:( 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!
Interested in seeing Russia cup, will probably check out videos of US nationals.
ReplyDeleteYes very interested in how Komova is looking and how the rest are shaping up. I'll be watching US Nationals live though seniors won't be very friendly time-wise, oh well.
DeleteI have the timing problem for the juniors but I figure thank gosh for YouTube, right? :)
DeleteHaha yes! And I'm sure USAG will have the stream perfected.
DeleteWow! So many injuries! 3 ACL tears, numerous surgeries for the US, some injuries for Romania...now Jade Barbosa? How depressing:(
ReplyDeleteCan't wait to see Komova back (and hopefully consistent). Do you have a roster for who is competing at the Russian Cup? Juniors? Seniors?
Do you also know who will be competing at Interland? Juniors or seniors? If seniors, I hope Romania sends someone new. Iordache with improved bars and an in-control 6.9 D-Score beam would be nice to see. Bulimar with upgrades on bars, beam, and floor would be great, too. Let's hope to see new seniors Ocolisan and Stanila or Izbasa as well. According to fig-gymnastics.com, Daniela Andrei is retired...
I wonder who the Netherlands will send...I hear Celine van Gerner is injured.
Woah woah woah, thank you for that sad Dani Andrei update- I had ehard she may have left the National Team but retired :( Who could blame her with no assignments ever, she's joining a long list of early retirees- Dragoi, Porgras, Racea, Haidu...
DeleteIt's seniors only, Netherlands are sending 12, Van Gerner is amongst them but I'd imagine that will change. The list is: Chantysha Netteb, Maartje Ruikes, Julia Bombach, Daphne Slingerland, Lieke Wevers, Sanne Wevers, Lisa Top, Célline van Gerner, Vera van Pol, Noël van Klaveren, Wyomi Masela and Evie Schellens. Britain are sending 7, Germany 8. I think Romania will send Iordache, Bulimar, Izbasa..Izbasa needs an outing before worlds if she's going to go and the other two could do with a meet for polishing or new upgrades (Bulimar). Britain will I'd imagine send Tunney, Whelan, Fellows, Harrold, Downie, Rippin and..not sure..
I haven't seen anything about Russian Cup yet. I'd imagine everyone will compete except those injured- Evgeniya Shelgunova, Yulia Inshina and Anastasia Sidorova- I'd be surprised if they did as they were injured last I heard with no further update.
Ok thanks so much! You didn't explain what kind of competitions they were so I wasn't sure. I really want to see Izbasa back in action. Honestly, I hope she's the next Chusovitina.
DeleteYeah figgymnastics.com labeled Daniela Andrei as "retired" and it said it was updated for July this year. I knew you liked her so I thought I should tell you. I don't know much about her, but I do feel bad for her lack of assignments. I hate when gymnasts retire early. Dragoi already made an Olympics, and Racea and Haidu retired because they weren't picked. Porgras was the most depressing since she retired 6 months before the Games. She would have been SO valuable!
Yes, Porgras is the worst retirement. I'd still count Dragoi as 'early', whereas a gymnast like Beijing teammate Nistor were definitely on the way out with injuries. Nistor was so awesome as a junior too. That said, I'm glad that Porgras is happy with her decision.
DeleteYes, vault and floor are obviously the events with the most pounding but it would be so great if Izbasa could make Rio with them!
Thanks for the info Catherine! I am very excited for Nationals and the Russian Cup! The return of Vika Komova excites me the most. Do you know if there is a live stream for Russian Cup? And once again, ugh, for school starting the week these competitions are.
ReplyDeleteThere will be, but the livestream is usually crap, with footage concentrating on the wrong or even empty event, with plenty of cleaning lady cleaning action. I will be waiting for videos myself!
DeleteThe Chinese national games may be broadcast on their main channel, CTV. Unsure how accessible that is outside of China. Videos may be password protected and while I can find that out I can't share it so I'm hoping for a video of the stream even. I cannot believe school starts back so early- how many weeks holidays do you get?
Oh, okay, I might as well just watch Nationals on TV and wait for videos. I get 1 week for Thanksgiving, 1 week for Spring Break, someone told me I only get 2 weeks for Winter Break, but it's usually 3, and for summer break I get from June 19 to August 12/13.
DeleteAh okay, works out about the same- we got a lot more than that in secondary school aged 12+ but I don't remember how primary school differed really except 1 month shorter in summer.
DeleteSince vika hasn't really competed this year she should be in good shape for Russian cup amd worlds.
ReplyDeleteShe hasn't competed at all since the Olympics. Pictures of her show her to be a bit more grown, she especially looks stronger in the shoulders. Word is she has everything back, so it will definitely be interesting to see her. That said, while I'd be delighted if she took the bars title I don't really care if she wins the AA or not. She's not a huge favourite of mine as an all-arounder (beam and bars, yes) so while I will be happy if she clearly deserves gold in the AA, you won't see this blog descend into wailing rants if she doesn't!
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