Ah, American Cup. The first international competition of the season, and always an interesting one. I'd have to say that the interest lies mainly in the fact that it showcases the top American gymnasts, the fact they they are there and will almost automatically take the top 2 of the 3 medals and prize money available (except a lot won't, since they aren't pro), the earliness of the season and the distance tends to put a lot of federations off. It's a huge factor in why the rest of the top 4 don't bother with it. To say it's moreso to do with the scoring and old butthurt from Aliya Mustafina losing to Jordyn Wieber is well, wishful thinking. It probably doesn't help, but I'd be very surprised if it was a major contributory factor.
In totally shocking news, Simone Biles dominated, as expected. We are seeing the most powerful gymnast ever, who will go down as one of the greatest, if not THE greatest. She certainly has quite a lot of people who do not appreciate her style of gymnastics, but she doesn't have to be the favourite to be the best.
As I was saying in the comments of my last post, I do not feel that she is beatable. She's on a different level and she's also on a trajectory...she showed upgrades here, and she so clearly has a lot more to give. The TTY alone would of course boost her phenomenal difficulty into the stratosphere, but even if she doesn't do that, it's the little things here and there..the Mustafina on bars, with maybe a Fabrichnova possible, the introduction of the Khorkina transition hopefully and a more valuable dance skill on floor, and even a bigger tumble for her last pass because hey, she looks capable of a double layout or similar there.
It all just puts her out of reach. Nanning Simone was already beyond everyone else, the American Cup one yet more so, and she's got plenty left in the tank as she gears up for the summer season heading into Glasgow, and the longer goal of Rio. Bailie Key is a magnificent gymnast and I am REALLY looking forward to seeing the two compete, but I just don't see Bailie being victorious. Especially because as mentioned, Simone still is not at her peak.
Back to the actual competition....watching her almost, almost stick that huge vault was just incredible. We've gotten so used to the big hop, but it just makes it so much more impressive. Would love to see her continue to land it like this, or with reduced movement on landing. She really has equalled McKayla Maroney with this vault and matching The Great One's Olympic score was I felt justified. It's good to see her bars routine progress from last year, where it was quite cookie-cutter, it was solid and the dismount was fantastic although I was disappointed we didn't see that extra half-turn, albeit knowing already she wasn't going to debut it there. I'm seriously in love with her BHS-LOSO-LOSO on beam, the highlight of the routine. A pity she was wobbly but it's very early in the season, I expect jittery beams in March. Floor blew me away with the competitive debut of the full-twisting double layout and the leap added to the Biles. They look fabulous, and while moving the Silivas to the third pass means it's a bit less explosive, the fact that it is third makes up for that. Considering the big hops on some of her landings, it was a bit overscored, and so were beam and bars, but not by much. A bit more than half a point altogether. And that's nothing, when it still means you can and will legitimately score over 61 internationally.
Considering how Mykayla Skinner looked in podium training, I'm glad she was able to keep it together in competition. I do love her DTY also. When she's 'on', I really enjoy some of her skills, and her power and enthusiasm. This Mykayla is just not there yet, and wasn't exactly the easiest to watch. It's hard not to think that her training seems to focus on skill acquisition, rather than honing and improving her form.
Not doing the AA isn't the wisest idea in the US National team, limiting the events you can bring in even a prelims score in. But, I think it would be a wise decision for Mykayla to focus on vault and floor. I'd love to see her be schooled on blocking, and really work on her leaps on floor, when she cannot be used on either beam or bars it seems like a waste to detract from time that could go to her star events. Jessica Lopez with her low difficulty but super form beating her for 2nd would have been a good wake-up call perhaps.
It was a bit of a disappointing competition with a few falls, Jessica Lopez threw away a medal on beam, Ellie Black fell on her ambitious clear hip-Shang and Claudia Fragapane had a heartbreaking complete meltdown on floor. That coupled with gymnasts like Mykayla Skinner and the ever-competing Vanessa Ferrari just seeming off...not the most thrilling world cup, and that's coming from a gigantic Simone Biles fan. I'm still trying to catch up on quite a few routines, not having been able to watch the competition live...it's a long one to sit through otherwise, and it's hampered by the fact that a good bit of my free time is going towards WWF/WWE videos on youtube, an old interest recently rekindled into basically an obsession. Just. So. Entertaining.
On that note, other than the falls and ill-preparedness forming the negatives along with the weak-ish field and Simone's awesomeness, new skills and great combinations from people like Ellie Black being the positives...it's a little difficult to sum up this competition.
What were your highlights? Do you see Bailie besting Simone? Can she legit do an 8.0 floor routine? How fun was Mykayla Skinner's hair? Is Jessica Lopez actually 12?
Showing posts with label Vanessa Ferrari. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Vanessa Ferrari. Show all posts
Tuesday, 10 March 2015
Saturday, 18 October 2014
EF Day 2: Beam and Floor
Bit of a delay on this, so let's pretend it just happened!
After the high of the first day of event finals, it was perhaps inevitable that the second day would be a letdown. Beam finals have been a bit desultory for a while now, and this one was no exception, in fact, it was worse than ever with only two gymnasts truly excelling. There was nothing wrong with floor, except for the debate over bronze. Beam went one better, with disputes over gold AND bronze.
Beam
Qualifying to this final were Yao Jinnan, Bai Yawen, Simone Biles, Kyla Ross, Aliya Mustafina, Larisa Iordache, Ellie Black and Asuka Teramoto. The favourite was Larisa Iordache with her huge routine, with Simone Biles, Aliya Mustafina and Bai Yawen chasing her. Last year's silver medallist Kyla Ross had too low a d-score to really contend.
So, what happened?
Bai Yawen hit a glorious routine without even the suggestion of a hesitation or wobble. Showcasing why exactly people love to watch Chinese gymnasts on beam...the precision of the elements. This was particularly impressive given the fact that she is quite unknown and inexperienced, wasn't given the opportunity to compete on the event in team finals despite having qualified to event finals on it already, and was not just facing national pressure to do well, but local too. The fact that she scored under 9.0 in execution, even taking into account the low execution scores on beam anyway, was, I thought, hard to justify. Step on dismount, horizontal chest on dismount, and perhaps an argument that she could have had better rhythm and flow. Really exceptional routine otherwise.
Simone Biles, facing beam again after two less than satisfactory routines in team finals and AA, showed us what she's made of and delivered a much steadier routine. She nailed her flight series, hit her connections, threw yet another killer dismount and left the judges without much to deduct. There were three hints of wobbles though in the routine, but despite those, she really moves very well on beam with great flow and rhythm. Her difficulty score was higher than Bai's and she moved into first, with the difference in execution not making up for the d-score advantage.
And that was a bit of an issue for me. Simone unquestionably performed a great routine and deserved a medal. Bai, though, outperformed her. There should have been greater disparity in their execution scores, not because Simone's execution was lacking, but because Bai's is so exceptional. She has a precision and control over every single element that is not present in Simone's routine, nor indeed in most other beam routines. I am reluctant to bring into the question how much it would have meant to Bai Yawen to take gold in front of her hometown crowd in a country where gold is everything and rewarded highly...but, yeah, it would have been great for that reason too.
That wasn't going to be an issue though, because Larisa Iordache was the favourite and would surely hit after doing so well in the AA and TF and after falling in London and Antwerp beam finals, surely it was her time to get lucky. And...she fell, on the tuck full this time. Disappointing isn't the word. She has really improved her form on this event even in just the last couple of months, at Euros for instance I found her quite sloppy. Sigh.
Yao Jinnan falls. She wasn't a challenger and after winning bars gold I doubt it was really a big deal, her smile after coming off on the layout seemed proof of that.
Ellie Black falls. A super hard routine and her one chance in an event final to shine, and she comes undone on the full. Devastating, especially given how open bronze was.
Kyla Ross performs, well, very untypically. A huge wobble, two smaller ones, broken connections and quite a slow routine. It's a long, tough week and I'm never surprised when a gymnast who does the AA in prelims, team finals AND AA on top of making event finals, falters at the end of the week. It's a pity as she could have quite easily taken bronze had she exhibited her usual steady, clean routine.
Aliya Mustafina is anything but predictable on beam. The reigning world champion, but so inconsistent. It starts off well but then she breaks completely during her series, and without time to fully remedy it. Some really nice elements to it, but without an acro series her d-score is way down. But as the final pans out..it's not too surprising that she overtakes the routines with falls and weaker routines.
Asuka Teramoto is bouncing back from falls on her layout in both the AA and team finals. It's so satisfying when she hits it beautifully this time. Unfortunately, the routine is marred by a myriad of broken connections and with her medium difficulty and questionable dismount, it's not enough and she stays behind Mustafina.
The fact that a hit, clean, beautiful routine is beaten by one without an acro series has resulted in a lot of backlash, with accusations that Mustafina's name and reputation held her up. Had Asuka perfectly hit her routine, I think it would be a different story and actually a judging scandal. But she did herself no favours with all of the broken connections and not-fully-around dismount so I can see how this happened. The fact that a routine with no acro series ended up on the podium is not a testament to judging scandal or the power of reputation. It is a damning indictment of how weak beam is at the moment.
All in all, not the most exciting of finals. 3 falls and just not the highest standard when you compare it to the depth of the other events. To me, it was missing Andreea Munteanu, Maria Kharenkova and Shang Chunsong. The latter was rumoured to be replacing Bai Yawen and I'm so glad she didn't, but it would have been nice to see the two alongside each other in the final (legitimately, not at the expense of Yao Jinnan). I don't dispute the bronze, but I would have liked to see the order of gold and silver reversed.
Floor
The favourite this time, Simone Biles, was highly unlikely to be ousted or beaten because of a fall. Fresh from victory on beam, she was slated to compete second last, conveniently building the excitement of the final to a crescendo. Alongside her were Mykayla Skinner, Vanessa Ferrari, Erika Fasana, Larisa Iordache, Larissa Miller, Claudia Fragapane and Aliya Mustafina. The skill level was through the roof, with a laid-out double-double, 5 tucked versions and a full-twising double layout.
Mykayla Skinner has impressed me at these worlds, and continued to do so in her last final. Sharper form, better execution, really strong landings. Her signature skill looked straighter than ever. Leaps are still letting her down but she tried hard with her choreography I thought. A strong effort and a good chance for a medal.
Larissa Miller was a surprise qualifier, and she knocked out the popular Roxana Popa. This exercise was a joy to watch for just how beautiful her tumbling was, textbook double arabian, gorgeous combination tumbling. Very floaty.
Larisa Iordache had to bounce back from the crushing disappointment of yet another beam medal thrown away, and she did so in spectacular fashion. The big question was going to be, could she equal Simone's d-score again by throwing the pike full-in at the end? She pulled it around convincingly, and stayed in bounds on her second pass this time. It's just fantastic to watch her in motion, as the motion just never stops. The enjoyment of what she does shines through every movement, every bounce.
When her score came in I thought it should have been closer to 15, but the explanation that her Gomez hadn't been fully around countered for some of that, but not all. In my opinion, she loses tenths for the bounciness, not necessarily landings, but after leaps and turns, it's a sign of not having full control I suppose. It wasn't going to able to push Simone or properly challenge her, which was a bit disappointing.
Vanessa Ferrari's routine was a little sluggish, with one bad landing and she also missed her tuck back connection after the full-in. Although it wasn't her best, it was still great. It's wonderful to see a 24-year-old gymnast throwing such hard tumbles so many years later, and one of them, the double layout, a recent upgrade. It was unfortunately clear that she wasn't going to be a medal challenger in spite of the difficulty.
Erika Fasana's routine didn't make much of an impression on me, I found it was a bit lost amongst the other finalists. Nice tumbling, but it just didn't have the full package to make it stand out.
Claudia Fragapane's routine is always a highlight. She looked ready. HUGE air on the first pass, too much, as she rebounded spectacularly to prone position. In all the falls we have seen, I have never seen one quite like that. It's strange too, we've been hearing complaints that the floor is quite hard, yet the stronger athletes have been having no problem, with some sticking less than usual with the extra bounce they get on landing. It was a big moment for Claudia and so crushing to come to grief within the first few seconds. She performed the rest of the routine admirably, still selling her impassioned dance to the crowds. I can't wait to see her continue to improve and polish her performance but she really had a great worlds despite the fall.
Simone Biles was second last. Another explosively energetic routine, this time with bouncier landings than previously. I never get tired of this floor, it's quite artistic in its own way, because of the performer. Only she and Larisa displayed that magnetic connection. And straight into gold with a half-point lead.
Aliya Mustafina sat her first pass just two days previous, but this time she not only landed it, but added back the two whips preceding the double arabian. She's never one you can rule in or out really, and clearly decided that in her last final she had nothing to lose and should go for broke. Not having the triple full is so refreshing and I do like her choreography, though it feels a little empty and that she could do much more. Given her injuries, how much she has to carry her team and the long week, I'd imagine endurance is an issue and getting through the routine cleanly is more important than really emphasising the artistry.
