than 5.7/8 but still so low. Hopefully she can hit both in competition. Yao Jinnan does not look like she has the goods to really fight in the all-around, though absolutely on bars. The jury is out on Larisa Iordache, who has her Silivas back in action and is attempting the quad turn on floor, but has been very inconsistent on beam in training.

Difficulty looks like this at the moment:

Aliya Mustafina- 25.1. 25.3 if she does the quad turn and triple Y spin on floor, 25.4 if she connects the triple Y to a single Y. I'd be surprised if she hit them all.
Simone Biles- 25
Larisa Iordache- 25..though I think floor is more likely to get 6.2, so 24.8.
Shang Chunsong- 24.7, full beam and bars would be nice.
Yao Jinnan- 24.6
Kyla Ross- 24

The amount of injuries and mishaps is frightening. Russia in particular are cursed- Shelgunova, Komova, Sidorova, Grishina, Paseka, etc. etc. Nabieva's fall on her head and Mustafina having been recently ill and seen grabbing her knee today. A further two MAG have withdrawn from competition too.

That said, I could not be more excited that I'm going to Antwerp Friday morning! Our hotel has been bumped from a 3 star to a 4 star. Luckily they're practically on top of each other, but I blame pesky gymnasts! I will not be liveblogging, no laptop, and I want to see everything. There will be plenty of people doing quick hits etc. I might tweet a little bit though, I also intend to take videos of vault timers etc. and to maybe try get photos/autographs with gymnasts..

BBC (you need a British IP to watch online), USAG (US IP or @tunnelbear to watch, this one will be archived), Rai (Italy) and TVR1 (Romania I think) are going to broadcast the all-around and event finals. I believe French and Belgian channels are going to broadcast too, but that's all I know. Nobody is touching quals except USAG, who will livestream subdivisions 1, 3 and 4. These are likely to focus on the rotations the US girls are in. This footage will be archived, though may still need an IP blocker- there's one called tunnelbear which is supposed to be great. I can't watch live, pesky college. EDIT: I found a full list of broadcasters, here.

This is the best resource for links to videos I find, since their site is a mess to navigate. Other than the usual other sources, just in case you haven't heard about this one-  Agnes Suto's tumblr here. She is an Icelandic gymnast competing at worlds with some nice insight and background information. Sounds like a lovely humble person too.

Who are you rooting for in each final? Does Maroney stand a chance of getting a spot in AA finals? What skill are you most looking forward to seeing? Does the 'Moors' deserve an I? Who will be injured next? Can Russia actually preserve ANYONE?

News

Adjusting to a college timetable out of the blue is tough. Happily, the wait for Antwerp is flying by!

A new nominative registration list for Antwerp is out. You can find it here. Bear in mind it can change up to a day before competition starts, but I'd be very confident that this is basically it. The most notable change is the addition of Stefanie Alina Stanila of Romania. I'm delighted she's getting this great chance for experience, though of course it took the untimely injury of Diana Bulimar for this to happen. I know that Romania do not have fantastic funding and that is a big reason why we haven't seen their new seniors, but I still thought it was unfair. Anyway, her difficulty is too low to make an impact but she has potential I think. Other changes are the inclusion of Daria Matveyeva of Ukraine over the previously named Olesya Sazonova. I'm not sure why, but injury would be a good guess. We know that the swift replacement of Paula Vargas of Spain and Adriana Crisci of Italy is due to injury, and so is Jonna Adlerteg of Sweden's absence, while Elsa Garcia's has been confirmed as politics- sigh. I know people are baffled that Elisa Meneghini mised another chance to be named to the team but it seems they are preserving her and building her difficulty for next year, when she and Enus Mariani would be expected to become the new backbone of the team. Jade Barbosa has not been replaced, but she's out. Victoria Moors is still not down for vault, which is odd. There's a mistake with Italy's beam lineup by the way, Leolini is not doing beam.

Aliya Mustafina has new floor music! I love it, it's dramatic and the vocals are haunting. Suits her. She is or has been dealing with a virus which has impacted her training somewhat. Upgrades on bars, floor and beam were in training and a second vault (Lopez maybe?) but it's not clear now how much she will do of those.

Japan Junior is coming up fast, it starts on the 22nd! As mentioned, the lineup is amazing- Laurie Hernandez, Bailie Key, Andreea Iridon, Andreea Munteanu, Maria Bondareva, Maria Kharenkova, Catherine Lyons, Georgia Mae Fenton, Wang Yan etc. etc. Catherine Lyons has a nice boost going into this, she won 6 of a possible 6 medals at the School Games recently but I think her difficulty is too low to impact. The beauty of her beam and floor will be great though. I haven't heard anything about a stream yet, here's hoping. Edit- I just discovered the competitions will basically start at 5AM for me, so I won't be looking for a stream! If I see one mentioned I'll post it but I think this will be reliant on youtube videos from people who attend..

Cranking numbers for Antwerp and more news

Who has the highest difficulty this year going into Antwerp? It's very hard to say who will hit their connections or who will definitely upgrade etc. but having a look at the raw difficulty scores of the top contenders is still very interesting.

1. Larisa Iordache, Romania. 25 (VT 5.8 UB 5.9 BB 6.9 FX 6.4)
2. Shang Chunsong, China. 24.6 (VT 5.0 UB 6.9 BB 6.6 FX 6.1)
3. Aliya Mustafina, Russia. 24.4 (VT 5.8 UB 6.3 BB 6.4 FX 5.9)
4. Simone Biles, USA. 24.3-5 (VT 6.3 UB 6.1 BB 5.7-9 FX 6.2)
5. Kyla Ross, USA. 23.7-9 (VT 5.8 UB 6.4 BB 5.8-6 FX 5.7)

Edit- There has been a reshuffle, Shang Chunsong's full bars routine is 6.9 so she bumps Aliya Mustafina to third. Simone Biles is either third or fifth, depending on what day of Nationals you pick.. 

Now for the fun bit!

- Larisa Iordache is not guaranteed to get 6.4 on floor. Nor is she guaranteed to get all of her connections on bars- we all know it's a weak spot and for one routine at Euros she just got 5.5. So..
- We would be underestimating Aliya Mustafina if we expect her to roll up at Antwerp with 6.3 bars. I believe she will be aiming for at least two tenths extra there, possibly four. At the same time, if her triple on floor is gone with no replacement or a lower difficulty replacement, expect that to drop. If she CAN squeeze a double layout in instead of it, it will go up 0.1 If she goes for the triple y turn and gets it credited, that is 0.1 also. On the other hand, her beam connections have been dodgy more than they have been solid.
- Shang Chunsong is said to be training a DTY. She has not done it yet at National Games, but if she does throw one at Antwerp- that is 25.2! She's not immune to mistakes/lost connections but neither are any of the top few. Her super high d score WITH an FTY is incredible, and not as one-sided as the infamous Nastia example since she's also very good on floor.
- Simone's score here is with her downgraded beam which she competed at Nationals. IF she brings back her better routine, her total goes up to 24.9. I don't know what to do with her beam, I was so sure the routines were the same at Nationals both days but I was fixated on Day 1, which was lowest. So she MAY be second in this list- not sure whether to bump her up or not in my 'standings'. Her floor is at its lowest- if she brings back the 1.5 to tucked full in she gets 0.2 more so 6.4 and if she does the DLO half-out it will almost certainty be given a value of G, so another 0.1 to 6.5. If she does the double wolf it will be insurance if one of her leaps gets downgraded/not credited. Her full total could be 25.2, but this is far from a given of course. Her floor score is a little complicated- I think because of the leaps. Please feel free to correct me- I am going by YT coded videos which seem to credit everything, and then actual competition scores.
- Don't expect Kyla Ross' difficulty to increase, Marta herself has said this is it. She CAN lose connections on beam if she is unsteady. I wasn't sure what beam d-score to go with since 6.0 was the last but she's been competing with 5.7-8 all year. Her high execution could have her more equal with Simone if Simone doesn't upgrade.
- Yao Jinnan is not included as she is injured and her routines at National Games are being downgraded and upgraded where possible to accommodate that and it's just a mess. She DOES have the highest possible bars d-score though. (7.0) Diana Bulimar (23.3 full capabilty) is not here because she is not a top contender I don't think. She should be, I know.

