Subdiv 1 breakdown: Pena doesn't die!

Subdivision 1 is just over. Brazil were the only team. Notable individual gymnasts were Kristina Palesova CZE, Dorina Boczogo HUN, Gomez Porras GUA, Yamilet Pena DOM, Elsa Garcia Rodriguez MEX and Vasilliki Milliusi GRE. E scoring was pretty harsh, especially on beam I thought. I confidently predict that they are going to be harsh with Aly Raisman. Not of course that she is alone, Ponor and Musty are form offenders too. Some absolutely beautiful routines in this subdivision, sure difficulty is low but there is such confidence and maturity in their gymnastics.

Brazil have an incredibly scrappy team, they ran out of alternates after injuries and and Jade Barbosa fiasco. However, they really were focused and 'together' as a team, which was great to see. Unfortunately I missed the first rotation, where they were on floor. Looking forward to Dos Santos who apparently performed well there. Hypolito choked a bit apparently. She looks wrecked and has extremely scary eyeshadow on- all three of her national colours. But she's 27 and competed all-around! Very good beam from her and she kept it together on bars. Very odd to see Dos Santos on bars! Bad enough form, but such energy! Freitas, the last minute stand-in fell off beam and had another huge wobble but the rest of that routine was lovely.

Highlights

- Kristina Palesova's bars! Brilliant form and swing, unfortunately very low difficulty.
- Dorina Boczogo on floor. She stepped OOB, but anything she does looks beautiful. Unfortunately she sat her 1.5 yurchenko.
- Ana Sofia Gomez Porras on beam. It was great, so solid and so elegant. It looks a little low to make finals, but scoring is harsh in general..
- Millousi on beam. Just perfection in her movements
- Pena getting a score for her Prod! She sat it but got her feet down first. Her DTY was AMAZING and she got a bit choked up, as did her coach, lovely to see. She has sooo made vault finals, high enough score in the 14's when averaged.

Unfortunately either I missed Elsa's beam in the first rotation or it wasn't shown. The colouring isn't near as harsh as you'd expect, it looks okay. BBC commentators are just great to hear, nice and objective. Now, subdiv 2 almost starting! I like the Brazil leo, good mixture of their colours. Millousi takes the prize for understated elegance and general great leo- white is always a winner. The rest were pretty boring.