Year: 2011

FIG Official – Qualifications, Parallel Bars. Kohei Uchimura, All-Around world champion 2009+2010, has an appointment with History in Tokyo. No gymnast has won 3 times the World title. Uchimura started well. … presently 1st in the Qualifications (92.256).

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

That’s an old school routine, with plenty of double saltos to underarm. I’m thinking Leyva can beat him, having no doubles to underarm.

A great new talent on the world stage. So new, he’s got no Wikipedia page.

Click PLAY or watch him on YouTube. (8.866 E score)

Both John and Leyva compete Liukin (Tkachev 1/1). Cool.

I only wish John had better toe point.

A great rivalry. Two different styles of gymnastics, both girls at their first World Championships. Two strong contenders for Olympic Champion 2012.

Vault
Click PLAY or watch Komova on YouTube.

Click PLAY or watch Wieber on YouTube.

Bars
Click PLAY or watch Komova on YouTube.

Click PLAY or watch Wieber on YouTube.

Beam
Click PLAY or watch Komova on YouTube.

Click PLAY or watch Wieber on YouTube.

Floor
Click PLAY or watch Komova on YouTube.

Click PLAY or watch Wieber on YouTube.

What do you think?

Who will finish ahead in the all-around competition?

Or is there another girl that could beat both?

Jordyn has been far more stable in training, but Vika seems to rise to the occasion of the big stage.

Aunt Joyce likes Komova. I’d bet on Wieber.

1. JPN 364.191 2. USA 361.583 3. PUR 344.460 4. POR 334.352

I’ve been following and cheering team Puerto Rico. It would be a great testament to the small island if they could have qualified in the top 8 teams to the Olympics.

That won’t happen. Too many errors today, including a fluke “ping” from H Bar.

USA impressed.

Sadly Jon Horton won’t get through to the AA Final. I’m going to miss him there.

Uchimura is first 92.256, Orozco 2nd AA 90.532, Leyva 3rd 89.84

AA STANDINGS
1. Uchimura JPN 92.256
2. Orozco USA 90.532
3. Leyva USA 89.848
4. Yamamuro JPN 89.765
5. Horton USA 89.689
6. Rivera PUR 87.831
7. Legendre USA 86.598
8. Campos POR 85.832
9. Ramos PUR 84.897
10. Vargas PUR 84.897

full results

Jon’s two teammates finished higher. Only 2 / nation move on.

Japan had more problems than team USA and still finished well ahead of the States. Uchimura fell on Vault, yet still scored 92.256. His execution was underscored, as it always is under this current Code.

On Horizontal Bar the E panel gave him 8.83 … Are they insane? … Nope, in 2011 judges “box” the scores awarding no higher than about 9.10 no matter how much better the routine was than, for example, Legendre.

Tragically, Yusuke Tanaka suffered a concussion on Floor on a roll-out skill. I’d like FIG Men’s Technical Committee to answer the Japanese media when they ask why those skills are so valuable in the current men’s rules. … And why FIG bans them for women, yet encourage them for men?

If MTC has even an iota of intelligence, they’ll all be devalued next cycle. MT Chair Stoica is from Romania — Dragalescu’s worst injury ever was on a roll-out skill.

It makes no sense to encourage gymnasts to land close to the head.

The best routines of the 1st session: Uchimura P Bars and H Bar, Leyva P Bars, and — best of the best — Ha Thanh Nguyan from Vietnam – Yurchenko Double Pike STICK on Vault. Amazing.

Ron Bell, from California, was coach on the floor for South Africa.

Some of the best I’ve seen are …

… posted by by John Cheng for USA Gymnastics on Facebook.

The attendance for women’s prelims was a bit disappointing:

day 1 = 1800
day 2 = 4000 (JPN competed)

But there are BIG line-ups for the opening session of the men’s prelims. (VIDEO) Japan starts on Rings. USA on Floor.

All eyes will be on this guy.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

He had some ankle pain in podium training. Not sure our World Champion be trying to STICK every landing today. He may save that for Finals.

Starts shortly with two of the big hitters — USA and JAPAN.

See a larger wallpaper image provided by USAG.

A succinct summary.

The young Team USA pulled together after their leader and 2010 World Champion on the Vault, Alicia Sacramone, was left off the team with an injured Achilles tendon. Headed by Jordyn Wieber, who qualified second for the Individual All-around Final on Thursday, the team impressed with solid performances on all apparatus and topped the rankings with a total of 234.253 …

The 2010 Youth Olympic Champion and first year senior, Victoria Komova, helped Team Russia to an overall 231.062 that ranked them second. Weakened by the absence of reigning All-around World Champion Aliya Mustafina, who is recovering from a torn ACL, the defending World Champions lost valuable points in the Floor event, when Anna Dementyeva fell and Komova stepped out of bounds. Apart from this mistake, the young Komova demonstrated great consistency, mastering routines of highly difficult with incredible precision. She leads the All-around ranking …

read more on FIG – Komova and Team USA prevail in Qualifications

As you can usually do on this site, click on the pic to see the original.

Funny. And entertaining.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube. (10min)

The ladies put on a terrific show over the past two days. Congratulations on your skill and perseverance in qualifying to one of the greatest World Championships ever.

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

1. USA 234.253
2. Russia 231.062
3. China 230.370
4. Romania 227.228
5. Japan 223.543
6. Australia 221.846
7. Germany 221.163
8. Great Britain 220.553

CONGRATULATIONS TO HOST JAPAN. Well deserved!

