Japanese Nationals have just been held. (Asuka Teramoto is injured, and possibly did not compete at all). Rie Tanaka was 2nd on bars and third on floor, Koko Tsurumi was first on bars and second on beam and Mai Murakami was first on floor and sixth on bars. Beam was won by Yuko Shintake and vault by Wakiko Riyu. Risa Konishi who is down for the Asian Artistic Championships looks pretty valuable, she came second on vault and floor- which are Japan's weak points. A news clip of the competition is below. It heavily features Rie Tanaka, who everybody loves (like duh). That is Mai Murakami at around 5:30! She has grown so much, although her landings are a little unsure on her double double and triple full..hey, she has a double double and triple full, and they look great in the air.
Lavinia Milosovici will give birth to a boy early next year. This is fantastic news, seeing as Milo lost her daughter Denisa Florentina at the age of 4 due to a nervous system disorder. Simona Amanar, the godmother of Denisa, is due to give birth within a few weeks also.
McKayla Maroney who has played up her obnoxious ham side in interviews recently, gave an excellent interview the other day. The fact that she is so comfortable doing both types of interviews and can be very articulate points to the possibility that she could well be a very good actress. This interview is gold, probably the best I've seen by a gymnast- past or present.
Giulia Steingruber of Switzerland won the recent Arturo Gander Memorial. Mariya Livchikova of Ukraine had a bit of a meltdown, falling on her beam dismount and going out of bounds on floor, to finish 6th. Very dissapointing for her, from her injury at worlds making her unable to attend the Test Event and take the Olympic spot for Ukraine, to winning Ukrainian Nationals..to this. Hope to see her back on form soon.
The Swiss Cup took place just today, and was won by Elizabeth Seitz who continues to prove herself as a strong all-arounder...and didn't even have to unleash her Def to win. Giulia Steingruber was second and Kim Bui of Germany was third. Mariya Livchikova fell off bars. Probably tired from the Gander Memorial, as Niamh Rippin of Britain must have been too, she fell on 3 of her 4 floor passes.
Glasgow World Cup roster has been added to. Not sure about Stuttgart. Kaitlyn Hofland of Canada is competing, and Victoria Moors isn't on it. Hmm. I was sure she was doing both, but the links I was using for the rosters before no longer work, so can't say for sure. If she's out of both, her floor is a great loss. Wakana Inoue of Japan who is also competing at the upcoming Asian Artistic Championships is on the list, which means Mai Murakami has recieved zero international assignments this year. Get that girl some consistency and luck! The last place is Niamh Rippin of Britain. (Niamh is pronounced Neev and is an Irish name). She is pretty good on vault and floor. On a British note, get ready to watch Danusia Francis be totally awesome at UCLA this season. I feel like Peng Peng Lee is getting a lot of attention, Danusia deserves just as much hype. Excellent beam and such a great dancer on floor. Not to mention her bubbly personality, anytime I think of her I see the photo of her holding Komova!
Anna Pavlova has won the International Tournament. She competed a very solid DTY, whip to triple on floor and a beautiful beam. She did have to jump off on bars, but got through the rest of the routine fine. Some endurance issues and some of her leaps weren't great, but her turns and elegance were out in spades. You can see videos here.
Not much going on, and I've very little energy to construct blog posts in my head- feel free to give me ideas.
Us nationals will be in indy in 2015 what's interesting is Visa isn't sponsoring it. Hmmm could USAG be looking for new sponsors?
ReplyDeleteHow long have they been sponsoring it? I have an image in my head of McDonalds reprising their sponsorship domination of gymnastics. The McDonalds Nationals ha. I know of course that they were major sponsors of the Olympics, but at least not in named form.
DeleteCat Im not sure probably the 3-4 years or so.
ReplyDeleteI wonder who is sponsoring scam next year.
Btw there are some rumored upgrades that I think Triple Twist posted about two weeks ago about Lexie and Simone. Said Simone is training a second vault and Lexie a laid out full on Beam. Next training camp is in a few days so I hope the rumours are true especially if Simone has a second vault. If her and Lexie are looking good for upgrades then my worlds team prediction will be Ross, Ohashi, Biles, Preissman.
Hmmm. I find Lexie choppy and just dull to watch, even with her reportoire of skills. It's her form really, but maybe she will grow on me. It's probably too late to hone her properly now, though hopefully the arrival of Courtney McCool at CGA will help the younger girls there.
DeleteNow Simone I do like! I would like to see her do the Podkopayeva vault, or a DTT. She has quite a lot of power, will be interesting to see how well she can do non-Yurchenko approaches. I think it could be a fight between Ohashi, Ross, Desch and Finnegan for the last two places. Ohashi not a certainty due to her vault and possible lack of motivation, and Ross needs substantial upgrades. The two gage girls are worthy contenders of spots also.
I think Lexie is good for 2013 and 2014. Same for Amelia. Ohashi I think Marta will take hee to worlds as long as shes in shape to do bars beam floor. I hear she can be lazy during training but regardless I still predict her to be on the worlds team.
DeleteLOL McKayla's interview was soooo funny. Did you catch how she was referred to Sandra as "the girl who won gold medal" only to assert that they are "really close" a minute later? And how she changed her mind about falling because she was tired. AND how she was like "I don't have time to be 16.. we have to grow up fast" but she DEFINITELY talks like a 16 year old. Ahahha so good.
ReplyDeleteBut do you really think her interview is better than Asac's?! :P
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvlOpe9jg9U
I think she said that because saying Sandra Izbasa would have meant nothing to the interviewer or audience or whatever, so best to clarify who she meant. The tired bit was a bit confusing alright, what I got from it was that she wasn't at her peak due to injuries and tiredness, but she can't pinpoint a single issue and blame that because she doesn't know what went wrong and doesn't want to be facetious and blame something when she hasn't a clue. Personally on watching the vault and a lot of people have said this- I thought she was too high on the table to get the push she needed.
DeleteAs for Alicia, yes she is a good interviewee. But not as good, or perhaps I am thinking she should be much better than a 16 year old and she just isn't.