So, there are quite a few scenarios that can change things, the most dramatic being if Shang Chunsong acquires a DTY. Let's not forget execution- Simone may not get full credit for her leaps, Larisa will more than likely get slammed on bars and any of the what-if's- like Kyla having a low landing, or of course out of bounds, falls etc. etc. The problem with Kyla which is plain as day here, is that even with her full difficulty and Simone who's nearest at her lowest- there's a gap. So she basically has no reserve and needs to be perfect, whereas most of the others can afford some mistakes.

EDIT- I have been linked to some statistics compiled by a poster called Yingova on a thread on a Chinese forum. My favourite one is highest d-score credited this year. Simone Biles 24.9 Aliya Mustafina 24.5 Larisa Iordache and Yao Jinnan 24.1 Shang Chunsong 24 and Kyla Ross 23.9. Not all of those are recent but clearly the AA despite some absences and others under threat will still be interesting..

On to other news- the National Games Team Final took place yesterday, with the podium being in order- Shanghai, Zheijang and Hunan provinces. Zheijang lost out on gold by one error in the end- Wang Wei's fall on her triple twist, which is not nice knowledge for her to carry in a competition this big and prestigious. (Shanghai includes Sui Lu, Tan Sixin, Zheijang Huang Huidan, Luo Huan and Hunan Shang Chunsong, Tan Jiaxin).

- Shang Chunsong hit, again. Not fantastic bars- lost it on a handstand and nearly on another, but hey, she didn't fall. Huang Huidan also hit again, even more astonishing. Great news for these two, and promising for their worlds debut.
- Yao Jinnan struggled with her injury. She fell on floor, and only did an FTY- thankfully. She downgraded her beam and fell twice on bars- on the new Mo Salto and on her Tkachev. The Mo was caught with one hand. I'm so thrilled she went for it and although I'm worried that she still has routines left to compete like floor and vault and her all-around prospects for worlds are not looking good- I've no concern over her bars. It was a fabulous routine and I think it was moreso the mental pressure of carrying your team when you're injured that got to her there.
- He Kexin fell twice on bars, on her Pak and Jaeger. Her bars in qualifying were not as great as usual, and she has obviously been pushing herself to compete here at all. She easily made the bars finals and can hopefully redeem herself there.
- Zeng Siqi fell on beam, again. She still has the AA but it's a bit too little too late at this stage. Beautiful work but her endurance has long been a problem and with consistency on top of that..I think she should be building her routines now and her strength rather than unleashing them on the world stage.
- Wang Yan had a disaster on beam but hit her vault. Tan Jiaxin fell on bars again but hit her vaults too. Junior Luo Huan impressed with a gigantic beam score of 15.067- tying Sui Lu with both execution and difficulty (6.3), despite being eight years younger.

Videos are here. and here. The full livestream has been reuploaded.

Part 2 is the video response underneath. To help you out (and me) here is a little list of the major gymnasts and their competition numbers. I think it's easier than confusing people with what province features on what event in what rotation. Anyway, feel free to comment 'who's number 96' or whatever and I'll find out. Thanks to WangXiangu for compiling the source for this :)
  
Shang Chunsong- 100
Sui Lu- 136
Yao Jinnan- 32
Huang Qiushuang- 40
Wu Liufang- 46
Tan Sixin- 138
Lv Jiaqi- 172- 2016 senior
Luo Huan- 174- 2016 senior
Tan Jiaxin- 102
Zeng Siqi- 106
Liu Tingting- 42- 2016 senior
Wang Yan- 22- 2015 senior
Huang Huidan- 166
Fan Yilin- 134- 2015 senior
He Kexin- 14

The Japan Junior list is out and you should be excited because it looks a lot better than that YOG will be like, even just by virtue of more gymnasts and more birth years admissible. I think the top two places in the AA will be a US story but check out those names..Romania and Russia are sending their best, and so are China. I'm hoping for a livestream, there's a good bit of time to find out..

FIG have released the worlds nominative list, here.These names and events were submitted nearly two weeks ago and can be changed up to the day before competition starts. For instance, the Dutch team has been officially named and Wyomi Masela is on it in place of Vera van Pol who is listed. Viktoria Komova is on the list, but the news that Anna Rodionova may take her place was released after they submitted names for this list. Victoria Moors is not down for vault, Elsa Garcia does not appear, Australia have gymnasts when they have just announced they're not taking any, it is hoped that Viktoria Komova will do bars too, Sandra Izbasa is down for vault which is in question and the US are not naming their team for another ten days so I would call Brenna Dowell far from solid- others in the past have been shafted between the nominative list and competition for the US. All in all, I don't think a huge amount will change. The British team, which has not been named- is interesting. It is what a lot of people have suspected, that Hannah Whelan will just do floor and not beam since Becky Downie is outscoring her there and not the AA since she's not ready for that yet and Ruby Harrold is. Brazil's team has caused outrage, since Jade Barbosa is too injured to compete and Laetitia Costa has not competed well this year at all, so that might change too. I was hoping Jade would be better in time but it doesn't sound too positive. Italy's team is strange- it includes Sydney 2000 Olympian Adriana Crisci! I'm wondering where Elisa Meneghini and Elisabetta Preziosa are when it comes to who's in contention. Are there any other glaring mistakes or interesting omissions/inclusions?

Romanian Nationals are starting soon! For the first time they will be on a podium. Larisa Iordache is said to compete and I'll update with news of the competition.

Drop everything! Read read read..

..this unbelievably amazing interview with Alexander Alexandrov! It's in 5 parts, with links to the next at the bottom of each. It's very candid, he doesn't hold back on anything and you really get the full inside story of what happened last year. Read it and weep that the Rodionenkos are STILL in power. It will take at least half an hour to read, but so so worth it. Great work by Elizabeth in bringing the whole thing together, providing the canvas for it and all of that editing for such a long glorious interview. We should all bow down :)

The Canadian WAG team has been announced, with zero surprises. It will be Victoria Moors, Elsabeth Black, Kaitlyn Hofland and Maegan Chant. With the injury of Gabriella Douglas and her withdrawal from selection, the inclusion of Kaitlyn has looked more and more of an uncertainty. This is a nice strong team, with the possibility of three spots in finals (two for floor and one for vault) as well as all-around spots. I'm not convinced that the latter two can make any finals with their current difficulty level, but who knows.

Here is a beautiful beam routine by Wu Liufang in training for worlds 2011. So close to being perfect, the stumble after the tuck back was the only thing marring it from the Ekaterina Vandisheva/Fan Ye school of perfect beam routines. That is Jiang Yuyuan in the background completely biffing a Ruflova, didn't notice the first time as Wu is so absorbing!

This weekend podium training for the National Games in China is taking place. We are unlikely to get anything from this really, but competition is starting soon and hopes for videos are high. Any absences you might notice are down to injury, unfortunately. This is far more important than worlds to the individual provinces, coaching teams etc. no matter what they say, and the girls do seem to be pushed as a result. The Interland friendly meet starts sooner, this weekend. This forms the second part of the Dutch worlds trials, and looks to be a test meet for the rest- particularly Britain who are sending a lot of girls, but also for Sandra Izbasa who hasn't competed since London. There will definitely be quick hits and a summary video, not sure about routines though- which is a pity as aside from it being an interesting competition- the Romanian girls have new floor routines!

I'm sure I'll add to this post with more gymnastics news, but for now I will throw in some photos I took on my phone when I was away this week. I was in Cork city and went for a daytrip to Cobh (pronounced Cove, formally Queenstown) which is pretty much my favourite town in Ireland. It's so so pretty and it's steeped in history too, this was the port where everybody from the west and south of the country emigrated from before, during and after the Great Famine and it was one of the stops Titanic made before crossing the Atlantic. We have an Irish priest who got off here having travelled from Southampton for the majority of the photos of its voyage. Cobh is incredibly steep which is difficult but those coloured houses..beautiful.

This cathedral is enormous. Bad perspective due to high ground!

Source- beautifulgymnastics

Bits and pieces

Anna Dementyeva has retired. It's been known for a while that she was taking a break from the gym and considering retirement and now the worst has been confirmed. She's at her home gym training youngsters. This has followed on quickly from the retirement of fellow gymnast of glorious lines and dance- Yulia Belokobylskaya. Interestingly, with the utter disaster Russia are having forming an Antwerp team at the moment, she may have gotten another shot at glory, which looked so unlikely just a few weeks ago. At least she went out on a relative high of a great team performance at Universiade, with some spectacular individual routines of her own.

