Shiny pink (bee infested) podium

Source: draw-cartoons.blogspot.com

I just can't get over how hilarious that was. Larisa's deadpan helpful pointing out of said bee is also fantastic.

Source- see watermark

Okay, on with the competition!

What a thrilling final! We have our first back-to-back all-around champion in 20 years! Simone Biles repeated her feat...although I don't think anyone expected it to be such a tense nailbiter. A lovely person sent me the link for the AA stream and I tortorously avoided the gymternet on lunch and the whole way home. Congratulations to me for willpower. I am just about finished watching, with some catching up to do on non-broadcast routines of course.

Let's have a look at our top 8.

1. Simone Biles
2. Larisa Iordache
3. Kyla Ross
4. Aliya Mustafina
5. Yao Jinnan
6. Vanessa Ferrari
7. Alla Sosnitskaya
8. Jessica Lopez

Simone Biles was truly fantastic to watch, but she has been better! That was what made the competition so interesting though, seeing Larisa Iordache challenge her so fiercely with barely a tenth between them at times, with Yao Jinnan and Aliya Mustafina close on their tales. Only Simone's vault was truly one of the best she has displayed, with a much smaller hop forward that wasn't taken into account in her score. Bars were a little bit of a struggle, but the important thing was soldiering on, and the magnificent stuck dismount really helped. Beam was quite shaky, although thankfully it lacked the massive wobble and save she had in team finals. Breaking the connection hindered her there, but with floor to go it didn't seem like that big a deal. Until Larisa Iordache upped her difficulty at the last minute...and had an out of bounds. Very nerve wracking! Simone was bouncier than usual on floor but performed with her usual flair, stayed well in bounds with her chest upright and some really quite nice leaps.

She is just thrilling. I cannot get over the ease with which she does everything, and judging by the commentary, neither could Christine. Great performance (although as mentioned, not her best) and I can't wait to see how she does in event finals. Congratulations to our back-to-back champion!

Larisa Iordache. Well. I am so so so happy for her! Not since Euros 2012 has she been this strong in a major competition I feel, and while we knew there was strong competition for silver and bronze, I had no inkling she could get that close to challenging for gold. Especially with her consistency record when it really counts, and having to carry her team the whole time must be tiring. No sign of that today! Her floor and beam were highlights as ever, especially beam seeing her land the full twist and layout so securely. Upgrading her floor at the last minute was such a thrilling twist, one of the highlights of the entire competition. She was so fresh, so ready, and the only pity is that she couldn't inch that little bit closer. But who knows, she was so much more dominant than expected...

Kyla Ross Hearty congratulations to Kyla are in order. She's been dealing with an injury, has competed quite a lot so far with AA in TF and...pulled out her usual extremely consistent AA performance to take the bronze. Both Aliya Mustafina and Yao Jinnan sadly came to grief on floor, which just proves yet again that there's a lot to be said for a plan like Kyla and her coaches have. Slow and steady wins the race. However, it is a little sad to see Kyla further downgraded and only able to figure in to medals if others mess up, rather than last year where she was beating them by simply surpassing them. If she is happy to continue elite AA after this year then of course she would remain a great asset, but I feel she is becoming a bit susceptible to injuries and her gymnastics is deteriorating. I'd like to see her in NCAA where she would be so wonderful.

Aliya Mustafina seemed a little off from the first glimpse, so so pale and sombre looking and just a bit defeated looking. I was wondering was she tired or just extra focused, since as soon as she started competing there was no sign of an issue. Excellent DTY landing with nice airtime, great bars and solid beam with stuck dismounts on both. And then she stood up her double arabian opener on floor only to sit it back down. The most shocking part of the competition for me. She rapidly deflated after that understandably, but delivered an admirable floor routine all the same. I was unsurprised to learn afterwards that Aliya reported feeling unwell on waking up in the morning and felt that she gave her all to the team competition. It is sad to see such a fantastic gymnast drained by carrying her team on her back, yet AGAIN. I was really enjoying watching her in action and the commentary mentioning her ACL injury really drove home the point that her comeback has been amazing and showcased such determination and willpower. Hopefully she can show us what she'd made of in event finals and then take a well deserved break. Another fantastic performance despite the fall considering all of the factors against her.

Yao Jinnan is a consistent heartbreaker. She'll never be the gymnast we saw in 2011 and is sadly usually carrying an injury or recovering. At the moment she has been revisited by a recurring foot/ankle one that has had her compete in pain and she is just two weeks distant from the gruelling Asian Games. Nevertheless, she gave yet another strong performance today with exquisite massive difficulty bars, decent DTY and an excellent beam, an event she can be a bit hit or miss on. Floor though. I knew it was going to be a bad idea for her to finish on floor. It has been the event that she's struggled with since tweaking her foot again, and it really showed. I knew she wouldn't get the last pass. Such a shame for this super talented gymnast who seems dogged by bad luck. Gold on bars please after that and what happened in the bars final in Antwerp. Winning the Longines prize though was wonderful, very happy for her and it was definitely earned.

I'm really pleased with 6-8th. Vanessa Ferrari is her usual self, it has been impressive to see her regain the DTY and up her difficulty on floor at this stage in her career, 8 years out from her world title. I did not expect Alla Sosnitskaya and Jessica Lopez to place so well, particularly the latter but need to see videos of them to comment further.


Highlights

The medal ceremony.

Simone Biles repeating.

Larisa Iordache FINALLY proving herself in a major AA competition in truly spectacular fashion. Who suspected that she would come that close to catching Simone?

Yao Jinnan getting the Longines prize. Well deserved and nice after a great AA ended badly, again.

Stuck dismounts on bars from Aliya Mustafina, Kyla Ross, Simone Biles and Yao Jinnan were great to watch and really built on the momentum of the competition for me

Jessica Lopez breaking into the top 8! She usually barely even qualifies to AA and has some truly lovely gymnastics.

Kyla Ross proving that consistency still beats significant difficulty advantage.

Not-so highlights

Aliya and Yao falling at the last hurdle. Heartbreakers.

Shang Chunsong having a nightmare on one of her best events

Asuka and Natsumi both coming to grief on beam. Asuka did the exact same thing in team finals and Natsumi had a complete meltdown on bars last year in the AA so all in all, quite upsetting.
  
