Year: 2011

Sounds like it went well. Achilles tendon repair is normally straightforward. It heals better than new.

Her guy, Bronco’s back-up Quarterback Brady Quinn flew down:

Best boyfriend award goes to @BQ9 for taking the red eye from Denver to be here for my surgery today…just another reason why I love him.

Twitter

They’ve been dating since November 2009.

There’s much confusion regarding the new FIG Olympic ‘test event’ to be held in London, Jan 10-18th, 2012.

Considering that all these nations need plan and budget for a meet less than 3 months away, we’d best get the details soon.

THE ALL AROUND thinks this will be the list of nations invited for WAG:

Full Teams
Italy
France
Canada
Spain
The Netherlands
Brazil
Korea
Belgium

Individual Spots
Mexico (2)
Switzerland (2)
Ukraine (2)
Hungary (2)
Venezuela (2)
Uzbekistan (2)
Slovenia (2)
Greece (2)
Belarus
Israel
Guatemala
Czech Republic
Sweden
Poland
Austria
Croatia
Chile
Colombia
Hong Kong
South Africa
Vietnam
Slovakia
Turkey
Portugal
Singapore
Finland
New Zealand
Kazahstan
Argentina
Dominican Republic
Puerto Rico
Bulgaria

details – WAG gymnasts to the Test Event

Four teams qualify, but what individuals can qualify from there to the Games?

How many wild cards are available for London?

I’m still confused.

Trampoline DMT Tumbling World Championships 2011

Nov. 17-20th, Birmingham, England

Click PLAY or watch a promo on YouTube.

With He Kexin out. And Beth Tweddle out. …

I’m thinking this routine will win, despite the weak giant half before the dismount.

Click PLAY or watch it on Gymnastike.

http://www.gymnastike.org/embed/NjI2NTA5Nzc4?related=1

Watch more video of World Gymnastics Championships Tokyo 2011 on gymnastike.org

Beth’s not been consistent in training the last few days.

Andy Thornton’s already calculated the scores if only top 3 had counted — as if it were Team finals — concluding:

… In Beijing, there was essentially one contender for gold, as the dominant Chinese went completely unchallenged. In Rotterdam, there were two, as Japan gave the Olympic champions a serious run for their money. In Tokyo, we’ve now got three, as the USA has now officially joined the party. …

American Gymnast – Surprise, Surprise…And A Sneak Peak At Men’s Team Finals!

(see Andy’s table below)

I’m predicting CHN, JPN, USA … RUS, GER

China will be better in team, I predict. They sometimes play games in prelims (e.g. Rotterdam) but didn’t seem to do so today.

USA had a good prelims. And could do it again, certainly. Horton will be even more motivated than usual, if that.

@J_Horton11

Can’t freakin wait to compete on Wednesday in the Team final! We are ready to fight to the end!

Everyone is assuming that Yusuke Tanaka will be back, but I’m not so sure. He definitely had a concussion and I’m hoping medical advice will eventually convince coaches to keep him out. That would hurt Japan.

… It’s going to be interesting.

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1	Japan	276.61	–
2	USA	274.109	2.501
3	China	272.260	4.35
4	Germany	268.401	8.209
5	Russia	266.995	9.615
6	Romania	266.503	10.107
7	Ukraine	264.502	12.108
8	Korea	264.408	12.202

I copied this from the dead tree version. Longines, for all their vaunted Swiss precision, is slow and useless, so far as I’m concerned.

FIG … please consider other Scoring partners.

Uchimura
Orozco
Leyva
Yamamuro
Purvis
Boy
Garivov
Kuksenkov
Nguyen
Martinez
Tommasone
Rivera
Koczi
Fokin
Belyavskiy
Kim S
Teng
Kim Sm
Dragulescu
Shatilov
Gonzalez Sepulveda
Stepko
Likhovitskiya
Bucher

R1 – Gafuik
R2 – Gomez Fuerts
R3 – Almeida Campos
R4 – Cappeli

When I first heard China had selected Zou Kai alternate, I was shocked. … But not-so-secretly pleased.

He’s been our least popular Olympic Floor champion in decades.

… All along I reckoned he’d eventually be put on the competing team. He was. And has qualified for both H Bar and Floor finals.

His floor is amazingly difficult. But unartistic, as far as I’m concerned.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

We cannot avoid Zou Kai defending at the London Olympics.

We are not worthy. Three times World champion on this apparatus, this 15.70 routine was the top score.

Give him the gold medal now.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

His kickout of that dismount is my favourite part. Masterful.

Ever since FIG started letting the media into the training gym, we’ve looked like idiots — especially when reporting what happens with the Russian girls:

… Komova looked great on bars and beam, except when she lost grip on one arm coming out of a Tkatchev and had to be caught by a coach.

Today it was her legs and not Demy’s all strapped up in kinesio tape and she is clearly still very sore in the calves. She was having terrible trouble doing her double Arabian pass, sitting it down time and time again, even when she tried to do a single. She started a full routine twice and had to stop after missing it and kind of staggered off after her second attempt and sat down rubbing her calves. ..

Couch Gymnast – Last Open Team Training

Never mind — Komova will hit EVERYTHING tomorrow any way. Right?

That’s a great read. Click through for sure. It’s got updates on Russia, Australia, Great Britain, Romania, China and USA.

Or click this photo …

… Speaking of sore, He Kexin, who was NOT having a good time on bars and could not seem to get through a routine. …

Men’s Gymnastics in Japan is kind of a big deal.

Though it’s nowhere near as popular as baseball and soccer, gymnastics gets respect.

I had a Japanese coach and most of my earliest heroes were Japanese. At age-12 I once performed a P Bar routine immediately after … Mitsuo Tsukahara. (Hopefully I was cute.)

