Chinese Nationals AA results

I hate being too busy/worn out to blog. Hoping to make some changes this year that will have a positive impact. The first, and easiest, is buying a new laptop. This one after 5 years and even switching OS to linux to increase its longevity is now running so slow I expect to hear dial-up noises any time now. When typing, text appears in bursts. Fun...

Anyway, Nationals! Here are the results of the AA today,  translated by the wonderful Golden China

Source- golden-china.tumblr.com

Translating ain't easy and english-speaking regularly-posting great sources for Chinese gymnastics are extremely rare, so hurray!

By all accounts, we were not blessed with a hit-fest. Very, very few went clean. One of which, astonishingly, was Shang Chunsong with a very respectable score. I always expect her to come to grief on bars somewhere. Made up for that a bit with a very nervy beam, but all in all, a great day for her. Wang Yan was lucky to place second after she sat her beam dismount, left out skills, and then had some big error/possible fall on her double double on floor. I am waiting and waiting for her to learn to be a competitor since she has so much to give, and now that she's senior, I'm getting impatient. She could be so great! But, it's early in the season and I'm prepared to keep rooting for her. Chen Siyi is a nice surprise considering she has some health issues, although her scores aren't particularly outstanding. Liu Tingting had a meltdown on beam sadly but Mao Yi seems to have been quite impressive today. She's a super twister and is definitely one to watch.

Hoping to catch up on available videos sometime this week! It will be very interesting to see how the team is formed for Glasgow. Shang Chunsong is the only lock, I expect Wang Yan and Mao Yi/Deng Yalan to feature. The rest is very much dependent on health. In our top 10 from today, the top 5 are age eligible, plus Bai Yawen. Let us hope Yao Jinnan continues to be not in contention. Rio is far more important and shoulders are so pesky and fragile.

Overall, I'm uneasy about the amount of falls today. It's early, and there are health issues, but I continue to despair over how ill-suited China is to this code. And so injury-prone with their body types.

Things

First post of 2015! That's a shocking start :/ I've been sidetracked by minor health issues, such as a virus that floored me halfway through January (actually floored..) and developing a crazy heart rate (105 lying down and up to 180 working at a desk..??) which has now been resolved by the joys of modern medicine.

Anyway, most of my gymnastics absorption over the last while has been NCAA related, mainly frantically trying to put a team together in fantasy gymnastics that will score the magical 197. Week before last, everybody randomly decided to not compete floor and screwed me over. Week just gone...I got 196.95, sigh. If only Keeley Kmeciak was possible to predict on events on a weekly basis, but alas...

I really, really, really, recommend signing up for this next year for anyone who's wary. It doesn't take that much time (bit of research before signing up etc. will serve you very well) at all and is so much fun, and this is coming from someone who is pretty much locked out of actually watching the competitions due to timezone and international TV station paywall issues. The competition aspect of it is just so enjoyable, trying to improve week on week.

So, elite! I'm delighted that Aliya Mustafina is taking a break from driving herself to the brink, and won't compete at Russian Championships or Euros. Considering the pain and nagging injuries she's been dealing with for a long time now and the immense pressure of basically being a team, her statements towards the end of last year about not taking any breaks and work, work, work...it's a relief. I'm curious about when such a superstar gymnast will bow out from the sport...of course, hoping for post-Rio if at all possible. It would be devastating to see her go before her time because she pushed too hard or was pressured into shouldering her team when she wasn't physically able to do so.

Yao Jinnan is definitely going for the surgery in the US, and will be out for the year...this has been known for a while, just the matter of where and when that's not really known. The fact that it will be in the US annoys me and the reason why is because there are other girls on the team who have nagging injuries that would benefit more from surgery outside of China, instead of the dodgy healthcare they receive there. Nobody needs to be reminded that US healthcare is astronomical...going to Germany, the UK or Canada for instance would probably fund several for the price of one, especially the UK. Unless the surgery is actually pioneering and/or much better when done in the US, in which case the location is totally understandable.

I can't wait for American Cup! The somewhat lacklustre non-US roster isn't a surprise to me at all, this is pretty much always the case. The fact that a lot of people attribute this international scorning to scoring IS surprising though. It's a lot more to do with the fact that it's very early in the season, extremely far away for most, and has no event finals so only bronze in the AA is up for grabs due to the strength of the US roster. Most of the European crew will want to be focusing on Euros anyway.

I wonder who will exhibition/wildcard. Mykayla Skinner's AA spot is in doubt according to some, due to Bailie's recent performance at camp. The recent pattern tends to be not to have new seniors, or at least, not to have them unless forced by injuries to others. On the one hand, Bailie would be a local and it would be a great senior debut for her in front of a big crowd. On the other, she could well be better off honing things like her bars difficulty and the readiness of a more difficult vault for later in the year. Hard to know, I think they might want to hold off on her though and keep Mykayla unless she gets injured.

As always, watching Simone will be a treat and interesting to see her add in some new elements, although saving bigger things for later in the year by all accounts. The two falls at camp are not worrying in the slightest, she will be a force of nature as always.

It's pretty quiet on the interesting news front...can't wait for things to kick off.

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?

EF Day 1: Vault and Bars

For a mid-quad worlds, this is proving to be a truly exciting one in individual competition. Today for WAG, the vault and bars finals were contested.

Despite the fact that several of the people who ended up on podium were not a surprise, the competitions were very tight and very tense with some surprises thrown in. First, to vault!

Simone Biles has spent most of the year since Mckayla Maroney's latest batch of injuries as the known favourite for the vault title, which continued until Asian Games. At that competition, Hong un Jong of North Korea vaulted an extremely floaty amanar and a much stronger Cheng. Her improvement, and 0.8 d-score advantage were suddenly big threats to Simone. Would Simone go for the Cheng that has been in the works for quite some time, or even a Mustafina hinted at earlier in the year on her ask.fm? The idea of an upgrade was shot down, and so her execution would be the decider.

