Normally my favourite commentator on the major gymnastics competitions is Dieter Hoffman on GYMmedia.com.
Dieter is one of the most successful coaches of all time, many years the Head Coach of East Germany.
For Worlds in Germany, however, I found that his commentary was slow to be posted on-line. And slow to be translated to English.
For Day 1 event finals, it sounds like Women’s Vault was the most interesting apparatus:
GOLD — CHENG Fei CHN –
1. Yurtchenko, 2 1/2- … adjusting step … (16.5) – 16.000;
2. Rondat-1/2, salto fwd. stretched 11/2- … step back … (16.5) – 15.875
– total = 15.937SILVER — HONG, Su Jong PRK –
1. Yurchenko, 2 1/2-, correcting step .. (16.5) – 15.850;
2. Rondat, 1/2, salto fwd., 1 1/2- secure landing .. (16.5) – 15.775;
total = 15.812:BRONZE — SACRAMONE Alicia USA –
1. Handspring, salto fwd. stretched, 1 1/2- … (16.3) – 15.750
2. Yurchenko, 2/1 …..hop on landing… (15.8) – 15.075,
total =15.412;4. HONG Un Jong PRK –
1. Yurchenko, 2/1 – … correcting step .. (15.8) – 15.000;
2. Rondat-1/2, salto fwd. stretched 1 1/2 … techn. posture fault… (15.8) – 15.400; = total = 15.200.5. BARBOSA Jade BRA –
1. Yurchenko, 21/2, problems on landing… (16.5) – 15.625:
2. Rondat, 1/2, landed outside zone… (15.6) -14.700; – total= 15,162;6. CHUSOVITINA Oksana GER –
1. handspring, stretched salto 11/2, … four point landing, out of zone… (16.3) -14.425;
2. Tsukahara, stretched, 1 1/2- … (15.7) – 14.950; – -total = 14.687;7. KOMRSKOVA Jana CZE –
1. Rondat-1/2, salto fwd. peaked 1/2 … (15.2) – 14.450;
2. Yurchenko 1/1 … (15.0) – 14.375; -total = 14.412;8. ZAMOLODCHIKOVA Elena RUS –
1. Yurchenko 2/1- … hop on landing .. (15.8) – 15.000;
2. Rondat-1/2, salto fwd. stretched 1/2 … fall on to front !! (15.2) – 12.750; total = 13.857;>> Detailed Results
Commentary:
– a high class struggle between the quartet of Chussovitina, Cheng, Fei (title holder), HONG, Su Jong and Saramone was to take place…
– CHENG, Fei – performed last and and showed the same vaults as the Korean performing before her, the reason for the one tenth difference in the B-score that gave her gold remains the secret of the judges; nobody would have thought it strange to have two world champions!
– HONG, Su Jong – (for the first time ever two sisters qualified for a WCh-final; her sister HONG, Un Jong came fourth) she had two starting values of 16.5 and in the end came second by 1/10 due to the ‘interpretation’ of the judges.
– SACRAMONE – her first vault ‘only’ had 1 1/2 turns, and with a starting value of 15.8 for the second exercise a title is out reach, bronze is justified,
– CHUSSOVITINA – during her first vault she had to little rotation aroud her latitudinal axis… touched the mat with her hands (fall), which destroyed all hopes; even if the first vault had been a success, a starting value of 15.7 would not have been sufficient to beat her rivals!
Nevertheless the finals performance of this gymnast, at 32 an anomaly, deserves our respect!
*********************************************************************** Hattrick of the threefold vault world champion CHENG, Fei who achieved her titles in series, but is also the only Chinese vault women’s world champion in gymnastics history;
* HONG, Su Jong (PRK) – wins the first silver medal for North Korea on vault and the second in total, after the contended (age of gymnast) uneven bars success for KIM, Kwan Suk 1991 in Indianapolis.
* Alicia SACRAMONE (USA) – after silver the year before, now her second bronze medal after Melbourne 2005 on vault,
… bad luck for co-favourites Samolochikova (1st WM 1999 and 2002) and Chussovitina (1st WM 2003)…
Click PLAY or watch HONG, Su Jong vaulting at Asian Games 2006 on YouTube.
Gymnastics Coaching.com 