Entries Tagged 'photos' ↓

I attended Renmore Gymnastics Level 1 Regionals Qualifier. This is the first level for beginner girls in Ireland, competition held only for Floor and Vault.

FUN is highest priority.

Scoring was done with pencil and paper. Gymnasts flashed the scores manually. No computer errors at this competition!

more photos

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FIG is posting photos on Facebook.

Venue looks great. It’s an honour to be here … the next best thing to the Olympics.

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The great U.K. photographer posted 12 of her favourite shots of the year on her blog Where Sport Meets Art – A year end tradition

Click through to see those and her tips for zoom images.

Her official site is langsleysports.com.

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The men’s pics are up.

John Orozco. - Harry How/Getty Images for USOC

See the rest.

(via Examiner – The gymnastics week in review: Retirement in Switzerland, rebranding in Ireland)

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Sabrina Gill and Stefanie Merkle run in to Anastasia Grishina and Viktoria Komova on the streets of Marseille!!

Originally posted by Stefanie’s coach, I saw it on Oakville Gymnastics Club Women’s Blog.

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A very cute Olympics preview in L.A.

World VAULT Champ McKayla Maroney. Credit: Harry How/Getty Images for USOC

See more from that event linked from Examiner – Check it out: The U.S. women’s “British” Olympics shoot!

Meanwhile, Lauren Mitchell’s been shooting a TV ad for VISA. There are stills from that session posted on Facebook.

UPDATE:

Visa, a proud sponsor of the Olympic Games for 25 years, announced today that Australian gymnast Lauren Mitchell will join sporting greats including swimmer Michael Phelps and shot put gold medalist Valerie Adams as the face of its London 2012 Olympic Games campaign. …

VISA MEDIA RELEASE linked by Lauren on Facebook.

Meanwhile …

@John__Orozco: To go pro or not to go pro! #Indecisive

Sure. Why not. … EVERYBODY go pro.

I’ve announced my own decision to GO PRO on Twitter. … #waitingforthecallfromNike

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A few pics of the facility. It’s the top floor of a building conveniently right beside the train station. In Japan you must maximize use of valuable space.

This gym has more air matting than any other I’ve ever seen.

Some things are the SAME in every gym. The smell. And a cluttered collection of grips.

see more photos

P.S. … the tidiest gym I’ve ever seen is run by Wolfgang & Elfrida Goermann, the Winnipeg Gymnastics Centre. Here’s their story.

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Former Kiwi gymnast Karry Summers is a pole dancer, working out between clashes.

She’s happy the All Blacks finally won the World Cup.

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Many continue to be fascinated with our Worlds Bars silver medalist. There’s a heap of new photos from Tokyo on her website.

Let’s keep this next one for when the Russian media complain about her being underscored on Vault. (Her form has actually improved since 2010.)

related – RT.com – Russian gymnasts judged harshly?

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This is cool.

Some of Canada’s top gymnasts have used their flexibility and strength to create a human alphabet as part of a fundraiser for the Canadian team as it prepares for the 2012 London Olympics.

The project was the brainchild of Jennifer Blakely, who founded Alphabet Photography. …

See the rest of the alphabet

… Peng Peng Lee of Toronto, who was 19th in the world championships all-around final last week in Tokyo, said she “loved every second” of making the alphabet with teammates Dominique Pegg, Casey Sandy, Maria Kitkarska and Cory Paterson.

She reckons that capital G was the toughest letter to make. …

The Star – Canada’s gymnasts deserve A for effort

The photos can be purchased here for $45. 100% of the profits goes to athletes.

(via Oakville Men’s Gymnastics)

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Men’s Gymnastics in Japan is kind of a big deal.

Though it’s nowhere near as popular as baseball and soccer, gymnastics gets respect.

I had a Japanese coach and most of my earliest heroes were Japanese. At age-12 I once performed a P Bar routine immediately after … Mitsuo Tsukahara. (Hopefully I was cute.)

So when it was first announced that Japan would host Worlds, I was determined to attend. In fact, I’m staying in Japan for up to 2 months. It’s an honour to be here.

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There were hundreds of amazing routines on display, from nations large and small. The depth of men’s gymnastics worldwide is staggering.

… It’s silly, in reality, to have Dominican Republic (pop. 9 million) compete against China (pop. 1.3 billion)

Talk about an “unfair” competition.

Yet we have a girls from Dominican Republic and Vietnam in Vault finals — and no Chinese girls. For the fan there’s something interesting in watching the athletes from the lesser known nations.

Men’s gymnastics is even better. We have event finalists from Israel, Slovenia, Venezuela, Chile & Hong Kong.

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Here’s the most important result — the list of those nations who qualify a team directly to the Olympics.

1. JPN 364.191 2. USA 361.583 3. CHN 358.226 4. GER 354.132 5. RUS 353.725 6. KOR 351.331 7. ROU 350.900 8. UKR 350.434

CONGRATULATIONS. Well earned!

I had predicted: CHN, JPN, GBR, (USA / GER) …

I’d still bet on China in that Final.

France is 9th.

Non-qualification (so far) for Olympic host Great Britain is the story of the meet, I’d say. The girls made it. The guys didn’t.

Click PLAY or watch Keatings try to explain it on YouTube.

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Russia surprised with their excellent performance after erratic training. (Similar to the RUS women.)

They were easily the most impressive Vault team.
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Next, the 8 teams that move on to London “test” event from January 10-18th, 2012. (With only 5 gymnasts — Olympic rules.) Buy your tickets here.