Catherine Lyons and Georgia Mae Fenton will be joining Laurie Hernandez and Bailie Key at the Japan Junior. These two young Brits have a LOT of elegance, fabulous lines and are masters of corner dance so it should be very interesting. I know one from China but that hasn't been fully confirmed yet, and Russia and Romania are yet to announce. There doesn't seem to be an age restriction, so girls from 1998-2000 are elegible. This means we could be seeing two of Andreea Munteanu, Andreea Iridon, Silvia Zarzu and Asiana Peng and two of Maria Bondareva, Seda Tutkhalyan, Ekaterina Sokova, Viktoria Kuzmina, Anastasia Dmitrieva and Maria Kharenkova. Madalina Blendea would be unlikely due to her recent injury. Japan, (possibility- Yuki Uchiyama) Australia, (possibilities- Alexandra Eade, Darcy Norman) Canada, (possibilities- Heaven Latimer if healthy, Shallon Olsen) France (possibilities- Louise Vanhille, Claire Martin) and Germany (possibilities- Kim Janas, Tabea Alt) amongst others, plan to send gymnasts to this. That is a LOT of talent and we could see a potentially much deeper fight for the AA title than at Antwerp with how things are panning out! This meet takes place September 22-25th and is already very promising with just two delegations announced.

There's a lot of noise coming out of Russia regarding Anastasia Grishina and Viktoria Komova. I don't think we have enough information to accurately say what's going on, and the person spouting it is unreliable at best. Let's just say I'll hold off predicting the fourth member (and third, because that may not be that secure) until she walks into the arena at prelims. The good news is that Viktoria Komova has recommenced training! The bad news is that her illness will almost certainly have affected her weight and therefore strength. Too early to fully write her in or out, she may be cleared to just do bars in the end even. As for Grishina, her refusal to do beam in team finals last year has damned her as far as the news that she is faking a back injury (in Valentina Rodionenko's views, not her own coaches) is concerned. Maybe she is being spurred on to fight for her place. Maybe they are done giving her chances. Impossible to know.

Here let junior Lauren Navarro demonstrate the difference the crackdown on messy hair in USAG has made!

Classics

Screenshot- source- USAG youtube video

 Nationals

Screenshot- source- USAG youtube video

It doesn't get more dramatic than that! Her loose bun at Classics was bigger than her head and moved a serious amount. Impressive work on the Nationals bun. Hair isn't something I despaired over, but I am liking the difference. That said, McKayla Maroney's hair looks like a giant snail and really unsecure- probably best off going the old route with hers.

And more screenshots, these are NastiaFan's this time and they help to explain why Peyton Ernst has issues with her beam dismount (fell at Tokyo, large steps the rest of the time). From what I gathered from the discussion, she's not setting the skill correctly, she's whipping into it and killing the momentum, so it's much harder for her to get it around. The second screenshot is Abigail Milliet who is setting up for the exact same skill, double pike, the right way..and lands totally upright with just a very small step.

Peyton. NastiaFan- sourced from NBC footage

Abigail. NastiaFan- sourced from NBC footage

That's a huge difference in angle. Here's more technical information, this time on why men tend to be a lot cleaner than women at twisting which made a refreshing amount of sense.

I'm not sure if I said this already, but spin queen Gabriella Douglas of Canada is out of worlds contention with an injury. It appears that Jade Barbosa has not been as firmly ruled out as previously thought and is still in the running. Larisa Iordache seems to be in treatment and won't appear at Interland but there's a good bit of time left.

Noel Van Klaveren won the first Dutch trials for the worlds team. She managed this despite falling on beam on a layout and on her bars dismount. She also crashed a new upgrade, a 1.5 tsuk on vault but it was her solid DTY that counted for her AA score. Chantysha Netteb unfortunately crashed her double pike beam dismount to her head..again! There's no way she should keep training that. She's fine, but still..that dismount is just not for her, at least not yet. She downgraded her DTY to a 1.5 yurchenko and placed second in the AA. Celine van Gerner will not compete at worlds so wasn't there. Vera van Pol was third. The girls will compete again at Interland which is their second trial, this meet starts on the 31st and the nominative registration list is here.

Countdown to competitions

First up, there's a rumour that there won't be too many big names at Russian Cup. Aliya Mustafina and Ksenia Afanasyeva are supposed to be no-shows, along with Anna Dementyeva and Kristina Goryunova. Evgeniya Shelgunova is also still dealing with an injury, her elbow. In a way, I'd be very happy with the first two in particular getting a break as they've competed a lot this year and there's no real need for them to prove themselves further, and they still have a closed internal competition before worlds selection anyway. But on the other hand, it would be pretty gosh darn useful for Aliya to compete beam as much as possible to really get the routine (whichever of the many she has done this year) steady. Likewise, Afan could do with more competitive vaulting experience. Even if they just did those events, no need for the all-around. Update- Tatiana Nabieva will compete! It's more set in stone now that she and Vika will be the main attractions. Also, Ekaterina Baturina will not compete- injury :(

So, the stage could well be set for Viktoria Komova, who interestingly enough has never really had a showdown against Aliya, even internally. We haven't seen her compete healthy with no prior injury recovery since 2010, and even then she flagged with endurance issues. I, along with everyone else, am eager to see what her routines look like. She's supposed to have everything back and even though blindly trusting what Valentina Rodionenko says would be foolish, I'd imagine she's very close to what's being said about her. Her old BHS-LOSO-LOSO combination is worth more this code, I hope they've brought it back but it's really her bars that draw me in. I'm not a major fan of her as an all-around gymnast for some reason but I'm so looking forward to seeing what she can do on these two events.

To recap, here's my Russian Antwerp team.

Aliya Mustafina AA, UB, FX (?), BB (?)
Viktoria Komova AA, UB, BB (?)
Ksenia Afanasyeva VT, FX
Anastasia Grishina UB (?) BB (?)

If Komova proves herself not ready, insert Grishina into her spot and leave the team at 3 since they can't take Maria Paseka either way.

It's almost the ninth here, so 6 days until US Nationals and even less to podium training, which will again be streamed. The more I think about it the more set Kyla doing the all-around seems to me. I don't really think she can be ousted at this stage, unless Brenna Dowell or Elizabeth Price bring it like Chellsie Memmel 2008 Trials and make it so that they cannot be ignored. That would make it very, very interesting. If you look back at Brenna's execution scores from Classics though, they ain't pretty and I can't help thinking that they are a little harsh- which helps keep her that little bit behind. She did indeed have errors and lost connections dragging her difficulty down, but even taking them into account she should have done better I believe. I'm not ignoring McKayla Maroney but she will need to be really exceptional on previously non-spectacular events to factor in to the all- around at this stage. Can she score 58 in the all-around, yes I think she could. But can she do enough to sneak in and grab an Antwerp all-around spot? Highly unlikely. I don't believe Peyton Ernst has the difficulty yet for an all-around spot, but I think she'd be in contention for a specialist spot. I find her gymnastics quite odd, some of her leaps are beautiful and some really awful. She'll need to be much more 'on' with them on beam to get that spot, and she'll definitely need the dance series which was inexplicably credited at Classics.

All eyes will be on Simone Biles. I'd quite frankly be devastated if she cracked under the pressure. She could, if she hits, smash the 60 barrier and cement herself firmly as number one. If she doesn't hit I've no idea what they'll do. Use her as the wildcard having the much more reliable Kyla as medal back-up, or take her out entirely of the running as an all-around? If that happens, I'd struggle to see her on the team at all as she'd be vying with McKayla Maroney for the VT/FX spot and even if her difficulty is higher (she will have more of a difficulty gap on floor than McKayla has on her on vault), I don't think McKayla's veteran and world and Olympic vault medallist status can be beaten by a slightly flaky first year senior.

Has your opinion on the US team changed since Classics? Who are you rooting for? Podiums?

More bad news! But some good

I'm sure plenty of people are aware of this but it's news to me as a new gymnastics fan, and presumably others too. At worlds qualifications in Antwerp, (and any post-Olympics worlds) only 3 gymnasts per country can compete each event. This means that there isn't room for 3 gymnasts to battle it out for the all around final and have a fourth specialist compete for her chance in event finals. First of all, this truly makes Maria Paseka redundant this year since Ksenia Afanasyeva can equal or better her vaults while also being a floor favourite, whereas Paseka can only challenge on vault. Unfortunately for Afan, this also means that she's highly unlikely to compete all-around if Viktoria Komova and Aliya Mustafina are fighting fit, unless they only bring these three gymnasts. This is now an ideal opportunity for Anastasia Grishina to impress on beam and bars with some upgrades- I wrote her off before since without upgrades she cannot challenge for a medal anywhere, and while she probably still won't they'll be happy enough to give her the chance I think.