Hong un Jong is the 2008 Olympic vault Champion. Remarkably, she survived the long banishment of her country for cheating and emerged after the London Olympics with the same vaults, the Amanar and Cheng. The difficulty on both has gone down, to 6.3 and 6.4, but still makes a gymnast with them formidable. Last year, she used the difficulty to push through and take bronze behind McKayla Maroney and Simone Biles. Neither vault was particularly inspiring, with her Cheng especially struggled around. Considering the fact that she is now 24, the fact that she has improved the form and landings on both vaults is just incredible. It came down to the wire, especially with Simone only having a small hop on her amanar and just a tiny shuffle in place after a perfect Lopez, with Hong edging her out by less than half a tenth.

I'm very pleased for Hong un Jong and her coaches reactions were very touching. 6 years on, and just as good as ever. The absolutely tiny margin of victory just goes to show just how strong a vaulter Simone Biles is, to almost beat her. I'd imagine the death knell has been sounded on her Lopez, and while I'm sure an upgrade will look great, it is a pity as it just such an exceptional vault, so textbook and so pretty. There is something inherently pleasing about her vaulting, and it's the certainty. She isn't going to mess up, we're not afraid she will twist into the ground, land off the podium, not get her twist around in time, block completely wrong etc. etc. She'll block dead-centre with straight arms, lift into the ceiling, and land securely. Refreshingly great. I really look forward to seeing her develop on this event. Our gold winner showed that anything's possible.

A lot has been said about Mykayla Skinner and her vaulting, especially of course the block on her Cheng. Certainly the technique is quite wrong, she's twisting off one hand too early and the other hand is not repulsing her. We know this. But she has doing her job really well at her first world championships, a team extremely few would have put her in at the start of this year, and today was no exception. Her Cheng was very clean in the air with a great landing. It's not the most dynamic but it's still worthy of a good score, which she certainly achieved. Her DTY has improved quite a bit, form was tight and clean. She was much more pleasant to watch than those whose landings are far from a sure thing. Great effort from her and a well deserved bronze.

Alla Sosnitskaya vaulted the exact same vaults as Mykayla. Her Cheng is very new for her and it's quite dynamic, she looks to me to get more airtime than our other Cheng vaulters. It's such a tough vault! But it was from perfect, or even great. Almost a perfectly stuck landing but she was completely out of bounds, and it had loose sloppy form throughout. The DTY was much cleaner, but with bent knees. She has had a great competition and 4th here is a triumph that she can build on. I know she has an amanar in the works and I don't doubt that she's capable, but I hope they focus just as strongly on her execution. She could be really good.

Giulia on the other hand has been struggling a bit these worlds. Most notably, she has developed a block about twisting which threw her DTY out the window and has been limiting her at just the wrong time of year. Her Rudi certainly showed deterioration, very messy in the air and really fought around, and while her FTY was so much nicer, it was just an FTY really. Alexa Moreno fought valiantly on her vaults and so too did Phan Thi Ha Thanh but both really showed how hard their vaults are, and it wasn't surprising that their difficulty, especially Alexa's, didn't place them higher. Claudia Fragapane shows much more ease in hers, but they are relatively easy. It's strange how it looks like she's doing a completely different vault to Simone's Lopez BUT she really sharpened up her form on her DTY which I am very happy with.

Matchy matchy! Source- John Cheng/USAG

All in all, a tense fight for gold and a very strong field. Vault finals seem to be getting stronger all the time, long may that trend continue! Next year we'll more than likely see an upgrade from super-vaulter Simone and maybe even another comeback from McKayla Maroney...?

Highlights

No falls!

No Produnovas!

No 'impossible' vaults like an amanar from Phan to rightly give everyone heart failure

Very strong field and difficulty

Good variety of vaults

Lowlights

Um..I suppose form loss on some vaults

Some vaults were a bit of a struggle to land

Favourite vaults

1. Simone Biles Vault 2 Lopez
2. Simone Biles Vault 1 Amanar
3. Hong un Jong Vault 1 Amanar

Leotards

Niiice effort by the US, a little too shiny for my liking but simple and striking and of course, not pink. I like the simplicity of the North Korean leotard and the matching podium looked well, again! Not a big fan of Alla's leo, Alexa's was pretty, Claudia's was nice but needed more oomph, Giulia's was pretty also and I'm undecided about Phan...I think I like it?

Bars

Well, that was an extraordinarily deep and exciting final.

First up was Aliya Mustafina in her Pikachu leotard, the strong colouring of which highlights the fact that she's not well. All things considered, I didn't think she would upgrade as expected, and she didn't. Playing it safe when you're not at the top of your game is always wise, and it was very clean and nice to watch, albeit (and I feel mean) boring. It's not a routine I would have thrilled with had it medalled, despite how clean it was. I hope she can return and show us just a little bit more on this event.

Another super-clean gorgeous routine from Daria Spiridonova which unexpectedly propelled her in front of Aliya. What was a highlight of the whole competition was how delighted the latter was about that! Daria's lines are superb but her score was still a surprise, a nice one.

Having Ashton Locklear right after those two showed just how Russian her routine is in composition. Luckily we have some Brits to shake it up a bit. Anyway, Ashton showed no signs of her inexperience and delivered another great routine, hitting her massive combination with ease. It really build the tension with 5 elements! Her sickled feet (and Mustafina's and Lisa Hill's..certainly Ashton's not the only one) put me off a bit but a very enjoyable strong routine to round off her great worlds. The scoring and placement was right too. I know she ended up 4th, but in a field like that...amazing.

