Entries from October 2010 ↓

History: Competition home page (results). FIG. USAG. Full Twist. WAG videos. Gymnastike. Photos.

If you live for the drama, there were plenty of drama queens in Rotterdam.

Personally I like the discipline displayed, in general, by the American girls. No matter what goes wrong, you fight back tears. You respect your competitors. You respect the sport.

It’s bad sportsmanship to make a display of yourself, off the apparatus.

If underscored, you shake the hand of the victor, and congratulate.

I was shocked all week at lack of discipline shown by the Russian girls. I guarantee you that the boss, Rodienenko, hates this stuff. He’s benched gymnasts his entire career for any one of the dozen nonsense moments we’ve seen out of Nabieva.

Just when we should be celebrating that Russia is back, instead there’s a backlash. Check Couch Gymnast’s post – MORE RUSSIAN HISTRIONICS….OR JUST PLAIN RUDE?

_____

More controversy …

Once again, the judging of the E panel sucks.

Andy Thorton weighs in … The Floor final:

… a perfect example of the problem in women’s judging today. If we take out Afanasyeva, every other E-score of the final was between 8.883 and 9.1 – not nearly enough to reflect the true differences in the landings (Izbasa’s 0.8 penalty is in a different category) …

The judges “box” the scores to be sure they are not out of range.

Ferrari’s E score should have been several tenths higher than anyone else. But the judges are too gutless to throw a high number.

On Beam:

… of the gymnasts who hit, the E-scores ranged from 8.6 to 8.966 …

Same thing.

Andy has more. Zonderland’s stupid great Horizontal Bar routine, included.

American Gymnast – Event Finals Day 2 Filled With Controversy…

Worst of all, Tandori Chicken got interviewed by Gymnastike. A foul fowl.

See how the Ahoy area in Rotterdam fills before the all-round finals on Friday.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

(Video: Frans Hoek)

The best summing-up of Day 2 Event Finals at Worlds is (once again) on Full Twist.

Chinese coaches getting “grilled” – WHERE are the girls event medals? (Via Ollie Williams.)

Universal Sports to refund for World Championships live feed glitch. The black screen of death. Respect Universal for that. Sooner or later they’ll get the technology working for 95%+ of paying customers.

It’s been a couple of hours since the competition finished. Of course the routines are appearing online.

Click PLAY or watch Ana’s GOLD on YouTube.

Who is DrMtzLizama from Mexico?

… Gracias.

More Beam final routines on Full Twist.

The Aussies are over the moon with their first World Gymnastics Champion, Lauren Mitchell.

Couch Gymnast – ATTA GIRL!!!

… Others are still drying their tears.

Tomorrow we must all return to the real world, living to fight another day.

Oh, no.

What a shame.

The biggest story in the Netherlands … didn’t happen. Local boy made good only came 2nd when the final competitor, long Zhang from China, nudged him off the top of the podium.

1 ZHANG Chenglong CHN 16.166
2 ZONDERLAND Epke NED 16.033
3 HAMBUECHEN F. GER 15.966
4 BOY Philipp GER 15.833
5 LEYVA Danell USA 15.666
6 BROOKS C. USA 15.383
7 FENG Zhe CHN 15.166
8 UEMATSU Koji JPN 14.000

Zhang is terrific. But I felt Boy, who finished 4th, had the most impressive routine, if not the highest scoring.

UEMATSU was the second most impressive, perhaps. But he fell.

I’ve got to post ALL these routines. A thrilling finale to Worlds.

Gymnastics Examiner – Quick Hits

The wild Dutchman becomes one of the most popular guys in Netherlands, and not only for his 6 pack.

He HIT some crazy routine, even more difficult than I expected. Medal for sure. VIDEO to come soon.

IG: 

Zonderland NED just hit the most amazing routine under the pressure that I think I have ever seen!!! 7.3/16.033 I don’t think anyone can outdo that, and if they do we better have the police help get the judges out of the arena.

… Leyva hit a great routine too, for 2nd place so far. His Dad jumped really high, this time.

Hambuchen, later in the line up, plays it safe. Did not try to connect releases, though it looked like he could have.

She finishes this meet with 5 medals: 2 GOLD and 3 SILVER.

Wow.

Australian WORLD CHAMPION Lauren Mitchell

my LIVE notes:

Mustafina is Mustafina. Tough to beat anywhere. The World AA Champ sets the score to beat D 5.8 ; E : 8.966 ; 14.766 (had a 14.833 in qualifications)

Sandra Izbasa is so beautiful on Floor. I would love to see her win. … But she landed twice out of bounds, the first time with both feet over the line.