It's no bother to Romania who are only bringing three girls but it makes US Nationals more important as it will effectively decide their second all-arounder, as they also cannot have Simone Biles, Kyla Ross and Brenna Dowell/ Peyton Ernst/ Elizabeth Price battling it out in qualifications. This makes the inclusion of a beam/bars specialist like Peyton Ernst/Abigail Milliet or a healthy Katelyn Ohashi more likely than I previously thought as a team dominated by strong vault/floor workers makes less sense than ever since they can't all compete for the chance to qualify, let alone qualify. For me, despite her strong performance and some floor upgrades, it also betters the case of Kyla not competing the all-around since if you think about it, her floor and vault spots are practically a waste when you consider what the US have in store on those events. Not a particularly popular opinion and I will absolutely shed it IF Kyla has more upgrades in store and really closes the door on anyone else doing the all-around in her stead. Of course, Simone Biles could implode completely as an all-arounder and have to fight McKayla Maroney for a vault/floor spot...there are a lot of possibilities.

For China, it is a golden opportunity for any floor/vault specialists for they cannot have a team where they're all vying for beam and bars spots. If Tan Jiaxin and Sui Lu do well at National Games and if the latter is happy to delay her retirement, they make the most sense since Tan has two strong vaults (DTY/ Tsuk 2/1) as well as a very good hope of making bars finals for which she can battle Yao Jinnan and Shang Chunsong for in qualifications, while not interfering with Sui Lu's chances of similarly battling Yao and Shang for a beam finals spot and potentially floor. Zeng Siqi is still a logical pick for a beam spot though she will need to be back on the National Team by then, but she's not useful on another event..so in short I'm really looking forward to National Games more than ever.

Let the various Nationals/Cups begin!

The good news which is widespread by now is of course that Chellsie Memmel will be competing in power tumbling, aiming for a worlds spot. Chellsie, despite being substantially decorated, never received her rightful Olympics experience thanks to injuries and also never received her due from USAG despite saving them at no less than two world championships team finals with some individual medals- including two world titles- thrown in for good measure. She was of course unfairly treated last year, and I had thought with her subsequent retirement, barely-there Pro Gymnastics Challenge appearance, long career filled with injuries and last but not least, upcoming wedding, that we had seen the last of her in a competitive gymnastics way at least. But underestimate her at your peril! I'd love to have been a fly on the wall when certain people in USAG got wind of this. Power tumbling worlds is pretty close but presumably, she didn't begin training just last week or when she broke the news. Really looking forward to seeing how she gets on in her training and if she doesn't make the worlds team, rest assured CFM remains more of a BAMF than ever. I don't usually use acronyms and I tend not to swear here...but these ones just flow when mentioning this inspirational, incredible gymnast. Go Chellsie!

Quick round-up

:( Bad week for injuries. Jade Barbosa has torn a ligament in her foot while Rachel Gowey is dealing with stress fractures in her back. Rachel will not compete at Nationals though she will be recovered shortly after. She technically could get on the worlds team by making it onto the National team at camp beforehand and then being selected, but it was unlikely she'd get on the team anyway- it's moreso the competition and podium experience of Nationals that she will miss out on. Jade's ability to recover in time for worlds is in question, it seems they are waiting for a second opinion on surgery but are concentrating on 2015 and 2016 anyway as most important.

Natalia Yurchenko's new blog is already very interesting. Her picks of Classics which she attended are unsurprisingly Norah Flatley's beam and Laurie Hernandez' floor. I hope she keeps it up!

The next competitions coming up are US Nationals August 15-18, Russian Cup August 15-21 and Interland August 31-September 1st. US Nationals will see more polish, steadiness and readiness as the girls get more used to their routines in preparation for the naming of the new National Teams. Russian Cup is supposed to see...the return of Viktoria Komova and her much-hyped bars d-score! It's supposed to be in and around 7.0 and she is now stated to have everything back including the amanar but of course, we need to see her routines first. We will also hopefully see a fitter Aliya Mustafina and Ksenia Afanasyeva and a consistent Anastasia Grishina..Interland is a friendly meet hosted in the Netherlands and will have full teams from themselves and Britain as well as 3 Romanians.

McKayla Maroney and the open-mouthed judge discuss her team finals vault! The judge is recognised at meets, hilarious.

Beth Tweddle will make an announcement about her future plans on August 6th, the one year anniversary of her bronze medal. She has been making a lot of appearances since winning Dancing on Ice so if she is planning on getting back to the swing of things, I'd be very surprised to see her in the running for worlds at this late stage, but who knows.

I'm sure I'll find more for this post!

EYOF/Universiade/Portugal

The first shock is Romania's team for EYOF. The girls named are Andreea Iridon, Madalina Blendea and Laura Jurca. As in, where the hell is Andreea Munteanu? Lots of guesses going on about how she has already competed so much this year and maybe they are resting her for next year or maybe they want to try the younger girls with less experience etc. but by far the most common opinion is that she must be injured, as they really need her. This is a very strong team for bars and very good on beam, but extremely weak on vault where they would desperately need her DTY and her high beam and floor scores would come in very handy too. This meet is in fact a big deal, moreso than any other she has attended this year so it's quite bewildering IF she isn't injured.It's important to remember that this is a nominative registration list and that Romania are huge fans of substitution. However, they are also quite fond of not disclosing injuries so there's that too..

For the host country, Eythora Thorsdottir is a certainty, despite counting falls at Dutch Nationals and in general being unsteady on beam. Dana de Groot is another good bet, but not sure about the third. Britain have quite a good team, not named yet but expected to be Tyesha Matthis, Amy Tinkler and Ellie Downie. Sadly Catherine Lyons is not elegible. I would call Maria Bondareva a lock for the Russian team. Maria Kharenkova too if she is fully healthy, she has been dealing with a hand injury this year. The others place(s) are between Anastasia Dmitrieva, Viktoria Kuzmina, Seda Tutkhalyan and Evgeniya Zhukova. The latter in particular is a great vault and floor girl, would would be very lacking in a team of Bondareva/Kharenkova for instance. Kim Janas is a huge AA threat, almost certainly she will feature on the podium there. But the one I most want to see is Elizabet Vasileva of Bulgaria who hasn't been named at all, but is elegible for her country!

Russia have named their Universiade team. No surprises with Aliya Mustafina and Ksenia Afanasyeva on the roster, and joining them will be Tatiana Nabieva, Anna Dementyeva and Maria Paseka. I did expect one of Ekaterina Kramarenko and Anna Myzdrikova or even both, since despite Demy's much higher start values she is still very inconsistent unlike those two. The biggest excitement is Afan's new floor routine! And also whether she will do bars and what she will throw on vault. Aliya's beam is her most important event here, as once that is steady she's away on a hack to really challenge in Antwerp.

Also for Universiade, Alexa Moreno of Mexico who is an amazing vaulter, and Danusia Francis of Britain who is of course, very valuable on beam and floor.

The Portugal World Cup which has an absolutely stacked roster takes place this weekend. I will edit in a few links before then, I already have one that definitely works so check back for that! Competing at this competition are Larisa Iordache, Diana Bulimar, Rebecca Tunney, Hannah Whelan, Jade Barbosa, Shang Chunsong, Zeng Siqi, Anna Rodionova, Ekaterina Baturina, Alla Sosnitskaya, Anastasia Grishina, Jessica Lopez, Oksana Chusovitina, Noemi Makra, Ilaria Kaeslin and Janine Berger!