When she had finished, I thought, well that will be 4th and well deserved. At least she has beam. But then she ousted Mykayla Skinner's position by a fraction of a tenth, 0.33. The delighted surprise on her face contrasted with Skinner dissolving into tears. But, in another display of how great the latter has been at these, her first worlds, she quickly controlled herself and accepted her placement.
I'm not sure how I feel about bronze. On the one hand, Mykayla Skinner's routine really was deserving. On the other, Aliya Mustafina showed more of the full package with exceptional dance elements. It's hard to say whether Mykayla was hard done by, but in this case, I do think Aliya was held up by her name. Had Larissa Miller performed that exact routine, I think we would have seen two Americans on the podium.
Far be it from me to deny what a truly great gymnast Aliya Mustafina is. I was very disappointed when she counted a fall in the all-around and was looking forward to seeing her bring home some individual hardware besides the team bronze. Bars I thought was her best chance, and although I expected her to place higher, I was thrilled with that podium and certainly bronze was her best hope there. Beam, well, the girls who fell and Asuka were quite unlucky, but I don't think anyone was 'wronged' for Aliya's bronze there. Floor though, being who she is DID I feel help.
Did you agree with the podiums? Was anyone helped by having a name, or wronged by not having one? How much worse can beam finals get? How much better can Simone Biles get? How weird are my tenses here?
After the high of the first day of event finals, it was perhaps inevitable that the second day would be a letdown. Beam finals have been a bit desultory for a while now, and this one was no exception, in fact, it was worse than ever with only two gymnasts truly excelling. There was nothing wrong with floor, except for the debate over bronze. Beam went one better, with disputes over gold AND bronze.
Beam
Qualifying to this final were Yao Jinnan, Bai Yawen, Simone Biles, Kyla Ross, Aliya Mustafina, Larisa Iordache, Ellie Black and Asuka Teramoto. The favourite was Larisa Iordache with her huge routine, with Simone Biles, Aliya Mustafina and Bai Yawen chasing her. Last year's silver medallist Kyla Ross had too low a d-score to really contend.
So, what happened?
Bai Yawen hit a glorious routine without even the suggestion of a hesitation or wobble. Showcasing why exactly people love to watch Chinese gymnasts on beam...the precision of the elements. This was particularly impressive given the fact that she is quite unknown and inexperienced, wasn't given the opportunity to compete on the event in team finals despite having qualified to event finals on it already, and was not just facing national pressure to do well, but local too. The fact that she scored under 9.0 in execution, even taking into account the low execution scores on beam anyway, was, I thought, hard to justify. Step on dismount, horizontal chest on dismount, and perhaps an argument that she could have had better rhythm and flow. Really exceptional routine otherwise.
Simone Biles, facing beam again after two less than satisfactory routines in team finals and AA, showed us what she's made of and delivered a much steadier routine. She nailed her flight series, hit her connections, threw yet another killer dismount and left the judges without much to deduct. There were three hints of wobbles though in the routine, but despite those, she really moves very well on beam with great flow and rhythm. Her difficulty score was higher than Bai's and she moved into first, with the difference in execution not making up for the d-score advantage.
And that was a bit of an issue for me. Simone unquestionably performed a great routine and deserved a medal. Bai, though, outperformed her. There should have been greater disparity in their execution scores, not because Simone's execution was lacking, but because Bai's is so exceptional. She has a precision and control over every single element that is not present in Simone's routine, nor indeed in most other beam routines. I am reluctant to bring into the question how much it would have meant to Bai Yawen to take gold in front of her hometown crowd in a country where gold is everything and rewarded highly...but, yeah, it would have been great for that reason too.
That wasn't going to be an issue though, because Larisa Iordache was the favourite and would surely hit after doing so well in the AA and TF and after falling in London and Antwerp beam finals, surely it was her time to get lucky. And...she fell, on the tuck full this time. Disappointing isn't the word. She has really improved her form on this event even in just the last couple of months, at Euros for instance I found her quite sloppy. Sigh.
Yao Jinnan falls. She wasn't a challenger and after winning bars gold I doubt it was really a big deal, her smile after coming off on the layout seemed proof of that.
Ellie Black falls. A super hard routine and her one chance in an event final to shine, and she comes undone on the full. Devastating, especially given how open bronze was.
Kyla Ross performs, well, very untypically. A huge wobble, two smaller ones, broken connections and quite a slow routine. It's a long, tough week and I'm never surprised when a gymnast who does the AA in prelims, team finals AND AA on top of making event finals, falters at the end of the week. It's a pity as she could have quite easily taken bronze had she exhibited her usual steady, clean routine.
Aliya Mustafina is anything but predictable on beam. The reigning world champion, but so inconsistent. It starts off well but then she breaks completely during her series, and without time to fully remedy it. Some really nice elements to it, but without an acro series her d-score is way down. But as the final pans out..it's not too surprising that she overtakes the routines with falls and weaker routines.
Asuka Teramoto is bouncing back from falls on her layout in both the AA and team finals. It's so satisfying when she hits it beautifully this time. Unfortunately, the routine is marred by a myriad of broken connections and with her medium difficulty and questionable dismount, it's not enough and she stays behind Mustafina.
The fact that a hit, clean, beautiful routine is beaten by one without an acro series has resulted in a lot of backlash, with accusations that Mustafina's name and reputation held her up. Had Asuka perfectly hit her routine, I think it would be a different story and actually a judging scandal. But she did herself no favours with all of the broken connections and not-fully-around dismount so I can see how this happened. The fact that a routine with no acro series ended up on the podium is not a testament to judging scandal or the power of reputation. It is a damning indictment of how weak beam is at the moment.
All in all, not the most exciting of finals. 3 falls and just not the highest standard when you compare it to the depth of the other events. To me, it was missing Andreea Munteanu, Maria Kharenkova and Shang Chunsong. The latter was rumoured to be replacing Bai Yawen and I'm so glad she didn't, but it would have been nice to see the two alongside each other in the final (legitimately, not at the expense of Yao Jinnan). I don't dispute the bronze, but I would have liked to see the order of gold and silver reversed.
Floor
The favourite this time, Simone Biles, was highly unlikely to be ousted or beaten because of a fall. Fresh from victory on beam, she was slated to compete second last, conveniently building the excitement of the final to a crescendo. Alongside her were Mykayla Skinner, Vanessa Ferrari, Erika Fasana, Larisa Iordache, Larissa Miller, Claudia Fragapane and Aliya Mustafina. The skill level was through the roof, with a laid-out double-double, 5 tucked versions and a full-twising double layout.
Mykayla Skinner has impressed me at these worlds, and continued to do so in her last final. Sharper form, better execution, really strong landings. Her signature skill looked straighter than ever. Leaps are still letting her down but she tried hard with her choreography I thought. A strong effort and a good chance for a medal.
Larissa Miller was a surprise qualifier, and she knocked out the popular Roxana Popa. This exercise was a joy to watch for just how beautiful her tumbling was, textbook double arabian, gorgeous combination tumbling. Very floaty.
Larisa Iordache had to bounce back from the crushing disappointment of yet another beam medal thrown away, and she did so in spectacular fashion. The big question was going to be, could she equal Simone's d-score again by throwing the pike full-in at the end? She pulled it around convincingly, and stayed in bounds on her second pass this time. It's just fantastic to watch her in motion, as the motion just never stops. The enjoyment of what she does shines through every movement, every bounce.
When her score came in I thought it should have been closer to 15, but the explanation that her Gomez hadn't been fully around countered for some of that, but not all. In my opinion, she loses tenths for the bounciness, not necessarily landings, but after leaps and turns, it's a sign of not having full control I suppose. It wasn't going to able to push Simone or properly challenge her, which was a bit disappointing.
Vanessa Ferrari's routine was a little sluggish, with one bad landing and she also missed her tuck back connection after the full-in. Although it wasn't her best, it was still great. It's wonderful to see a 24-year-old gymnast throwing such hard tumbles so many years later, and one of them, the double layout, a recent upgrade. It was unfortunately clear that she wasn't going to be a medal challenger in spite of the difficulty.
Erika Fasana's routine didn't make much of an impression on me, I found it was a bit lost amongst the other finalists. Nice tumbling, but it just didn't have the full package to make it stand out.
Claudia Fragapane's routine is always a highlight. She looked ready. HUGE air on the first pass, too much, as she rebounded spectacularly to prone position. In all the falls we have seen, I have never seen one quite like that. It's strange too, we've been hearing complaints that the floor is quite hard, yet the stronger athletes have been having no problem, with some sticking less than usual with the extra bounce they get on landing. It was a big moment for Claudia and so crushing to come to grief within the first few seconds. She performed the rest of the routine admirably, still selling her impassioned dance to the crowds. I can't wait to see her continue to improve and polish her performance but she really had a great worlds despite the fall.
Simone Biles was second last. Another explosively energetic routine, this time with bouncier landings than previously. I never get tired of this floor, it's quite artistic in its own way, because of the performer. Only she and Larisa displayed that magnetic connection. And straight into gold with a half-point lead.
Aliya Mustafina sat her first pass just two days previous, but this time she not only landed it, but added back the two whips preceding the double arabian. She's never one you can rule in or out really, and clearly decided that in her last final she had nothing to lose and should go for broke. Not having the triple full is so refreshing and I do like her choreography, though it feels a little empty and that she could do much more. Given her injuries, how much she has to carry her team and the long week, I'd imagine endurance is an issue and getting through the routine cleanly is more important than really emphasising the artistry.
When she had finished, I thought, well that will be 4th and well deserved. At least she has beam. But then she ousted Mykayla Skinner's position by a fraction of a tenth, 0.33. The delighted surprise on her face contrasted with Skinner dissolving into tears. But, in another display of how great the latter has been at these, her first worlds, she quickly controlled herself and accepted her placement.
I'm not sure how I feel about bronze. On the one hand, Mykayla Skinner's routine really was deserving. On the other, Aliya Mustafina showed more of the full package with exceptional dance elements. It's hard to say whether Mykayla was hard done by, but in this case, I do think Aliya was held up by her name. Had Larissa Miller performed that exact routine, I think we would have seen two Americans on the podium.
Far be it from me to deny what a truly great gymnast Aliya Mustafina is. I was very disappointed when she counted a fall in the all-around and was looking forward to seeing her bring home some individual hardware besides the team bronze. Bars I thought was her best chance, and although I expected her to place higher, I was thrilled with that podium and certainly bronze was her best hope there. Beam, well, the girls who fell and Asuka were quite unlucky, but I don't think anyone was 'wronged' for Aliya's bronze there. Floor though, being who she is DID I feel help.
Did you agree with the podiums? Was anyone helped by having a name, or wronged by not having one? How much worse can beam finals get? How much better can Simone Biles get? How weird are my tenses here?
Saturday, 13 September 2014
Worlds Predictions
Ahhh, that time of year :D I have a massive advantage on the last one as worlds are actually in a few weeks instead of a year.
I won't do teams as they are all largely in place or with very little room to manouevre, even the US. I will say that I don't see Brenna Dowell on the team. In my mind it's Simone Biles, Kyla Ross, Mykayla Skinner, Alyssa Baumann, Madison Kocian and Ashton Locklear.
Moving on to the fun
The All-Around
1. Simone Biles
Woah, unorthodox choice I know! She hasn't raised the roof on her difficulty level since Antwerp..bars and beam changes probably cancel each other out. What she has done is clean up, she's technically better than ever AND her landings are so much more precise. It will all help. I think she would need to fall and have a significant other error for someone to have a shot at catching up to her.
2. Aliya Mustafina
3. Kyla Ross
I'm not overly confident in the order of these two. Aliya looked super strong at Russian Cup, better overall than last year. Kyla meanwhile has downgraded further. It's hard to know. Larisa HAS upgraded her floor and beam and her bars look stronger than ever...so she could of course feature here. The reason why she doesn't is because she has never gotten it together in the AA when it really counts while the other two are absolute beasts in competition.
4.(th again) Larisa Iordache
5. Vanessa Ferrari
Vanessa still looks very strong. Larisa will fall off beam I think.
Team Final
1. USA
SHOCKER. It won't be easy as we all would have imagined at the beginning of the year. Losing Ebee, McKayla Maroney and injuries to Peyton Ernst, Maggie Nichols, Lexie Priessman with no Fierce 5 comebacks...it's definitely not a glorious pool of depth. But they still have the goods..even though China technically has higher potential d-scores.
2. China
3. Russia
4. Great Britain
5. Romania
Now I'm really not confident in this..but at the moment it makes the most sense. China have killer, and I mean killer, bar routines. Their lowest d-score out of 4 is 6.7-8. If they all hit then it's a major boost. Likewise with beam, strong potential there as usual. Russia are just...not really a strong team. And just today they have lost Ekaterina Kramarenko. Viktoria Komova will almost surely be on the team now, but they'll still be weak. As ever, Aliya Mustafina does not a team make and she'll be carrying them. The second strongest team member is Maria Kharenkova. Together I can see them dragging the team above the twin onslaught of GB and Romania.
