AYOF and News

The team final at the Australian Youth Olympic Festival has taken place. Predictably, China won, with a two point lead. Second was Britain and third was Australia. (Australia fielded two teams). Girls elegible were 1998-2000 born. Britain's team was the youngest- including the lovely 2000-born Catherine Lyons and her gorgeous form. China consisted of Mei Jie, Chen Siyi, Luo Huan and Liu Zhilin. Sadly, they suffered a collective nerves meltdown on beam, all of them fell- though Mei Jie managed her whole routine only to fall on the dismount. These four are extremely talented, and will be a strong part of the Rio squad. Unsurprisingly, they shone on uneven bars. The competition is not over yet, with an AA and event finals still to come, so hopefully they can learn from TF and stay on the beam!

Stunning. Especially the mount and scale into turn. Shows a lot of presence for a 12 year old.

Luo Huan Uneven Bars Her toepoint! Great dismount too.
Chen Siyi Uneven Bars Not as strong, but still lovely.
Liu Zhilin Uneven Bars Sooo precise.
Mei Jie Uneven Bars Great release combo! Needs to take a lesson from some of her teammates in toepoint, but I love it. So tiny, 3 releases, beautiful dismount...maybe she could do one of the old hardcore releases??
Liu Zhilin Beam Obviously not the routine she wanted to show, but I can't help but think she will develop beautifully on this event. Gorgeous lines, and nice Nastia-esque mount! A pity she broke form on it slightly, but at least she didn't topple off on it like eh..Nastia.
Mei Jie Beam  Okay I love the fact her name is translating as Team Major. Kept the team beam flakiness in check until the last. She works the beam very strongly, reminds me of Deng Linlin. Promising!
Luo Huan Beam Clearly feeling the nerves, but still divine. Great acro series and Onodi. They really were dominoes on this event, but they're so young..they'll be fine!
Chen Siyi Beam The tuck front is not her friend, hopefully she can improve it. Beautiful layout!

They all either vaulted FTY's or layouts, but then that's not altogether dissapointing due to their age and the fact that nobody did anything more difficult than a FTY in the whole meet.

Floor is harder to find so far, but here is Luo Huan. very weak in difficulty as expected, but so elegant! Love her arm movements.

 

Lavinia Milosovici has had a baby boy, Mihai. Lavinia suffered the loss of her daughter some years ago from illness. Shannon Miller has announced her second pregnancy, said to be a miracle owing to her ovarian cancer.

British 2000 Olympian Lisa Mason has announced a comeback for the 2014 Commonwealth Games. Lisa is now 31 with a 7 year old daughter. Good for her :)

Here's a great article about some controversy at the 1981 Worlds. Just substitute some names and bam, it's 2008 all over again! It's worth noting that they were in fact correct on both counts, but still a fascinating read.

Larisa Iordache and Diana Bulimar will compete at the La Roche sur Yon World Cup (formerly Bercy, a snappier title...) on March 16-17. Larisa will do beam and bars, Diana just beam. Seeing as Larisa will be coming off SCAM a fortnight before, I'm not surprised she is doing the 'easier' events pounding wise. Not sure what the deal is with Diana though, I'd love to see her do AA or 3 events..

McKayla Skinner is training a Cheng. Into a mat on a pit, but very upright! Bit of bent knees, but it's a new skill and I'm hoping she can straighten them in time. She has a similarly very upright competition ready laid-out double double, and already has an amanar and tucked double double under her belt. McKayla turned senior last year, but did not yet get her chance to shake things up. Looking forward to the debut of these skills! You can see the Cheng here.

Unfortunately my laptop charger has died a death, and because of Blogger's US only phone service, I can't update. Hope to have one within the week :) Thankfully can still look at everything on my phone, so I won't be starved of news...