Year: 2011

Very quiet this year compared with Rotterdam. She did her job on 2 apparatus.

Click PLAY or watch her Bars on YouTube.

Click PLAY or watch her Vault on YouTube.

This isn’t enough to stay on the team for Olympics, though. She’ll need to upgrade. And (possibly) add at least one more apparatus.

It was an exciting day in Tokyo, especially since the host team competed in the very first session. A crowd was lined up before I arrived at the arena.

After half the men have competed, here are some of the top guys likely to qualify to the AA Final:

AA STANDINGS
1. Uchimura JPN 92.256
2. Orozco USA 90.532
3. Leyva USA 89.848
4. Yamamuro JPN 89.765

6. Boy 88.697
7. Kuksenkov 88.648
8. Nguyen 88.464
9. Rivera PUR 87.831
10. Kovzi 87.732
11. Fokin UZB 87.698

13. Dragulescu 87.032
14. Gonzalez CHI 86.665

Kohei was brilliant, the top AA so far despite putting his hands down on Vault.

He’s healthier than when he won last year, but has some lower leg injury bad enough that he considered withdrawing from Floor today.

Jon Horton did not qualify for the AA though he hit 6 for 6. … Who will challenge Uchimura?

Leyva has as good a chance as any.

I congratulated his step Dad / coach who had to do his gesticulations from the audience today. Very happy with the competition, so far.

Boy doesn’t look as good as he did last year, finishing 2nd. But Dragulescu is back and looks GOOD. He easily qualified to Floor final. But judges should be again be reprimanded or banished for over-scoring his second vault. (VIDEO to come)

TEAM STANDINGS
1. Japan 364.291
2. USA 361.583
3. Germany 354.132
4. Romania 350.900
5. Ukraine 350.434
6. Brazil 346.626
7. Puerto Rico 344.460
8. Italy 343.642

The top 3 are safe to qualify a full team to the Olympics. But it’s not certain for Romania or Ukraine, both of which did a good job today.

Examiner:

The German reaction for their performance tonight: befuddled. Befuddled and dissatisfied, Philipp Boy said. It was unexpected …

In the 3-up, 3-count team final, anything could happen. Marcel Nguyen is possibly the second most talented gymnast in the world — if he could only get his act together and hit a meet. Nguyen is my nominee for the Longine’s Prize, too.

Brazil had a good meet, especially on Vault. The 2016 host nation has never qualified a full men’s team for the Olympics and are doing everything possible at least to finish in the top 16 teams in order to get to the test meet in January.

USA had an excellent meet, with no falls on Pommel horse. The weak apparatus now is Rings, but it didn’t hurt them that badly. It’s the weakest apparatus overall at Worlds 2011 now that few teams are carrying Rings specialists.

Netherlands had a bad meet. But Epke still has a (long) shot at qualifying for the H Bar final. And I’d say van Gelder is my favourite for the Bronze on Rings behind the top 2 Chinese.

The top 3 on each apparatus from Finals qualify directly to Olympics (van Gelder’s now “cleared” for Olympic qualification after his odd ‘drug revelation’ of Worlds 2010.)

Other top stories today:

• The “springy” floor caused grief for the guys too, but not as much as for the girls. Men can adjust to equipment changes faster, I postulate.

Yusuke Tanaka, suffered a concussion on a roll-out skill on Floor — more on that later. As you know, I feel those skills should be banned or devalued.

Why does FIG ban them for women and encourage men to compete more than one in a routine? Dragulescu, for example, competed two today though he’s one of the gymnasts who nearly killed himself in the past on a roll-out. (European championships a few years ago)

• There are men from all over the world doing some of the best routines in the world.

Gonzales from Chile really is one of the best Floor / Vault competitors. Ha Thanh from Vietnam did a near perfect Yurchenko double pike today. Amazing. (A girl from Vietnam already qualified to the Vault final.)

Uzbekistan’s Narmetov on Pommels showed a combination of 2 turning long travels into dismount. Very cool. Great swing, too.

Regulo Carmona from Venezuela on Rings was fantastic. As was Fokin from Uzbekistan on P Bars.

Those are just a few.