So when it was first announced that Japan would host Worlds, I was determined to attend. In fact, I’m staying in Japan for up to 2 months. It’s an honour to be here.

_____

There were hundreds of amazing routines on display, from nations large and small. The depth of men’s gymnastics worldwide is staggering.

… It’s silly, in reality, to have Dominican Republic (pop. 9 million) compete against China (pop. 1.3 billion)

Talk about an “unfair” competition.

Yet we have a girls from Dominican Republic and Vietnam in Vault finals — and no Chinese girls. For the fan there’s something interesting in watching the athletes from the lesser known nations.

Men’s gymnastics is even better. We have event finalists from Israel, Slovenia, Venezuela, Chile & Hong Kong.

_____

Here’s the most important result — the list of those nations who qualify a team directly to the Olympics.

1. JPN 364.191 2. USA 361.583 3. CHN 358.226 4. GER 354.132 5. RUS 353.725 6. KOR 351.331 7. ROU 350.900 8. UKR 350.434

CONGRATULATIONS. Well earned!

I had predicted: CHN, JPN, GBR, (USA / GER) …

I’d still bet on China in that Final.

France is 9th. 😦

Non-qualification (so far) for Olympic host Great Britain is the story of the meet, I’d say. The girls made it. The guys didn’t.

Click PLAY or watch Keatings try to explain it on YouTube.

_____

Russia surprised with their excellent performance after erratic training. (Similar to the RUS women.)

They were easily the most impressive Vault team.
_____

Next, the 8 teams that move on to London “test” event from January 10-18th, 2012. (With only 5 gymnasts — Olympic rules.) Buy your tickets here.

9. France 349.828
10. Great Britain 348.742
11. Spain 348.725
12. Canada 347.076
13. Brazil 346.626
14. Puerto Rico 344.460
15. Italy 343.642
16. Belarus 342.575

Four of these teams will there qualify for London. Four will not.

The happiest gymnasts in Tokyo tonight are teams Ukraine and Belarus. The least happy … France 9th and Switzerland 17th.
_____

The “routine” of the day was defending World Champion Thomas Bouhail on Vault.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

He did a second vault to qualify for finals. A Tsuk double pike. STICK.
_____

Here are the qualifiers from prelims to World Championships Finals:

FX QUALIFIERS
1. Zou CHN 15.700
2. Dragulescu ROM 15.566
3. Shatilov ISR 15.500
4. Hypolito BRA 15.500
5. Uchimura JPN 15.466
6. Legendre USA 15.433
7. Gonzalez CHI 15.400
8. Koczi ROM 15.400

PH QUALIFIERS
1. Berki HUN 15.866
2. Smith GBR 15.600
3. Sellathurai AUS 15.566
4. Bertoncelj SLO 15.500
5. Uchimura JPN 15.433
6. Teng CHN 15.300
7. Tommasone FRA 15.300
8. Hidvegi HUN 15.266

SR QUALIFIERS
1. Chen CHN 15.700
2. Zanetti BRA 15.533
3. Yamamuro JPN 15.533
4. Van Gelder NED 15.383
5. Horton USA 15.366
6. Morandi ITA 15.366
7. Carmona VEN 15.333
8. Uchimura JPN 15.233

VT QUALIFIERS
1. Bouhail FRA 16.6204
2. Okiguchi JPN 16.349
3. Dragulescu ROM 16.333
4. Shek HKG 16.237
5. Golotsutskov RUS 16.233
6. Yang KOR 16.216
7. Kasperovich BLR 16.199
8. Wammes NED 16.166

PB Qualifiers: Feng, Cucherat, Zhang, Uchimura, Berbecar, Leyva, Tanaka, Tsolakidis

HB QUALIFIERS
1. Y. Tanaka JPN 15.600
2. Uchimura JPN 15.533
3. Hambuchen GER 15.500
4. Orozco USA 15.266
5. Boy GER 15.266
6. Zou CHN 15.166
7. Zonderland NED 15.133
8. Zhang CHN 15.133

AA QUALIFIERS

Uchimura
Orozco
Leyva
Yamamuro
Purvis
Boy
Garivov
Kuksenkov
Nguyen
Martinez
Tommasone
Rivera
Koczi
Fokin
Belyavskiy
Kim
Teng
Kim Sm
Dragulescu
Shatilov
Gonzalez Sepulveda
Stepko
Likhovitskiya
Bucher

R1 – Gafuik
R2 – Gomez Fuerts
R3 – Almeida Campos
R4 – Cappeli
_____

Pommels was the strongest apparatus. Rings weakest.

Nearly every team has a pommel guy who swings this sweet.

Click PLAY or watch Emin GARIBOV on YouTube.

I’m still liking Marcel Nguyen for the Longines Award. Or should it be Russia’s David BELYAVSKIY?

Click PLAY or watch him on YouTube.

_____

Here are the best links from men’s prelims:

• FIG – China third as Tokyo prelims conclude

• Inside Gymnastics DAILY 5 – MONDAY, OCTOBER 10

• Team qualifications report card — who exceeded expectations?

• Men’s Worlds prelims day 1

Details on what happened via LIVE blogs: Examiner and TAA and Gymnastike.

Two of those 3 bloggers are ladies — and they’ve learned a LOT about MAG over the past couple of years, often correcting my mistakes. 🙂

On to Team Finals over the next two days. I love the sudden victory, 3-up ~ 3-count format. Anything can happen.

That’s a low res photo from the 2011 World Championships – Men’s Qualifications Facebook page, the best pics of Worlds I’ve found so far.

Twitter has been the best way to follow the meet online. But that will change if internet TV is available starting tomorrow. Check to see if you can get Universal where you live.