I had predicted: USA, CHN, ROM, RUS …

Russia did a fantastic job in prelims, looking far better than they had all week. Congratulations.

Some have questioned whether or not Komova’s mother, Vera Kolesnikova, should be judging — but I don’t see her on the prelims assignments sheet (PDF) and assume she wasn’t drawn. In fact, there’s no Russian judge … unless you count Nellie Kim, who competed for the USSR, was born in what is now Tajikistan, judges for Belarus and who lives in the States.

Personally, I see no problem with a family member judging. It happens all the time, all over the world.

China did a great job on Vault — landing 4 DTYs. But then missed Bars, their best event.

I do feel badly for Olympic Champion He Kexin. To me it looked like she tried too hard — going too BIG on all 3 Jaegers. And falling on the layout.

It’s unlikely we’ll see her at Worlds or Olympics again. China can’t afford to carry a one apparatus gymnast — especially one that missed in both Rotterdam and Tokyo.

Instead of 6 gymnasts (Tokyo) only 5 will be sent compete in London. And gymnasts 1yr too young for this competition will be age eligible for the test meet.

Many teams will have a completely different line-up.

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. Italy 219.578
10. France 217.827
11. Canada 215.328
12. Spain 214.028
13. Netherlands 212.828
14. Brazil 212.497
15. Korea 211.930
16. Belgium 208.828

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

Here are the qualifiers from prelims to AA and Apparatus and Team Finals Tokyo.

VT QUALIFIERS
1. Maroney USA 15.083
2. Chusovitina GER 14.833
3. Pena DOM 14.466
4. Steingruber SUI 14.299
5. Barbosa BRA 14.266
6. Moreno MEX 14.249
7. Nabiyeva RUS 14.224
8. Phan VIE 14.216
R1. Jo KOR 14.149
R2. Maksyuta ISR 14.016
R3. Sheppard HUN 13.916

UB QUALIFIERS (Corrected)
1. Komova RUS 15.733
2. Dufournet FRA 15.066
3. Tsurumi JPN 14.933
4. Huang CHN 14.900
5. Nabiyeva RUS 14.883
6. Douglas USA 14.866
7. Wieber USA 14.800
8. Teramoto JPN 14.683
R1. Yao CHN 14.566
R2. Seitz GER 14.433
R3. Tweddle GBR 14.433

BB QUALIFIERS
1. Komova RUS 15.400
2. Sui CHN 15.400
3. Wieber USA 15.233
4. Yao CHN 15.066
5. Ponor ROM 15.000
6. Raisman USA 14.933
7. Racea ROM 14.733
8. Inshina RUS 14.566
R1. Millousi GRE 14.450
R2. Whelan GBR 14.400
R3. Teramoto 14.366

FX QUALIFIERS
1. Raisman USA 14.833
2. Sui CHN 14.600
3. Wieber USA 14.566
4. Yao CHN 14.533
5. Komova RUS 14.491
6. Ferrari ITA 14.466
7. Bulimar ROM 14.400
8. Tweddle GBR 14.433
R1. Mitchell AUS 14.391
R2. Afanasyeva RUS 14.325
R3. Chelaru ROM 14.233

ALL-AROUND

Komova, Wieber, Yao, Raisman, Afanasyeva, Huang
Seitz, Haidu, Tsurumi, Mitchell, Ferrari, Jarosch
Whelan, Van Gerner, Tanaka, Porgras, Little, Lopez
Izurieta, Lee, Hypolito, Steingruber, Malaussena, & Ferlito.

Reserves: Brevet, Francis, Heo, Barbosa

I had predicted Wieber would be far ahead of the rest. Yet Komova was able to gain a slight points advantage despite not competing her Amanar. (Some say she’s only done one in Tokyo.)

Komova’s wonderful. But unreliable. I’d bet on Wieber in the showdown. 🙂

Sadly, Beth Tweddle made an error on Bars and will not defend her title. In fact, none of our individual World Champions will defend.

It’s great to see Peng Peng on the world stage.

A candidate for Longines Elegance Award?

Of 243 female gymnasts registered, most did compete. We don’t have the stats yet, but I’m quite sure the number of injuries will be fewer than Rotterdam 2010.

c/o Double Front — here is one girl injured in the first flight, first day.

It’s a dangerous sport. Absolutely.

Despite my loud criticisms of the WAG Code of Points being partly responsible, most girls are strapped up, but still walking following the prelim competition.

In fact, I was very happily surprised how much better the girls looked in competition than in training.

Judges track “hit” and “stick” percentages. I wish we could get a copy of those stats.

Overall, Bars was the most impressive apparatus. The gap between CHN/RUS and the rest of the world is shrinking. Teams like Korea and Italy do similar routines now, for example.

Vault is still astonishingly weak, in my opinion, compared with MAG. When 36yr-old crazy legs Chusovitina can still make finals, there aren’t enough McKayla Maroney’s coming up to take her place.

Here are the best links from women’s prelims:

• ESPNw – Memorable moments from prelims

• FIG – Haidu puts Romania in pole position
(odd headline as Sher says)

• Andy Thornton – Women’s Team Qualifications…Themes From The Top Three

• FIG – Komova and Team USA prevail in Qualifications

Gritty details on what happened via LIVE blogs: Examiner and TAA.

There was plenty of good stuff on Facebook and Twitter at the time … but the river of news has washed away now.