Favourite routines

Bars: Yao Jinnan, Aliya Mustafina, Roxana Popa
Beam: Yao Jinnan, Larisa Iordache
Floor: Simone Biles, Larisa Iordache, Shang Chunsong 
Vault: Simone Biles

Fashion Corner

Seeing all the pink just before they marched out cracked me up. First, to the biggest consistent offenders:

USA

This took a while to decide on. I liked the bodice shape, chrystals...and colour contrast! It worked well on both gymnasts and the shades were nice. The white accents were quite conflicting but in the end I liked the definition they gave.

6.5/10

Source- USAG/John Cheng

Romania

Not a huge amount to say here. A bit too shiny for my liking, not a shade of pink I can tolerate. Chrystals were nice but it was boring overall. Even in the blue shade they have it in.

4/10

Aliya Mustafina

An oldie but a goodie. The black collar bit throws it off still.

6/10

Yao Jinnan

She has gorgeous leos, and this isn't one of my favourites. Still though, very unusual and striking and it really suits her. I love the sweeping black bit and it all just comes together so well.

8/10

Vanessa Ferrari

An instant 5/10 for having two sleeves and no weird holes. Suited her down to the ground but was a little um, dominatrix for my liking. Not particularly nice but nothing majorly wrong with it.

5/10

Shang Chunsong's had too much going on, Roxana Popa's had lovely colour usage, Marta Pihan-Kulezsa's was AWESOME with a solid 8.5/10, Japan's paint party leotard is AMAZING and I will never have enough of it. In fact, it wins at 9/10. Congratulations Japan!

Source- Xinhua/Huang Xiaobang

The replay is here but it won't play inside the US. If you know of channels with uploaded non-broadcasted routines, please post in the comments. I expect Piibunina will be amazing as ever.

What did you think of the competition? Favourite routine/moment? How great are matching podiums? Is it true that Nellie Kim planted the bee in Simone's bouquet as a protest against athletic gymnasts? 

They want the Brazillian good stuff: American Cup

Thank you, Al Trautwig, for that quote- referencing Ebee. Always reliable for that kind of thing.

I can't deny that the withdrawal of Simone Biles and Larisa Iordache sucked a lot of the excitement out of this competition for me. I was also a little miffed that there were no new seniors. It's a great competition to make a debut, up against the Americans who don't compete much internationally, and in time to make adjustments for competitions like Euros or for national competitions. Last year saw the triumphant unveiling of Simone Biles herself, Katelyn Ohashi and Gabby Jupp. Nevertheless, this year's competition still had a very decent lineup, despite snubbing by three of the big four.

The competition itself was a bit scrappy, but that's to be expected at this time of year, I tell myself.

Highlights

The scoring! Notice that only five e-scores, vault aside, were higher than 8.5. We can of course attribute that to falls and mishaps, but it also points to logical scoring. This also happened last year but still a bit out of kilter then. It's refreshing. Long live the not-so-Scam.

Ebee Wow! Phenomenal routines from her, really her best ever bars and beam I think. An utterly deserving American Cup champion who left no room either for her competition or for any 'if only' about the placing. Untouchable. Not to mention sticking her bars and beam dismounts and her double double - Chellsie Memmel '08 Trials style. Loving how her amplitude on her layout on beam has improved especially. She looks so ready to storm onto the Nanning team and be incredibly useful there.

Bars look to be getting more interesting in general with more people taking advantage of cool connections. You've got Ebee's Church-Bail, Brenna Dowell's Tweddle-Ezhova, Roxana Popa's Maloney-between bars Gienger and Ray-Pak, Victoria Moors' Ricna-Pak and Sophie Scheder's inbar-fest. Also liking the rejuvenation of lesser used releases like the previously mentioned Ricna and Giulia Steingruber's Khorkina.

Brenna Dowell's bars in general. Better handstands than she had been showing recently and she managed the Ezhova very well, not letting it throw her off course. Really strong routine and the composition is tough, leaves her open for deductions but even with that, I think she could have been given a tenth or so higher and it would have been reasonable.

Victoria Moors' floor. Showing everyone not just what great choreography looks like but fluidity. It flows so beautifully and that's so rare to see these days. Very good job on her eponymous skill too but I still wish she'd dump it to score higher with a beautiful tucked version.

Roxana Popa's second pass. YES. I drool over this thing and the crowd went wild, appropriately.

Sophie Scheder's bars. Beautiful, quite different to others in its composition and such a gorgeous line to show off with.

Floor was strong for almost everyone, with some nice tumbling on display. A piked double front here, two tucked and one laidout double double, several flighty double layouts...awesome.

Not-so highlights

Falls. Sophie Scheder sitting her vault and crashing her 2.5 twist. In general, she showed herself as a specialist yesterday, but it's a little early to say that for sure. Roxana Popa having to jump off bars after slamming her feet into the ground on her Pak after such glorious bars work right before - so upsetting. I was really hoping she could edge into the medals. Carlotta Ferlito falling off beam.

The broadcast. I couldn't get my way around the geoblock to watch the Youtube broadcast, so I was stuck with NBC. Minimal gymnastics, far too much faffing around watching gymnasts drink water. Bleughh. Or my favourite, back after an ad break to see someone drink water, then another ad break. STAHHHP.

Good/Mixed/Bad Day For:

Ebee of course. Stellar routines.
Brenna Dowell Some mishaps, a non-steady beam and a big OOB on floor but overall she fought very well and got silver for good reason.
Victoria Moors Stayed on beam, showed off her upgrades and dazzled everyone on floor.
Giulia Steingruber So solid, and a well-earned bronze.

Mixed Day For:
Vanessa Ferrari Vault is not her friend and beam didn't go her way, yet such a great floor. It's amazing that she can still tumble and perform like that at the end of a competition.
Roxana Popa Great routines but huge mistakes on bars dragged her right down, though she recovered so well afterwards. She also missed her Memmel on floor.

Bad Day For:
Carlotta Ferlito had weak and mediocre routines, AND a fall. So thankful that NBC reined themselves in with no mention of previous controversy.
Sophie Scheder: Super disappointing vault and floor from her, despite bars being so great.

Routines

Floor
Actual best score: Vanessa Ferrari
Favourite: Roxana Popa even though her expression was a bit lacking
Second favourite: Victoria Moors

Bars
Actual best score: Ebee
Favourite: Sophie Scheder
Second favourite: Brenna Dowell

Beam
Actual best score: Ebee
Favourite: Victoria Moors
Second favourite: Giulia Steingruber

Vault
Actual best score: Ebee
Favourite: Ebee/Roxana Popa
Second favourite: Giulia Steingruber

Leotards

1st- Roxana. Source- Kindly provided by Carmen Popa :)

It just rocks- deep purple bodice colour, white accents, the neckline, the back, use of mesh. 