News

This is one exciting month for competitions. Coming up in just 3 days is a juniors friendly between Romania and France. Romania are sending Andreea Munteanu, Silvia Zarzu, Andreea Iridon, Diana Teodoru and....Madalina Blendea, who has not competed in more than a year! Let us hope for videos. Silvia also has not been seen for a good while. Right as that ends is the Gym Festival Trnava in Slovakia, which has more Romanian faces emerge from the crypt..Ana Maria Ocalisan and Daniela Andrei! Ocalisan is a new senior who really should have been at Euros just for experience. Andrei has not had an assignment for quite some time despite being one of the very few seniors they have left. Unfortunately, the mother of Asiana Peng who is also at Izvorani has said that Andrei has left the National team. That would not be particularly surprising given that the girl has not competed in so long, but truly astonishing just as news broke that she actually has a competition coming up. We will see! Anna Pavlova, Kristina Yaroshenko (who competed at the WOGA Classic), Anna Myzdrikova and Oksana Chusovitina are competing and in the younger category, the wonderful Varvara Zubova. I'm thinking Myzdrikova's place here means she won't be at Universiade. Coming up in the middle of the month are Chinese Junior Nationals and Romanian Junior Nationals, another chance to see Blendea. Parkettes Elite Qualifier is also taking place, at which Norah Flatley and Alexis Vasquez of Chow's hope to make the cut. Then right at the end of June there will be a world cup in Portugal. The roster for this includes Noemi Makra, Shang Chunsong, Zeng Siqi, Larisa Iordache, Diana Bulimar, Alla Sosnitskaya, Anastasia Grishina, Ekaterina Baturina, Anna Rodionova, Jade Barbosa, Hannah Whelan and Rebecca Tunney. Rodionova has been injured and this marks her return, similarly this is the first opportunity to see Rebecca Tunney in quite some time.

Speaking of China, here is a great montage of the girls of Coach Wang/Xu's training group of the National Team, including Yao Jinnan, Sui Lu, Huang Huidan and juniors Liu Tingting and Yuan Xiaoyang at the recent Chinese National Games prelims. These girls captured the AA, VT, UB and FX (shared) titles. Love 0:27-33 especially.

Eythora Thorsdottir of the Netherlands placed first in a NED v SWE competition recently. This forms part of the Dutch qualification for EYOF- European Youth Olympic Festival which takes place in July. She beat the very promising Emma Larsson even with a fall on beam. Sadly she is quite shaky on this event, hopefully it can be ironed out before she turns senior next year.

Rebeca Andrade competed at two internal competitions recently- Brazil Trophy and Circuito Caixa and won both decisively. She is not doing her amanar yet but she did unveil a fabulously straight DLO, which is oddly piked in the first salto. Unfortunately her choreo has gone downhill, hopefully just a blip. Her beam continues to be wonderful, very light and floaty as well as super springy and ripe for upgrades. Floor is here and beam is here.

Here is a news excerpt of Mai Murakami to get your hopes up about her again. Watch it here. I don't know if ads can be skipped on youku but I just sit through them anyway. She shows a new skill in training here- a 1.5 DLO! It also reportedly mentions when showing Kohei Uchimura's triple twisting double that she wants to compete it in the future. Bonus- a cute confession about her:

Source- gymfanconfessions.tumblr.com

USAG have said they will post videos of the ongoing National Team Camp. Here's a group photo in the meantime:

Copyright- USAG

L-R: Hundley, Ross, Maroney, Nichols, Price, Shchennikova, Dowell, Locklear, Baker, Priessman, Desch, Milliet, Skinner, Gowey, Dennis, Key, Hults, Gaskins, Quinn, Schild, Biles, Flatley and Vasquez.

Notable exceptions are Sarah Finnegan, Katelyn Ohashi, Laurie Hernandez and Peyton Ernst. Laurie was out because her coach just had a baby (she..does have more than one coach though) and the rest are recovering from injury. The return of McKayla Maroney is momentous though. She had better show up in a video! Amelia Hundley, who performed well below her standard in Europe, has one shin heavily wrapped. Nia Dennis has been added to the junior National Team. Deafening silence on the inclusion of Laurie Hernandez (at the last camp- which she won) and Mykayla Skinner- but the new national teams will be chosen fairly soon I suppose. Plenty of new floor routines debuted during verification AND.... McKayla Maroney looked better and had higher difficulty than expected. Bring on Classics!

News

I'm sure most have already heard this but just in case- Victoria Moors is training a laid-out double double, which she has just competed at Canadian Nationals. This is majorly exciting first because of how incredible it is, second because Victoria has very good execution in general on floor and thirdly because she is much more likely to be at worlds than Mykayla Skinner who also has one. Unfortunately, Victoria was below par otherwise and had a disastrous beam routine where she fell twice and lost connections and compositional requirements all over the place. She also significantly watered down vault and her floor aside from her new skill must have been watered down too since it only netted her a 5.1 difficulty value. This was also the case earlier in the year too, but then she came out in top form at American Cup. So I wouldn't worry unneccessarily about her yet.

Sure she's soft in the knees, but she has plenty of time to hone it and it's definitely not enough to declare it tucked.

Kaitlyn Hofland placed first in the AA qualifiers at Canadian Nationals, followed by Ellie Black and Maegan Chant. Talia Chiarelli placed fifth and was deliriously happy to make bars finals of all things. Here's Mihai Brestyan's reaction:

Source- gymnasticscoaching.com- @taliachi

Her twitter, like Catalina Ponor's, is endlessly entertaining. In the junior ranks, wunderkind Shallon Olsen was victorious. Hopefully with sharper form. Second and third were Aleeza Yu and Brianna Clark. You can find senior results here and the junior ones here. Note that a bonus system was applied in the junior rankings. Shallon Olsen has very high difficulty, particularly for her age, but not THAT high. Edit- Woops, posted AA qualifier results as final ones. Final results have not been confirmed yet, though it's known that Ellie Black won in senior and that the podium in junior was unchanged, even though Shallon Olsen fell three times. Victoria Moors withdrew from competition, and Heaven Latimer (she of the superb layout full and very strong floor) and Jordyn Pedersen were both out with injuries.

Andreea Munteanu has won the all-around at the Lugano Cup. You can find the results here. The order is vault, bars, beam and floor. Andreea's pet pieces are unsurprisingly beam and floor, though it's heartening to see her vault and bars score, especially her improvement on the latter. Her bars had (wait for it...) the highest e-score! Which is amazing given that she was in the presence of some very lovely Russians. As can be seen from the scores, third place Anastasia Dmitrieva is that bit bit better than the much more hyped second place Maria Bondareva on three out of four events. And I believe she can close the gap on bars in time; to me she is the best junior they have. Certainly, sixth place Viktoria Kuzmina is top notch on beam and bars..but there she'll stay as she does not even have an FTY yet and floor does not look to be her strength either. But bars/beam specialists are still highly valuable. Check out her bars d-score, she obviously fell but 6.1 topped the difficulty field by nearly a point. Even better, she has her own dismount, an arabian double layout no less! I'm really hoping for a video. Andreea Munteanu will compete alongside Andreea Iridon, Laura Jurca, Diana Teodoru, Silvia Zarzu and Madalina Blendea at the France V Romania juniors meet coming up soon. There are some videos here (one Italian, the rest Romanian).
  
Nadine Jarosch of Germany has sadly torn her ACL. This is ACL tear number four, the others are Mariya Livchikova, Gabby Jupp and Yvette Moshage. It's happening far too often. In more positive German news, Tabea Alt won the all-around at the recent German Junior Championships.

Here is the first look at how all-arounders are shaping up so far this year/quad. The difference in scoring must be taken into account; for example Yao Jinnan is in eighth place under a notoriously harsh scoring system whereas the top 3 in particular had the opposite. Jesolo is known to be harsh but that didn't really happen this year. Also I don't see Kyla Ross getting that close to a 60 with her difficulty in a fair competition.

The last segment of the Pro Gym Challenge airs tonight in the US. I for one have really enjoyed it. Retired gymnasts, college gymnasts etc. showing off excellent skills with a team spirit of camaraderie (except a certain US coach) and no pressure? Yes please! It's up on youtube and some parts won't embed which is messy. This awesome uploader uploads frequently so I'll link to the very first one here to make it easier to navigate.

Yulia Belokobylskaya of Russia has retired, at just 17. She won bronze on floor at Euros 2011 and helped with team silver at Worlds the same year. Unfortunately, she struggled quite a lot in the Olympic year. Hopefully she will be happy with whatever she decides to do.Edit- Yulia has entered the world of ballet and is already en pointe!