Romania recently spectacularly lost to Germany. It makes me very unsure of how equipped they are to deal with GB. GB are lacking depth in some areas but may still be able to surpass a greatly weakened Romania who didn't even choose a team as there was nobody to leave behind.
GB..hmmm, mystery. I'm not sure what the story is with Raer Theaker and Rebecca Tunney but I got the impression they're not going to be in contention? Gabby Jupp on the other hand is back! This could go either way for them. 4th would be an enormous achievement even with their new strength. 5th is just as likely. Romania veer from 3rd to 5th to me, they don't have 'it' for 2nd this year at least I don't think.
Vault Qualifiers
Simone Biles
Mykayla Skinner
Giulia Steingruber
Oksana Chusovitina
Hong un Jong
Phan Thi Ha Thanh
Ellie Black
Maria Paseka
I'm a little stumped here, I feel a bit out of the loop. Hmmm. *Added Maria Paseka! We could see a suicidal Prod though of course. Perhaps Mahmoud as the last I saw of Pena she didn't look particularly strong and crashed a layout front if I remember correctly.
Bars Qualifiers
Ashton Locklear
Becky Downie
Ruby Harrold
Yao Jinnan
Huang Huidan
Aliya Mustafina
Daria Spiridonova
Kyla Ross
Madison has more difficulty than Kyla, but not as clean.
Floor Qualifiers
Simone Biles
Mykayla Skinner
Larisa Iordache
Shang Chunsong
Claudia Frangapane
Giulia Steingruber
Vanessa Ferrari
Roxana Popa
I haven't seen a huge amount of great floors this year. Mai Murakami is struggling at the moment, I don't see her getting her tumbles back and into this final, sadly.
Beam Final
Larisa Iordache
Kyla Ross
Simone Biles
Aliya Mustafina
Maria Kharenkova
Shang Chunsong
Bai Yawen
Andreea Munteanu
I'm very confident in this finals line-up, out of all the EF ones.
Vault podium
1. Simone Biles
2. Mykayla Skinner
3. Giulia Steingruber
Ta-dah! So that was straightforward enough.
Bars Podium
1. Yao Jinnan
2. Huang Huidan
3. Becky Downie
Yeah so this is impossible! The Russians have lesser difficulty which could get Becky into the medals if she hits everything for hers. Much like Euros. This is one of those predictions that feels right, but so many variables involved..
Beam Podium
1. Larisa Iordache
2. Maria Kharenkova
3. Bai Yawen
BOOM, Larisa has to hit beam in a final when it actually matters, just once. Maria is quite steady with a lot of difficulty...but I have big issues with silver and bronze. Where is Kyla, how will Bai Yawen be scored, what about Simone's higher difficulty now...all legit concerns. It's a tough one.
Floor Podium
1. Simone Biles
2. Larisa Iordache
3. Vanessa Ferrari
All 3 of these routines have 6.5 difficulty. Gold is obvious. Not so much the others. I dumped Mykayla Skinner after comments made me look harder at Vanessa Ferrari who I initially forgot about for floor finals altogether and needed reminding from Cordelia Price! Mykayla does have a good shot though at this podium.
Even when we're this close, there's still a huge amount of 'what if'. What's right here, what's definitely wrong? What's downright bizarre?
I won't do teams as they are all largely in place or with very little room to manouevre, even the US. I will say that I don't see Brenna Dowell on the team. In my mind it's Simone Biles, Kyla Ross, Mykayla Skinner, Alyssa Baumann, Madison Kocian and Ashton Locklear.
Moving on to the fun
The All-Around
1. Simone Biles
Woah, unorthodox choice I know! She hasn't raised the roof on her difficulty level since Antwerp..bars and beam changes probably cancel each other out. What she has done is clean up, she's technically better than ever AND her landings are so much more precise. It will all help. I think she would need to fall and have a significant other error for someone to have a shot at catching up to her.
2. Aliya Mustafina
3. Kyla Ross
I'm not overly confident in the order of these two. Aliya looked super strong at Russian Cup, better overall than last year. Kyla meanwhile has downgraded further. It's hard to know. Larisa HAS upgraded her floor and beam and her bars look stronger than ever...so she could of course feature here. The reason why she doesn't is because she has never gotten it together in the AA when it really counts while the other two are absolute beasts in competition.
4.(th again) Larisa Iordache
5. Vanessa Ferrari
Vanessa still looks very strong. Larisa will fall off beam I think.
Team Final
1. USA
SHOCKER. It won't be easy as we all would have imagined at the beginning of the year. Losing Ebee, McKayla Maroney and injuries to Peyton Ernst, Maggie Nichols, Lexie Priessman with no Fierce 5 comebacks...it's definitely not a glorious pool of depth. But they still have the goods..even though China technically has higher potential d-scores.
2. China
3. Russia
4. Great Britain
5. Romania
Now I'm really not confident in this..but at the moment it makes the most sense. China have killer, and I mean killer, bar routines. Their lowest d-score out of 4 is 6.7-8. If they all hit then it's a major boost. Likewise with beam, strong potential there as usual. Russia are just...not really a strong team. And just today they have lost Ekaterina Kramarenko. Viktoria Komova will almost surely be on the team now, but they'll still be weak. As ever, Aliya Mustafina does not a team make and she'll be carrying them. The second strongest team member is Maria Kharenkova. Together I can see them dragging the team above the twin onslaught of GB and Romania.
Romania recently spectacularly lost to Germany. It makes me very unsure of how equipped they are to deal with GB. GB are lacking depth in some areas but may still be able to surpass a greatly weakened Romania who didn't even choose a team as there was nobody to leave behind.
GB..hmmm, mystery. I'm not sure what the story is with Raer Theaker and Rebecca Tunney but I got the impression they're not going to be in contention? Gabby Jupp on the other hand is back! This could go either way for them. 4th would be an enormous achievement even with their new strength. 5th is just as likely. Romania veer from 3rd to 5th to me, they don't have 'it' for 2nd this year at least I don't think.
Vault Qualifiers
Simone Biles
Mykayla Skinner
Giulia Steingruber
Oksana Chusovitina
Hong un Jong
Phan Thi Ha Thanh
Ellie Black
Maria Paseka
I'm a little stumped here, I feel a bit out of the loop. Hmmm. *Added Maria Paseka! We could see a suicidal Prod though of course. Perhaps Mahmoud as the last I saw of Pena she didn't look particularly strong and crashed a layout front if I remember correctly.
Bars Qualifiers
Ashton Locklear
Becky Downie
Ruby Harrold
Yao Jinnan
Huang Huidan
Aliya Mustafina
Daria Spiridonova
Kyla Ross
Madison has more difficulty than Kyla, but not as clean.
Floor Qualifiers
Simone Biles
Mykayla Skinner
Larisa Iordache
Shang Chunsong
Claudia Frangapane
Giulia Steingruber
Vanessa Ferrari
Roxana Popa
I haven't seen a huge amount of great floors this year. Mai Murakami is struggling at the moment, I don't see her getting her tumbles back and into this final, sadly.
Beam Final
Larisa Iordache
Kyla Ross
Simone Biles
Aliya Mustafina
Maria Kharenkova
Shang Chunsong
Bai Yawen
Andreea Munteanu
I'm very confident in this finals line-up, out of all the EF ones.
Vault podium
1. Simone Biles
2. Mykayla Skinner
3. Giulia Steingruber
Ta-dah! So that was straightforward enough.
Bars Podium
1. Yao Jinnan
2. Huang Huidan
3. Becky Downie
Yeah so this is impossible! The Russians have lesser difficulty which could get Becky into the medals if she hits everything for hers. Much like Euros. This is one of those predictions that feels right, but so many variables involved..
Beam Podium
1. Larisa Iordache
2. Maria Kharenkova
3. Bai Yawen
BOOM, Larisa has to hit beam in a final when it actually matters, just once. Maria is quite steady with a lot of difficulty...but I have big issues with silver and bronze. Where is Kyla, how will Bai Yawen be scored, what about Simone's higher difficulty now...all legit concerns. It's a tough one.
Floor Podium
1. Simone Biles
2. Larisa Iordache
3. Vanessa Ferrari
All 3 of these routines have 6.5 difficulty. Gold is obvious. Not so much the others. I dumped Mykayla Skinner after comments made me look harder at Vanessa Ferrari who I initially forgot about for floor finals altogether and needed reminding from Cordelia Price! Mykayla does have a good shot though at this podium.
Even when we're this close, there's still a huge amount of 'what if'. What's right here, what's definitely wrong? What's downright bizarre?
Sunday, 2 March 2014
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
It just rocks- deep purple bodice colour, white accents, the neckline, the back, use of mesh.
Classy, and so suited to her- elegant design, but also a bit badass just like her.
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?
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 :) |
 | |
| 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 |
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?
Friday, 1 November 2013
Worlds Experience/Competition Part 4
Finally! I started on Sunday in part 3. Read Part 3 here, Part 2 here and Part 1 here.
Sunday
Sadly, stalking efforts proved to be futile. Yao Jinnan was spotted but athletes get in to the arena a lot faster with accreditation than spectators who need their tickets scanned. She was wearing black, had chips, and got to her seat in the upper stands in record time. End of sighting! Once they get there, you can't go down to them, though we did try. Our seats were in the last stand on the floor side, which was sort of lower then the upper stands. Traipsed back up the stairs again after heading back down after spotting Yao, and all the way over to the stand...except we couldn't get in. One of the FIG cameras was blocking the stand, so spare seats were arranged. These seats were..you guessed it..nowhere near the stand. They were near parallel bars, just beyond the curve, and still in the upper stands. Very far from beam, okay for floor. I asked if we could sit nearer to beam but it wasn't happening. Damnit FIG, those who had tickets for that stand should have been assigned tickets nearer. There were seats right in front of floor that weren't occupied...
Moving on! Epke Zonderland qualified for two of Sunday's finals so the curved end of the stand where parallel bars and high bar was were covered in Dutch fans. I kept thinking all of people bedecked in orange were security heh. Great atmosphere from the beginning.
Men's Vault
Loved watching this, so powerful! And a great contrast to women's vault as there weren't any vaults I felt I should close my eyes for. Ahh, the double front as it should be done..refreshing. Not to mention the awesomeness of a Dragulescu. But the highlight by far, and moreso even than the legend that is Yang Hak Seon and his vaults was Kristian Thomas' STUCK yurchenko double pike. Wow just doesn't cover it. The crowd loved it of course, great buzz. He injured his knee earlier this year so didn't have time to upgrade his second vault..and lost his hold on silver as a result. Thrilled it was enough to still medal though, and in a stacked final at that.
Beam
Sadly, I was much further away than I anticipated being so they didn't look much bigger than ants up there. The growing sense of excitement that Aliya Mustafina was up there nailing everything and not even wobbling was so exhilarating. Like..wait a second..she doesn't have much left to do..just the dismount..what even is this, the best beam routine of her life? She still paused for the obligatory cup of tea while breathing before the dismount but it was well worth it since it was almost stuck. Sure, she missed the double turn connection as usual and the acro pass is indeed weak but...it was unbelievable to watch the ultimate competitor destroy her weakest apparatus like that. Masterful.
And an enquiry into Mustafina's d score. Hmm. Carlotta Ferlito's leotard offended my eyes, even from that distance. A total contrast to her lovely blue leo in the AA, but it definitely stood out in the arena so..job done in that regard. Her routine was steady, typically Italian but I just didn't get anything from it really. It wasn't beautiful or particularly dynamic. Her legs on the dismount were gross too. I'm not just saying this in hindsight of what happened when she opened her mouth, I just didn't see a whole lot in this routine to get excited about, although her acro series and the ease of her back tuck in combination was nice. Vanessa's routine was similar, but I like hers better. She seems to exude more attitude and make the beam her own. Another fine routine from the steady veteran. Annnnd..the enquiry for Mustafina's routine is rejected. Nor happy bunnies in the Russia camp.
I loved Shang Chunsong's leotard. A bit of a departure from China, but lovely all the same. Sadly, her beam thus far had not been living up to its standards earlier this year where at Anadia it wasn't far off flawless. What a stunning mount! I did kind of like the staccato robot choreography this routine has going on earlier this year, since it was different and suited her..but the more I see it, the more the lack of choreography annoys me. Aside from the big wobble, it looked like a great routine to me..it took the replay for me to see the not-so-obvious errors, like her switch ring. It was as if she just didn't give it her all, for fear of falling. Nevertheless, her score was far too harsh. Maybe not harsh if everyone was scored on the same plane, but it does seem like the execution panels just didn't like her. Vendettas are not cute. But the height on her layout is..