• The men’s execution judging is terrible. Truly, it’s a stretch to call it judging. Regardless of execution, scores are boxed between about 7.8 and 9.1 for a “hit” routine. It doesn’t matter if you are ugly, or Uchimura.

I was an FIG judge for many years. We prided ourselves on getting the score correct, regardless of consequences. But — for some reason — today MAG and WAG judges only care about staying “in range”. E scores are an embarrassment in 2011. A complete joke.

I’ll post examples over the coming days.

And more highlight routines.

International Gymnast Magazine on Facebook has been the fastest to post result. Longines has been unreliable, to be generous.

Here are a few of the top guys who MIGHT qualify to the apparatus:

HB STANDINGS
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. Zonderland NED 15.133
7. Horton USA 15.066
8. Wammes NED 14.833

PB STANDINGS
1. Uchimura JPN 15.391
2. Berbecar ROM 15.366
3. Leyva USA 15.366
4. K. Tanaka JPN 15.366
5. Tsolakidis GRE 15.300
6. Boy GER 15.233
7. Fokin UZB 15.166
8. Nguyen GER 15.133

SR STANDINGS
1. Zanetti BRA 15.533
2. Yamamuro JPN 15.533
3. Van Gelder 15.383
4. Horton 15.366
5. Morandi ITA 15.366
6. Carmona VEN 15.333
7. Uchimura JPN 15.233
8. Orozco USA 15.033

PH STANDINGS
1. Berki HUN 15.866
2. Bertoncelj SLO 15.500
3. Uchimura JPN 15.433
4. Hidvegi HUN 15.266
5. Naddour USA 15.233
6. Kobayashi JPN 15.200
7. Busnari ITA 15.200
8. Orozco USA 15.000

FX STANDINGS
1. Dragulescu ROM 15.566
2. Hypolito BRA 15.500
3. Uchimura JPN 15.466
4. Legendre USA 15.433
5. Gonzalez CHI 15.400
6. Koczi ROM 15.400
7. Dalton USA 15.366
8. Kosmidis GRE 15.366

Those I’ve bolded were some of the best I’ve seen, so far.

… more to come …

This meet’s just getting started.

best links – IG – Uchimura, Japanese Men Lead Tokyo Worlds

LOVE this routine.

Nice variety of skills. Extreme amplitude on Tkachev and low-to-high release. Marta’s calling her the flying squirrel.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Only major weakness is early release on dismount.

She qualified to the Final so the world will get to see it.

Dominique Moceanu interviews a number of the female gymnasts, including Team Canada.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

These International Gymnast magazine sponsored webisodes are cool … but audio has been an issue.

They are sitting 4th and 5th right now. There are at least 2 good routines yet to come from Germany. Zhang from China. …

It’s going to be close.

Click PLAY or watch Epke’s “easy routine” from prelims on YouTube.

Shouldn’t this mount (double back with 5/2 twist) be named after Steven Legendre?

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

For that matter, who else ever did Hypolito straight like that?

The long lines of the Aussie gymnast caught my eye at Worlds.

Here’s her routine from a meet earlier this year.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

One of the most popular gymnasts with the bloggers here at Worlds is the beautiful Dorina Böczögo from Hungary.

Click PLAY or watch a montage on YouTube.

Nancy Armour compares her style and artistry to Mackenzie Caquatto.

Marian Dragulescu looked GREAT today. Says he’s been training all-around full time since April.

Click PLAY or watch his Floor on YouTube. (15.566)

Meet him in Finals!

He’s one of the biggest names here in Tokyo. Click PLAY or watch the post meet interview on Gymnastike.

http://www.gymnastike.org/embed/ODczNTA5NTc2?related=1

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

… Lets see the video of his second vault from prelims. I’m certain both knees touched the mat. He should not qualify for that final.

Recall that a number of the vault judges from Athens were suspended after gifting him with the Bronze in that meet.

FIG Official – Qualifications, Vault. Koji Yamamuro, second best Japanese gymnast in All-Around Qualifications (89.765).

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube. (16.400).

Lopez = Tsuk with 3 twists … or, more correctly, Kasamatsu + 2 additional twists … or, even more correctly: 1/4-on, 2 3/4-off.

But it’s a blurred line differentiating between Handspring 2 1/2 (Yeo 2) and Kaz + 2 twists (Lopez). Both are valued 7.0.