Natsumi Sasada won the all-around at the recent Japanese Nationals. She also had a strong meet at Jesolo this year after practically disappearing last year with injuries, so that's great to see. Not only is she back with a vengeance but she's brought her layout full mount with her! I was so sure it would have been ditched with the onset of puberty, it's great to be wrong sometimes. Second place went to veteran Yu Minobe who will compete at Universiade this year and third was Mai Murakami who would have won had she not fallen on beam. I have tried to give up hope in Mai, who performs quite strongly in Japan but nowhere near that internationally. But then I see a video of her huge smile during her floor routine and it's impossible to write her off. I still want her to win floor and the AA at worlds this year, however irrational that may be! Asuka Teramoto crashed her second pass and almost sat her first, which along with her vault difficulties is pretty worrying. These results will be coupled with those of the upcoming NHK Cup on June 8-9th in deciding their worlds team and East Asian Games team. As we saw last year, they don't hang around in deciding teams. Because this is a specialist worlds they won't just pick the top few all-arounders, but in this case I think it will serve them very well, though I'd like to replace Yu Minobe with Wakana Inoue..though the latter fell twice. Some videos after the jump; and the information as to how they will choose the team is there too (with thanks to an awesome source).

Euro Qualifications and NCAA Nationals begin

Really nail-biting qualifications! First and foremost, I am devastated that Gabby Jupp is injured. She hurt her knee on her double pike beam dismount and was carried from the arena. She has been pulled from competition and is being flown home shortly for medical examination. Really really hoping that it's a very minor thing she has done, it would be awful for this bright young star to be sidelined in her first senior year by an ACL tear. Awful for anyone of course..I'm really missing the presence of the glorious Mariya Livchikova.

I expected the Russian battle for the AA to be a good one and it ended up being much more tense and shocking than any scenario I could have thought up. Who would have thought that Anastasia Grishina with her two falls would be the highest Russian qualifier? Beam was the ultimate decider for these three as they all came to grief there (Mustafina spectacularly so) with the other two counting bars falls into the bargain. A sad day for Afan who started so well with an explosive DTY and what sounds like an amazing floor routine..with upgrades, no less. Really looking forward to seeing her whip-whip triple and turn combinations. Good to see she did not risk the amanar after crashing them wholesale in podium training, I for one am still amazed she actually tried.

Quite a nervous day for others too, though the Romanians got away lightly with 3 strong routines from both girls. Larisa Iordache had some massive errors on bars and came away with a 12.933. She will quite clearly be aiming to better that by a point or so in order to defeat Mustafina..a Mustafina who stays on the beam, that is. Speaking of beam, one Icelandic girl had the misfortune of failing to mount the beam twice, and the fell off it three times..incurring a 5 point deduction. Sadly, extremely talented new seniors Noemi Makra and Chantysha Netteb will be dissapointed with their performances, Makra was very mixed and Netteb had errors on vault and falls on beam. We also won't see Vasilliki Millousi gracing beam finals as she fell also. Noel Van Klaveren stormed her way into vault finals and will be looking to retain her lead on Larisa Iordache there, who qualified fourth.

Unsurprisingly, there were quite a few savvy downgrades. Larisa performed a layout instead of a layout full, still easily claiming the highest qualifying spot on beam, and Diana Bulimar who was training a full-twisting DLO in PT performed it without the twist today. We won't see Ksenia Afanasyeva's amanar now of course, if she was planning to throw it in the AA. It sounds like Sophie Scheder and Giulia Steingruber have stepped up their games, Sophie has a very dynamic bars routine, earning her the third spot, and Giulia's first two passes on floor are now a full-twisting double layout and a double layout.

This post is quite disjointed but it's hard when you're going off quick hits! Don't forget that Moscow is GMT+3 and that WAG is due to start at 17:30 local time. And it's still too close to call with both top contenders have one rough event each, equal enough vaults, bars of one equalling the beam of the other and floor with not much between them...

It will also be an exciting weekend with NCAA Nationals on also. I've watched a few meets this year, free ones, free replays etc. though not as many as I would have wanted to as there were loads of them on at ridiculous times for me. I think the Super Six will be Florida, Alabama, Oklahoma, Georgia, Michigan and LSU. Sadly, UCLA are not looking great. I'd like to see the title go to either Florida or Oklahoma. AA wise, Rheagan Courville, Taylor Spears or Bridget Sloan would be nice. Vanessa Zamarripa for bars, one of the Oklahoma girls or Mackenzie Caquatto for beam, Marissa King (LOVE that Tsuk 1.5) for vault and Llomincia Hall or Jessica Savona for floor. Anyway those are my picks, who are you rooting for?

Bits of news

China are holding a regional competition, and snippets of news are emerging though it is closed to the public. Tan Sixin, Tan Jiaxin, Jiang Yuyuan, He Kexin, Zeng Siqi, Luo Peiru and a bunch of juniors- Luo Huan, Wang Wei, Xie Wenwei, Yuan Xiaoyang, Lv Jiaqi, Fan Yilin and more all competed in qualifications today. News comes from YangYilinAAandUBGold and another very helpful person on IGF who got it via Weibo and Baidu.

- Tan Jiaxin has a DTY and it's apparently great- scored 15! And high execution scores are not given out like candy so it must at least resemble the Bailie Key and Kyla Ross school of DTY's. She did not compete bars but she did floor, where she has a big mistake, no idea what. Still, this is very promising. I don't think she's the second coming of Cheng Fei or anything but she does have a lot of power and endurance, things which are still lacking among her teammates. And speaking of Cheng Fei, she's a National Team coach. I hope she find and mould gymnasts to emulate her.

- Luo Peiru and junior Wang Wei also have DTY's. There were some others performed too which is always good to hear. Luo Peiru is lovely on bars. Wang Wei also showed a double layout on floor.

- He Kexin did her old bars routine, which is now out of 6.8. It had issues, only scoring 13.95..a large step on the dismount and a pause apparently. But it's a long time to National Games all the same so she doesn't want to peak too soon.

- One of my favourites, junior Lv Jiaqi who is stunning to watch, now has 6.0 bars and 6.2 beam. She is quite young still, though elegible for Rio, so it's great to see make strides in her difficulty.

- It looks like Li Yiting nailed vault, she qualified first with 14.75

- Sadly, Jiang Yuyuan had a meltdown on bars. So did Zeng Siqi who fell on her Tkachev, hit the low bar and crashed the dismount. ZSQ also missed a connection on beam and took a large step on her dismount. I really hope she can get it together as her work is beautiful, but wow is she fragile.

- Tan Sixin had a mixed meet. She nailed beam for a monster score of 15.15, placing first. It also appears that she hit floor, though with quite weak passes. However she had trouble on bars and only vaulted a FTY. I hope she can become more relevant again.

- Sui Lu looked a bit sluggish, and missed her leap series on beam which decimated her score. She's another like He Kexin who has to be careful not to peak too soon.

Some videos:

Luo Huan UB Beautiful, great flight on transitions and I love her release (Deltchev? I suck at recognising some). A little pirouette heavy for a code that won't reward that as much though.
Tan Sixin BB Very steady set from her, I'm in love with her layout and dismount. Some very nice leaps too and her connections looked secure.
Wang Wei FX A pity about the punchfront but the DLO and the rest of her tumbling was gorgeous. Her choreo is a little scrappy, but the quiet bit in the middle is well done. One to watch.
Tan Jiaxin FX I can't wait to see her vault! Anyway, this is her first time to compete floor in quite a while I believe, and it's a strong effort. I wouldn't really be put off by her landing deductions and fall this early in the season. I liked the dramatic music and choreo to match.

Some of the videos won't load at all for me so I'm not going to link them. There's more in IGF on the China thread. EDIT: Apparently some videos have been made private. Hopefully some others still work?

Mariya Livchikova has torn her ACL, the other one this time. She was the poster girl for the Stella Zakharova meet, and then didn't compete. The source for this is a Ukrainian video, which you can see here. Inna Korobchinskaya, a Ukrainian coach says that the results of the MRI are 'not soothing..it looks like a complete tear of the ACL'. She goes on to say that recovery time differs between athletes of course, but she is definitely out for 6 months. Mariya tore her other ACL at 2011 worlds, and consequently missed the London Olympics as she could not contend for the single spot at the Test Event. This year she will miss Euros and Worlds. Awful. There are of course gymnasts who have bounced back from tearing both ACL's, but it's still incredibly difficult and sadly Mariya is part and parcel of an underfunded and now fragmented programme.

