Year: 2011

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I’m @GymCoaching

photo via Examiner on Facebook

Watch for my favourite gymnast out there tonight in all-around finals — Christine (Peng Peng) Lee.

She’s suddenly one of the top 24 gymnasts in the world after missing over two years with “injuries”. No wonder Miss Val signed her to UCLA virtually sight unseen.

Speaking of UCLA, Christine’s Bhardwaj on Bars is as good as any ever competed. She told me, “It’s easy. Let go — look for the low bar.”

IG – Key for Lee: ‘One Skill At A Time’ at Tokyo Worlds

Gymnastics Canada – Canadian gymnasts take aim at Pan Am medals

Disclosure: I changed my vote (last minute) for the Longines Awards: Peng Peng and Uchimura

Click PLAY or watch him on YouTube.

His shocking fall on Kovacs is at 4min 40sec.

That’s posted on the chinesegym1 YouTube channel. It’s also got full Chinese TV coverage starting here. Find the subsequent segments here.

Since little Vika Komova faltered in the Team competition, most are declaring Jordyn Wieber the favourite.

I’m agree.

Jordyn’s well prepared. Well coached. Psyched. She’s been the favourite all along, in my opinion.

… But after the shock of seeing Kohei Uchimura fall last night on the most critical routine of the Men’s Team competition, it’s clear that anything can happened.

Amanda Turner gives a run-down of some of the top contenders: Komova, Wieber, Yao Jinnan, Raisman, Afanasyeva, Huang Qiushuang, Seitz, Haidu, Tsurumi, Mitchell and Porgras.

I’m kind of liking Lauren Mitchell as the most likely surprise winner.

Lauren may get a big boost by a change in leotard. 🙂

Recall that Shawn Johnson won 4yrs ago … and yet was not Olympic Champion in Beijing. There are pros and cons to being the favourite. You need be psychologically made of stone.

Execution judging on Horizontal Bar SUCKS. … That’s the general consensus online. Especially for the Chinese gymnasts who use “cheap” combinations. (If you can call el-grip to layout Jaeger 1/1 cheap … It looks pretty sweet when Hambuchen does it.)

That may be true, but it’s the regulations on H Bar that have ruined the routines – scored 4 out of 10 in my FIG Report Card.

Recall the wonderful routines of Hamm and Nemov from the 2004 Code?

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As is usually the case, the men’s meet was more uncertain — and more thrilling — than the women’s.

In advance of the meet I projected:

1. CHINA
2. JAPAN

China would, like last year, build a big lead on Rings. And go safe and clean on the other apparatus to win.

That is what happened. But it wasn’t nearly so easy as I expected. The greatest gymnast in the history of the world was on Team Japan, competing 5 events. At home.

For NBA fans that’s like having Michael Jordan in the 4th quarter of game 7.

Because Vault so skews the relative team scores, we had to wait until the top teams were through Vault before able to compare them fairly.

Russia was having an excellent meet, making me wonder if they might edge USA for the Bronze.

In fact, it all came down to the final apparatus. Russia was on Pommels, risky and NOT one of their good events. Their lead guy had a fall. And RUS was definitely off the podium.

Prior to that, team USA had ALL hit Horizontal Bar. Urzico, Horton, Leyva!
… I saw @USAgym post that they would win (at least) the Bronze. Has any American team been this stable since 1984?

These guys (and China) are the most consistent teams in Tokyo.

more photos on Facebook

It seemed unlikely that Japan could catch China (competing Floor last) but possible with Tanaka, Tanaka and Uchimura in the line-up. Big scores, potentially.

 Kazuhito Tanaka hit. Then Yusuke (concussion) Tanaka missed Kovacs. A shocker for the home crowd.

Seemingly deliberately — to raise the tension in the arena — Uchimura was the last routine. As it turned out, even a perfect hit would not have caught China. But he missed, also on Kovacs … unbelievable. We were stunned.

Instead of catching China, they dropped down to only scarcely hang on to the Silver. Analysis JPN v USA needed. … For one thing, are men allowed to repeat a missed skill on H Bar?

Kohei repeated the Kovacs.

Additional jots:

• I promise to stop complaining about Zou Kai. He’s done a fantastic job for his team.

• Romania was weak, not deserving to be in this final. Dragulescu sat it out, “resting” for apparatus finals. GBR should have been in it.

• Hambuchen has had a good Worlds. I can’t say that about Boy or super talent Marcel Nguyen.

• John Orozco is going to be a fixture on the U.S. team for years — he can compete BOTH PH and Rings, their weakest events.

Click PLAY or watch his prelims H Bar on YouTube.

• Though every single team had falls (Zheng ~ P Bars, Horton ~ Vault) … it’s amazing how many routines the top teams can HIT. These are very, very hard routines.

• Chen Yibing didn’t hog all the Rings glory. Skinny Nguyen mounted with “Butterfly” — he must be the 2nd most talented guy in the world right now.

• WOW — Handspring front with 3/1 twist for Yang of Korea — 7.4 start, 9.433 execution – WOW

• Legendre 6.8 difficulty on Floor. If he could land like Zou Kai, he’d be Olympic Champion.

Other highlights? … Leave a comment. Click through to the LIVE blogs on the home page Quick Links if you want to see the blow-by-blow.

China is no longer unbeatable, by the way. They’d better find a 3rd super Ring routine if they want to win the team Gold in London.

Amanda Turner – Chinese Men Take 10th World Team Title

China, third in qualification, hit 17 of 18 routines, actually.

Amanda should be here in Tokyo. 🙂

Another terrific edit by the FIG TV team.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

… Why doesn’t FIG simply broadcast their own meets online, selling advertising for each rebroadcast.

Not as lucrative as their current TV deals, I assume.

Click PLAY or watch part 1 on YouTube.

Not sure if more will be uploaded to Komova2012, or not.

Wouldn’t it be great if there was fast online video coverage of major gymnastics meets.

THERE IS — UniversalSports.com

Problem is videos won’t load. Or won’t load for non-Americans. Or won’t load on a Mac. Or won’t load for YOU. 😦

And they use dreadful Silverlight technology, one of Microsoft’s many less than brilliant innovations. It’s like Flash, but even worse. Yuck.

I can’t watch them … but maybe you can. Here are some routines from the Men’s Team Final, Tokyo.

The World Champion is normally not given nearly as much credit as he deserves for excellent execution.

… But since he FELL on Horizontal Bar, last routine, after the USA had already finished competing — we need look closely at that routine’s score.

It ended up only enough to barely edge the USA in team:

Japan – 273.093
United States – 273.083

In the bad old days judges, especially women’s judges, manipulated the very last score to be posted to decide medals. Many will be suspicious that happened this time.

Video to come …

Frame-by-frame, it’s nearly impossible to deduct Kohei.