Sidenote..really enjoyed the songs playing softly in the background during this final. Beam is VERY silent and tense, so it was a nice touch.
Simone Biles steps up and beams. Curious to know whether she can hit again, after such an exhausting slog leading up to worlds and the excitement of her all-around win, not to mention vault and bars finals the day before. The 2.5 wolf is still great, very smart upgrade for her. Mostly steady, tiny wobble there..bigger wobble somewhere else but still fine. But the dismount was surprising, she seemed a good bit lower on landing than usual, and took a big step. Still a strong routine, but she's tired.
The camera shows up Aliya Mustafina using pen and paper to calculate a routine. It is NOT hers, it shows c+f, which is Anna Rodionova's BHS+Arabian combination. Kinda cute, looking out for her...not showing a whole bunch of faith in the judges though. Neither is Simone Biles' coach, who submits enquiry number two. Super, super distracting..trying to watch routines..eyes getting drawn to the scoreboard to see if the asterisk which denotes an enquiry having been submitted is still there.
Kyla Ross is in the same leo Bailie Key and Laurie Hernandez wore to the Japan Junior. It's a nice cherry colour, so I think I still like it. Kyla is known to have endurance issues so I'm wondering how well she is coping in that regard. No need to be concerned, it's another super clean and secure routine! She even gets the aerial-wolf connection in at the end. Her lines make her so lovely to watch in action. Pity her dismount didn't have as good a landing as she usually shows. Jenny running to her afterwards was so endearing.
I'm super nervous about Larisa Iordache, who not only fell on beam in the all-around, but was also falling in warm-ups before the final began. Just not healthy enough yet? Or possibly down to big-match temperament. (Ooo, enquiry number 3, for Kyla this time). Annnd...falls on the tuck full, very similar to London event finals. You could practically hear hearts breaking everywhere, as there was a quite a contingent of Romanian fans. Before she sets up for the layout (which she nails), the buzzer for overtime goes off and it flashes up red. Lovely. At least it didn't go off before she fell, or it would be blamed, but that should absolutely not be happening at worlds. The rest of the routine is slightly hesitant but still great, and the triple, though not the cleanest, is as great and fully around as ever. Devastating that she fell..
Anna Rodionova is up last, wearing my favourite Russian leo- so stunning! Like Becky Downie on bars, not holding out much hope as she may well have used up her consistency these championships already. Glorious toepoint, so elegant. Here it comes....and, fall. Damn. The most ambitious move in the whole final. The groan when she fell reverberated all around the arena. Lovely leaps, my angle is at least good for seeing the degree of split. Hilariously long pause before her dismount - how Russian that is these days - but pretty much sticks it, excellent way to finish off this routine. Valuable experience for her.
Parallel Bars
I've got the best view in the house, sigh. I've discovered Aly Raisman and her mother, and Al Fong and Armine Barutyan in the stand below me and to the left. Aly is as loud as ever. Al Fong didn't seem to clap or react for anything, but then I didn't watch him all the time or anything. Sad to see two routines on the bars come to grief, but amazing to see John Orozco hit a great routine, after the monumentally shitty year and a half he had. Kohei Uchimura was a joy to watch, and so was Lin Chaopan. Much more interesting in person, this final.
Floor
And hopes die for McKayla Maroney to magically appear when the gymnasts march out. I knew they wouldn't switch her in as the better medal hope, but I was hoping that for some other magical reason that she'd appear. To preserve Kyla's energy? Anyway, I have no quibble with an athlete who earned her place actually using it.
Vanessa Ferrari has changed leo, and it's quite nice actually! A great floor from her, super tumbling, very sure of herself. I do like her choreography but I think there's something lacking - other than execution sometimes. Expression I think. Score is a little high, but since she's first that's not much indication.
I FINALLY get to see Mai Murakami do a routine, hurray! She bounces up, adorable as ever. Lots of fear for her landings, which have been very low sometimes this year...but she pretty much nails them, with only minor adjustments. There's no other word for it, she completely lights up the arena and captivates the crowd with her smile. This is expression! She's always had unusual music which is never really able to turn the crowd, but she still draws everyone in effortlessly. Her leaps are still iffy, and the Gogean is bad, but I can't seem to care. Manages the triple okay, phew! When her score flashed up, placing her below Ferrari, I cried. An absolute disgraceful piece of judging. And then the screen showed her shocked face. :'( Her score was actually booed and rightfully so.
Simone Biles is the ideal tonic to get over a shock like that. Bounced her way around the floor and unfortunately, out of her landings too. She may not be the best dancer, and she could have a routine that utilises the dance skills she does have better, but...like Mai Murakami, she expresses the hell out of her routine and charms everyone in the process. The double layout half is still surprising with the turn coming from nowhere. A fabulous routine that definitely deserved gold, but not her best due to the landings.
Larisa Iordache is of course fresh from the gutting disappointment of having the beam title in your hand and losing it. But you wouldn't know it, she's full of energy and vitality, bouncing and dancing around the floor. This routine is a bit more mature than the previous one, but still suits her perfectly. She just seems to move more than the rest. Fantastic tumbling, just a great routine. I love when gymnasts bounce back so well. But..doesn't surpass Vanessa Ferrari who is clearly getting bonus points from the judges for losing the tiebreak last year. Lovely.
Giulia Steingruber's tumbling is fantastic, a full in double layout followed by 'just' a regular double layout. Amazing! The rest of the routine isn't great, she's a bit sloppy but still, very strong. Sandra Izbasa is up, looking very regal in a blue leotard. I really like this music but I don't think her choreography really works with it very well? As in, a lesser gymnast would look a bit lost with it. The tumbling is all going well, it's shaping up for at least a silver and then...crashes the last pass, in the exact same manner as at London. There was a general sense of disbelief that the same thing had happened two years in a row, and for her last routine too. Sandra was so admirable, straight up smiling and waving and so dignified waving at the camera when her score was shown. What a shame though.
I just love the improvement in Kyla Ross' artistry and choreography in the last while. Her first two passes are so well done and that whip noise bit is fantastic. Another strong routine but she just doesn't have the difficulty here to make an impact. Elsabeth Black who sadly didn't qualify for vault finals, rounded off this floor final. I LOVE the 2.5 stepout and this routine does have other moments of greatness but her execution did let her down a bit.
All in all, beam and floor had plenty of surprises and more than their fair share of disappointments. A bit of a letdown compared to Saturday's women's finals.
High Bar
The Dutch crew amped up completely when this final was announced and the roar when Epke Zonderland a) appeared, b) was announced and c) did anything at all was utterly deafening, but so much fun to be a part of. A truly epic routine, though yes those leg and knee separations are very obvious. Still, so so exciting to witness with the huge crowd support and then he just goes ahead and sticks the landing, bringing the roof down. Epic! Fabian Hambuechen, Kohei Uchimura, Samuel Mikulak (who danced his way off the podium :D) and Jossimar Moreno were all total crowd pleasers. A mindblowing final!
We had to leave shortly after the medal ceremonies started to get the train on time. Failed anyway and had a good bit of a wait..so I could have seen them all really! And then a mild panic to get to the gate on time, helped along by my missing several bottles of water and orange juice in one of my bags...so smart. Got there, and the flight was delayed, amalgamated with an earlier flight that had been cancelled...delayed again on the plane, and then delayed at passport control in Dublin. I collapsed into bed and you guessed it, the next day at college I arrived at 08:30 for my class starting at 10:00 because I forgot to change back the time on my phone. But nevertheless, a non-stop thrilling and just unforgettable weekend. Next stop, Glasgow! :D
It's actually quite difficult to condense the experience of watching the competition live. I'm really looking forward to a review post of worlds though, this weekend. Reviewing is much more up my street than faithfully recounting, I feel! Apologies all of these posts are so long. The review one will be a killer too, but after that they should be fairly normal again...
Sunday
Sadly, stalking efforts proved to be futile. Yao Jinnan was spotted but athletes get in to the arena a lot faster with accreditation than spectators who need their tickets scanned. She was wearing black, had chips, and got to her seat in the upper stands in record time. End of sighting! Once they get there, you can't go down to them, though we did try. Our seats were in the last stand on the floor side, which was sort of lower then the upper stands. Traipsed back up the stairs again after heading back down after spotting Yao, and all the way over to the stand...except we couldn't get in. One of the FIG cameras was blocking the stand, so spare seats were arranged. These seats were..you guessed it..nowhere near the stand. They were near parallel bars, just beyond the curve, and still in the upper stands. Very far from beam, okay for floor. I asked if we could sit nearer to beam but it wasn't happening. Damnit FIG, those who had tickets for that stand should have been assigned tickets nearer. There were seats right in front of floor that weren't occupied...
Moving on! Epke Zonderland qualified for two of Sunday's finals so the curved end of the stand where parallel bars and high bar was were covered in Dutch fans. I kept thinking all of people bedecked in orange were security heh. Great atmosphere from the beginning.
Men's Vault
Loved watching this, so powerful! And a great contrast to women's vault as there weren't any vaults I felt I should close my eyes for. Ahh, the double front as it should be done..refreshing. Not to mention the awesomeness of a Dragulescu. But the highlight by far, and moreso even than the legend that is Yang Hak Seon and his vaults was Kristian Thomas' STUCK yurchenko double pike. Wow just doesn't cover it. The crowd loved it of course, great buzz. He injured his knee earlier this year so didn't have time to upgrade his second vault..and lost his hold on silver as a result. Thrilled it was enough to still medal though, and in a stacked final at that.
Beam
Sadly, I was much further away than I anticipated being so they didn't look much bigger than ants up there. The growing sense of excitement that Aliya Mustafina was up there nailing everything and not even wobbling was so exhilarating. Like..wait a second..she doesn't have much left to do..just the dismount..what even is this, the best beam routine of her life? She still paused for the obligatory cup of tea while breathing before the dismount but it was well worth it since it was almost stuck. Sure, she missed the double turn connection as usual and the acro pass is indeed weak but...it was unbelievable to watch the ultimate competitor destroy her weakest apparatus like that. Masterful.
And an enquiry into Mustafina's d score. Hmm. Carlotta Ferlito's leotard offended my eyes, even from that distance. A total contrast to her lovely blue leo in the AA, but it definitely stood out in the arena so..job done in that regard. Her routine was steady, typically Italian but I just didn't get anything from it really. It wasn't beautiful or particularly dynamic. Her legs on the dismount were gross too. I'm not just saying this in hindsight of what happened when she opened her mouth, I just didn't see a whole lot in this routine to get excited about, although her acro series and the ease of her back tuck in combination was nice. Vanessa's routine was similar, but I like hers better. She seems to exude more attitude and make the beam her own. Another fine routine from the steady veteran. Annnnd..the enquiry for Mustafina's routine is rejected. Nor happy bunnies in the Russia camp.
I loved Shang Chunsong's leotard. A bit of a departure from China, but lovely all the same. Sadly, her beam thus far had not been living up to its standards earlier this year where at Anadia it wasn't far off flawless. What a stunning mount! I did kind of like the staccato robot choreography this routine has going on earlier this year, since it was different and suited her..but the more I see it, the more the lack of choreography annoys me. Aside from the big wobble, it looked like a great routine to me..it took the replay for me to see the not-so-obvious errors, like her switch ring. It was as if she just didn't give it her all, for fear of falling. Nevertheless, her score was far too harsh. Maybe not harsh if everyone was scored on the same plane, but it does seem like the execution panels just didn't like her. Vendettas are not cute. But the height on her layout is..
Sidenote..really enjoyed the songs playing softly in the background during this final. Beam is VERY silent and tense, so it was a nice touch.
Simone Biles steps up and beams. Curious to know whether she can hit again, after such an exhausting slog leading up to worlds and the excitement of her all-around win, not to mention vault and bars finals the day before. The 2.5 wolf is still great, very smart upgrade for her. Mostly steady, tiny wobble there..bigger wobble somewhere else but still fine. But the dismount was surprising, she seemed a good bit lower on landing than usual, and took a big step. Still a strong routine, but she's tired.
The camera shows up Aliya Mustafina using pen and paper to calculate a routine. It is NOT hers, it shows c+f, which is Anna Rodionova's BHS+Arabian combination. Kinda cute, looking out for her...not showing a whole bunch of faith in the judges though. Neither is Simone Biles' coach, who submits enquiry number two. Super, super distracting..trying to watch routines..eyes getting drawn to the scoreboard to see if the asterisk which denotes an enquiry having been submitted is still there.
Kyla Ross is in the same leo Bailie Key and Laurie Hernandez wore to the Japan Junior. It's a nice cherry colour, so I think I still like it. Kyla is known to have endurance issues so I'm wondering how well she is coping in that regard. No need to be concerned, it's another super clean and secure routine! She even gets the aerial-wolf connection in at the end. Her lines make her so lovely to watch in action. Pity her dismount didn't have as good a landing as she usually shows. Jenny running to her afterwards was so endearing.