The Tokyo World Cup takes place this weekend. Former b-list gymnast Peyton Ernst has really upped her game and is expected to take the title. It will be interesting to see Shang Chunsong and what she does though. She was definitely seen training a piked Hindorff which has not been done before, and is rumoured to have a layout full on beam. She is apparently connecting the piked Hindorff to a Pak and still has the Tkachev-Geinger combination. She has a shap variation too into another Hindorff? Sounds awesome, looking forward to a video. Sadly she fell on it today but bits of it are new and it sounds exhausting, hopefully she'll get used to it.

Peyton Ernst is leading after day 1(vault and bars) at Tokyo. Second is Asuka Teramoto who vaulted a DTY...she looks too tiny for one! Sadly Shang Chunsong is in 6th after falling off bars. Huang Qiushuang only vaulted a FTY but she got through bars without incident I think.

Old news by now, but Aliya Mustafina won the AA at the Stella Zakharova meet despite a fall on floor. Her beam looks better than ever, the connections have definitely gotten better. Enormous pause to set up her dismount but I doubt she'd do that in major competition. Similarly with floor, we'll definitely see a better version at Euros, then again at Universiade and by the time Worlds rolls around it should be magnificent. No point in pushing herself too hard right now. It looks like it will be an interesting showdown at Euros though..

There's an exciting rumour that Yao Jinnan has a Mo Salto on bars now. I would pretty much be foaming at the mouth if I saw that materialise randomly in Antwerp. Unfortunately, there is also news that she hurt her hip and is in constant pain. Hopefully that clears up fast :( If she does have a Mo Salto it's likely it was learned in winter training, pre-injury.

Euros Predictions

Hopefully they will turn out better than my worlds predictions, which were done nearly a year out and already look hilariously wrong. Anyway, I want to do this before more teams are formally named. This is similar to Euros, 4 per team. It's important to note that several people, including Wyomi Masela, Celine Van Gerner and Elizabeth Seitz have bowed out of Euros contention due to exams and other commitments.

Teams

Russia

This is easy, since the first three have already been named. The last is between Anna Dementyeva, Evgeniya Shelgunova and Ksenia Afanasyeva.


Aliya Mustafina AA
Anastasia Grishina AA
Maria Paseka VT
Ksenia Afanasyeva FX BB

A strong team, which should be able to take home quite a haul. At least one AA medal, hopefully two, same for UB and BB and potentially two on FX too if Aliya pulls out all the stops there. Not 'adding the DLO' kind of stops, but her Russian Championships routine with the pauses fixed could still score very well.

Romania

Romania are only down as bringing three gymnasts. That might change but I'll have to go with it for the moment.

Larisa Iordache AA
Diana Bulimar AA
Stefanie Stanila BB FX

The first two are no-brainers, but we haven't seen Larisa at all since London so it's hard to judge where she's at. On the team is a certainty, but beyond that.. As for Stanila, hopefully she has upgrades or she won't make any event finals. This will mainly be for experience because if Didi and Larisa are on form, she can't beat them. However, she is better than Ana Maria Ocalisan I think. I would be surprised if Diana Chelaru was ready in time, and I doubt Sandra Izbasa is too pushed about going. I think she will be worlds or nothing.

Britain

Gabby Jupp AA
Hannah Whelan AA
Niamh Rippin VT
Becky Downie UB

Since Rebecca Tunney is injured and hasn't competed at a single qualifying meet, I don't see her appearing. These four all performed and won titles at British Championships. Ruby Harrold has lost the bars spot due to her inconsistency with her new (incredible) bars routine. She has one more chance at Doha but she messed up twice with it. Becky has had issues with hers but she has gotten it together more times so..

Italy

Vanessa Ferrari AA
Elisa Meneghini AA
Serena Bugani VT
Elisabetta Preziosa BB

This is the one that will prove the most 'wrong' I think. Carlotta Ferlito, Georgia Campana and Erika Fasana stand greater chances than my last two, but since this is a specialist Euros and I think these two stand better medal chances, I'm going for them.

Netherlands and Switzerland have named their teams. New faces from outside the major teams will be Noemi Makra, Darya Matveyeva, Sophie Scheder, Roxana Popa and Tabea Alt along with old reliables Vasilliki Millousi, Marta Pihan-Kulezsa (if she is not injured, she had a balked routine recently), Dorina Boczogo and Mariya Livchikova.

All-around Qualifiers- Top 5

1. Aliya Mustafina
2. Anastasia Grishina
3. Diana Bulimar
4. Larisa Iordache (I know I know..but I think if she was fighting fit we would have seen her by now)
5. Gabby Jupp

Floor Qualifiers

1. Ksenia Afanasyeva
2. Diana Bulimar
3. Mariya Livchikova
4. Larisa Iordache
5. Aliya Mustafina
6. Elisa Meneghini
7. Gabby Jupp
8. Noel Van Klaveren


Vault Qualifiers

1. Giulia Steingruber
2. Maria Paseka
3. Noel van Klaveren
4. Niamh Rippin
5. Serena Bugani
6. Dorina Boczogo
7. Chantysha Netteb

And I'm lost. No Chuso, Berger, Izbasa or Masela..

Beam Qualifiers

1. Anastasia Grishina
2. Ksenia Afanasyeva
3. Diana Bulimar
4. Larisa Iordache
5. Gabby Jupp
6. Vasliliki Millousi
7. Elisabetta Preziosa
8. Mariya Livchikova (wobbles, low landing double pike)

Bars Qualifiers

1. Aliya Mustafina
2. Anastasia Grishina
3. Becky Downie
4. Sophie Scheder
5. Darya Matveyeva
6. Lisa Hill
7. Natalia Kononenko
8. Gabby Jupp

Podiums

All-around

1. Aliya Mustafina
2. Diana Bulimar
3. Larisa Iordache (Grishina has a bad landing on her vault and stumbles forward in her double double..)

Floor

1. Diana Bulimar
2. Ksenia Afanasyeva (OOB)
3. Mariya Livchikova

Vault

1. Giulia Steingruber
2. Maria Paseka
3. Noel Van Klaveren

Beam

1. Anastasia Grishina
2. Ksenia Afanasyeva
3. Mariya Livchikova (Perfect routine and Bulimar has a huge break)

Bars

1. Aliya Mustafina
2. Anastasia Grishina
3. Sophie Scheder (Sophie improves and Becky gets slaughtered for her handstands)

Well done girls! :P

Medal Table

Russia 7- 3 golds, 4 silver (Mustafina GG Grishina GS Afanasyeva SS Paseka S)
Romania 3- 1 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze (Bulimar GS, Iordache B)
Ukraine 2- 2 bronze (Livchikova BB)
Switzerland 1- 1 gold (Steingruber G)
Germany 1- 1 bronze (Scheder B)

So the most successful country is Russia and the most decorated gymnast is Aliya Mustafina. I know I might sound odd counting Larisa Iordache out as a major contender, but I just think if she had together and was ready to go, we'd know by now. I think I will be more right than wrong with these predictions but feel free to violently disagree!

And just in time, the nominative participant list was out when I woke up, here. I just mentioned in the comments that there are issues with the list- first, France has a WAG team when they have just stated they aren't bringing any. Janine Berger is on the list when it was said she will miss Euros. Hopefully her inclusion is up-to-date and that she's good to go. British Gymnastics have said they will be releasing on who they're sending tomorrow..so that could be different too. I am most surprised with the addition of Sandra Izbasa. She will shake up my floor and vault podiums nicely. It's great that she's in shape and ready to go, I thought she'd hold off until closer to Worlds really. Sad that it's at the expense of bringing a new senior for experience, or Dana Andrei. They should have utilised all four spots. Britain are putting all their eggs in the bars basket, they have three who could qualify. But nobody for vault, and they'd be lucky to get a floor spot too. An ideal opportunity for Niamh Rippin wasted, unless they change that lineup tomorrow. It's not that I don't love the exciting bars of Ruby Harrold and Becky Downie but I think it's better if they spread the love around a bit..

Ukraine also have a slightly surprising team listed. Mariya Livchikova was a given, and Darya Matveyeva after she placed second at Nationals. Giving new senior Olena Vasylieva more experience is admirable, but Angelina Kysla's place is a little confusing. I hope Vasylieva is improved on last year, when she stood out as being an enormous headcase. I really thought they would send Kristina Sankova who's strong on beam and floor, in place of Kysla and then Natalia Kononenko if she's healthy and hitting in place of Vasylieva. Ah well. Predictions are a mug's game.


