The girl to beat this year, was not beat.
Courtney Kupets is fantastic.
I hope she tries out for the American Olympic team for 2008.
However, vault finals were a “let down” for me.
Gymnasts qualified with one vault. Then must average two different vaults (not different families) in finals.
I’ve always disliked this system. It results in some gymnasts competing a weaker second vault. Or poor performance of second vaults. There were a number of falls tonight.
For example, here’s what the champion had to say in the post-meet interview:
Question: “Tonight you won with two different vaults. Do you or any other girls train using two different vaults?”
Courtney: “I don’t regularly train on two separate vaults. My second vault tonight I haven’t done in about 6-8 months. But your muscles know what to do, that’s what training is for. You always keep that second vault in the back of your head.”
Is that smart? Is that safe?
Finals should be the same format as preliminaries. It’s obvious.
Incidentally, there were only one or two forward approach vaults done in the entire Championships. It’s almost 100% Yurchenko right now.
Gymnastics Coaching.com 