I'm super nervous about Larisa Iordache, who not only fell on beam in the all-around, but was also falling in warm-ups before the final began. Just not healthy enough yet? Or possibly down to big-match temperament. (Ooo, enquiry number 3, for Kyla this time). Annnd...falls on the tuck full, very similar to London event finals. You could practically hear hearts breaking everywhere, as there was a quite a contingent of Romanian fans. Before she sets up for the layout (which she nails), the buzzer for overtime goes off and it flashes up red. Lovely. At least it didn't go off before she fell, or it would be blamed, but that should absolutely not be happening at worlds. The rest of the routine is slightly hesitant but still great, and the triple, though not the cleanest, is as great and fully around as ever. Devastating that she fell..
Anna Rodionova is up last, wearing my favourite Russian leo- so stunning! Like Becky Downie on bars, not holding out much hope as she may well have used up her consistency these championships already. Glorious toepoint, so elegant. Here it comes....and, fall. Damn. The most ambitious move in the whole final. The groan when she fell reverberated all around the arena. Lovely leaps, my angle is at least good for seeing the degree of split. Hilariously long pause before her dismount - how Russian that is these days - but pretty much sticks it, excellent way to finish off this routine. Valuable experience for her.
Parallel Bars
I've got the best view in the house, sigh. I've discovered Aly Raisman and her mother, and Al Fong and Armine Barutyan in the stand below me and to the left. Aly is as loud as ever. Al Fong didn't seem to clap or react for anything, but then I didn't watch him all the time or anything. Sad to see two routines on the bars come to grief, but amazing to see John Orozco hit a great routine, after the monumentally shitty year and a half he had. Kohei Uchimura was a joy to watch, and so was Lin Chaopan. Much more interesting in person, this final.
Floor
And hopes die for McKayla Maroney to magically appear when the gymnasts march out. I knew they wouldn't switch her in as the better medal hope, but I was hoping that for some other magical reason that she'd appear. To preserve Kyla's energy? Anyway, I have no quibble with an athlete who earned her place actually using it.
Vanessa Ferrari has changed leo, and it's quite nice actually! A great floor from her, super tumbling, very sure of herself. I do like her choreography but I think there's something lacking - other than execution sometimes. Expression I think. Score is a little high, but since she's first that's not much indication.
I FINALLY get to see Mai Murakami do a routine, hurray! She bounces up, adorable as ever. Lots of fear for her landings, which have been very low sometimes this year...but she pretty much nails them, with only minor adjustments. There's no other word for it, she completely lights up the arena and captivates the crowd with her smile. This is expression! She's always had unusual music which is never really able to turn the crowd, but she still draws everyone in effortlessly. Her leaps are still iffy, and the Gogean is bad, but I can't seem to care. Manages the triple okay, phew! When her score flashed up, placing her below Ferrari, I cried. An absolute disgraceful piece of judging. And then the screen showed her shocked face. :'( Her score was actually booed and rightfully so.
Simone Biles is the ideal tonic to get over a shock like that. Bounced her way around the floor and unfortunately, out of her landings too. She may not be the best dancer, and she could have a routine that utilises the dance skills she does have better, but...like Mai Murakami, she expresses the hell out of her routine and charms everyone in the process. The double layout half is still surprising with the turn coming from nowhere. A fabulous routine that definitely deserved gold, but not her best due to the landings.
Larisa Iordache is of course fresh from the gutting disappointment of having the beam title in your hand and losing it. But you wouldn't know it, she's full of energy and vitality, bouncing and dancing around the floor. This routine is a bit more mature than the previous one, but still suits her perfectly. She just seems to move more than the rest. Fantastic tumbling, just a great routine. I love when gymnasts bounce back so well. But..doesn't surpass Vanessa Ferrari who is clearly getting bonus points from the judges for losing the tiebreak last year. Lovely.
Giulia Steingruber's tumbling is fantastic, a full in double layout followed by 'just' a regular double layout. Amazing! The rest of the routine isn't great, she's a bit sloppy but still, very strong. Sandra Izbasa is up, looking very regal in a blue leotard. I really like this music but I don't think her choreography really works with it very well? As in, a lesser gymnast would look a bit lost with it. The tumbling is all going well, it's shaping up for at least a silver and then...crashes the last pass, in the exact same manner as at London. There was a general sense of disbelief that the same thing had happened two years in a row, and for her last routine too. Sandra was so admirable, straight up smiling and waving and so dignified waving at the camera when her score was shown. What a shame though.
I just love the improvement in Kyla Ross' artistry and choreography in the last while. Her first two passes are so well done and that whip noise bit is fantastic. Another strong routine but she just doesn't have the difficulty here to make an impact. Elsabeth Black who sadly didn't qualify for vault finals, rounded off this floor final. I LOVE the 2.5 stepout and this routine does have other moments of greatness but her execution did let her down a bit.
All in all, beam and floor had plenty of surprises and more than their fair share of disappointments. A bit of a letdown compared to Saturday's women's finals.
High Bar
The Dutch crew amped up completely when this final was announced and the roar when Epke Zonderland a) appeared, b) was announced and c) did anything at all was utterly deafening, but so much fun to be a part of. A truly epic routine, though yes those leg and knee separations are very obvious. Still, so so exciting to witness with the huge crowd support and then he just goes ahead and sticks the landing, bringing the roof down. Epic! Fabian Hambuechen, Kohei Uchimura, Samuel Mikulak (who danced his way off the podium :D) and Jossimar Moreno were all total crowd pleasers. A mindblowing final!
We had to leave shortly after the medal ceremonies started to get the train on time. Failed anyway and had a good bit of a wait..so I could have seen them all really! And then a mild panic to get to the gate on time, helped along by my missing several bottles of water and orange juice in one of my bags...so smart. Got there, and the flight was delayed, amalgamated with an earlier flight that had been cancelled...delayed again on the plane, and then delayed at passport control in Dublin. I collapsed into bed and you guessed it, the next day at college I arrived at 08:30 for my class starting at 10:00 because I forgot to change back the time on my phone. But nevertheless, a non-stop thrilling and just unforgettable weekend. Next stop, Glasgow! :D
It's actually quite difficult to condense the experience of watching the competition live. I'm really looking forward to a review post of worlds though, this weekend. Reviewing is much more up my street than faithfully recounting, I feel! Apologies all of these posts are so long. The review one will be a killer too, but after that they should be fairly normal again...
Monday, 7 October 2013
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.
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.
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.
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.
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)...
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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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)...
Sunday, 24 March 2013
Weekend Highlights
I love when there's so much gymnastics going on that it's tough to keep up with everything. Jesolo EF videos are not up yet (Edit- They are now) and I'm missing some routines like Mariya Livchikova's beam which would surely be a highlight but I think I have enough to go on. Here's my thoughts on the highlights of this weekend's gymnastics feast.
Simone definitely made her mark as a junior last year when she won the Secret Classic and placed third as US Nationals and her explosive amanar and sky-high double layout attracted widespread attention. But I don't think anyone could have predicted the vast improvement she has made, not just on her pet events- but as an all-arounder, and America's most valuable one right now at that. Her new double-double on floor is done with such ease that a triple twisting version looks like a matter of when, not if. As it is she always has power left over landing that pass and it's SO high. Not content with the very dynamic 1.5 twist into double pike she debuted at American Cup, Simone busted out a full-in tuck in place of the double pike this weekend. Her last pass also looks like it could be upgraded to a triple and her routine is not making the most of the code, she needs more CV from leaps and/or punchfronts as she only amasses 6.2 from her incredible floorwork. The amanar is even better than last year, and she has stuck two so far that we know- one in warm-up at American Cup and the other yesterday. Again, the TTY is only a matter of time as we know for a fact she is training it.
After a dissapointing beam at American Cup where she fell on the new layout pass she had nailed in training, Simone was much more confident at Jesolo with it. Thankfully she has ditched the terrible tour-jete leap too. Extremely powerful in her full in tuck dismount, yet another upgrade...and that could quite easily become a pike. Of anyone who has done a wolf turn with more than one rotation- hers is the best. She still flails her arms a bit like all the rest but she gets it around so fast that it manages to look great instead of a giant wobblefest. Bars really is the most surprising of all, with new releases including a great piked Tkachev straight into Pak. Her dismount is so high above the bar that it needs to become a Fabrichnova. All in all Simone is the most valuable all-arounder USA has, most valuable vaulter and probably most valuable floor worker- Lexie's potential routine has 0.5 more difficulty but it will lose some of the difference in execution and it's not likely that Simone's d-score is final for this year. It's really hard not to say we have found the 2013 World AA, FX and VT champion. And it IS ridiculous to say that, because it's still more than six months away and you never know what will happen in this unpredictable and injury-prone sport. Enthralled as I am with Simone's enormous improvement and potential, I am not blind to her faults. Her backhandsprings on beam could do with being a lot tighter in form, she flexes her feet on bars transitions and some releases, her foot form on vault could do with being tighter too and she's not going to win any rewards for her dance on floor..particularly the parts where she practically stops dead. But it doesn't change the fact that she is exceptional. The new Jesolo AA, FX, VT and BB champion is on a roll.
Anastasia hit a beam routine with absolutely NO wobbles. Not on the layout, not on her beautiful but incredibly troublesome Onodi-illusion. She gives us all hope that with her coaching change, more relaxed and confident demeanour and shiny new beam and bars titles at Cottbus that she will finally fulfil her massive potential. Check out the close-up of her feet on the perfect Onodi-illusion. Glorious. Her floor still needs attention and I'm not sure she will ever hit a perfect floor routine as long as the double double remains to exhaust her..but, baby steps. She has not fallen off beam yet so far this year, and that alone is incredible.
Bailie, a 2015 senior, not only won the junior AA at Jesolo by three points, she also the VT, FX and BB titles already having qualified first into each. Something happened on bars where she 'only' got third, but the winner- Enus Mariani- is incredibly similar to Bailie on this event. This from a girl who is capable of far more than what she showed and who wasn't even the top ranked Junior in USA when she landed in Italy. Coach Kim Zmeskal has practically wrapped her in cotton wool in her preservation attempts. Long may it continue, with almost two full years until she (hopefully) explodes onto the senior stage. A great boost for this tiny young one.
Gabby was not sorely tested as big rival Rebecca Tunney is out with an unspecified injury. However, she still had to beat veteran Hannah Whelan who has years of experience compared to her and has high difficulty. But it was a breeze for Gabby, as Hannah counted numerous falls throughout the weekend while trying out new bars skills. Say hello to the new British AA, beam and floor champion and bars silver medallist. If she can possibly get a DTY in time for Euros she would be a legitimate threat, but that's optimistic to the point of foolishness. As it is, hopefully she can break out into podiums this quad. This is a great start to her senior debut, she impressed everyone with her steadiness and confidence at American Cup and has continued the trend on home soil.
Routines-
Floor. 1. Simone Biles, Jesolo TF/AA 2. Enus Mariani, Jesolo TF/AA 3. Mariya Livchikova, French Nationals (??)
Beam. 1. Anastasia Grishina, Cottbus EF 2. Gabby Jupp, British Championships EF 3. Elisabetta Preziosa, Cottbus quals
Vault. 1. Simone Biles, VT 1 Jesolo AA/TF 2. Oksana Chusovitina, VT 2 Cottbus quals 3. Maegan Chant, VT 2 Cottbus quals
Bars. 1. Becky Downie, British Championships quals 2. Enus Mariani, Jesolo TF/AA 3. Brenna Dowell, Jesolo TF/AA (most improved!)
Skill/composition highlights-
Kyla Ross' backhandsprings on beam look even better now she's grown. Enus Mariani's floor choreography is beyond wonderful. Peyton Ernst's sheep jump was stunning, and surprising given the weakness of the rest of her leaps. Mariya Livchikova's Memmel was out of this world (and her double front and tuck), as was Anastasia Grishina's Onodi. The height of Brenna Dowell's front double pike was crazy, and the ease of it. I am still in love with Simone Biles toe-rises and Gabby Jupp's BHS-LOSO-LOSO. Spectacular to see such clean vaulting from Oksana Chusovitina and I'm really impressed with Maegan Chant's form on hers too, and she can obviously upgrade.
Great week for- Simone Biles- AA, TF, FX, BB and VT champion. Bailie Key- AA, FX, VT and BB champion, and bronze medallist on bars. Anastasia Grishina, flake extraordinaire- UB and BB champion. Gabby Jupp, AA, FX and BB champion, and silver medallist on UB.
Good week for- Maggie Nichols and Peyton Ernst. International competitive debut and although they both fell off beam they both showed some really nice work and coped well. Onwards and upwards. Brenna Dowell who snatched a medal on bars with a surprisingly strong and much improved routine. She's known as an extremely hard worker and it's good to see someone achieve a medal on a weak event through hard graft. Enus Mariani would not have won the AA even if she hadn't fallen, but she did well to take AA silver, bars gold and floor silver.