2nd- Giulia. Copyright- USAG/John Cheng

Classy, and so suited to her- elegant design, but also a bit badass just like her.

3rd- Ebee. Copyright- USAG/John Cheng

Love the colour of this, and the design is nicely balanced.

I wrote this in a comment in the last post, but I'll stick with a general summation of: It wasn't a very exciting competition, but it was interesting.

Who was your favourite? How awesome are Sophie Scheder's and Giulia Steingruber's beam dismounts? Can you believe there actually wasn't a gross leotard?

Mish mash

First, here are some of the Chinese juniors I was discussing. Google images doesn't have a clue who they are...yet.

Copyright- ZhouYouShiJie

Luo Huan, master beam and bars technician.

Copyright- ZhouYouShiJie

Liu Tingting, the light and floaty all-arounder.

Copyright- ZhouYouShiJie

Lv Jiaqi, old-school fabulousness. How striking is she?!

Copyright- ZhouYouShiJie

Wang Wei, tumbler extraordinaire.

Copyright- ZhouYouShiJie

Wang Yan, the star.

Copyright- ZhouYouShiJie

Yuan Xiaoyang (on right. Lv Jiaqi on left), diver turned powerful all-arounder.

We will hopefully see some of them at Pac Rims.


Moving on to (somewhat) recent competitors before it gets too hazy in my mind..

Ebee

Back to the AA with a bang.  Really great to see her in action after US Nationals where she just wasn't ready. The amanar looked great in the training video, at Stuttgart and...at Glasgow too. She looked to me to have the height to land it there also, but I'm sure it will only improve. Lovely open double double, some awesome bar work especially the Church to bail but I think she most surprised me on beam. Her routine at Glasgow was just awesome, I don't think she even betrayed a flicker. Interesting composition also. The battle between her and Larisa Iordache was very interesting to see, however, I thought they would be closer. Ebee gets hit for her switch half leap I believe, and she was penalised on bars at Stuttgart for not hitting handstand in her bail, but other than that I thought the scoring was a little harsh on her. Or maybe not, but in comparison to some others.

Fantastic comeback performances and I'm very interested to see where she goes from here. Her bars alone are very valuable, though she is committed to Stanford starting next year. She could always defer..but then maybe conservation for college is better than staying in elite and getting injured.

Larisa Iordache

What a heartbreaker this girl is. The last time she hit in the AA was at Euros. At worlds of course she hadn't returned to training long enough to be consistent. But since then she has fallen more than once, with one fall at each of Stuttgart and Glasgow. Bars has majorly improved, when she doesn't rush through the routine. But consistency has dogged her before the injury that nearly kept her from worlds, and the plandular fasciitis that dogged her Olympics. It's strange, she doesn't seem like an inconsistent gymnast but when you look back at her record..

Anyway, I'm very pleased with how her bars are looking, and it looks like the 6.7 beam if not the 6.9 is well within her reach. I thought her vault was noticeably worse at Glasgow but then she went right after a balk so maybe she just got a bit nervous. All in all, she did very well to beat Ebee at Glasgow and looks to be set on course for a good year. Especially if she can gain more consistency.

Roxana Popa

I was absolutely thrilled when she won Mexican Open AA. And not surprised at all. This girl is on fire with three events out of four, and beam, her weakest, is getting stronger I think. Floor is just fabulous, her second pass is fantastic and her Memmel is surprisingly good. Bars have some technical issues letting them down, they really are so strong otherwise. On the back of that win over not one but two Americans (granted..both of them fell), I had high hopes she could hold her own in Glasgow and fight for bronze. But it wasn't to be when on her first event, vault, she balked and threw a layout yurchenko worth 4.4 instead of her usual dynamic DTY. A very smart decision since she obviously felt something was wrong in her block or approach, but still very sad. Her bars score was I felt criminally low, but I'm no COP expert and apparently there are deductions there and quite a few. Maybe the angle isn't the best for me to tell as well.

So quite an up-and-down few weeks for her. Hopefully beam and bars can be further worked on, and the latter upgraded. I feel she has a lot to show and can make an impact on the world stage as well as Euros.

Asuka Teramoto

That Rudi came out of nowhere at Glasgow! She had been having issues with the DTY and a video was shown of her training a DTT..but a Rudi was totally out of left field. No, it was not super clean but it looked serviceable and a good foundation for further improvement. Sadly, she injured herself on it at the Toyoto Chunichi World Cup. Hopefully it's minor and she's back on track with the vault and her other upgrades, like beam, in time for Pac Rims at least.

Asuka in general is not as clean as the typical Japanese gymnast, but so very impressive nonetheless and her form doesn't stand out as bad on the international stage. Hopefully she can sparkle next year, like she did at her international debut (to the mainstream) in London.

Bailie Key

Is reassuredly human. I begin to think she's a robot of consistent clean routines, but she has counted two falls now this year, beam at Japan Junior and now floor at Mexican Open- though both off-season, of course. Not to mention that she seems to have grown a lot. Nonetheless, she managed to win the Junior AA Mexican Open, remaining undefeated in the AA for the entire year. What a gymnast this girl is. It's thrilling to think of what she will be like as a senior. In particular, I'm looking forward to seeing her bars develop, she's well capable of more, though I do admire her pacing so easy bars from her now isn't a bad thing.

Peyton Ernst

Peyton has been dogged by falls this year, and Mexican Open was no different, with one on beam and a fluke fall on floor. It's always hard to know, especially with the injury rate, who can make a major team but I can't see Peyton on one. She does not stand out enough on any event except maybe beam, but her execution lets her down somewhat.

Maggie Nichols

I see more hope with Maggie though. I'm not sure exactly why...she's cleaner and more solid but still doesn't stand out. But sometimes it's the quiet ones.

Zeng Siqi

Why is she getting assignments. She needs serious conditioning and excellent coaching to be of use again. In fairness to her, she is hindered still by an ankle injury she picked up two years ago. But her beam going downhill to the point that she now can't stay on it at all is a separate issue. Her beam at Mexican Open was not exactly surprising, but so sad. She has a beautiful beam and is a lovely dancer, but I can't help but write her off. 

Edit- I may have forgotten Stuttgart's team competition...

