Year: 2010

No surprise here. The defending Olympic Champion, Chen Yibing, was expected to win. And he delivered. World champion now 2006, 2007, 2010.

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1 Chen 15.90, 2 Yan 15.70, 3 Morandi 15.666, 4 Yamamuro 15.50, 5 Yoo 15.433, 6 San Miguel 15.333, 7 Kobayashi 15.30, 8 Chen 15.266

Unbelievable strength sequences from Yan (CHN) 15.70 (6.8/8.9). … How is China training strength?

This Ring final was not the battle of the strong men we’ve seen in Worlds past. Many hold positions were not quite perfect. Many took small deductions. The Chinese were not really challenged.

That’s the final apparatus for today. The rest go tomorrow. I’ll post video of the most interesting and controversial routines when they come online.

Hambuchen was training connected Kovacs – Kolman in training today. It will be interesting to see what gymnasts go for it in the Horizontal Bar final.

Tweddle
Mustafina
Bross

After the first 2 competitors from China both fell, this apparatus final became a lot more interesting.

Beth Tweddle rocked her amazing set. LOVE her.

Great to see Bridget Sloan hit and stick such a solid set. Forward toe-on toe-off adds a touch of variety.

Mustafina hit more handstands than an NCAA Bars champion, yet scored only 8.8 something on execution ?? … Bottle of what? … I love Beth, but Mustafina‘s routine was better. No matter what the scores show.

(We do have an end on angle on Bars and Horizontal Bar. I’m looking forward to seeing that routine from the side.)

The lovely Ana Porgras hits Bars. Is she the greatest Romanian on Bars ever? …

Bross HIT and STICK. Awesome.

Shocker.

The World and Olympic Champion falls on layout Jaeger. As she was first competitor, the podium is open.

Huang then falls on pirouette on low bar. What’s going on here?

1.Kristian Berki (HUN) … 6.7 start
2.Louis Smith (GBR) … 6.9 start
3.Sellathurai (AUS) … … 6.5 start

1 BERKI Krisztian HUN 15.833
2 SMITH Louis GBR 15.733
3 SELLATHURAI P. AUS 15.566
4 TOMMASONE Cyril FRA 15.433
5 UDE Filip CRO 15.316
6 MERDINYAN H. ARM 15.166
7 TRUYENS D. BEL 14.133
8 BERTONCELJ Saso SLO 13.933

The best apparatus final, so far. The top 5 routines were all worthy of a World Championships title. I don’t know how you can differentiate such perfection.

If you put a gun to my head and forced me to judge, I’d have handed the gold medal to Louis Smith. He takes the least deduction on scissors, the only gymnast not to even brush the leather at any time. But Louis’ coach, Paul Hall, was totally impressed with Berki. No complaints. … I thought Berki had some tiny form breaks.

Krisztian Berki has the best single leg work, by far. He looks like the classic tall gymnast of the 1970s. … And I think he’s been competing about that long. FIG calls him the best pommel man of all time.

Personally, I was cheering for Sellathurai. He must have the fastest circles of all time.

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Olympic Silver medalist Filip Ude (Croatia) had the flattest circles, no question. Awesome.

No gymnasts from China in Finals. They’re Ring specialists, now.

The comeback queen gets yet more redemption. She and Imogen had the best “form”, I thought.

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1. Sacramone 15.2 (USA)
2. Mustafina 15.066 (RUS)
3. Barbarosa Fernandez 14.799 (BRA)

Mustafina had better leg form on the twist today. And she landed Amanar right on the centre line. Look out world. This girl could compete triple twist.

Second vault was Yurchenko half-on, full-off.

We were shocked, then, to see her penalized 0.1. … Russia appealed though 0.1 would not change the final rankings. Like the old days, protests are still walked over to the boss, Nellie Kim. They’re having a nice little chat in Russian, looks to me.

Nabieva was not even close to completing the Amanar today. She got credit only for double twisting Yurchenko.

Bigger, stronger girls have an advantage on vault, on average. We see that in this final. Only 2 “small” girls made it.

Alicia is awesome. Look at the height. But she cannot “stick”. … Has she ever stuck in an international meet?

This is her first World Championships GOLD on Vault.

Gymnastics Examiner – Quick Hits

Well deserved. The gymnast from Greece easily had the best routine in Finals.

I liked Bouhail (FRA) and Purvis (GBR) too. Dan rolled out of layout Thomas with straight legs. Stylish.

1. Kosmidis
2. Uchimura
3. Purvis

Legendre has the most disappointing routine. He misses a lot in major meets.

Gymnastics Examiner Quick Hits.

… Nabieva is in, Kurbatova is out WAG vault finals.

There are two unspoken truths about gymnastics clubs:

1. Many coaches ‘friend’ their gymnasts
2. Many coaches bring their own children to play at the gym

You know those kids. “Gym rats.”

They think they own the gym, since it’s been their personal playground all their lives.

There’s a good thread on this topic over at Chalk Bucket.

… Men’s and Women’s Individual Apparatus Competitions: VAULT and BARS … FLOOR, POMMEL, RINGS

Here’s the start list. Check out how many medal favourites are up first.

Click through to Full Twist for a larger version.

My mascot, Stroopwaffle, is jealous of all the love Grace Chiu’s Tandoori Chicken is getting from the best gymnasts in the world:

more of Grace’s photos on Facebook

Eat this, bird!

The biggest surprise to me at this World Championships in the Men’s competition was Dan Purvis from Great Britain.

Purvis scored a strong 15.066 on the floor on the way to a total of 88.965 points, 3.366 behind winner Kohei Uchimura of Japan …

“It’s been great, I never dreamed about coming fifth,” Purvis told BBC Sport.

“One or two things could have been better but this is a totally different feeling to last year.

“Last year things didn’t click into place as much, but this year I’ve had luck on my side and great coaching.” …

BBC

Excellent pommels. Great technique. Great form. Watch for him in the lead up to the London Olympics.

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Consider the guys to be added to the top teams: Keatings (GBR), Marcel Nguyen (GER), Hamm (USA), Benoit Caranobe (FRA) … Who else?

China has another team this good back home training, of course.