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| Copyright- A'Min, Guo Chen- Xinhua news agency |
Here is her final routine. The jumbotron at the end shows roughly (not my translation of course, but a very accurate source!) "From the National Sports Arena (Beijing gym venue) to the O2, we've watched your brilliant performances. Today, we hope to see your radiant smile as you perform the final routine of your career. He Kexin, UB queen forever!"
And one of her best.
;( What a truly phenomenal bars worker.
And of course, there's more sad news. The injury list has grown to include Diana Bulimar. Diana was winning medals at Interland last week, but had knee surgery yesterday. It doesn't sound too serious, but the six weeks rest will of course mean she's going to miss worlds. Devastating! Winning a medal would have been a long shot but it's the joy of her routines that counts.
The Injury (or recovering) List
Mariya Livchikova, Ukraine
Gabby Jupp, Britain
Nadine Jarosch, Germany
Lisa Hill, Germany
Janine Berger, Germany
Jade Barbosa, Brazil
Adrian Gomes, Brazil
Viktoria Komova, Russia
Ksenia Afanasyeva, Russia
Anastasia Grishina, Russia*
Evgeniya Shelgunova, Russia
Lou Nina, China
Julie Croket, Belgium
Gabriella Douglas, Canada
Lexie Priessman, USA
Katelyn Ohashi, USA
Madison Kocian, USA
Elisabetta Preziosa, Italy
Giorgia Campana, Italy
Erika Fasana, Italy
Celine Van Gerner, Netherlands
Lisa Top, Netherlands
Diana Bulimar, Romania
Wyomi Masela, Netherlands
Anna Kuhm, France
Sarah Finnegan, USA
Sabrina Vega, USA
I do think Anastasia Grishina is not fully out due to injury- it seems blacklisting could be the issue there. Neither Ana Sofia Gomez Porras, Alexa Moreno or Elsa Garcia appear on the nominative list, which is a bit worrying.
In happier news, Shang Chunsong added to her haul of medals at National Games with gold on bars and a whopping score of 15.367. Yao Jinnan just missed, she didn't do the Mo and skipped another connection so her 15.2 reflects a lower d score. In third place was Huang Huidan, who continues her miraculous streak of not falling. As mentioned above, He Kexin sadly fell. In vault finals, Li Yiting HIT, scoring a 15 on her DTT. Second and third went to Deng Yalan and Yang Pei. Tiny superstar Wang Yan unfortunately fell on her Rudi but it was an interesting final- with a dearth of Yurchenko vaults! Li Yiting hitting vault like that makes things interesting- it makes no sense for Zeng Siqi to go to worlds and if Sui Lu retires beforehand- then there's a possible opening for Li Yiting...
I don't think I mentioned the all-around but if you didn't hear- the best result possible happened- Yao Jinnan and Shang Chunsong tied for first! This result alone sets them up for life, so happy for them. Deng Linlin bowed out of competition on a high note, just about (and controversially at that) securing the bronze.
Today at Romanian Nationals, Larisa Iordache triumphantly returned to competition, taking first in the all-around. She watered down most of her routines and was a little wobbly on beam, but a stellar performance given that she only restarted training a week ago. Hopefully she can regain the difficulty in time for Antwerp, which is really creeping up fast now. She came to a stop on bars after messing up her Jaeger- and it looks like her coach helped that long by touching her- but she introduced the shap half at last and the rest of the routine looked fine, but laboured. Andreea Munteanu was second with STUNNING floor and beam routines that are a must-watch- especially beam, and likewise Andreea Iridon was third with gorgeous bars and beam routines. Sandra Izbasa scored a huge 15.1 (think US scoring at this competition) on floor. Larisa has a new floor and I like it, until it was pointed out the choreography is much the same as her old routine. The music is dramatic and hopefully she can differentiate more between this routine and the last one with her dance in time. You can find videos here.