Rebecca Downie has been great all year, after a very disappointing 2013 in which she struggled to hit her fantastic routine the whole year, coming to grief yet again in Antwerp's bars final. But the Euros and Commonwealth 2014 bars champion has come on quite a lot since then, and this jam-packed routine was another hit for her. I love her variety of releases. That said, this wasn't her cleanest and she seemed to have to fight through it, but no major error and that rounds off an excellent year nicely.

Having a Bhardwaj AND a Zuchold means you belong in every bars final in my opinion. The former skill has been cleaner for her and the latter threw off a subsequent pirouette forcing her to count a fall...but it's just a treat to watch this routine. Ruby is so dynamic and daring, and she finished it off so well with a stuck dismount, declaring afterwards that she was just so thrilled to make the final at all.

It's great to see Lisa Katherina Hill in this final, and she certainly had the skills for it. It wasn't the cleanest and she had to save it a bit and fight, but she got through it nicely and I really loved her Bhardwaj, very clean.

Dun dun DUN arrival of the big hitters. Defending champion Huang Huidan was up first, and really went for it. Great Jaeger, dismount, smoother on her turns than she has been, really getting the handstands and minimising deductions. Just fantastic work and a well deserved huge score as a result.

And everything to play for Yao Jinnan, up last. The most nervewracking routine of worlds so far for me, as I really really wanted her to finally get a gold. It was thrilling to see her catch everything, nail her turns and the dismount. Her pirouettes are really stunning, just so precise. The Tkachev lets the whole routine down for me, it's flat, but the rest does make up for it. A very smartly constructed routine as it's so short..but 6.9 difficulty means she's far from messing about. And THAT SCORE! Finally a win for her! I understand that gold and silver could be argued for either way, but I was much more emotionally invested in Yao Jinnan winning so I'm very happy with the podium.

Highlights

7 hit routines

Tense, down-to-the-wire scoring

Lots of variety, transition heavy routines, balanced routines, rare skills, pirouettes..

Not-so-highlights

Ruby coming off bars

One or two routines sloppier than they have been prior to now

Russian routines were identical

Favourite routines

Our podium exactly. 

Leotards

Ashton looked good in USA's patriotic flavour of the day. I really like the red GB leotard and Lisa's was nice also, if slightly low at the neck. The winner is Yao Jinnan in lovely regal purple.

Source- Reuters/China Daily

Of course, we have to have some drama. First, Yao's lack of number. This was addressed after the competition in which it was stated that it fell off right before, and that it was presented to the judges and accepted. (This is what happens if you do back spins...Claudia Fragapane has permission to do this on floor). Even if it wasn't, too bad if the judges didn't catch it. Seeing accusations such as 'cheating again' is enraging. How could they possibly benefit? Who would risk an 0.3 ND? Seriously?

And, the tears. Huang Huidan was moved after her dismount and it was touching to see. Hitting a great routine when it matters most, it's perfectly understandable to feel such relief. This got ugly after Yao Jinnan's score came in and she was still crying, miserably this time, and STILL CRYING in the press conference, right beside Yao Jinnan. I have no patience with that. To hit such a fabulous routine and lose has got to be hard, but it should not have been such a surprise...Yao consistently beats her when they both it. It is perfectly acceptable to feel upset, but she should have sucked it up, sincerely congratulated Yao who after all, has just cemented her place on the Champions wall after years of trying and working though injury to do so, and waited until she was alone to let our her frustration and disappointment. It was quite in contrast to Aliya Mustafina who looked absolutely thrilled to be beaten by teammate Daria.

Nothing wrong with emotion, but there is when it dampens things for not just your teammate, but your friend...they train together in the same group. It's just...awkward. How is Yao supposed to reflect on a job well done and her triumph at last when she has to console her friend and no doubt feel misplaced guilt? It it just...annoying and unnecessary. In discussion earlier it was rightly pointed out to me that we cannot expect these girls to have the full maturity of their age due to their lack of socialisation, they are after all in a very insular and intensive training environment. Nevertheless, I am disappointed in Huang Huidan's inability to mask her feelings in public for her friend.

Now that I've got that way, I do want to emphasise that I am DELIGHTED with today's competitions. Only one fall, nothing too dangerous, and above all, lots of tense competition and nervous waiting for scores. Just as it should be.

What were your favourite routines/vaults? Do you agree with how Biles/Hong and Huang/Yao placed? Can tomorrow live up to today's competition? The US leotard for tomorrow has been described as 'fun'- does this scare you also?

Shiny pink (bee infested) podium

Source: draw-cartoons.blogspot.com

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

Source- see watermark

Okay, on with the competition!

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

Let's have a look at our top 8.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


Highlights

The medal ceremony.

Simone Biles repeating.

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

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

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

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

Kyla Ross proving that consistency still beats significant difficulty advantage.

Not-so highlights

Aliya and Yao falling at the last hurdle. Heartbreakers.

Shang Chunsong having a nightmare on one of her best events

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

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

Fashion Corner

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

USA

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

6.5/10

Source- USAG/John Cheng

Romania

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

4/10

Aliya Mustafina

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

6/10

Yao Jinnan

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

8/10

Vanessa Ferrari

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

5/10

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

Source- Xinhua/Huang Xiaobang

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

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

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? 

Update on Yao Jinnan

She is currently injured, again an ankle/leg related injury. This happened fairly recently around the time of an internal test. It's not yet clear how badly or whether her recovery time will be long. When it is and it is open news, I will post it.

It's as if she's made of spun sugar...third year getting injured in summer in a row. She's too thin and frail I think. Anyway, speedy recovery to her!

A note on Team China

Making time for a quick attempt at clarifying!

