Author: Rick Mc

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

The Jr WAG day 2 video playlist is already up. THANKS USAG. 🙂

I spoke with Ron Brant today. He was generally impressed with the Men’s performances day 1.

Early in the quadrennial you might expect contenders for Rio to be throwing high difficulty, taking many falls. Yet there were surprisingly few falls over the entire competition — though many of those were to the top Sr guys. 😦

Ron hopes that the new Seniors will bring up the Level on Pommel Horse. That didn’t happen in Hartford, however. It’s still the weak apparatus for USA.

He named a number of young guns who could be serious candidates in time for 2016. Sean Melton, one of those.

Unfortunately medical decided to have Sean withdraw from Championships due to possible concussion.

Again that was on a Thomas roll-out skill, seemingly well executed.

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Better safe than sorry. This was the right call.

Putting Yusuke Tanaka back into competition after his concussion at the Tokyo Worlds was the wrong call.

related – recent concussions …

via Uncle Tim

Jr USA Championships 2013

IG:

1. Key—118.55
2. Hernandez—116.65
3. Hundley—113.75
4. Dennis—112.55
5. Flatley—112.40
6. Hults—111.90
7. Baumann—110.90
8. Shchennikova—109.85

Vault
1. Ariana Agrapides, Bayville, N.J., 30.750
2. Vanasia Bradley, Lincoln Park, Mich., 30.200
2. Nia Dennis, Westerville, Ohio, 30.200

Bars
1. Amelia Hundley, Hamilton, Ohio, 28.550
2. Lauren Hernandez, Old Bridge, N.J., 28.450
3. Polina Shchennikova, Arvada, Colo., 28.300

Beam
1. Bailie Key, Montgomery, Texas, 30.900
2. Norah Flatley, Cumming, Iowa, 29.950
3. Alexis Vasquez, West Des Moines, Iowa, 29.400
3. Lauren Hernandez, Old Bridge, N.J., 29.400

Floor
1. Bailie Key, Montgomery, Texas, 29.750
2. Lauren Hernandez, Old Bridge, N.J., 29.100
3. Amelia Hundley, Hamilton, Ohio, 29.000

IG:

They just announced the 2013 Junior National team: Polina Schennikova, Alyssa Baumann, Veronica Hults, Norah Flatley, Nia Dennis, Amelia Hundley, Lauren Hernandez, Bailie Key.

Aug. 16, 2013 – XL Center – Hartford, Conn.

This was my favourite Floor routine of the night. Of MANY good routines.

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Difficulty. Amplitude. Style. Rhythm.

Ruggeri got 8.950 execution.

Let’s compare that with the top scoring Floor of the night, Steven Legendre. (He looked really good AA tonight, by the way.)

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9.000 execution. 😦

Which routine had more deductions?

Who are the E judges on Floor?

Whatever FIG judges are doing on Floor, it’s not working. FX and Horizontal Bar regulations suck.

UPDATE from USA FIG judge in the comments:

The difference was straightforward: Paul’s piked stalder press had a short hold. That’s a 0.3 deduction, and that is straight from the judging panel’s mouth.

I now understand.

There have been quadrennials when the judges would have not credited the hold, but not deducted … instead giving credit for a lower value skill.

That’s not the case here, I understand. They felt he attempted the 2 second hold — and missed.

OK

Without Grishina, Komova or Mustafina, it’s a happy surprise to see one of the great personalities of the gymnastics world on top of the podium at Russia Cup.

Comeback. 🙂

See results on Rewriting Russian Gymnastics

Scores are relatively low, even with Russian bonus. Nabs had the top prelim score on Bars with 14.633.

This was posted Aug 15th. Some interesting insights from Anne & Jen at podium training.

Click PLAY or watch it on Gymnastike.

http://www.gymnastike.org/embed/MTY1NzE5NDg3?related=1&autoplay=false

This was posted after the Women’s Day 1.

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http://www.gymnastike.org/embed/MTg1NzE5Njc5?related=1&autoplay=false

Watch more videos on Gymnastike

related – Spanny Tampson’s comic report

The best single skill I saw at Sr USA Championships was Akash’s 1/1 twisting double back off P Bars. The BEST I’ve ever seen in competition.

Has Akash ever done it better?

That’s one of Grace Chiu’s awesome photos from Sr Men – day 1. Check the rest on Inside Gymnastics.

Sr Day 1 MAG routines are on YouTube. Here’s that dismount.

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Published on Aug 7, 2013, this is the Secret Classic edition. A bit of a warm-up for today’s Senior day 2 comp.

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… Since his injury on August 6th, he has had two surgeries. The first one was to stabilise the neck and the second one was to remove a disc and fragments in the neck region. Before surgery, Kalon was only able to shrug his shoulders. Now he can move his upper extremities, not including fine motor skills. …

Trampoline Pundit

Support Kalon’s recovery. Click through that link for many, many options.

It was the Sam Mikulak show tonight in Hartford.

1. Mikulak–91.65
2. Dalton–88.70
3. Naddour–87.90
4. Dixon–87.45
5. Legendre–87.10
6. Leyva–86.90
7. Wynn–86.70
8. Orozco–86.65

Overall, a strong meet. Fewer falls than I expected. Vault was very impressive. Floor too. How many Tamayos did we see? Many! I would have given Dalton credit this time around.

Many questioned whether John Orozco should be back trying the all-around so soon after his knee surgery. He showed flashes of the old brilliance, but overall it looked like he should have stayed training.

Danell did not look like the 2012 Olympic Bronze medalist. The Olympic Silver medalist has announced he’ll not compete Worlds 2013, instead going back to the gym to prepare. Perhaps Danell should do the same.

This routine was hairy. But somehow Sam finds a way to HIT. It’s a pleasure to watch him compete.

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Sam’s the only LOCK for Worlds 2013, so far.

Here’s the official USAG write-up with links to results, photos and videos – Mikulak leads men’s competition after first day at 2013 P&G Gymnastics Championships