Staying in bounds is a huge factor in deciding what tumbling lines to use.

Afanasyeva (RUS) showed huge tumbling difficulty, but buckled landing double layout. Later fell on double pike. … Things have not gone well for team Russia in finals. They are looking far more vulnerable than they did before Worlds.

HEY. The Ferrari came up BIG in Finals. How fantastic. She hit her routine just about as well as possible. GREAT landings. Give the former world AA champion a medal!

Raisman has the most power of any tumbler at Worlds. She could compete double double instead of a double tuck – what’s with that easy line?

Still, it’s the second best routine of the day, so far …

Chelaru finishes with a good routine in the Romanian tradition.

Double tuck? … That’s a weak line, I feel, for the World Championships Final …

Nice routine from Siu Lu.

Last up is Mitchell, wanting a medal after getting 4th on Beam. Gorgeous double Arabian. Nice. A couple of landing deductions. She’s a beautiful gymnast. Go Aussie.

SHE WINS IT.

Not a great Floor final. But better than I expected. They’ll be some discussion over the scores.

Gymnastics Examiner – Quick Hits

1 FENG Zhe CHN 15.966
2 TENG Haibin CHN 15.616
3 UCHIMURA Kohei JPN 15.500

4 HAMBUECHEN F. GER 15.366
5 UEMATSU Koji JPN 15.233
6 KIERZKOWSKI A. POL 15.200
7 VALEIEV Ildar KAZ 15.183
8 PIASECKY Samuel SVK 15.166

Even though the Parallel Bar routines are like compulsories including:

3 Felge skills in series, Front toss 5/4, Double Pike dismount …

I still LOVE this apparatus in 2010 and this Final. In fact, it was the best final in Rotterdam, after Pommel.

The only original skill was Piasecky (Kazakhstan) – Felge to 1-bar handstand. Awesome.

Wait. Piasecky (SVK) used giant to 1-bar. Almost as awesome. His Felge might have had the most amplitude of all.

China still has the routines to beat on this event, but the gap is much closer than in the past.

Fantastic gymnastics.

Congratulations to all of the P Bar finalists.

Gymnastics Examiner – Quick Hits

Everyone is surprised how well ticket sales have gone here in Rotterdam.

GymMEDIA decided to find out why spectators bought these expensive tickets.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

THE ALL AROUND reports that the Prince and Princess of Holland are here.

1 PORGRAS Ana ROU 15.366

2 BROSS Rebecca USA 15.233
2 DENG Linlin CHN 15.233

4 MITCHELL Lauren AUS 15.200
5 SACRAMONE A. USA 15.066
6 DEMENTYEVA Anna RUS 13.966
7 MUSTAFINA Aliya RUS 13.766
8 DEMYANCHUK Yana UKR 13.733

First competitor, Alicia Sacramone opted to mount with just front tuck instead of infamous pike (fall at Olympics).

SOLID. Beautiful form on double pike dismount. … She’s jubilant. What a triumph of a comeback.

The beautiful Lauren Mitchell goes up second. HIT. Love the layout. Love the careful wolf turn. … Every little girl in Australia must be working that.

Rebecca Bross. What a rock! No problem with Arabian, this time. Switch ring shaky. Small hop on front tuck. GREAT Patterson, small step. Carly must be cheering.

Loving this Beam final. It’s great to see HIT routines in finals.

The American strategy was to go consistent, not having the highest start values as a team at this meet.

Let’s see what happens now that the pressure is on the rest …

Wow. I love Ana Porgras. This routine flows better than any other gymnast in Rotterdam. NICE. … Small errors. … Judges? … She jumps into 1st place. I’m OK with that. It might motivate the Chinese not to be so choppy in future.

Reigning World Champ Deng (CHN) is next, under pressure from so many hit routines. NICE. Choppy. Small errors. … hmm. Moves to 2nd.

Super gymnast Mustafina. … Wot. Jumps off after Arabian. No medal here. … She really should do Patterson dismount instead of the messy triple twist.

Dementieva is a favourite of everyone here. But after a fall in the Beam final, she’s really not a proven commodity on a team that plans to win the Olympics.

Mitchell had a 0.1 higher start than Bross and Porgras. What routine should have scored higher?

Gymnastics Examiner Quick Hits.