Recently, news, videos and gifs emerged of fantastic upgrades from some of the girls. Shang Chunsong landed a beautiful and secure 3.5 twist on floor, Wang Yan threw a triple off beam and Chen Siyi either a triple or 3.5, Tan Jiaxin threw an amanar, Deng Yalan a 2.5 (!!) Tsuk and Yao Jinnan a full twisting DLO bars dismount..and other skills were on display also. No double doubles which I know I saw mentioned somewhere.

The key word is display. Many of the above skills were on trampoline or into a pit. The quad twist, if Shang Chunsong actually threw one, definitely was.

This was an internal verification of upgrades, not a competition. Essentially, kickstarting their new internal code previously detailed here - emphasising floor and vault, and harder skills in general. No full routines were shown. Songsong's 3.5 on competition floor does look good indeed, but ALL of the upgrades have to be put into full routines and it's worth bearing in mind also that basically, the girls are not really built to be able to massively up their difficulty and endurance. Not that none of the upgrades will appear or anything, but just to be aware that they were performed singly. The 3.5 in particular was a skill assigned to the girls over winter training to accomplish on trampoline. Other combinations were probably assigned individually.

Tan Jiaxin's amanar looks serviceable. In her case, she has a lot of adjusting to do from her previous status as a one-eventer. Hopefully she can perform well on bars, floor and vault as she is very, very valuable.

Yao Jinnan IS AN ALL-AROUNDER at this point in time. She had one upgrade to show, and showed it. There is nothing to read into what events she will drop in the future. Don't get me wrong - she could indeed drop vault and floor, but she will not be able to do that this year. They are going to have a horrendous time scraping together enough girls and alternates for Nanning and the vault rotation will be an issue - there is just no way a guaranteed DTY will sit on the sidelines during it.

Tan Sixin and Huang Huidan did not appear, which indicates no upgrades to show or none to show yet. No need to fear, they'll be back in action when appropriate.

Wang Wei may retire. If she does, hopefully she'll be very happy in what she chooses to do. She would have been very valuable on floor this year and possibly vault, so it's a blow if she does :/

Upgrades are good news, but should be treated with caution! :) I have noticed a lot of certainty in the reporting of them and also about Yao Jinnan's status so thought I'd try to make it a bit clearer (hopefully).

Best of 2013

I hope everyone's having a good Christmas/New Years/holiday season.

Here's my 2013 'winners'. They're deliberately in a sort of scattered order since that's how they occurred to me, and to keep you on your toes.

Best senior:
Simone Biles

Best junior:
Bailie Key

Favourite senior:
Simone Biles

Favourite junior:
Laurie Hernandez

Best beam:
Luo Huan, 2013 National Games, TF. No question.

Best vault:
Simone Biles, Vault 2, Antwerp quals The block and form...

Best bars:
Yao Jinnan, Antwerp AA. Honourable mention to Ruby Harrold, Antwerp AA.

Best floor:
I need a better view of Victoria Moors' new floor to hand her this. There's one routine I enjoyed more than Ksenia Afanasyeva at Euros EF and that is Simone Biles at Antwerp AA.

Best bars dismount:
Koko Dobashi  This is Jamie Dantzcher's dismount, one of my favourites. Eythora Thorsdottir also did a beautiful double twisting flyaway.

Best bars mount:
Just kidding, nothing to see here. If you have seen something other than a glide kip or jump to high this year, please comment!

Best beam mount:
Natsumi Sasada being a total badass. Honourable mentions to the prettiness of Shang Chunsong's and to Danusia Francis for bringing back the Silivas.

Best beam dismount:
Simone Biles, Nationals Day 1. What is this, a Simone love-in? That was amazing though, the form, technique, height on stuck landing. I also love how the pointed toes and technique of Luo Huan's double pike, above under best beam, make it look stunning.

Best dancer:
Laurie Hernandez. Just fantastic. I'd like if she refined her movement just a little without losing any intensity or originality, but even if she never does, I'll always be glued to the screen watching her dance.

Best music:
See above. Engaging, magnetic sort of music, and original. Suits this firecracker perfectly. 

Best form:

Source- Getty images/AFP

Noemi Makra. Just beautiful, stunning work. A joy to watch. And let us not forget, the piked full-in in its pure form. Honourable mention goes to Luo Huan, again.

Best leaps:
Andreea Munteanu. So refreshing. Fellow Andreea, Iridon, isn't too shabby in the leaps department either, i.e. also glorious.

Best new skill:
i.e. named this year. The sideways side aerial, named for Silvia Colussi-Pelaez but performed by Danusia Francis at NCAA Nationals. The fact that she unleashed it after hiding it for months, and the moment she chose to do it. Amazing.

Best old skill reinvented:
The Zuchold, done by Ruby Harrold. Yao Jinnan and her Mo are stiff competition, but it was just not clearing the bar enough or hitting enough so... Both of these are linked above under best bars.

Most improved:
Simone Biles fo' sho' BUT a much more dramatic and subsequently heartwarming improvement was Mykayla Skinner between Day 1 and Day 2 of Nationals. Amazing turnaround.

Most elegant gymnast:
Eythora Thorsdottir, who I link to all the time. Getting lazy now.. 

Best newcomer:
Well Simone Biles, again. Sorry, but she's just the obvious pick for half of this. Honourable mention to Roxana Popa who has had ups and downs this year, but is definitely blazing a new trail both in Spanish gymnastics and on the European circuit.

Best comeback:
McKayla Maroney. What with her list of injuries, surgeries and growing a few inches on top of that, few expected her to be so solid and make such a strong case for herself to go to worlds. She has indeed deteriorated on vault, but still got that crazy yurchenko block, has ADDED difficulty to her floor, and placed 6th in the world at Antwerp prelims in the AA. Not to mention retaining her world vault champion title. Not bad for someone doing yurchenko timers into a pit in March.