A win for Team China is always going to be fabulous news in my book. Unfortunately, it was very much an A team against a lesser calibre from Russia..minus Aliya Mustafina of course, and she only competed one event. A little bit of 'who can fall less' was in evidence. Yao Jinnan and Tan Jiaxin's falls were heartbreaking though the latter was not surprising. Good news lies in the fact that Huang Huidan and Tan Sixin hit some beautiful routines on beam. Speaking of beam, Aliya Mustafina appears to have been fired up by her new worlds title there, producing yet more steady routines. Which have been changed, again..it's like she gets bored having the same routine for more than a few weeks. BUT I'm really loving the new front aerials..they're very precise and well done. An Onodi is classed as a front element so she was credited for a CR in team qualifications that she didn't do. I hate that..it's happening a bit too often in my book. Thankfully she snuck in a BHS in team finals. This little team showdown highlighted the fact that I think Nanning is going to be a very scrappy team finals since depth is non-existent except for the US, and I don't believe even their team will be really stellar.  


Glasgow was the only competition that I was able to watch from start to finish. And what a splatfest it was. I suppose that is not surprising given the time of year, but it was so disappointing. Ruby Harrold and Raer Theaker coming to grief in front of a (pretty much) home crowd, Asuka on beam when it was all going so well and she looked like she could snatch bronze, Roxana and the troublesome vault, Ebee and the amanar, Larisa on beam...

Bring on next year :) Especially March and April which look to be crammed with competitions...

Who stood out in a good or bad way from the recent competitions? Should Ebee and Larisa have been closer like I thought? How annoying were the Glasgow announcers?

Worlds experience/competiton part 1

It's a little difficult to fully process the 177 routines I saw over the weekend (okay, not exactly..ignored some in the AA if something more exciting was going on..) but I'll give it a go! Here is my (painfully) long worlds experience, and thoughts of course. The actual gymnastics bit probably won't be as detailed as I'd like as it's hard to differentiate everything at the moment.

Friday

4AM alarm unfortunately but thankfully it was way more exciting to wake up to the realisation that my flight was actually finally leaving in a few hours than Christmas morning growing up ever was. Antwerp inexplicably does not have an airport, or if they do it's a Fisher Price effort, so had to go via Brussels. Because of this we had to go for the safe option of a morning flight, but it was great having the security of arriving very early (09:30). The two cities are just 40 minutes apart by train, so it was fine.

Here's how convenient the location was:

This is Koningin Astridplein, or Queen Astrid's square.

Source- dedavid.wordpress.com

The beautiful building in the middle is the train station where we arrived from. To the left is the zoo, which has King penguins! Killed time nicely there. At the other end facing the station was our hotel, which was a huge behemoth of a thing and looked down on everything.

Source- beautifulgymnasticsblog.blogspot.com

We were bumped from a 3 star to this 4 star, which was great :D To the right of the station as seen here were streets filled with great places to get lunch and dinner. The street to the left of the hotel in this photo was a Chinese district, where we had an unbelievable meal. Worth feeling left out for eating with forks and having Western dishes. RIGHT UNDERNEATH the hotel was the metro station for the subway to the arena. On the same street as the Chinese district we could have gotten trams to the arena either. Transport to the arena with event tickets is free, because why not.

Anyway, on with the show. Met up briefly with some people I know which was great and.......wait for it......Andreea Raducan crossed the street right behind us! I am in the green jumper, nicely in height order - how very Romanian of us. She was very gracious about being pounced on (nicely!) thankfully.

Source- beautifulgymnasticsblog.blogspot.com

Our tickets for the all-around were slightly beyond the vault table, and for row 13...which ended up being row 5, presumably because rows were chopped out to make room for the podium. Amazing feeling to sit down in INCREDIBLE seats, though they should be as I booked them on day 2 of release :p I can see us in some footage already, and I haven't seen much. Here is the view straight ahead, floor and beam were perfect. Bars were far away but still fairly clear. Each seat had a shiny card on it, made to be folded into a fan. The noise of everyone using them for clapping was great, really added to the fun of the music they used between rotations and as marching in/out music. In fact, I basically loved all of the music they used.

Source- beautifulgymnasticsblog.blogspot.com

Group 1 started on vault which was so exciting. The sheer noise in warmup of Simone Biles hitting the table and then the mat is awesomely loud, and she was doing her usual trick of throwing DTY's and amanars while the rest were just doing timers still. Having the perfect side view means things like leg separation go unnoticed, and foot crossing. It was such an experience to see Simone Biles launch towards the rafters just a few feet away. The others vaults I enjoyed the most were Giulia Steingruber's, Roxana Popa's, Kyla Ross' (legs looked perfect on the block from my angle..), Noel Van Klaveren (so so clean and beautiful) and Larisa Iordache. Almost immediately it was tough to know where to point my eyes. I wrote out the start lists as I wasn't going to be ripped off for roaming data prices and there was no wifi in the arena, and that definitely helped, but I had lots of pink underlining for routines I wanted to watch clashing with others throughout the competition which as expected, was tough to manage.

I found vault and floor quite calm to watch, beam was so nervewracking. Most gymnasts were held for at least a minute before competing, which I really hated to see. It's not an apparatus you want to be standing around waiting for, giving yourself time to freak out. There were moments of glory a-plenty, Simone Biles nailing the 2.5 wolf and planting the dismount, Kyla Ross' lines and being perfectly and gloriously in line with the beam on everything, Roxana Popa hitting a very solid routine for her weakest event, Anna Rodionova, Noemi Makra and Ilaria Kaeslin showing off their perfection, form and elegance, Aliya Mustafina staying on and Natsumi Sasada's insanely difficult mount, the layout full. But such heartbreak, and so many tense moments. Every time there's a big wobble everyone holds their breath and the atmosphere heightens completely, and such disappointment for someone when they fall. Ruby Harrold, Rebecca Tunney, Victoria Moors, Larisa Iordache, Shang Chunsong and Yao Jinnan...horribly long list of such fantastic gymnasts. Ruby's routine is quite exciting so it was such a downer when she fell, and of course Rebecca has had a very tough time with injury, recovery and growth so had she succeeded here at last it would have been such a boost for her. I found Victoria's routine one of the most upsetting as I had a clear view of her sitting apart from everyone else looking absolutely miserable afterwards. And of course, the 3 girls who had the difficulty to contend right at the top. Yao's fall was infuriating because the tucked full should have been dumped long ago. As soon as I saw her prep for it I was gutted, pretty sure I called out 'Noooooo!'. Shang's was another super disappointing one, she's usually very solid on beam, or at least not prone to actually falling. And of course, Larisa, who when you think about it aside from Euros 2012 has had a pretty bad time as a senior. It's funny, you think she's been around for ages and everyone knows her and her routines...but she hasn't accomplished much and has been so unlucky. The competitive fire seems to be lacking a bit too, sadly.