9. France 349.828
10. Great Britain 348.742
11. Spain 348.725
12. Canada 347.076
13. Brazil 346.626
14. Puerto Rico 344.460
15. Italy 343.642
16. Belarus 342.575

Four of these teams will there qualify for London. Four will not.

The happiest gymnasts in Tokyo tonight are teams Ukraine and Belarus. The least happy … France 9th and Switzerland 17th.
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The “routine” of the day was defending World Champion Thomas Bouhail on Vault.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

He did a second vault to qualify for finals. A Tsuk double pike. STICK.
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Here are the qualifiers from prelims to World Championships Finals:

FX QUALIFIERS
1. Zou CHN 15.700
2. Dragulescu ROM 15.566
3. Shatilov ISR 15.500
4. Hypolito BRA 15.500
5. Uchimura JPN 15.466
6. Legendre USA 15.433
7. Gonzalez CHI 15.400
8. Koczi ROM 15.400

R1 – Gafuik
R2 – Gomez Fuerts
R3 – Almeida Campos
R4 – Cappeli
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Pommels was the strongest apparatus. Rings weakest.

Nearly every team has a pommel guy who swings this sweet.

Click PLAY or watch Emin GARIBOV on YouTube.

I’m still liking Marcel Nguyen for the Longines Award. Or should it be Russia’s David BELYAVSKIY?

Click PLAY or watch him on YouTube.

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Here are the best links from men’s prelims:

• FIG – China third as Tokyo prelims conclude

• Inside Gymnastics DAILY 5 – MONDAY, OCTOBER 10

• Team qualifications report card — who exceeded expectations?

• Men’s Worlds prelims day 1

Details on what happened via LIVE blogs: Examiner and TAA and Gymnastike.

Two of those 3 bloggers are ladies — and they’ve learned a LOT about MAG over the past couple of years, often correcting my mistakes.

On to Team Finals over the next two days. I love the sudden victory, 3-up ~ 3-count format. Anything can happen.

That’s a low res photo from the 2011 World Championships – Men’s Qualifications Facebook page, the best pics of Worlds I’ve found so far.

Twitter has been the best way to follow the meet online. But that will change if internet TV is available starting tomorrow. Check to see if you can get Universal where you live.

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Some of the best I’ve seen are …

… posted by by John Cheng for USA Gymnastics on Facebook.

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NOTE – So far on this site, I’m projecting results for the preliminary competition. (The team final is a totally different ballgame. Let’s jump off that bridge when we get to it.)

The World Championships competition begins in about 12hrs. Podium training is finally finished.

____ But first …

Big story of the day was the (probable) Achilles tendon tear of Alicia Sacramone.

It really calls into question the wisdom of bringing Anna Li who prepared for 2 apparatus, at most.

Instead of using Anna, USA will compete their final 5 healthy gymnasts on all 4 apparatus in team prelims.

This brings CHN, ROM and RUS decidedly closer to the Americans. But I still think USA could win the team prelims, if they hit. And avoid any further injury.

If CHN hits, as well, it will be close.

RUS continues brilliant but inconsistent.

ROM is happy where they’re at, I think. (One Romanian delegate told me their only goal is to finish in the top 8.)

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In the competition venue today we saw the other half of the men’s teams on podium.

The best link is Examiner – Quick hits: Podium training, day four (men’s)

Click PLAY or watch a MAG podium training edit on YouTube.

China was in the last rotation and looks unbeatable. Superb Pommels. Great P Bars. Average Rings … aside from their best two who will likely go Gold, Silver in Finals.

But I’m not a fan of their H Bar — boring at best, embarrassing at worst. The safest possible skill selection. Long Zhang Chenglong, reigning world champion, is the exception. He swings.

On vault China does no double somersault vaults. So they can land. RUS likely has the most exciting vault team — but how many will land?

JPN should finish second as a team, comfortably. They are dynamic, exciting and fun to watch.

Still I’m thinking GBR v GER v USA for 3rd place in team prelims.

Nobody else has the depth to challenge. Not Russia. Not Korea. Not France, though they did look very good today.

The team that “won” podium training, I’m pleased to say, was Canada.

The Canucks had very few errors over 6 events today with a strategy to go “clean” rather than throw every skill they can do.

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The guys all love the Floor. But rather than add difficulty, they are focused on absorbing the landings. It’s easy to bounce right out of bounds on landing. Like Russia did many times today,

Pommels is by far the strongest apparatus for men. Nearly every team has a guy who could challenge for Finals. Amazing.

I’m liking SELLATHURAI Prashanth for World Champion. He did Magyar Spindle between the pommels today. Cool.

Aussie Aussie Aussie.

Korea will likely win PH as a team.

Rings is weak.

Who’s ready to challenge the Chinese here? … Leave names in the comments.

I could see old man Jovtchev and van Gelder (now eligible for Olympics) in the Final.

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Vault will be a make-or-break event for many teams.

If you throw the 6.6 and higher vaults, will you land them?

What percentage of male gymnasts will fall on vault?
35% … 40% ??

Still, everyone wants YANG Hak Seon (KOR) to compete his new vault - Handspring Front layout 3/1 twist (7.4).

He did it only once in podium. And almost landed.

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In AA prelims I’d agree that Uchimura could fall twice. Or three times … and still finish 1st. None of the other top contenders look ready to challenge.

It’s nice to see Hambuchen, Dragalescu and Keatings back doing the AA, though.

Even Jotchov, our eldest gymnast, is doing AA, I hear.

High res photos available for purchase from fig-photos.com.

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