Most solid senior:
Kyla "no falls" Ross.

Most solid junior:
Bailie "the machine" Key.

Best leotard:

UCLA - Copyright: AP Photo/Alex Gallardo

Maroney - Source: coolspotters.com

 

HKX. Copyright: A’Min, Guo Chen/Xinhua News Agency

Huang Huidan (on right). Copyright- rkwy1212

There are a few others I can't find. Can't pick 'one'. He Kexin's is more than likely a case of the gymnast in the leotard. I really don't like nude mesh but it was beautiful on her and made her look like an angel. Fitting, for the queen of the bars. I'm a huge fan of blue- GAGE leos this year, Danusia Francis at Universiade, more of UCLA's..the list goes on.

Cutest Moment:
Songsong isn't having a half-hearted handshake! 

Best hairstyle:

Warrior queen Chantysha. Source- rtlnieuws.nl

Chantysha Netteb is fierce!

Best floor skill combination: 
Shang Chunsong's opening pass of 1.5 into triple full-punchfront. Fantastic. 

Best beam skill combination:
Norah Flatley. It's insane, in a good way.

Best bars skill combination:
Ruby Harrold. That is, the Van Leeuwen to immediate Zuchold. I had to disregard the Maloney-Bhardwaj, which was hard.

Cutest gymnast:

Source- Wu Jun

Wang Yan, AKA Yanyan, Potato, little bean. Powerful but adorable.

Best WOW moment:
Victoria Moors sticking the DDLO in Antwerp AA. I witnessed this live...the tension! You could have heard a pin drop in her run and then the explosion, just unbelievable.

Best OMG moment:
Mykayla Skinner landing really good Cheng's off ONE HAND. Shouldn't be possible.

Highlight of the year:

Source- Ling Jie's weibo

Shang Chunsong wins five medals at National Games in Liaoning. 4 individual medals- 3 gold (AA, bars, floor), bronze on beam....and bronze in team finals. It could well be a record. For her feat she received the approximate equivalent of $500,000. Shang Chunsong's family are extremely poor, so this money means a lot. No cars for her, it is being used to provide for her parents and her brother. She has also secured a top university place for herself, whenever she chooses. The ultimate victory, in the context of which, who cares how worlds went for her?

Best competition:
Um, worlds, since I was there :D There were loads of expected faces missing, no denying that, but some competitions were still deep and there was great gymnastics a-plenty.

Best medal:

Source - Yves Logghe/AP, Christian Thomassen, Zhou Lei/Xinhua

Huang Huidan is victorious in the bars final. Cleans up her form, doesn't let herself be affected by the favourite falling right before her- her teammate and friend at that. Great moment, and such a nice surprise for a gymnast who seemed like a total headcase at the start of the year. 

Who are your winners? I'd love to see other opinions. If you feel like answering each category, go for it!

The REALLY BIG Worlds Review Post

I am snowed under with assignments currently and for the last while, with no real let-up this side of Christmas. So that is the delay with posting, but I haven't gone anywhere :) I'll still have time for the usual much shorter posts, it's just these long ones that have been a killer to write. Anyway, worlds finished a month ago but I haven't finished yet!

I had an absolutely fantastic experience attending these worlds live. It's kind of difficult to recount it, but you can read about it here, in 4 parts:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

I believe I said this in at least one of the above, but it was just so, so surreal to be watching gymnasts and gymnastics in person, rather than the hundreds if not thousands of hours I've watched through a screen. Like, oh McKayla Maroney is vaulting about 8 feet in front of my face...no big deal. But on to the juicy bit, actually reviewing worlds!

USA

Well, what a glorious domination for them. I did expect I believe a beam medal, 1 or 2 AA medals, 1 or 2 floor medals and 1 or 2 vault medals. Which obviously they exceeded, with a total of 8- 4 (AA and FX gold, VT silver, BB bronze) for Simone Biles, 3 (AA, BB and UB silver) for Kyla Ross and 1 (vault gold) for McKayla Maroney. I do have to say that this medal haul was helped along by a bit of a flop as regards international competition. The US were prepared as if it was the Olympics, everyone else as if it was a post-Olympic world cup. Viktoria Komova was not there, the Russian programme was a shambles, Aliya Mustafina was a bit tired, and the Romanians were relying entirely on a just-recovered Larisa Iordache. China were relying on Yao Jinnan who was also bouncing back from injury and new girl Shang Chunsong. The AA medals, floor and vault would have been won anyway, regardless of the strength of the competition, but the beam and bars medals were a bit of a surprise, and definitely not foreseen at the start of the year. Not a surprise in the last few months, but in general when sights turned to Antwerp last year. They attest to a general weakness in both events, especially beam I think.

BUT, that said, the US had an incredibly impressive worlds and fair dues to their programme of excellent preparation. It's fairly hard to imagine another country toppling their spell of domination any time soon.

First, we need to talk about Simone Biles. Simone has had quite a topsy turvy year or so. She exploded onto the scene this year with a huge arsenal of upgrades, but she also showed inconsistency- with falls at American Cup and Chemnitz. Still, she was regarded as the best US all-arounder and her performance at Classics where she fell on 3 events and was pulled from the fourth didn't really alter this. Indeed, it seemed to energise her. The new US National Champion fulfilled all of her potential and promise and defied the ever-present nay-sayers by going to Antwerp and qualifying to all four event finals, as well as the top all-around qualifier. This feat of qualifying to all finals is very rare these days as we know, especially since top all-arounders tend to eschew doing two vaults. Aliya Mustafina famously did so in 2010, however.