Not that floor didn't have its moments. Right before Victoria Moors went for her skill, there was total, terrified silence. And then BOOM an explosion of joy when she not only landed it but stuck it too! Simone Biles' much better landing (than quals) of HER own skill also got a great reaction. It's so different to hear floor music booming live. Shang Chunsong's gunshots seemed louder and weirder than ever, but the ending few seconds of her routine were absolutely endearing and totally worked. Elizabeth Seitz' routine was great even just for this reason, the beat magnified in the dance bits was infectious and really got the crowd involved. Happily I did not notice one single fall on floor and the number of out of bounds was very, very low - lower than would have been expected with such a bouncy and newly - launched floor, but of course that's what practice and podium training was for. One strange thing I noticed is the speed of gymnasts runs- for instance, Asuka Teramoto and Natsumi Sasada seemed to be taking their ease, compared to the power and attack of others. It instantly explained the difficulty they are apt to have with underrotating skills like the triple full. Ilaria Kaeslin and Anna Rodionova stood out a mile for their beautiful gymnastics here, and my eyes were out on stalks thanks to the perfection of Noemi Makra's piked full-in. I'm so glad I got to see that live. It's great to see stunning lines and form etc. amidst all of the scary and sloppier difficulty. Not that immense difficulty isn't exciting, it was awesome to watch, but noting the amount of crazy skills performed and the legions of injured gymnasts is still worrying.

Highlights and Favourite Routines

- Yao Jinnan's Mo Salto. It was breathtaking, and the entire routine besides was amazing to watch.
- Elizabeth Seitz' Def. It looked way cooler than I expected, seriously impressive skill.
- Natsumi Sasada's layout full beam mount, previously mentioned.
- Aliya Mustafina's PRESENCE. She radiates it even walking down the steps after saluting. She holds herself very regally and beautifully, and while it wasn't exactly a surprise, it was still great to witness her at her queen-liest.
- The Biles and the Moors.
- THAT shap full. Fabulous.
- Simone Biles' smile. Lit up the arena and while obviously her choreography is lacking, her routine was still electrifying and she expresses the hell out of it, particularly in the dance bits before the corners. For this reason, I see no issue with her seemingly not getting any artistry deductions. It was just a great routine.
- Aliya Mustafina's floor, especially the first pass. She left no doubt at all, the whips looked fantastic and she went for the stag and totally nailed it. Her determination blew me away completely.
- Roxana Popa, what a competitor she is. Highlight would have to be the whip-whip-full in. Because WOW, it's just jaw dropping.
- Again, Noemi Makra's piked full in. Love...
- Larisa Iordache's speed and fluidity. Seamless movement and it's especially great on floor, her floor works very nicely for her.
- Stuck landings, especially the really planted ones. It's just such a thrill.
- Ruby Harrold's bars. It's just so much more interesting and exciting when original moves are performed, and Ruby did two, and they were great. The Ooooo!! after the Zuchold..great moment.
- Vanessa Ferrari still being so strong. Veterans are great to see, no matter their motivation to continue!

'Podium' of favourite routines

UB 1. Yao Jinnan 2. Roxana Popa 3. Ruby Harrold
VT 1.  Simone Biles 2. Giulia Steingruber 3 T Noemi Makra and Roxana Popa
BB 1. Ilaria Kaeslin 2. Noemi Makra 3. Simone Biles (tough, so many falls..)
FX 1. Victoria Moors 2. Elizabeth Seitz 3 T Simone Biles, Aliya Mustafina and Roxana Popa

Favourite Leotards

Carlotta Ferlito's sparkly turquoise and black leotard, it looked so well in the arena. Victoria Moors' black with pink maple pattern. All of their new leotards are stunning but the contrast of this one is particularly amazing. Yao Jinnan, just stunning, and I really liked Rebecca Tunney's too. Least favourite...hmm. I'm not sure about Vasiliki Millousi's, I don't think it worked. Also, the top button at the back of her neck was undone, so noticeable.

Longines Prize for Elegance

I felt this was a bit of a letdown, since Kohei Uchimura has already won it and while Kyla Ross IS elegant, I felt they should have rewarded one of the unknown but stunningly beautifully elegant gymnasts. Ah well. 

Not-so highlights

- Beam falls. Oh so many. 7 that I remember offhand, I'm sure that wasn't the grand total. It's such a fraught apparatus and the groan all around you just makes it affect you more and feel the gymnast's devastation more.
- Natsumi Sasada's bars. She had to come off three times, it was heartbreaking.
- Overscoring. Yes, Simone Biles' scores, notably vault and floor, were that little bit too high. It wouldn't have done anything to the standings however. I don't think she was the only one but I'd need to have a good think about it.
- The waits for beam. Let them on!
- Vault execution scoring in general. Too generous.
- The stupid switch ring rule. It appears quite a lot of beautiful ones got downgraded, sigh.
- The really hard twisting leaps on floor, like the Gogean. Ugly on screen, uglier in person.
- Aliya Mustafina's contouring/bronzer skills. What was that about? Looked like someone put it on like that out of spite. Same for Vanessa Ferrari's lipstick, which looked to have been done without the aid of a mirror.

This is hard, there were soooo many highlights compared to things that sucked!

The Podium

Simone Biles has firmly shut the haters up. It has been obvious for so long that she was capable of this kind of domination, if she could just get her head and new skills together in time..and sure enough, she was untouchable. I was already a big fan but seeing her compete in person...just, wow. The scary thing is, it doesn't seem like she has peaked at all. Both vaults, her floor, bars...she's definitely not done. What a thrilling performance by a first year senior, and a well deserved gold. No arguing with the validity of that result, for once.

Kyla Ross had a great day, but all of the naysaying 'her best is not good enough' etc. came to pass, as predicted by basically everyone. I don't really hide the fact that I'm not a big fan of hers, but that doesn't mean I didn't appreciate her gymnastics, or aspects of it. Her lines were great, bars were smooth and so solid, floor choreography has much improved and I got a fabulous view of her super clean vault. I really would like to see her keep improving, adding sensible upgrades- beam and bars. So no, I am not converted but wow is she solid, strong and totally earned this.

Aliya Mustafina has depths of reserve like no other. When all looks bleak - knee pain, general tiredness and looking off-form, dodgy beam and/or floor, the stress of carrying her entire team on her back again...have no fear, because nothing like that seems to matter when hitting is the most important. Her fierceness and elegance everywhere was dazzling and I'm delighted she was able to get it together. It would probably be too much to ask that she gets a break now..


