Author: Rick Mc

FIG posted a summary – Medallists triumph as Europeans close in Berlin (results)

… Russia leads the overall medal table of the championships with three Gold, two Silver and three Bronze medals, followed by Romania (three Gold, two Silver, one Bronze) and Germany (two Gold, three Silver, two Bronze) …

Anna Dementyeva was the surprise AA winner after World Champion Mustafina injured out.

… Russia’s chief coach Andrei Rodionenko is pleased with the overall display, considering the team’s first place in the medal count with eight.

“Such is gymnastics, anything can happen,” Rodionenko said of Mustafina’s injury.

“And the rest conducted their business as they should, as we expected. Who prepares – wins. The new generation must announce itself. Dementyeva has already been through the World Championships too. Here, in Berlin we tried [young gymnasts] for future battles.”

The coach announced that Dementyeva should become the team’s leader while Mustafina is injured.

“She did everything she could in all-round finals. And even more,” Rodionenko said. …

The Moscow News

Winning the AA win only a full twisting Yurchenko vault. That is impressive.

One more good sound bite from that article:

… Anton Golotsutskov won two bronze medals – in vault and floor.

“To be honest, I am sick of bronze,” Golotsutskov complained. …

The next European Championships in Artistic Gymnastics are scheduled to take place in Brussels (BEL), May 8-13, 2012, for women; and in Montpellier (FRA), May 21 – 27, 2012, for men. Team and Individual competitions for seniors and Team as well as an All-around competition will be the format for these championships.

The All Around Gymnastics News on Facebook linked to a very interesting page.

The Russian Gymnastics Federation is now posting translations of some articles in English.

Bookmark this page.

For many years the SEC (Southeastern Conference) has been dominant. Especially with Georgia and Alabama filling their arenas every meet.

That’s changing.

World Gymnastics:

In July of this year, the Pac-10 will officially become the Pac-12, welcoming the addition of the University of Colorado and the University of Utah to the current members of the Pac-10 Conference: UCLA, Arizona, Arizona State, Cal-Berkeley, Stanford, Oregon, Oregon State, Washington, Southern California and Washington State. …

Utah will host the inaugural Pac-12 Conference Championship next March in the Huntsman Center on the campus of the University of Utah. All eight Pac-12 gymnastics teams will be there.

In my excitement (and related GymNerd-iness), I created a video in anticipation of the Pac-12. …

read more

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

This workout was filmed on February 25th as the guys had a podium training style workout in their competition arena the day before their dual meet with Stanford.

http://www.gymnastike.org/embed/NTI3NDgyOTE4

Watch more video of University of Michigan 2011 on gymnastike.org

… the defending NCAA National Champions, the University of Michigan men.

Michigan got off to a slow start this season but seems to be peaking at the right time. Freshman Sam Mikulak won the Big 10 Conference all around title last weekend while Ian Makowske won the title on high bar and Syque Caesar the title on parallel bars.

Michigan will compete next weekend at the 2011 NCAA National Championships hosted at Ohio State in hopes of defending their title.

Gymnastics Examiner European Championships

Congratulations to host Berlin on a terrific competition.

VAULT:
1. Sandra Izbasa – 14.675
2. Oksana Chusovitina – 14.537
3. Ariella Kaeslin – 14.475
4. Tatiana Nabieva – 14.287
5. Elisabeth Seitz – 14.187
6. Giulia Steingruber – 14.000
7. Amelia Racea – 13.725
8. Nastassia Marachkouskaya – 13.062

BARS:
1. Beth Tweddle – 15.100
2. Tatiana Nabyeva – 15.075
3. Kim Bui – 14.675
4. Anna Dementyeva – 14.475
5. Elisabeth Seitz – 14.175
6. Aagje Vanwallehem – 14.075
7. Celine Van Gerner – 13.975
8. Vanessa Ferrari – 12.850

FLOOR:
1. Sandra Izbasa – 14.500
2. Diana Chelaru – 14.475
3. Yulia Belokobylskaya – 14.450
4. Beth Tweddle – 14.300
5. Julie Croket – 14.275
6. Carlotta Ferlito – 14.050
7. Anna Dementyeva – 13.950
8. Tunde Csillag – 13.150

BEAM
1. Anna Dementyeva – 15.350
2. Carlotta Ferlito – 14.500
3. Elisabetta Preziosa – 14.325
4. Julie Croket – 14.150
5. Ariella Kaeslin – 14.125
6. Vasiliki Millousi – 13.800
7. Marta Pihan-Kulesza – 12.850
8. Hannah Whelan – 11.950

Full results.

related – Gymnastics Examiner – Five countries strike gold as Europeans end in Berlin

The best place to look for videos is Between the Olympics. (Check the Between The Olympics YouTube channel, too.)

Bloggers were all over the place in predicting winners. (day 1) Gymnastics Examiner – Pick a podium: Europeans event finals, predictions and realities. (Some revised their picks after Mustafina withdrew, some did not.)

This video has been circulating widely the past few weeks.

A proud parent posted a daughter’s semester final exam. These kids are from China Southern Dance School.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

(via Chinese Gymnastics Blog)

She’s the favourite right now, in my opinion. Though she doesn’t have knee surgery until Tuesday.

Defying Gravity:

… I think this injury and subsequent withdrawal from this year’s worlds will, in the long run, increase her chances of becoming the 2012 Olympic Champ.

Lately, I”ve been noticing how hard Aliya pushes her self, constantly striving for perfection. She competes very often and I knew it was only a matter of time before she sustained an injury. Better this year than next. Let her rest this year, recover, and then slowly come back until…BAMM, she peaks right at the correct moment in 2012. …

I was thinking exactly the same thing.

Having watched Shewfelt come back from injury for both 2004 and 2008, I foresee the same chronology for Aliya.

She’s been undisciplined and difficult to coach. This reality check will help her focus on a simple goal: getting completely healthy and regaining her current level.

1. Zonderland NED
2. Boy GER
3. Nguyen GER

Epke missed his HUGE routine. Quite badly. Yet still wins. hmm …

Click PLAY or watch him on YouTube.

Blythe calls it a SHOCKER. But his execution score of 7.785 could be correct. I guess we live in an era when a score of less than 8 can win Europeans. If you have a difficulty score of 7.7. (What’s Epke’s highest start score in training?)

The German fans don’t agree … but neither Boy nor Nguyen HIT either.

Young Sam Oldham GBR 4th. Kudos.

Gymnastics Examiner LIVE blog.

Gerard on February 19th, 2011 in Australia.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Gerard:

I understand that the Manna hold is too high and I hope to improve on that.. Time will tell. Also, the shoot handstand after it already exists and is of a ‘C’ value.

Is this a new element? Or just a variation on Manna?