Of course, qualifying is only part of what she needed to do. I was nervous every time she mounted an apparatus...especially when she was first up on beam in her group..and yet, there was no need. Her all-around performance was a tour de force, summed up by the fact that although she was in second by a tenth after three rotations, she finished the competition in the lead by nearly nine tenths- an enormous gap. Could she keep it up for event finals with no break in between? It seems in hindsight to be silly to have been concerned over her consistency. For a first year senior to win the all-around title, qualify to all finals, and bring home another 3 medals including a second title is phenomenal. And, she doesn't seem like she's even at the height of her difficulty yet.

Kyla Ross

I don't feel like I'm the person to talk about Kyla. I haven't been shy of the fact that although I appreciate her lines and mastery of her skills and routines, I don't have much time for her gymnastics otherwise. She certainly had a great worlds, better than I could have predicted. Watching her on beam and bars in particular, knowing that there wasn't a hope of a mistake, was kind of thrilling in a way. It's refreshing to know that nothing will go wrong. I'm very curious to know where she will go from here. Will 3 silvers be an added spur to up her difficulty so she is one of the top contenders next year too? Or will she stay in and around the same level of difficulty in order to preserve herself for college? We do know that the injury rate is laughably high as a result of striving for high difficulty, after all.

  
McKayla Maroney

I have to laugh at the portrayals of McKayla Maroney as a one-eventer. A one-eventer does not place sixth in worlds qualifications all-around. She was a one-eventer last year since that is how she best served the team, and her own minor injuries meant saving herself for vault rather than adding floor into the mix was the best bet. I absolutely do not like the fact that Brenna Dowell was sacrificed at the last minute to make way for McKayla to do the all-around in qualifications, especially as she stood little chance of actually making the finals, which indeed proved to be the case. But it was still nice that she got the chance, and she certainly proved that all-around is not beyond her capabilities. Sixth with a fall, that is, and the best bars routine that she's ever done, an apparatus on which she has always looked nice, but much less secure than a bad routine by Aly Raisman.

The fact that her floor music was overtime is an appalling mistake which should have been fixed at Classics, nevermind camp. The US may have the best programme in the world right now but their internal competitions tend to overlook things- like Peyton Ernst getting credited for a dance series when she did not in fact do one. This silly mistake meant McKayla tied with Kyla and lost on execution. Kyla earned her place fair and square of course, but it would have been amazing to see McKayla in the final, with a routine that was worthy of fighting for a medal. Getting knocked out of the AA- although undoubtedly with the knowledge that that was nearly a certainty is one thing, but getting knocked out of floor finals over such a trivial error that wasn't even her fault is quite a setback. But that didn't do anything to dent her only final performance, vault. The reigning world champion fought off some fairly stiff competition to regain her title in style, and put the spectre of London to rest.

Russia

Really, I am amazed they managed to field a team at all. Meningitis, viruses, back problems, it was all going down at Round Lake, in almost comical fashion. I did predict that Viktoria Komova would not do the AA this year, but hospitalised with meningitis? Not to mention Anastastia Grishina getting blacklisted and then dealing with back/leg injuries and Ksenia Afanasyeva needing ankle surgery at precisely the wrong time. And glossing over other injuries, like Evgeniya Shelgunova. The team of Aliya Mustafina, Tatiana Nabieva, Anna Rodionova and Maria Paseka would never have been predicted six months ago, or at least, half of it. But it didn't end there, before qualifications, Maria Paseka was declared out with injury and then Tatiana Nabieva fell flat on her face in warm-ups, which curtailed the amount of events she was able to do in the end. Seriously, that is one strong curse Round Lake has going on. What a pity that yet again, Aliya Mustafina had to carry the team on her back, despite having just recovered from yet another virus, seemingly so prevalent in Round Lake. Nevertheless, it was great experience for newcomer Anna Rodionova and it was nice to see the comeback of Tatiana Nabieva from the depths of Russia's b-team, who may yet be useful for Russia...particularly if they continue to be struck down so badly before a major competition. It proves the folly of peaking for Euros and Universiade, though the Russian Gymnastics Federation had their hand forced in that regard.

In the face of such adversity, three medals, one gold, is a fabulous result for Russia's WAG. Let's hope their programme bounces back quickly into producing more than one gymnast healthy enough to snatch medals.

But that one gymnast, Aliya Mustafina, is amazing. Footage from podium training was half deliriously exciting with upgrades, half gutting as she looked so tired and just not with it. We have come to expect lacklustre showings from Russia in podium training, yet it kind of seemed more than just not trying when it didn't matter. Adding two whips to her double arabian pass and adding a Seitz on bars was wonderful to see, yet she was having issues with landing the double arabian sometimes, and having trouble on bars too. Beam was still wobbly  and the double turn connection was just not getting hit at all. Nevertheless, still a force to be reckoned with, and so she proved. Nobody competes like Aliya Mustafina. When she walked out and lined up for vault, she just exuded everything a top competitor should have, focus, poise, confidence with the addition in her case of queenly regal-ness. She wasn't really able to catch either or the top two throughout the all-around, but had such moments of greatness, a hit 6.7 bars set and utterly nailing her whip-whip-double arabian-stag. It's just so impressive to watch her in action. It's unfortunate her bars routine in event finals wasn't that bit better, but hey, it's new with fabulous composition. But, a key factor in the US team's success was repetition. There's a lot to be said for not chopping and changing...although, she shot that down by winning the beam title with a routine that has looked different in some way in almost every single competition this year. A great all-arounder, a top bars worker, but beam? How amazing that she still manages to surprise us. Before finals on Sunday I saw a post on twitter 'Plot twist: Aliya Mustafina is beam champion' which, really says it all.