Bad week for- Vanessa Ferrari who was doing very well until her new upgrade on beam, the tuck full. Vanessa's injury is not thought to be much more than a sprain but it's not known yet if it will impact her inclusion in Euros and other competitions. Such bad luck for this tough veteran. Mai Murakami who had a disaster on 3/4 events. So gutted. She did show some lovely beam work and her quad spin on floor was great. But she lost it everywhere else and although Japan are not deep, they don't have to put her on major teams.. Lexie Priessman and Amelia Hundley who both performed similarly. Not just messy but sluggish too. Lexie came to grief on beam, with errors elsewhere and Amelia had some seriously dodgy landings on floor today. Hopefully they are not going to be resigned to the broken pile just yet. Lexie at least is recovering from an injury, but I don't know what the story is with Amelia- more growth maybe. Also Kyla Ross who has just had her irrelevancy if she doesn't upgrade thrown in her face. I get that she has lost training time and given her growth spurt, significant upgrades in that timeframe would have been tough but they'll have to do something with her routines if she wants to make a major team, especially if she expects to do AA. Huang Huidan's disaster at Cottbus took her out of contention so early that I forgot all about it in the wake of so much gymnastics. Thanks Annie for reminding me, though it's sad to remember. It is the first competition of the season but she doesn't have any kind of track record for consistency. This won't convince anyone that she's any more reliable than Wu Liufang and she could well be left high and dry when major international teams are being chosen. Such a shame she lost it completely as her routines are so beautiful.
Best leotard- Can't choose between Japan's two podium training leos and Italy A's team leo. I also liked Becky Downie EF.
Worst leotard- USA TF. I'm sick of this nauseating colour and not even the pattern redeems it, one of the worst hot pink ones which is very low to sink.
I can't seem to embed anything Jesolo, Cottbus or British Championships..yet anyway, it's either a delay on recent videos or an embed block. So I will link uploaders instead. The excellent Gympower has a ton of yesterday's Jesolo videos and will be uploading event finals there too. Gifwatermark has some of the missed ones, and a different angle on repeated routines. Ninalfee has routines from French Nationals, including Mariya Livchikova's floor. Javier Collados has everything Cottbus, Xoxociara has some Jesolo EF routines and BGTV have all of the British Championships routines. I'm sure people have seen videos around the place, but it's handy to collect uploaders in one place here for convenience.
Who and what did you enjoy most?
Simone Biles' performance
Copyright- Gymnastike
After a dissapointing beam at American Cup where she fell on the new layout pass she had nailed in training, Simone was much more confident at Jesolo with it. Thankfully she has ditched the terrible tour-jete leap too. Extremely powerful in her full in tuck dismount, yet another upgrade...and that could quite easily become a pike. Of anyone who has done a wolf turn with more than one rotation- hers is the best. She still flails her arms a bit like all the rest but she gets it around so fast that it manages to look great instead of a giant wobblefest. Bars really is the most surprising of all, with new releases including a great piked Tkachev straight into Pak. Her dismount is so high above the bar that it needs to become a Fabrichnova. All in all Simone is the most valuable all-arounder USA has, most valuable vaulter and probably most valuable floor worker- Lexie's potential routine has 0.5 more difficulty but it will lose some of the difference in execution and it's not likely that Simone's d-score is final for this year. It's really hard not to say we have found the 2013 World AA, FX and VT champion. And it IS ridiculous to say that, because it's still more than six months away and you never know what will happen in this unpredictable and injury-prone sport. Enthralled as I am with Simone's enormous improvement and potential, I am not blind to her faults. Her backhandsprings on beam could do with being a lot tighter in form, she flexes her feet on bars transitions and some releases, her foot form on vault could do with being tighter too and she's not going to win any rewards for her dance on floor..particularly the parts where she practically stops dead. But it doesn't change the fact that she is exceptional. The new Jesolo AA, FX, VT and BB champion is on a roll.
Anastasia Grishina's redemption
Copyright- RGF, Russian Gymnastics Federation
Bailie Key's domination
Copyright- USAG USA Gymnastics
Gabby Jupp's continued steadiness
Copyright- Alan Edwards
Routines-
Floor. 1. Simone Biles, Jesolo TF/AA 2. Enus Mariani, Jesolo TF/AA 3. Mariya Livchikova, French Nationals (??)
Beam. 1. Anastasia Grishina, Cottbus EF 2. Gabby Jupp, British Championships EF 3. Elisabetta Preziosa, Cottbus quals
Vault. 1. Simone Biles, VT 1 Jesolo AA/TF 2. Oksana Chusovitina, VT 2 Cottbus quals 3. Maegan Chant, VT 2 Cottbus quals
Bars. 1. Becky Downie, British Championships quals 2. Enus Mariani, Jesolo TF/AA 3. Brenna Dowell, Jesolo TF/AA (most improved!)
Skill/composition highlights-
Kyla Ross' backhandsprings on beam look even better now she's grown. Enus Mariani's floor choreography is beyond wonderful. Peyton Ernst's sheep jump was stunning, and surprising given the weakness of the rest of her leaps. Mariya Livchikova's Memmel was out of this world (and her double front and tuck), as was Anastasia Grishina's Onodi. The height of Brenna Dowell's front double pike was crazy, and the ease of it. I am still in love with Simone Biles toe-rises and Gabby Jupp's BHS-LOSO-LOSO. Spectacular to see such clean vaulting from Oksana Chusovitina and I'm really impressed with Maegan Chant's form on hers too, and she can obviously upgrade.
Great week for- Simone Biles- AA, TF, FX, BB and VT champion. Bailie Key- AA, FX, VT and BB champion, and bronze medallist on bars. Anastasia Grishina, flake extraordinaire- UB and BB champion. Gabby Jupp, AA, FX and BB champion, and silver medallist on UB.
Good week for- Maggie Nichols and Peyton Ernst. International competitive debut and although they both fell off beam they both showed some really nice work and coped well. Onwards and upwards. Brenna Dowell who snatched a medal on bars with a surprisingly strong and much improved routine. She's known as an extremely hard worker and it's good to see someone achieve a medal on a weak event through hard graft. Enus Mariani would not have won the AA even if she hadn't fallen, but she did well to take AA silver, bars gold and floor silver.
Bad week for- Vanessa Ferrari who was doing very well until her new upgrade on beam, the tuck full. Vanessa's injury is not thought to be much more than a sprain but it's not known yet if it will impact her inclusion in Euros and other competitions. Such bad luck for this tough veteran. Mai Murakami who had a disaster on 3/4 events. So gutted. She did show some lovely beam work and her quad spin on floor was great. But she lost it everywhere else and although Japan are not deep, they don't have to put her on major teams.. Lexie Priessman and Amelia Hundley who both performed similarly. Not just messy but sluggish too. Lexie came to grief on beam, with errors elsewhere and Amelia had some seriously dodgy landings on floor today. Hopefully they are not going to be resigned to the broken pile just yet. Lexie at least is recovering from an injury, but I don't know what the story is with Amelia- more growth maybe. Also Kyla Ross who has just had her irrelevancy if she doesn't upgrade thrown in her face. I get that she has lost training time and given her growth spurt, significant upgrades in that timeframe would have been tough but they'll have to do something with her routines if she wants to make a major team, especially if she expects to do AA. Huang Huidan's disaster at Cottbus took her out of contention so early that I forgot all about it in the wake of so much gymnastics. Thanks Annie for reminding me, though it's sad to remember. It is the first competition of the season but she doesn't have any kind of track record for consistency. This won't convince anyone that she's any more reliable than Wu Liufang and she could well be left high and dry when major international teams are being chosen. Such a shame she lost it completely as her routines are so beautiful.
Best leotard- Can't choose between Japan's two podium training leos and Italy A's team leo. I also liked Becky Downie EF.
Worst leotard- USA TF. I'm sick of this nauseating colour and not even the pattern redeems it, one of the worst hot pink ones which is very low to sink.
I can't seem to embed anything Jesolo, Cottbus or British Championships..yet anyway, it's either a delay on recent videos or an embed block. So I will link uploaders instead. The excellent Gympower has a ton of yesterday's Jesolo videos and will be uploading event finals there too. Gifwatermark has some of the missed ones, and a different angle on repeated routines. Ninalfee has routines from French Nationals, including Mariya Livchikova's floor. Javier Collados has everything Cottbus, Xoxociara has some Jesolo EF routines and BGTV have all of the British Championships routines. I'm sure people have seen videos around the place, but it's handy to collect uploaders in one place here for convenience.
Who and what did you enjoy most?
Saturday, 23 March 2013
Bailie and Simone sweep Jesolo
Ugh I'm really sorry but that download link I gave is useless. It has about 13 Italian channels and they all work fine but the one I thought it is on isn't correct- it doesn't have the channel Jesolo IS actually being broadcasted on. So, no Jesolo I'm afraid. For a whole hour and a half I thought I could watch it! I'm sorry if I got anyone's hopes up and wasted their time. Quick hits and youtube it is!
Bailie Key scored a huge 58.1 to dominate the Junior AA at Jesolo today. Second was the reigning Junior Euros champion Enus Mariani of Italy who scored 55.2, and in third was Amelia Hundley who scored 55.05. Amelia beat Bailie at camp immediately before they left for Italy, but this isn't exactly a surprising turn of events as Jesolo is known for harsh scoring for gymnasts who are that bit messier in their gymnastics. Aly Raisman for instance had her execution scoring slammed last year. Who knows, it may have been part of what spurred her on to improve her form for the international competition that really mattered- London.
Enus fell on beam, but it appears Amelia's problem was just execution. Her vault score was definitely in line, and her floor was not that far behind the leaders. Her beam and bars were both low 13's but that is to be expected when fair judging is applied to them. That's not to say that I don't enjoy Amelia Hundley's gymnastics, she's very dynamic and powerful and I really hope she does not join the ranks of MLT's broken gymnasts...but I am glad that Jesolo rewards clean, beautiful gymnastics. Looking at a photo of the podium highlights another issue for Amelia- she has shot up. Hopefully she can improve when she gets used to her height.
This is a great win for Bailie- and decisive too with a 3 point lead. Slow and steady wins the race, she's being paced correctly. I will add videos when they arrive- most excited for Bailie's floor and bars and Enus' floor. I have only seen a dance-through of the latter's new floor and a very far away look at it in competition where she fell- but it is obvious even from those glimpses that it's brilliant. Epic, dramatic, beautiful. Update- The excellent GymPOWER1 and piibunia are uploading already. I'm not sure if they can be embedded or if it's just that they have embedding disabled but either way it's not working. In the meantime, check out videos here. Bailie and Amelia certainly have upbeat music! I like Amelia's. I'm a bit undecided about Bailie's though..there's a lot going on with it, but I think she can own her routine more in time..this is the first competitive debut. GORGEOUS tumbling from her. I'm so glad that she's not flinging double arabians and so on. I am impressed with crazy tumbling from girls as young and younger than her I'll admit, but it's still better to see someone being developed nice and slow. Amelia can certainly improve from what she showed today. Enus was glorious to watch as usual, though she's piking down quite considerably on her DTY and her double layout bars dismount. Her floor deserves its own link (a different uploader). Stunning.
I think we can expect that Kyla Ross will be similarly rewarded and Lexie Priessman will have her execution slammed. It will depend on how much of a difficulty lead Lexie has. Not forgetting Simone Biles but she's harder to pinpoint- she should be somewhere in the middle as she is not spectacularly clean but nor is she sloppy. Except her leaps, which will surely be dealt with harshly. The question is how much of a lead can she get on the others with her vault..and can she beat Kyla's bars if she has higher difficulty there? Should be extremely interesting! I'm really hoping Mai Murakami, Elisa Meneghini and Asuka Teramoto can make their mark too. And how impressive that Vanessa Ferrari has actually upgraded- adding a new tuck full. Maybe she will continue after she is done saving money..let's hope.
Not hearing a whole lot of great news from the senior competition. Vanessa Ferrari has been taken to hospital after falling off beam on the tucked full and not being able to continue. Hopefully it's very minor and this is just a precaution. Mai Murakami landed her double double on her knees and scored so low on vault that she either fell or did an FTY instead of the DTY. Dissapointing, but hopefully it won't continue to be the story of her senior career. Her bars score was 10.55 so clearly mishaps there too. Girl is such a heartbreaker. Lexie Priessman and Maggie Nichols fell off beam. In good news Simone Biles scored a whopper 15.9 for her amanar- 9.6 execution. She must have stuck that thing, can't wait to see a video. And in a surprise twist Brenna Dowell scored extremely high on bars- 14.7- which was definitely not expected. I've just gone back and read the more detailed quick hits from L'International Gymnix on facebook. It definitely appears that Brenna has improved, good for her. Sadly Peyton Ernst fell victim to beam too. She seems to be showing nice work, I hope she and Maggie can show off hit beam routines at Chemnitz. And confirmed, Simone did stick her amanar. And her bars dismount. She is leading the AA after 3 rotations and scored higher than Kyla on beam. WOW. Kyla outscored Simone on bars 15.4 to 14.85 and Simone outscored Kyla on vault by 0.7 and beam by 0.05. On to floor, a pet piece of Simone's if she can only control her landings. Interestingly, the facebook quick hits are referring to USA's layouts on beam as whips. I would tend to agree if they all look like Simone's and Bailie's. This would be a downgrade if the judges took it- there's no amplitude. Simone's second vault is the Lopez- which was Maroney's second vault in 2011. It's also known as a laidout Podkopayeva I believe. Ahhh can't wait for videos..