What were your favourite routines? Moments? Skills? Leotards? Worst? Can anyone step up the plate next year and beat Seamoney?


"Tune in" for part 2 (and 3 probably) soon which contain a picture I prize even more than the one included here and a thrilling story about who I met at breakfast on Sunday..(not very thrilling, but still a fantastic sighting)...

Quick round-up

Five days until Classics! Very exciting. Sadly, Elizabeth Price has pulled out as she tweaked a hip during a tumbling pass recently. She was due to compete vault and bars which would have been very exciting to see. Hopefully she'll be back in time for Nationals. Although Classics is usually a splatfest, it will still set the stage for the worlds team. I'll be ignoring falls for the most part as they quite often don't mean anything. Gymnasts like Mykayla Skinner though can't afford falls if they are to really prove themselves in the running, especially as she has a reputation for inconsistency anyway.

My main wishes are;

- McKayla Maroney to hit everything, especially vault and floor though it'd be very interesting if she does the AA and nails beam and bars. As has been discussed to death, she does have a great line on bars with a fantastic gienger and dismount. She has a great flow on beam and always nails connections, though her bent knees kind of suck here. I'd like to see a twisting dismount too.

- Mykayla Skinner to nail floor and vault too. That would really shake things up in the running for the specialist spot.

- Fantastic beam and performance by Abigail Milliet, she has a lot of style.

- Improved form and solid routines from Brenna Dowell. I don't care that she's quite obviously not a dancer, she has improved a LOT in the last year and I'm rooting for her.

- A really exciting showdown between Bailie Key and Nia Dennis. These two are quite evenly matched.

- Much stronger performances from Lexie Priessman and Amelia Hundley than what we saw in Europe.

- Norah Flatley to score the highest on beam amongst the juniors and Jordan Chiles to place top 5 AA.

- 4/4 from Simone Biles and a sense of greater control on her floor landings.

- Someone to have a release-fest on bars, like Tan Jiaxin or Shang Chunsong. Polina Shchennikova is shaping up to have the best bars combination but hers is different to my dream..

- Laurie Hernandez' floor. It's just fantastic.

- The junior competition, just in general. There are a HUGE amount of juniors with quite a lot that I've never seen any routines of.

- Any leotards that are not hot pink. I'm a fan of magenta or sangria or whatever GK call it (London AA leo etc.) but the pepto-bismol shade is just horrible and the really super bright pink doesn't suit very many people.

What are you looking forward to? Other than a good competition!

USAG have just confirmed that podium training will be streamed. On Friday, juniors at 9:30 Eastern Time (so 14:30 GMT, 15:30 GMT+1) and seniors at 12pm Eastern Time (5pm GMT, 6pm GMT+1). On Saturday, competition day, juniors will kick off at 1pm central time ( so 7pm GMT, 8PM GMT+1) and seniors at 6pm, again central time (11pm GMT, 12AM GMT+1). USAG are promoting the two days in eastern and central time respectively so I kept it that way to avoid confusion, just keep an eye on the actual timezone they list. Streaming will be on www.secretclassic.com

Roxana Popa of Spain has just won Spanish Nationals. Not a great feat you might think, but her score was huge- 58.083. Her difficulty is 5.8 on everything except bars, which are 6.1. She's a new senior and she doesn't really have a weak event. I'm really looking forward to seeing her in Antwerp. Her bars in particular scream upgrade- the Tkachev-Pak for instance. Great swing from her, check it out.

I created an ask.fm account for the laugh. It's here. 

Event finals

Another dose of fabulous gymnastics and results in Moscow.

Vault

- A bit too splatty, with falls from Maria Paseka on both of her vaults, Taljana Tkalkec the same, and Chantysha Netteb on her DTY. Paseka of course, went in as the favourite, already vaulting a spectacular DTY in qualifying and saving the amanar. The crash is a surprise, as they were fine at Russian Nationals and last year she was vaulting them securely (if not fully rotated) at the Olympics, with her crashes coming a bit before then when she was still recovering from injury. As for the layout Podkopayeva, she used to just have piking issues with it. I'd imagine if she vaulted that first she would have landed it, but she possibly was not in the best state of mind after crashing her amanar in front of a home crowd. Chantysha got great power on both of her vaults, but it looks like she is hindered by injury. I can't wait to see her back at her best, and I loved her fast recovery for a very nice full-twisting Tsuk.

- Noel Van Klaveren is FIERCE. In my mind she is the rightful silver winner, but Larisa Iordache should not be tied with her and should have gotten bronze instead. Noel's vaults were just so superior form wise and I watch them over and over again to see the true laidout position on her FTT especially. I know her chest was a bit low on it but it doesn't alter how stupendous the vault is for me at all. We saw this as a second vault a lot- and even the very powerful Giulia Steingruber was very piked on hers. The Dutch girls have the best technique on it. It's only worth a 5.2 though, I'd like to see most of those who performed it upgrading it.

- It's always great to see an all-arounder in the vault final, and Larisa Iordache is a newcomer to it, as her vaults would not have been allowed under the previous code. Romanians have often done Yurchenko and Tsuk entry vaults together in the past and done them well so obviously B&B are accomplished in this regard so it'd be great to see her second vault improve in form, and eventually upgrade.

- I love Giulia Steingruber. She had issues with her landings at Doha and was third after Phan Thi Ha Thanh and Iordache. She stated she would go all out working on her landings, and it paid off. Great to see determination like hers and I'd love to see her figure into the top 10 AA at worlds as well as upgrading her second vault to contend in the vault final there.

- I'm very happy with the podium of Steingruber with Van Klaveren and Iordache tying for second but as I said above I think Van Klaveren deserved that second spot by herself, even with the landings being a bit off. THAT form.

Uneven Bars

- Lovely to see another hit routine from Aliya Mustafina. Not sure why there was a dead hang in there..tiredness probably. It was always going to win but wow was it overscored. I love her line but I think she is sickling more than she used to and I HATE sickling. Because her routine is amazing I can usually ignore it, moreso than I can with average routines, but it seemed to stand out more in event finals. As well as the dismount there's a lot of room for connections in there like she had in her old routine, it looks like it will be a cinch for her to upgrade when she needs to.

