Year: 2010

Ana Porgras won the AA and Beam at the Romanian Championships this past weekend.

Click PLAY or watch her Beam on YouTube.

(via Fangymnastics)

This should sell bazillions of units for Christmas. ($30)

Click PLAY or watch the video trailer on YouTube.

… Graphics aren’t as good as I would have expected.

details on Amazon

(via Full Twist)

Aunt Joyce wrote up a super detailed assessment of the 10 time NCAA Champion team that failed to qualify to team finals last season.

I found it a bit optimistic.

… Expect the team to make it back to NCAAs and if they have a really good year, they could finish 4th, 5th or 6th. A 3rd place finish would likely be the best they could ever hope for.

Aunt Joyce

Pressure’s on second year Head Coach Jay Clark. It’s a long road back to the Whitehouse.

… but a fantastic comeback story, if they pull it off.

Georgia Bonora
Ashleigh Brennan
Emily Little (Spirit / WAIS)
Larissa Miller
Lauren Mitchell (College Park / WAIS)
Georgia Simpson (NDGC / WAIS)
Georgia Wheeler

Emma Dennis is the non-travelling reserve!

Coaches

Michelle DeHighden
John Hart
Tracey Penaluna

Couch Gymnast

http://view.picapp.com//JavaScripts/OTIjs.js

Jay Thornton on American Gymnast explains it:

… 4 essentials that every gym owner or gym manager needs …

• Savings
• Education
• Earnings
• Growth

Click through to the videos page for details.

… To kick-off the launch of American Gymnast Premier, I’m giving away a FREE 1-year membership to the program – no strings attached! Just briefly state how winning this free membership would benefit your gymnastics and/or cheerleading program in the “comments” area of this blog post and we’ll select one lucky winner based on all the comments.

American Gymnast Premier will go live Tuesday, Sep 21, 2010 at 1:00pm E.S.T. We’ll announce the winner of the 1-year free membership just prior to the program going live. Since the program will be brand new, and we want to make sure everything runs smoothly for our new AG Premier members, we are going to limit the number of subscribers to 100 members.

The program is available worldwide. But the contest is U.S.A. only.

Winner gets one year Premier level discounts on all purchases with American Gymnast (e.g. chalk), full access to Gymnastics on Demand, AG Premier Affiliate program, customized ‘shop’ page for their web site, and receive all internet marketing tutorials specific to gymnastics and cheerleading businesses.

Beatrice Gheorghisor attended the Romanian Championships this weekend, posting on her blog Gymnastics – No Ceiling.

Read Bea’s detailed commentary on the Romanian girls with forecasts on who will be selected for World Championships 2010:

… Ana Porgras is getting better and better but she is a very fragile gymnast. They said she was going to take things slowly and she will only compete on only 2 events at the Worlds. This will not happen. She keeps getting better scores on floor than Diana Chelaru (a supposed specialist), so she will do floor on the TF, there’s no doubt MOREOVER she keeps earning higher scores than Amelia Racea all around, so she will be used all around as well. It might be really sad to watch because at this pace she is not going to make it to 2011 Worlds …

Click PLAY or watch Ana’s Floor on YouTube.

Note the single step back into the corner for each tumbling pass, rather than the even uglier waddle back used by most girls. (Why don’t judges deduct that more?)

The Romanian women are looking much better at this stage of the quadrennial than expected. But with such a small pool of elite gymnasts, they need be very, very cautious.

After all, these World Championships are not important. The goal should be World’s 2011 and the Olympics.

Fangymnastics:

Vault: Sandra Izbasa;
Uneven Bars: Amelia Racea
Balance Beam: Ana Porgras
Floor: Sandra Izbasa

Floor: Flavius Koczi
Pommel Horse: Flavius Koczi
Rings: Robert Stanescu
Vault: Flavius Koczi
P-barrs: Marius Berbecar
High Bar: Andrei Muntean

If you think the USA has problems competing with Russia and China, on Bars … imagine how the Romanian coaches are feeling.

Mustafina (6.7 D-score), Nabieva (6.8 D-score) … Romania, not so much.

Blythe is projecting Nabieva to beat He Kexin on Bars at Worlds, … if she can hit that routine. Nabieva has problems with consistency, though. He Kexin does not.

Click PLAY or watch the GOLD on Bars for Amelia Racea on YouTube.

Click through for links to more videos – 2010 Romanian Nationals: The champions from EF are…..

In the junior meeting, Larisa Iordache and Andrei Muntean dominated the entire competition!

One of the top American Juniors posted to her Facebook page:

Well, yesterday was my last day at Excalibur Gymnastics. I am going to miss my teammates sooooo much!!!!!!! I love you guys soooo much!!!! ??? – To my home gurls: You will always be in my heart!!!

…I’m checking out other gyms. I will let ya know once I get settled.

… I wouldn’t forget to thank my coaches for all they have done : ) …

her official website

(via greenlove on IG forum)

Jason jumped to compare Afanasyeva’s Floor routine with Mattie Larson:

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Yep. Jason’s right. Mattie’s is better, overall. Artistically I prefer Ksenia.

Check a brand new montage featuring California Gurls Sam and Mattie.

So says Bea who attended this weekend’s competition:

The friendly meet between Russia, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden was, as expected, dominated by the Russians. They have started the competition on floor. I must confess that they have really stolen the show from the beginning: great choices of music for all six athletes, beautiful choreography, topped by almost perfect execution. The most surprising of all was Ksenia Afanasyeva’s routine who will probably be one of the three they will choose for the team finals.

Click PLAY or watch Ksenia on YouTube.

That just might be my favourite routine in the world right now. (Not counting about 40 NCAA girls.) It has some fantastic sections. … Compare it with Maddie Larson’s. (VIDEO)

For commentary on the meet and more video, click through to Gymnastics – No Ceiling – The Russians are almost ready for the Worlds.