And Simone nails floor! Excellent. Not to mention she has actually upgraded it already, the 1 and a half to double pike became a full-in tuck and she has added a leap after the double layout. Scores a 14.9, a full point and a half above Kyla's low 13.35- she went out of bounds on two passes and did not show upgrades. Great boost for Simone after a slightly dissapointing American Cup. Her AA total breaks 60- by 0.4 to be exact, a fantastic result especially at a competition known for harsh judging.
FIG have in fact gotten rid of their new vault scoring. R.I.P..it sure was tested well, with its only outings at LRSY and some very few national competitions. It appears that the old system now reinstated will be a bit different in that neutral deductions will be taken away from the averaged total. The 0.5 deduction is no more but this does mean that misdirection errors and steps could be equally as damaging as a nice 0.5 averaged fall. It appears that the sight of 11-12 range winning scores at LRSY was more offensive to FIG than having gymnasts who splatted a vault winning medals. Nice going.
Unfortunately, I got a little confused with British Championships livestreaming schedule. The senior AA is taking place soon but will not be livestreamed. Tomorrow's apparatus finals will be livestreamed instead. AA finals routines from today will be uploaded to youtube swiftly by the very efficient and commendable BGTV though.
Anastasia Grishina won bars finals at Cottbus! She is continuing her lucky streak of hitting. Hopefully she can get the beam title too. It's so great that her coaching change is clearly the right decision. Even if she does remain a little flaky, she looks very happy and that's the main thing. Not surprisingly, Oksana Chusovitina took the vault title.
USAG are uploading old American Cup's. I spotted 1984, 1986 and the inaugural one, 1976. Don't be fooled by the 'full broadcast' title- it's about as full as NBC's Olympic coverage. There were only 6 female gymnasts and they managed to show just 3. There is enormous Nadia Comaneci hype of course, and you get to see all of her routines. It's interesting to see her compete in great quality pre-Montreal. And how Kathy Rigby pretty much dismisses Elena Davydova after she fell off bars, 4 years before she became Olympic AA champion. Contains fluff where Nadia walks around sightseeing with Bela chewing gum and wearing flares. And a bizarre showdown which NBC would love, pitting Nadia against Olga Korbut on all four events. And a two sentence but nevertheless great interview from Nadia.
Junior Competition
Bailie Key scored a huge 58.1 to dominate the Junior AA at Jesolo today. Second was the reigning Junior Euros champion Enus Mariani of Italy who scored 55.2, and in third was Amelia Hundley who scored 55.05. Amelia beat Bailie at camp immediately before they left for Italy, but this isn't exactly a surprising turn of events as Jesolo is known for harsh scoring for gymnasts who are that bit messier in their gymnastics. Aly Raisman for instance had her execution scoring slammed last year. Who knows, it may have been part of what spurred her on to improve her form for the international competition that really mattered- London.
Enus fell on beam, but it appears Amelia's problem was just execution. Her vault score was definitely in line, and her floor was not that far behind the leaders. Her beam and bars were both low 13's but that is to be expected when fair judging is applied to them. That's not to say that I don't enjoy Amelia Hundley's gymnastics, she's very dynamic and powerful and I really hope she does not join the ranks of MLT's broken gymnasts...but I am glad that Jesolo rewards clean, beautiful gymnastics. Looking at a photo of the podium highlights another issue for Amelia- she has shot up. Hopefully she can improve when she gets used to her height.
This is a great win for Bailie- and decisive too with a 3 point lead. Slow and steady wins the race, she's being paced correctly. I will add videos when they arrive- most excited for Bailie's floor and bars and Enus' floor. I have only seen a dance-through of the latter's new floor and a very far away look at it in competition where she fell- but it is obvious even from those glimpses that it's brilliant. Epic, dramatic, beautiful. Update- The excellent GymPOWER1 and piibunia are uploading already. I'm not sure if they can be embedded or if it's just that they have embedding disabled but either way it's not working. In the meantime, check out videos here. Bailie and Amelia certainly have upbeat music! I like Amelia's. I'm a bit undecided about Bailie's though..there's a lot going on with it, but I think she can own her routine more in time..this is the first competitive debut. GORGEOUS tumbling from her. I'm so glad that she's not flinging double arabians and so on. I am impressed with crazy tumbling from girls as young and younger than her I'll admit, but it's still better to see someone being developed nice and slow. Amelia can certainly improve from what she showed today. Enus was glorious to watch as usual, though she's piking down quite considerably on her DTY and her double layout bars dismount. Her floor deserves its own link (a different uploader). Stunning.
Senior Competition
Not hearing a whole lot of great news from the senior competition. Vanessa Ferrari has been taken to hospital after falling off beam on the tucked full and not being able to continue. Hopefully it's very minor and this is just a precaution. Mai Murakami landed her double double on her knees and scored so low on vault that she either fell or did an FTY instead of the DTY. Dissapointing, but hopefully it won't continue to be the story of her senior career. Her bars score was 10.55 so clearly mishaps there too. Girl is such a heartbreaker. Lexie Priessman and Maggie Nichols fell off beam. In good news Simone Biles scored a whopper 15.9 for her amanar- 9.6 execution. She must have stuck that thing, can't wait to see a video. And in a surprise twist Brenna Dowell scored extremely high on bars- 14.7- which was definitely not expected. I've just gone back and read the more detailed quick hits from L'International Gymnix on facebook. It definitely appears that Brenna has improved, good for her. Sadly Peyton Ernst fell victim to beam too. She seems to be showing nice work, I hope she and Maggie can show off hit beam routines at Chemnitz. And confirmed, Simone did stick her amanar. And her bars dismount. She is leading the AA after 3 rotations and scored higher than Kyla on beam. WOW. Kyla outscored Simone on bars 15.4 to 14.85 and Simone outscored Kyla on vault by 0.7 and beam by 0.05. On to floor, a pet piece of Simone's if she can only control her landings. Interestingly, the facebook quick hits are referring to USA's layouts on beam as whips. I would tend to agree if they all look like Simone's and Bailie's. This would be a downgrade if the judges took it- there's no amplitude. Simone's second vault is the Lopez- which was Maroney's second vault in 2011. It's also known as a laidout Podkopayeva I believe. Ahhh can't wait for videos..
And Simone nails floor! Excellent. Not to mention she has actually upgraded it already, the 1 and a half to double pike became a full-in tuck and she has added a leap after the double layout. Scores a 14.9, a full point and a half above Kyla's low 13.35- she went out of bounds on two passes and did not show upgrades. Great boost for Simone after a slightly dissapointing American Cup. Her AA total breaks 60- by 0.4 to be exact, a fantastic result especially at a competition known for harsh judging.
Other Stuff
Unfortunately, I got a little confused with British Championships livestreaming schedule. The senior AA is taking place soon but will not be livestreamed. Tomorrow's apparatus finals will be livestreamed instead. AA finals routines from today will be uploaded to youtube swiftly by the very efficient and commendable BGTV though.
Anastasia Grishina won bars finals at Cottbus! She is continuing her lucky streak of hitting. Hopefully she can get the beam title too. It's so great that her coaching change is clearly the right decision. Even if she does remain a little flaky, she looks very happy and that's the main thing. Not surprisingly, Oksana Chusovitina took the vault title.
USAG are uploading old American Cup's. I spotted 1984, 1986 and the inaugural one, 1976. Don't be fooled by the 'full broadcast' title- it's about as full as NBC's Olympic coverage. There were only 6 female gymnasts and they managed to show just 3. There is enormous Nadia Comaneci hype of course, and you get to see all of her routines. It's interesting to see her compete in great quality pre-Montreal. And how Kathy Rigby pretty much dismisses Elena Davydova after she fell off bars, 4 years before she became Olympic AA champion. Contains fluff where Nadia walks around sightseeing with Bela chewing gum and wearing flares. And a bizarre showdown which NBC would love, pitting Nadia against Olga Korbut on all four events. And a two sentence but nevertheless great interview from Nadia.
Thursday, 28 February 2013
SCAM podium training live! Update- 2nd session videos
I hope everyone who can is already watching this! EDIT- Video has been changed to archive footage of the whole thing. MOAR EDIT- Couch Gymnast just tweeted a very interesting fact from Simone's interview- she is training triple yurchenkos! I knew she was well capable but WOW!!!
Thoughts so far:
(It's only showing Americans, currently on first event- beam)
Kyla is soooo solid on beam. It looks like a carbon copy of her London routine. That sheep jump would not get credit now outside of US, same for the switch ring leap. But so great to see her like this! She is definitely taller, looks like she'll be pushing 5'4 before long. I'm wondering the possibility of her exhibitioning bars too? Don't forget she can exhibition all 4 events, like Gabby last year.
Simone is steady, though not as much as Kyla suprisingly. Great attack on her punchfront and pike back. She is pretty much doing her 2012 routine too, with...dun dun dun..a full in beam dismount! I have no idea what that does to her SV, I'm guessing good things obviously. She looks more confident and her cossack turn which I think now has more rotations than the single one she was doing last year looks amazing.
Katelyn looks much better than she did at the WOGA classic. Her connections look more fluid, and crediting them won't be a joke, though still a little generous. That series looks like she will be absolutely nailing it without a doubt soon enough- the Onodi, aerial, aerial, Sheep one. The layout full is still very piked though she's now landing it very well. Worth making it tucked all the same, I don't see her ever getting it to a creditable laidout position (except in the US.) She looks very confident. Will be interesting to see what she pulls out for vault, that is the dealbreaker now.
According to live hits Elizabeth Seitz is doing a Geinger, not a Def. She has not done it since London I believe as the Geinger was surfacing in its place in other competitions post London. If she doesn't fling it on Saturday then the bronze I had already pretty much awarded her looks under threat. All eyes on what Asuka Teramoto will bring. Vanessa Ferrari is also a good bet for bronze, but I don't think she will be throwing full difficulty here at all. She's in it for the money, and nothing wrong with that. I relish any chance to see her perform.
Gabby Jupp has a full twisting double layout bars dismount! Excellent stuff.
Update: I think they are at least seeing if Kyla can do more than beam in podium training..she is training floor. Some nice double backs with too much power. She's a giant now, you can tell even by the amount of space her backhandsprings on floor take up. Taller than me at least. (Note: I am 5'3) Loooads of repetitions of her leap series. The switch ring leap looks to have the required 90 degree angle. The second leap is giving her trouble, she's short of 180 degrees on it. Simone had some crazy fast tumbles, a sky-high double layout and a lovely full in. I missed others people were talking about..a 1 and a half into double pike and a possible 3.5 twist (???). She definitely threw a double double apparently, yay! I missed it. On rewatching, all of these things happened- couldn't swear to the 3.5 twist but it was facing the right way and did not look like a 2.5. WOW. The floor rotation was really short. I saw Katelyn do a Memmel turn and that was it. Hmmmm. Gabby has a double turn on beam. Elizabeth Seitz falling all over the place on beam, damn.
Moving onto vault. Kyla is doing vault timers. So that's 3/3 events being trained so far. Her heel is wrapped. Okay, nobody doing anything other than timers, they're saving the hard pounding. Simone's timers are enormous, so looking forward to seeing her on Saturday. Katelyn's seemed fine. Gabby looks nice and sharp on floor. A contender for bronze??? The camera has cut away from showing bars, I really wanted to see Asuka doing something other than chalk! Victoria having issues on beam, and crashed a DTY earlier.
Oooo, bars! Katelyn and Simone absolutely nailing handstands, especially Simone, but both deteriorated as the repetitions went on. Kyla looking well, messy shap 1/2 but it did improve. She didn't push herself and only did half routines. Her Pak looks a little jarring, it doesn't flow as well as it did. Gorgeous lines, and fabulous double layout dismount. Simone had issues, fell on a Shap and then came back and stormed every Shap since with no chance of falling short. She fell on a release twice, fairly sure it's new so maybe she won't include it in her routine yet. Nice and sharp, her form looks better too. Her dismount was way above the bar and looks like she could do a double double tucked or laidout in her sleep, lands completely upright as if she was doing a flyaway. Nice crisp turns. Katelyn looks zippier on bars, though she was a little sluggish towards the end. Her legs are still coming apart on (late) turns but she seemed more confident. She does that thing I hate that WOGA always do before stalders, where their back completely bends first- I don't know what you call that, but Bross was a big offender. It's still a routine with lots of little flaws, I would agree with the concensus that it looks too much for her. I didn't see a totally wonky Healy, but that could just be the angle I'm watching at. Hard to tell who was strongest on bars really...