Romania

Another team affected by injury (and a shedload of retirements, as usual). Diana Bulimar is definitely the gymnast I missed most - as we know she had to have knee surgery just a few weeks before worlds. Still, it was nice to see the previously invisible Stefanie Alina Stanila get some much-needed experience. Not that she received much attention, all eyes were on Larisa Iordache as usual, and Sandra Izbasa in floor finals. Only one medal was their sum total, when it really should have been three, possibly four. That said, Larisa had been dealing with yet more injuries this year and had not been back training at full strength for that long before worlds, while Sandra had only recently returned to competition, after a year long break.

It feels like Larisa Iordache has been around for years, and also that she has been more successful than she has in actuality. Quite an unlucky gymnast, dogged by injury and only in her second year as a senior. Her difficulty is enormous, her potential remains as high as ever, yet she doesn't seem to be able to get it together when it matters most. Obviously, lack of full-on training time will hinder that. But I feel she needs more competitive fire, she seems to be more nervous in the really big competitions. She's going nowhere, a gymnast like her will continue to be the backbone of Romania's WAG programme. Let's hope next year is her time to really shine and get everything together.

I'm quite curious to see if Sandra Izbasa will stick around. Her fall on the exact same element in floor finals as in London was really gutting, and could well be motivation to retire on a better note than that. Not that she let herself look upset, she was so smiley and dignified, wonderful to see.

China

Now this was a 50/50 team. Three girls with a big record for inconsistency, the fourth an international unknown with an age question mark over her head. It was very hard to predict what this team could do, and so sad that they spectacularly underperformed. Not Huang Huidan, who after so much flakiness but a streak of hit routines this year, unexpectedly claimed a bars title with a huge score and the best routine she has done all year. Injuries have done their damage, Yao Jinnan and Shang Chunsong have both been dealing with those, and although Zeng Siqi's major problem seems to be general frailty as well as inconsistency..she has not been the same gymnast since an injury she sustained two years ago. In spite of that, she was supposed to make beam finals easily and was a huge medal hope. After her performance at the National Games, hopes plummeted and she lived up to those by falling in qualifications. Personally, I think she needs conditioning more than anything. Endurance is a big issue with her. Not sure how the flakiness can be cured but sometimes that happens- look at Sui Lu. Yao remains a heartbreaker. Caught the Mo in the all-around only to fall victim to a tucked full (or fall?) that she absolutely cannot do on beam. It's so, so low that the margin for error is huge and when I saw her preparation for it I was raging because it was never going to work out. Had she landed it, it would have been hit with so many deductions that it would not have been worth doing. Lamentably poor coaching decision. Grrrr!

I mentioned this before but..to Mo or not to Mo? Worked out once out of two occasions at worlds. I believe she had the same hit record at National Games with it. Our favourite source, Valentina Rodionenko, states that Yao was failing to catch it over and over again that she saw, in training. I think if she cannot better it during winter training, as in not only catch it more often but ensure her feet and shins are not going to touch the bar, then I think it dropped. It's awesome, so so awesome, but there's not much point otherwise.

Shang Chunsong is interesting. Huge potential difficulty, 6.9 UB, 6.1 FX, 6.6 BB etc. But she didn't live up to expectations, falling on beam in the AA, an event she is usually quite consistent on, and not doing a good enough routine to really challenge for the second Chinese spot in uneven bars finals. Floor scoring was so harsh that I wasn't that taken back when she failed to qualify for that final, but in general, I wasn't happy with her execution scoring at all. Don't get me wrong, she HAS execution errors. But it seems like she gets deducted for everything, while others don't necessarily suffer the same level of high scrutiny. Personally, and feel free to disagree, but I think she is to some extent being judged just that little bit harsher, due to how young she looks. As if that's somehow her fault? If the FIG have an issue, then they should be questioning her federation. It is highly, highly unfair, IF perceptions over her age are working against her - I'm not saying this is unequivocally the case - to take it out on her scores.

I was thrilled when she stayed on the beam in event finals, and even though there were definitely biggish deductions to be found like the big wobble and the lamentable switch ring, that e panel hated her too. Sigh. Worlds was a mixed bag for her. Much needed international experience and exposure (not that the latter was kind), always a good thing though. I think that she peaked at National Games which is by no means a negative- this worlds wasn't a big deal, and the benefit she received from her medals at NG (approximately $500k, a university place, and the ability to provide a house etc. for her extremely poor family) is immense, a huge achievement. In person, her FTY looked fine to me. But seeing it on the replay and online, it's another story. It's quite anaemic and just not dynamic at all. She really could do with gaining muscle mass, she's not a fragile gymnast by any means if you look at her other events but it would really help her vault with the goal of achieving a DTY in the future. I'm hoping her form is tightened up during winter training. She could be so much better than the girl we saw in Antwerp.

Thankfully, China did not go away with no medals. An extremely dismal performance as a team, but not for Huang Huidan who definitely exceeded expectations. A well deserved title.

THE ALL AROUND

The Good

- The TENSION. It was awesome. An absolutely wonderful atmosphere.
- Always, always something to watch.
- The buzz when big skills were nailed.
- Yao catching her Mo, Victoria Moors nailing her laidout double double.
- The opportunity to watch the beautiful gymnasts who are far below the radar, like Noemi Makra, Anna Rodionova and Ilaria Kaeslin.
- The rotation music. WHAT a song.
- The enormous roar any time the two Belgian gymnasts competed.
- Seeing vault and the gymnasts so up close.
- The view in general. It was fantastic. Not for bars, but you can't have everything.