 

Larisa in strike #5- Updated

Larisa Iordache has been pulled for the fifth time from a world cup, Cottbus. So too has Diana Bulimar but she doesn't have quite the same track record. Sigh. I get that if Larisa is injured then she has to be preserved for Euros and it wouldn't be smart to pull out of all of the March competitions in one go. It does look pretty bad on the part of the Romanian gymnastics federation though and I doubt the meet organisers are enjoying the last minute cancellations. As for Diana, it's possible she tweaked something when she fell off the beam awkwardly, or in training but I think it's more likely they want to work on her beam before she competes again. Who knows. Coming up the week after is Doha which both girls are signed up for still, so we'll have to wait and see what happens there. This meet clashes with Chemnitz- the USA-Romania-Germany friendly and it's quite possible if both girls are healthy that they might be transferred to that instead as the competition is a lot stiffer with USA's a-team and the meet itself being in Europe, preferable to the middle east.

The good news is that Cottbus still has great competitors- Anastasia Grishina, Anna Dementyeva, Evgeniya Shelgunova, Kristina Goryunova, Huang Huidan, Chantysha Netteb, Noel van Klaveren, Sophie Scheder and Roxana Popa. Not to mention Jesolo taking place this weekend too. This meet will hopefully showcase a consistent and strong Simone Biles with more controlled landings on floor, Lexie Priessman's incredible 6.7 floor routine, Bailie Key's upgrades and general fantastic all-around work and a sneaky little upgrade or two from Kyla Ross. I don't expect Kyla to knock out upgrades like Simone has been doing, especially as she lost training time recently, but it would be nice to see her floor at least approach 6.0 and some little adjustments to her beam and bars. I'd like to see improvement on beam and bars from Amelia Hundley and I'm looking forward to her floor. Probably Bailie's the most after Simone's though- she has a new floor routine at last! Not to mention beam and bars upgrades. As for Maggie Nichols and Peyton Ernst, I'll be eager to see what they come up with as they are definitely unknown quantities at this stage. Brenna Dowell's amzing front double pike is always welcome too. Sadly Katelyn Ohashi has pulled out of both Jesolo and Chemnitz, due to a back injury. Hopefully she can recover quickly but I'm happy she is getting a rest from competition anyway, as she looked exhausted at American Cup. Mai Murakami and the rest of the Japanese team will be competing though, and there's an enormous pile of Italian talent on the roster. Can't wait!

Sadly, Huang Huidan had a disaster on bars today in her attempt to qualify to Cottbus bars finals, though she apparently did not fall on her dismount, just a big stumble. She also came to a stop halfway through. Evgeniya Shelgunova suffered the same stop, and had other errors- her Pak sounds as unique as ever, and she scored higher. Must wait for video to judge how big an error Huang's dismount was. She lost the tiebreaker for the eighth and final place to Jessica Lopez so she won't get redemption there. Hopefully she nails beam. Next week we will see Zeng Siqi, Tan Jiaxin and Zhang Qing at Doha. The Chinese are barely out of winter training and I don't expect amazing things from them just yet, but hopefully some lovely work materialises. The good news I got from the quick hits is that Anastasia Grishina performed beautifully on bars, earning the top score by a mile- 14.9. Apparently Oksana Chusovitina has cleaned up her form? I thought when I saw her vaults recently that she had downgraded, as they looked much cleaner. How amazing that they're the same vaults. I wouldn't be surprised if she suddenly emerged as a top all-arounder capable of scoring 60+. Well I would, but she keeps defying logic. Beam and floor finalists at Cottbus will be determined tomorrow. Hopefully video emerges soon, or even just of finals.

Interestingly enough, Cottbus is not using the new vault code. As a world cup., it really should be, unless FIG have reneged on it since LRSY. Evgeniya Shelgunova fell on floor in quals. That, her bars error and her scary second vault should be enough to seal the deal for Afan to go to Euros. Anna Dementeyeva scored well on floor but fell off beam. She is capable of such beautiful work but I doubt they will trust her with a spot somehow. I'm so happy that Anastasia Grishina hit beam. That's two in a row and top qualifier for both I believe. Huang Huidan sadly grabbed the beam and then fell off trying to regain her balance after that. Looks like she will be joining Demy in the inconsistent lovelies box so far this year, but Grishina has clawed her way out so hope remains. Let's hope Shang Chunsong, Tan Jiaxin, Zeng Siqi and Zhang Qing all produce stellar work in their upcoming meets. It will also be interesting to see how Wu Liufang competes nationally this year. They may actually need He Kexin and Deng Linlin to hang on for a while, particularly if Yao Jinnan is not on top form.

In Jesolo news, Simone Biles second vault was very high. I have no idea what it is. I'm guessing a Mustafina. If it is that will be amazing to see, especially as it hasn't been done really well by the handful that have already done it. Even Maroney's was a little low every time she did it. Always great, but could have done with more height all the same. Mai Murakami apparently trained very well, high double double (generally it's been low recently) and a DTY. So excited to see her routines. Loving their training leo, it's showing up USA's (hideous bright pink, black bit and obligatory swirl) leos as extra tacky.

As well as Jesolo and Cottbus, British Championships are taking place this weekend. I'm not sure if Becky Downie is competing, I hope so, for a chance to redeem herself after her unfortunate performance at LRSY. Or Rebecca Tunney, who hasn't emerged yet. Ruby Harrold and Gabby Jupp are both going to Doha next weekend but will still have to give British Championships their all as it's a major qualifier for Euros. The senior AA will be livestreamed tomorrow! Last year it was not region blocked whatsoever, they're good like that. The clocks have not gone forward yet so please bear in mind that normal time conversions to GMT are out. Currently we are 4 hours ahead of EST, not 5. I made this mistake when talking about Russian Championships, apologies. Rebecca Tunney is out with an injury so won't be there. This was mentioned on TCG as well as my comments. Hopefully she will be back on form for worlds if not Euros but Gabby Jupp is competing so all is right with the world. It should be a good battle between her and Hannah Whelan all the same. And hopefully there will be more fantastic bars routines from two certain seniors and some more nice displays of corner dance with which British juniors have paved the way. Tyesha Matthis, who very impressively won the AA at AYOF, repeated her feat in the junior competition. Amy Tinkler and Ellie Downie were second and third.

Alla Sosnitskaya, a new Russian face, has some extremely beautiful turn combinations in training. Neither materialised at Russian Championships though, but nobody was pulling out all the stops there. She had some very out of control landings on floor at Russian Championships, but she does have a nice double layout and triple full so hopefully she can gain more consistency with her landings in time- they're not bad in this video, except one. Check out the BEAUTIFUL illusion-Memmel-double turn, and later the triple turn which starts as an l-turn, graduates to a Moors turn (I don't know what that position is called) and then down to being held at ankle height. Exquisite stuff, hope to see it again soon. Alla turned senior last year but doesn't appear to be on the radar as of yet. I'm not sure what's like on the other events, they could certainly do with a strong clean vaulter if her strengths also lie in that direction. Video is here.

I'm trying not to get excited about the training video of Aliya Mustafina doing a double layout. Granted it's definitely not appraching competition surface and she has a whole bunch of extra backhandsprings in, but wow is it beautiful. As a sidenote, I'm sick of hearing on places like gymfanconfessions (good for a laugh) that Aliya has terrible form. I wasn't aware that her triple fulls and amanars are all that her routines consist of. It's hilarious and yet infuriating when people submit confessions acting as if she is Aly Raisman, Evgeniya Shelgunova or Shallon Olsen in the form department. Yes, she has creepy fans and yes, there's quitea lot of hype around her even now on the gymternet- but no need to blast her as having crap form. There was even one that said she was the worst gymnast ever. LOL. Nobody is acting like her triple fulls and vaulting are Cheng Fei-like objects of beauty, but no need to get delusional. Anyway, I wonder where the DLO would fit in? I hope not to replace her first pass, which is so well done. I'd like to see her do the double arabian-stag, DLO, 1.5 into double tuck and then a 2.5-front layout last pass. No triple full in that routine, and she's generally very solid on dance elements too to bump up that d-score. Hopefully it will appear and isn't just a tease like Jordyn Wieber's. The link is here, it refuses to embed.

I'm busy lately so I can't post or comment as much, but it's temporary and I'm still using my phone to keep up to date :)