- Very sad to see Ruby Harrold and Becky Downie come to grief with their routines, especially Becky as she stayed down for a few seconds and looked so heartbroken. Ruby has had numerous issues with her ambitious routine, but this time it was the fabulous Zuchold that did it. She usually hits it very well so I'd regard that as a fluke. Although Becky has flaked in a good few competitions I wouldn't count her out as the bars specialist in favour of Ruby..she has a better hit record this year and she has the superior form and line.

- Also very dissapointed to see Ida Gustafsson have to jump off the bar and for Sophie Scheder to incur a big deduction for not reaching handstand on a skill. I think her bail was the culprit but I could be wrong. Ida has been impressing with her clean and beautiful routine for a good while now but I prefer the composition and flow of Scheder's, the reigning junior Euros bars champion. I'd also love to have Roxana Popa as well as of course, Anastasia Grishina, both of whom had bad qualifying rounds.

- Maria Paseka's bars are a bit rough around the edges, but better than I was expecting judging on what she has shown on this apparatus in the last year. I really like her composition and the difficulty is there. It was great to see her bounce back from utter vault failure to take a medal here and it was deserved. Jonna Adlerteg had such beautiful form and it was so touching to see her reaction knowing she would medal. I was afraid Paseka would bypass her but the judges saw sense. A great podium.

Beam

- I live for Larisa Iordache's dismount series. It's quite rare to see a triple full so securely around with no shadow of a doubt remaining. I know her ankles cross on it but it's just so solid, like the rest of her routine. I think her form used to be tighter here, hopefully she can work on that too. I was wondering if the layout full would make an appearance but probably a wise decision not to bother as it wasn't needed.

- Anastasia Grishina was quite slow and hesitant. I was enthralled with the beauty of her routine as always and of course slow is a lot better than falling, but I hope she can build on its difficulty without sacrificing consistency.

- The snappiness of Diana Bulimar's routine is thrilling. Yeah she's not waving her arms around and picking up her foot and putting it down again excessively, but it doesn't take away from the brilliance of her routine at all. So solid. I know dance skills have caused her problems here, so I hope to see her acro getting upgraded first. This routine looks ridiculously easy for her. I'd like to see her doing more straddle split jumps, and her tuck front is very high so she can pike that. Either a tuck full or layout full would be great, and her dismount is very high and precise..I think she could do a full-in.

- While I was not particularly surprised to see Olena Vasylieva headcasing, it was still unpleasant to watch. She has beautiful form, I would love to see her become more consistent.

- Pleasantly surprised with Katarzyna Jurkowska's routine, wonderful to watch. And again Ruby Harrold's was great also. Her NCAA dismount needs to go though it was said it's because she is still recovering from ankle injury so it makes a lot of sense.

- Another great podium, and thrilled to see Grishina pick up the bronze in a final she only qualified for by pure fluke.

Floor

- It wasn't Larisa's day for landings, she's had better. I was wondering if Diana could pass her out but I wasn't surprised or dismayed that Larisa's higher difficulty gave her the edge. I love how energetic Larisa's routine is, and I think while it isn't elegant or even stylish it's very engaging and charming. I keep expecting the start to turn into Radiohead- Street Spirit though. I also like how she dances into the corners.

- Afan was incredible to watch. A pity she dropped her foot early on the second spin combination but the rest was flawless. So impressed with her tumbling and the height of her double pike- one of the best I've seen. It's as if she runs into that tumble angry at how it failed her last year and uses that to get extra height. I love her music so I'll be sad to see it go in a way..she is cited to have a new routine for Universiade.

- It's odd to see the very powerful Diana land a bit short on her double pike, which she has done before. She seems to have boundless energy until that pass so maybe she is better off upgrading her other three tumbles and dumping the fourth one. Whatever works for her. Long overdue a new routine, and the full-twisting DLO looks very achievable. I'm not a fan of the piked full-in, it's so scrappy looking and I wish she could tighten her form on the double layout. It's the small things!

- I really enjoyed watching Roxana Popa in action. Beautiful Memmel turn! And very nice tumbling too. Another very solid and impressive routine by Giulia Steingruber. She has great technique on her opening full-twisting DLO and her follow-up DLO is fabulous too. She's another I'd like to see sharpen up her form on tumbles. Her double tuck which was a double twist earlier in the competition seems much too easy for her, needs an upgrade.

- Gutted to see Kristina Sankova put her hands down on her last tumble after a very good routine. I'm also annoyed to see she was the replacement for Mariya Livchikova and not there in her own right- she's much more powerful than the other girls they have, and valuable too as her consistency (though not shown here) is better too. She's capable of arabian double pikes! I hope she can continue to show her beleaguered federation that she's fully deserving of competition spots.

- Anastasia Grishina's luck was further in evidence as her spot was given to her by Aliya Mustafina's withdrawal. I've seen Aliya being called kind and loyal for this and while I have no doubt she can and does have wonderful team spirit- this is more down to Aliya's own exhaustion and endurance. She did pull out of the last two floor finals she qualified to also. Her floor needs to be reworked. Anyway, while Grishina had a dissapointing large stumble out of her first pass, the routine was gorgeously floaty and continued without further error. It's just amazing to see her hitting another routine! Out of 10 competitive routines, she hit 8..that has to be a record for her. Fabulous coaching.

Favourite vault- Noel Van Klaveren, VT 2
Favourite bars- Sophie Scheder
Favourite beam- Diana Bulimar
Favourite floor- Ksenia Afanasyeva

Favourite leotard- Oooh. Tough one. Larisa Iordache BB-FX leo was stunning, but I'm striking her off for it having an obscene cut, again. I really loved Katarzyna Jurkowska's- simple but so lovely. The Dutch girls' one was very pretty. I'm not sure what to think about Roxana Popa's? Looks like she robbed it from some of the 90's worst offenders. It was nice to see something go against every single leo I've seen in forever all the same, so props to her for keeping it interesting!

NCAA Nationals

I'm not going to pretend I'm an expert on it, I'm really not. But I was hoping for a Florida or Oklahoma victory and it did come down to the wire for the two, which was great. Well done to Florida for winning their first title! They have such a well balanced team, powerhouses like Kytra Hunter and Ashanee Dickerson, elegant bars and beam workers like Alaina Johnson and Mackenzie Caquatto and then workhorses like Marissa King and the awesome rebirth of Courtney Kupets- Bridget Sloan. Seriously, so in awe of how the nobody from 2008 whose world AA victory in 2009 was so unexpected and reviled and whose elite career ended disastrously with an injury right before Olympic Trials has gone on to take NCAA by storm. She was expected to be a very strong recruit but freshmen are generally not the ones to carry their team and take the AA title! Not to mention beam too. Incredible! I was gutted Lloimincia Hall did not make floor finals. I understand her routine is jarring but there's a reason why everyone was waiting and waiting for her to take the floor during Super Six- it's just electric. And I am so blown away by Danusia Francis who teased everyone with a training video of a transverse aerial at the start of the season..which never appeared again until last night! Wonderful that she actually landed it, such a pity she came to grief on a forwards one shortly after but that and Bridget Sloan dominating are what I take away from this year's NCAA.