Favourite Routines

- BEAM Ilaria Kaeslin, Anna Rodionova, Noemi Makra, Natsumi Sasada
- FLOOR Victoria Moors, Simone Biles, Aliya Mustafina, Larisa Iordache, Elisabeth Seitz, Noemi Makra, Roxana Popa, Shang Chunsong
- BARS Yao Jinnan, Roxana Popa, Aliya Mustafina, Ruby Harrold, Noemi Makra
- VAULT Simone Biles, Kyla Ross, Giulia Steingruber, Roxana Popa, Noemi Makra

The Bad

- Well...the falls really. Natsumi Sasada's meltdown on bars, Shang Chunsong, Larisa Iordache and Yao Jinnan's beam falls in particular. And Ruby Harrold and Victoria Moors. And Rebecca Tunney. Anna Rodionova. It's a loooong list.
- Another missed opportunity for Yao Jinnan in particular, and for Larisa Iordache to really shine in an AA after what happened last year.

Favourite leotards

Carlotta Ferlito

Copyright - AP/ Virginia Mayo

This was just stunning in the arena. Eye-catching, but not too much. Lovely colour too.

Rebecca Tunney

Copyright- Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images

Just so classic. Simple, but not dull.

In general, I had seen most of the other leotards too many times to really care about them, or I found them dull. The US predictably had a leotard that would have been lovely in a wide variety of colours, but not that ugly, ugly shade. I'm not sure about Victoria Moors' leotard. I think the pattern was a bit too clumped together? Loved the contrast of the colours though.

VAULT

The Good

- McKayla Maroney vaulted right in front of me.
- See above.
- Also, Simone Biles did.
- Simone Biles' block on her Lopez.
- McKayla Maroney's amanar block is still phenomenal.
- Nobody died!
- The legend that is Oksana Chusovitina
- Higher calibre final than London.
- No deaths.
- Lots of diversity. Switzerland, USA, the Netherlands, North Korea, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Dominican Republic...wow.

The Bad

- Chantysha Netteb went for the DTY and tore her ACL right in front of me. Absolutely horrifying to witness and to imagine her suffering. The constant replays of her injury on the screen, which was too close to block from my field of vision. The pain on her face was just so heartwrenching. Awful, awful, awful.
- Others were lucky to get up after their vaults. A preposterous decision for Phan Thi Ha Thanh to go for the amanar when her DTY is dodgy. And not forgetting the death cannonball Produnova.
- Too Yurchenko friendly.
- Overscoring. LOL at McKayla Maroney's amanar score for which her execution score was higher than in London, kind of blatantly ignoring off centre, bent knees, bent hips.

Favourite Vault

Simone Biles' Lopez, since it was TEXTBOOK. Uhhhh so beautiful! I know I just pointed out the flaws in Maroney's amanar but the block she gets off that thing makes it a close second. It's like BOOM.

Favourite Leotard

USA

Copyright- Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images

Hey at least they got one good leo for finals! Look the colour, the neckline, the sleeves. Suited everyone. More please.

UNEVEN BARS

The Good

- Great lineup. And some diversity, always great to see.
- Not one but TWO British girls made the final. Fantastic!
- Lots of dynamic connections, like Huang Huidan and Sophie Scheder.
- Rare, creative moves like Ruby Harrold's, super-difficult ones like Aliya Mustafina's Seitz and Yao Jinnan's Mo.
- Not a pirouette fest. Just enough.
- Very different styles of routines on display, from very different types of gymnasts.
- The gold medal winner doing the best routine of her life in a surprise finish.

The Bad

- Yao falling. Ugly sobbing. It was especially bad since she caught and then peeled off..
- 8 glide kips. I understand why it's wise to conserve your energy but it was just dull..
- Sophie Scheder's score was too low.
- Simone Biles' score was too high.
- Aliya Mustafina missing a connection and biffing her dismount a little bit.
- Becky Downie coming off when it looked like she was going to make it.

Favourite Leotard

The US, again.

BEAM

The Good

- The stunningly elegant Anna Rodionova qualifying.
- Aliya Mustafina hitting a beam routine perfectly. Twilight zone.
- Kyla Ross' lovely long lines.
- I expected Simone to mess up. Couldn't really say she did, dismount a bit I suppose. Pleasantly surprised to see her maintain herself until the end of competition.
- A very surprising gold winner. Always interesting.
- The super difficult BHS-Arabian attempt! 

The Bad

- Larisa falling. Not unexpected given her performance on beam in general at worlds. But so devastating.
- Anna Rodionova's fall.
- Shang Chunsong's routine far from her best.
- Lack of difficulty, gold and silver had double tuck dismounts, bronze hadn't much in the interior of her routine despite the killer dismount. All three had extremely weak acro series.
- The enquiries. It just seemed to taint the whole final.

Favourite Leotard

Shang Chunsong

Copyright- Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images

Lovely! It's a much deeper shade than their usual ketchup, and so so much prettier. The mesh and stars are a nice contrast and the yellow livens it up without being ugly. Anna Rodionova would really have won since she had my favourite Russian leotard but it's not new, this is, and it's the surprise element of this that I love also.

FLOOR

The Good 


- Killer difficulty. THREE double doubles, 1 full twisting double layout.
- The bounce, energy, charisma and charm of Mai Murakami and Simone Biles who just drew in the entire arena into their routines.
- Larisa Iordache recovering from her beam fall and the loss of that title by performing wonderfully - fantastic routine and tumbling.
- Simone Biles' double layout half. Such an awesome skill.
- Kyla Ross' much improved dance. Love the 'whip' bit especially.
- Elsabeth Black's 2.5 stepout, loved it.

The Bad

- Underscoring, specifically Mai Murakami who was robbed of a medal.
- Inflation of Vanessa Ferrari's routine.
- Sandra Izbasa's fall.

Favourite Leotard

Nothing really stood out..

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Congratulations, you have reached the end! I won't have anything near as long until I'm dissecting Glasgow worlds. Anyway, feel free to discuss your liked and dislikes- if worlds is not too much of a distant memory by this stage!