SUMMARY
So, in a very interesting and awesome turn, Kyla is training all 4 events! This to me does not mean the injury story is a con, but that it was impacting her training so they've lessened the pressure on her by making her the exhibition. So she can do as much as she wants. I think she is recovered, just that the story is correct- it affected her training for a few weeks and ability to definitely have all 4 events down. Looks like she will anyway, but I hope she does at least 2 events.
Simone has upgrades! A full in off beam, a double double on floor, a 1.5 to double pike and what I'd swear is a 3.5 twist, two new bars releases and a transition and an acro line on beam with a layout- very Chinese. Her bars were not brilliant for her though, with some falls. Hopefully she will just get that out of her system now and be perfect on Saturday. Her bars thankfully look cleaner, her beam is crisper, her floor has fantastic looking upgrades and her vault will no doubt raise the roof. No idea what vault Katelyn will bring since they all just did timers. Kyla looks capable of bringing her London routines, I don't think we will see any upgrades from her though. But seeing her at all will be a treat. Katelyn looks improved from WOGA classic, much sharper. Her bars still have numerous issues but I'n not sure if the glaring one, the Healy, is still present and they look a little tiring for her. Beam is very snappy, she looks much more on but the layout full still needs to be binned. Utterly fabulous beam routine but all in all, I'm not convinced she can win. She will need more an FTY and some unfair scoring or mistakes to do that.
Sadly I didn't see near enough of the other competitors. Great reports about Gabby Jupp and Maegan Chant, as well as Vanessa Ferrari. Elizabeth and Victoria both displayed numerous issues, and Elizabeth will more than likely not throw the Def. Not much said about Asuka so I can't really judge where she's at. The fight for bronze will be equally as interesting as the fight for gold.
VIDEO now is the archive footage. The girls are wearing Under Armour leos, who have secured a contract with USAG until 2020. Personally I'd prefer Adidas (actual Adidas, not GK swirls..), with a mixture of old school and newer type leos. They are perfection. So these leos are nothing to write home about but Alicia has worn some brilliant ones so there is plenty of hope yet.
UPDATE- Some videos from the second podium training session. Much nicer leos, love the colour of them and the style. This one has proper floor and vaults, a wise move to save it and spread the four events.
SPOILER- Katelyn has her DTY back and Kyla is still using her old music. I did not notice the head fling plaguing it so maybe she either did not do all of the choreography or has mixed it up a bit. Katelyn's DTY has winner written all over it. Her bars will be leniently dealt with, her beam is ginormous, she has an acceptable vault now and her floor is half decent. Simone will need to be more on than she showed today to beat her, but since I don't know her start values or indeed Katelyn's except her vault and beam it's really hard to know who has what d-score advantage.
Kyla had a great upright DTY, noticeably better than Katelyn's, as would be expected. She seems to have lost form a bit on it though, and I noticed the same about her bars...maybe she is just not pushing herself to the limit, understandable. It could be her height either messing things up a bit. I wonder what all of those back layout passes will transform into! If not now then later on in the year. Simone's vault is as huge as ever, though I'd love if she tightened up her feet a bit.
Simone and Katelyn both have new floor routines. There's a comment under Katelyn's saying it's a Eurovision song. Hmm, can't have been a great one or I'd know it. Edit- It's Azerbaijan 2009. Fun fact- two other Americans currently (well, 2012..) have Eurovision floor music- Jordyn Wieber with Ukraine's 2004 entry and Alexis Buecler with Ukraine's 2007 entry. The former was a winner and the second did very well. The second one has to be heard to be believed- there are lots of Eurovision songs that push the weird boat out but nobody has ever topped this, it's insane! And awesome.
Moving on...I like the routines of both girls. I think Simone's old music may have suited her style better, but a bit early to really confirm that. GREAT tumbling, double double, double layout..so easy for her. It would be fantastic if she can plant those landings in competition. I wonder if she'll sneak a jump or two in? They can still be done, and she has crazy power. She didn't show all of her passes from earlier, but that is just one routine, so who knows. Katelyn's tumbling is a bit sloppy looking, hopefully she can get it more polished. Still a very good routine though, loving the last combination pass though it spells RISK all over it.
Thoughts so far:
(It's only showing Americans, currently on first event- beam)
Kyla is soooo solid on beam. It looks like a carbon copy of her London routine. That sheep jump would not get credit now outside of US, same for the switch ring leap. But so great to see her like this! She is definitely taller, looks like she'll be pushing 5'4 before long. I'm wondering the possibility of her exhibitioning bars too? Don't forget she can exhibition all 4 events, like Gabby last year.
Simone is steady, though not as much as Kyla suprisingly. Great attack on her punchfront and pike back. She is pretty much doing her 2012 routine too, with...dun dun dun..a full in beam dismount! I have no idea what that does to her SV, I'm guessing good things obviously. She looks more confident and her cossack turn which I think now has more rotations than the single one she was doing last year looks amazing.
Katelyn looks much better than she did at the WOGA classic. Her connections look more fluid, and crediting them won't be a joke, though still a little generous. That series looks like she will be absolutely nailing it without a doubt soon enough- the Onodi, aerial, aerial, Sheep one. The layout full is still very piked though she's now landing it very well. Worth making it tucked all the same, I don't see her ever getting it to a creditable laidout position (except in the US.) She looks very confident. Will be interesting to see what she pulls out for vault, that is the dealbreaker now.
According to live hits Elizabeth Seitz is doing a Geinger, not a Def. She has not done it since London I believe as the Geinger was surfacing in its place in other competitions post London. If she doesn't fling it on Saturday then the bronze I had already pretty much awarded her looks under threat. All eyes on what Asuka Teramoto will bring. Vanessa Ferrari is also a good bet for bronze, but I don't think she will be throwing full difficulty here at all. She's in it for the money, and nothing wrong with that. I relish any chance to see her perform.
Gabby Jupp has a full twisting double layout bars dismount! Excellent stuff.
Update: I think they are at least seeing if Kyla can do more than beam in podium training..she is training floor. Some nice double backs with too much power. She's a giant now, you can tell even by the amount of space her backhandsprings on floor take up. Taller than me at least. (Note: I am 5'3) Loooads of repetitions of her leap series. The switch ring leap looks to have the required 90 degree angle. The second leap is giving her trouble, she's short of 180 degrees on it. Simone had some crazy fast tumbles, a sky-high double layout and a lovely full in. I missed others people were talking about..a 1 and a half into double pike and a possible 3.5 twist (???). She definitely threw a double double apparently, yay! I missed it. On rewatching, all of these things happened- couldn't swear to the 3.5 twist but it was facing the right way and did not look like a 2.5. WOW. The floor rotation was really short. I saw Katelyn do a Memmel turn and that was it. Hmmmm. Gabby has a double turn on beam. Elizabeth Seitz falling all over the place on beam, damn.
Moving onto vault. Kyla is doing vault timers. So that's 3/3 events being trained so far. Her heel is wrapped. Okay, nobody doing anything other than timers, they're saving the hard pounding. Simone's timers are enormous, so looking forward to seeing her on Saturday. Katelyn's seemed fine. Gabby looks nice and sharp on floor. A contender for bronze??? The camera has cut away from showing bars, I really wanted to see Asuka doing something other than chalk! Victoria having issues on beam, and crashed a DTY earlier.
Oooo, bars! Katelyn and Simone absolutely nailing handstands, especially Simone, but both deteriorated as the repetitions went on. Kyla looking well, messy shap 1/2 but it did improve. She didn't push herself and only did half routines. Her Pak looks a little jarring, it doesn't flow as well as it did. Gorgeous lines, and fabulous double layout dismount. Simone had issues, fell on a Shap and then came back and stormed every Shap since with no chance of falling short. She fell on a release twice, fairly sure it's new so maybe she won't include it in her routine yet. Nice and sharp, her form looks better too. Her dismount was way above the bar and looks like she could do a double double tucked or laidout in her sleep, lands completely upright as if she was doing a flyaway. Nice crisp turns. Katelyn looks zippier on bars, though she was a little sluggish towards the end. Her legs are still coming apart on (late) turns but she seemed more confident. She does that thing I hate that WOGA always do before stalders, where their back completely bends first- I don't know what you call that, but Bross was a big offender. It's still a routine with lots of little flaws, I would agree with the concensus that it looks too much for her. I didn't see a totally wonky Healy, but that could just be the angle I'm watching at. Hard to tell who was strongest on bars really...
SUMMARY
So, in a very interesting and awesome turn, Kyla is training all 4 events! This to me does not mean the injury story is a con, but that it was impacting her training so they've lessened the pressure on her by making her the exhibition. So she can do as much as she wants. I think she is recovered, just that the story is correct- it affected her training for a few weeks and ability to definitely have all 4 events down. Looks like she will anyway, but I hope she does at least 2 events.
Simone has upgrades! A full in off beam, a double double on floor, a 1.5 to double pike and what I'd swear is a 3.5 twist, two new bars releases and a transition and an acro line on beam with a layout- very Chinese. Her bars were not brilliant for her though, with some falls. Hopefully she will just get that out of her system now and be perfect on Saturday. Her bars thankfully look cleaner, her beam is crisper, her floor has fantastic looking upgrades and her vault will no doubt raise the roof. No idea what vault Katelyn will bring since they all just did timers. Kyla looks capable of bringing her London routines, I don't think we will see any upgrades from her though. But seeing her at all will be a treat. Katelyn looks improved from WOGA classic, much sharper. Her bars still have numerous issues but I'n not sure if the glaring one, the Healy, is still present and they look a little tiring for her. Beam is very snappy, she looks much more on but the layout full still needs to be binned. Utterly fabulous beam routine but all in all, I'm not convinced she can win. She will need more an FTY and some unfair scoring or mistakes to do that.
Sadly I didn't see near enough of the other competitors. Great reports about Gabby Jupp and Maegan Chant, as well as Vanessa Ferrari. Elizabeth and Victoria both displayed numerous issues, and Elizabeth will more than likely not throw the Def. Not much said about Asuka so I can't really judge where she's at. The fight for bronze will be equally as interesting as the fight for gold.
VIDEO now is the archive footage. The girls are wearing Under Armour leos, who have secured a contract with USAG until 2020. Personally I'd prefer Adidas (actual Adidas, not GK swirls..), with a mixture of old school and newer type leos. They are perfection. So these leos are nothing to write home about but Alicia has worn some brilliant ones so there is plenty of hope yet.
UPDATE- Some videos from the second podium training session. Much nicer leos, love the colour of them and the style. This one has proper floor and vaults, a wise move to save it and spread the four events.
SPOILER- Katelyn has her DTY back and Kyla is still using her old music. I did not notice the head fling plaguing it so maybe she either did not do all of the choreography or has mixed it up a bit. Katelyn's DTY has winner written all over it. Her bars will be leniently dealt with, her beam is ginormous, she has an acceptable vault now and her floor is half decent. Simone will need to be more on than she showed today to beat her, but since I don't know her start values or indeed Katelyn's except her vault and beam it's really hard to know who has what d-score advantage.
Kyla had a great upright DTY, noticeably better than Katelyn's, as would be expected. She seems to have lost form a bit on it though, and I noticed the same about her bars...maybe she is just not pushing herself to the limit, understandable. It could be her height either messing things up a bit. I wonder what all of those back layout passes will transform into! If not now then later on in the year. Simone's vault is as huge as ever, though I'd love if she tightened up her feet a bit.
Simone and Katelyn both have new floor routines. There's a comment under Katelyn's saying it's a Eurovision song. Hmm, can't have been a great one or I'd know it. Edit- It's Azerbaijan 2009. Fun fact- two other Americans currently (well, 2012..) have Eurovision floor music- Jordyn Wieber with Ukraine's 2004 entry and Alexis Buecler with Ukraine's 2007 entry. The former was a winner and the second did very well. The second one has to be heard to be believed- there are lots of Eurovision songs that push the weird boat out but nobody has ever topped this, it's insane! And awesome.
Moving on...I like the routines of both girls. I think Simone's old music may have suited her style better, but a bit early to really confirm that. GREAT tumbling, double double, double layout..so easy for her. It would be fantastic if she can plant those landings in competition. I wonder if she'll sneak a jump or two in? They can still be done, and she has crazy power. She didn't show all of her passes from earlier, but that is just one routine, so who knows. Katelyn's tumbling is a bit sloppy looking, hopefully she can get it more polished. Still a very good routine though, loving the last combination pass though it spells RISK all over it.
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