For anyone who watched it, do you agree with those who took the titles? Is it a disgrace Florida won with a fall? It sounds crazy to me that there's a lot of controversy over that given how many routines counted towards the final score but I know that scoring is so tight, not like elite. Personally given Alabama's slight flop in the last rotation and Florida's utter destruction of the other three apparatus', and Oklahoma's lesser difficulty...I've no issue with it. How mental is it that 23 girls qualified for the 8-place vault final? That is just hilarious. Such a pity Vanessa Zamarripa was not on top form for her final hurrah too.

New Kids on the Block: Western Europe

Hopefully there will be some dominance by the girls from these countries. Given up all hope on Ireland until at least 2024 or so, but there really is some awesome talent from Britain, Italy and others.


Britain

Gabby Jupp

Gabby is being toted as the next British great and not without reason as she could easily be the best all-arounder Britain has ever had. Currently performing low difficulty, yet everything looks to be easy to upgrade as she has has plenty of power behind her. Some form issues on bars, and needs more toepoint on beam. Aside from that and the need to upgrade further, she really has all the makings to be a great all-arounder. Gabby places 5th in the European Championships junior all-around and will turn senior in 2013.

Fabulous. Just better toepoint and confidence and this is ready to go. Especially great to see as Britain are usually really weak on beam (the lovely Danusia aside).

Good technique on both and lands completely upright, so seems well capable of upgrading both substantially.

Nice expression here. Needs more extension to really shine here. Again, such an upright landing on the full twisting double that it looks nearly ready to be a double double. Lots of room for upgrades.

Awesome dismount! Nice form and flight.



Angel Romaeo

Angel is a really nifty beam worker with great attack on that apparatus, so perhaps Britain's beam curse will be broken in the new quad. Floor is lovely but needs much more difficulty as it stands, bars are a weak point at the moment. Quite a good vaulter too, good height and form. Maybe won't be an all-arounder, but an excellent beam and vault or floor specialist would be fantastic too. She will turn senior in 2013.

AMAZING. Just lovely and so precise. Straighter legs on her acro skills would be the only real issue, as well as more difficulty needed. She has struggled a bit this year, probably down to growth but this just screams huge potential.

Whoever chorepgraphed this should be taken out and shot. Ughh. She can move though, and shows really nice form here. Tumbles are very weak but I LOVE her whip-whip double tuck. More of this please.

 Very nice, and looks good for an upgrade



Germany

Sophie Scheder

Sophie really shines on bars, definitely looks like she could place in future event finals here. Great long lines help her on beam and floor but both need a lot of work. Vault looks half decent. Could go either way at the moment, event specialist or else massively improve to be a great all-around prospect. Sophie will turn senior in 2013.

Great work, currently has 6.0 difficulty.

Needs a lot of work, nice style and presentation though.

Lovely height




Italy

Enus Mariani

Enus has already shown what a superstar she is, winning the all-around at Euros. She is a little shaky on beam but does not really have a weak event. Great sass and floor choreography, and lovely on bars. Here's hoping she makes the transition to senior just as strongly as her junior performances. Enus turns senior in 2014.

Very exciting to watch, great confidence in her quirky choreo.

Textbook form, great fluid swing too

Once she can iron out the shakiness this is great and Italy are usually strong on beam so hoping for good things here.

This is her second vault, she gets very good height on both and lovely form again



Elisa Meneghini

Elisa placed fourth in the all-around at Euros, counting a fall on beam no less. She really sparkles on floor but like Enus, doesn't have a weak event- which shows in that as well as her high place in the all-around with a huge mistake, she also made all four event finals, the only gymnast to do so. The future looks bright for Italy with these two moving up. Elisa will pave the way first, as she will turn senior in 2013.

Excellent energy, lots of power and room for upgrades. Needs toepoint on her leaps.

Great precision, love how speedy she does everything. Again, toepoint..but this is fabulous.

Lovely clean form and lines. In love her dismount, needs work as she fell on it in event finals as well as the big save it needed her. Bursting with potential though.

Other Italian junior of note: Tea Ugrin



Netherlands


Eythora Thorsdottir

Eythora  is wonderful on beam in particular, with beautiful original combinations. Magnificent elegance, to die for.  Hopefully she can go one better than recent beautiful beam workers from non-gymnastics countries and make event finals. Also lovely on floor, just needs more difficulty on both to really contend. Unfortunately she's quite inconsistent so far, but hopefully that can be ironed out. Can't find when she turns senior, 2014 seems the most likely.

It's never really mistake free, she has tanked quite a few times so this is the best one I can find. Truly the most exciting beam worker in quite a while, stunning grace and lovely turns from her. Beautiful.

More fabulousness. You could quite easily mistake her for a former Soviet great if the video quality was bad. Such grace! More fantastic spins. Great choreography, even if the music freaks me out because it was in Stephen King's IT. 5.2 difficulty here, which isn't that bad for a junior. Needs to upgrade her tumbles of course, but this NEEDS to be seen at world and Olympic level.



Chantysha Netteb

Chantysha is weak on three events but really good on vault, she won the vault title at Euros and is alreayd upgrading. Hoping for good things from what looks like a Kaeslin/Steingruber type gymnast, and it also ties in nicely with Eythora specialising on beam/floor. She turns senior in 2013.

Beautiful form




Spain

Roxana Popa

(only actual photos of her are way too distant)

Roxana had a rough time at the Euros AA, counting a beam and floor fall. Mistakes aside, she is definitely one to keep an eye on, particularly on vault and floor but she could be strong all-around either as although beam and bars are weaker, they are by no means awful. One of the very few juniors outside of the USA with a DTY, in fact she might be the only one. (Well aware USA have some juniors with amanars, but they are an exception!) This ball of energy is great to watch, turning senior in 2013.

Great DTY, no need for an upgrade at all with the new code

Love how bouncy her choreography is, wish she would get into it more though. Very clean tumbling and decent power, lots to work with here.



Next up: The future stars of Eastern Europe and anywhere else