Author: Rick Mc

International Gymnast:

Shao Bin and Korean judge Nam Seung Ku comprised the Difficulty (D) panel during the floor exercise final at November’s Asian Games in Guangzhou. The FIG announced this week it had launched a disciplinary case against Shao for altering the Execution (E) score in order to move China’s Zhang Chenglong into a tie for the gold medal with Korea’s Kim Soo Myun.

(Shao Bin) insists he acted correctly to produce a fair result. …

Shao, the dean of the Physical Education College at Shanghai University, told newspaper “Sports Weekly” that he and Nam agreed the Execution score needed to be changed because Zhang was underscored. …

Shao said that both he and Kim agreed the change was necessary to produce the correct result.

read more on IG – Chinese Judge Defends Changing ‘Unfair’ Score

Even if he did the wrong thing for the right reason, … Even if the Korean judge agreed, … Shao Bin will still be found guilty, I predict. The difficulty judges cannot change scores of execution judges. Grandi will insist.

On the second big issue from this controversy:

FIG Men’s Technical Committee President Adrian Stoica was present to supervise the competition. …

In an earlier interview with Chinese news portal Tencent, Chinese team manager Ye Zhennan blasted Stoica and said he should be held accountable for the incident.

“[I want to ask Stoica,] why did you release the score when it was submitted?” Ye said. “Why did you sign off on the final ranking list? If one mistake is forgivable, what about two? And then you accuse the judge to FIG? Who is going to launch an investigative procedure against you?” …

Stoica declined to respond directly to Ye’s comments, noting to IG that the investigation is still active …

In the IG article Stoica’s report from the competition is quoted. But after reading it, I’m still uncertain why Stoica signed off on the results knowing at the time that he would later be sanctioning Shao Bin for that incident.

Read more commentary on The Chinese Gymnastics Blog, the site most closely following this story.

Gymnastike:

Welcome to the 2011 NCAA Conference Championships homepage!

Follow your favorite teams via live updates all in once place. …

Many of the college teams featured below will be providing live updates throughout their competition so you can closely follow all the action with up to the second inside information.

This is the final weekend for teams to count their team totals towards their Regional Qualifying score and only the top 36 teams will qualify to NCAA Regionals.

Gymnastike – 2011 Conference Championships

A summary of how the College women run their ‘playoffs’ is posted on College Gym Fans – The Final Stretch.

That page has some interesting commentary on Florida’s Dominance, Judging, Routine Conformity, etc.

Update: He Kexin has withdrawn with a forearm strain.

Blythe Lawrence is there LIVE blogging …

Tatiana Nabieva, VT: DTY with a step back. Smart decision not to do the Amanar. Piked Podkopayeva second vault, very nice, small step. A drama free rotation from Nabieva.

Qualifiers: Men’s floor: Gonzalez, Da Silva, Bouhail, Koczi. Still rings: Chen, Yamamuro, Pluzhnikov, Balandin.

Koji Yamamuro, SR: The lone competitor from Japan here gets a nice ovation…strong routine with a stuck full twisting double layout dismount from Japan’s resident strongman. A lot of fight and a lot of pride on his face during that exercise. 15.633 good for second right now.

On high bar, Zonderland and reigning world champion Zhang Chenglong will get to have a rematch. (Oooh…)

The goal of today for all these gymnasts is just to make the top four in order to move on to tomorrow’s final. So it’s not too much of a surprise to see Deng Linlin warming up a bhs, bhs, layout to two feet to Korbut on beam, or to see Yana Demyunchuk doing a roundoff, layout on the same event. It’s a risky strategy to throw everything you’ve got in the qualifying, because if you fall, you’re done.

LIVE notes on Gymnastics Examiner

official meet updates page (French)

via Couch Gymnast …

He’s been doing this for decades. Jumping up to horizontal bar in a shirt and tie.

Legend.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

I’m only age-53, but can still rock my old set on Pig if and when I must.

Thanks Stu.

Kathi Fleig works at Fitnesscenter David Gym Zürich.

I like this photo of her on Facebook.

Fit, or what.

via Matt Sparks on Facebook

MAG Elite Canada – official web page

Super photographer Grace Chiu GraceClick updates us on Facebook:

Super clean Sam Zakutney, of National Capital (Ottawa) dominates Argo field of 33 with 86.300 points AA after 1st day of competition, with most E-scores over 9.30 & top scores on vault, p-bars, & hi bar. Kieran Fagan of Capital City (Edmonton) is in 2nd with 83.550 points.

The Marsden boys, of Capital City, lead Tyro field with Teagan 80.800 & Aiden 80.350. Cory Paterson closely in 3rd place despite huge growth spurt since Nationals.

Canada’s “A” Team will travel to compete at Chinese Nationals in early May before Canadian Nationals! This would be the first time a foreign team is invited to compete at a Chinese Nationals. Courtesy of Liang Cheng.

Nathan Gafuik is not here nor in Paris (World Cup). He is recovering a broken ankle and is still on the roster for Kyle Shewfelt’s meet next weekend in Calgary.

Welcome back a healthy Brandon O’Neill after a year-long recovery from an ACL tear. He will compete on floor, pommels, vault, & p-bars &/or hi bar

Simon Porter …

Canada Games champion Simon Porter, TGI, stands in 1st place amongst Juniors followed by Kal Nemier, Flicka, and Curtis Graves, Taiso.

Jackson Payne, Capital City, showed a masterful pommels set to lead Seniors AA, while local host gymnasts Tariq ‘Flipsz’ Dowers and Casey Adrian Sandy of Mississauga are in 2nd & 3rd.

Tomorrow is day 2 of the AA & the apparatus finals

Follow Steph Mason-Harris live blogging the meet @CANGymnastics

THANKS GRACE.

Sweet.

Watch it on Gymnastics Examiner.

Note Aliya’s leg and foot form on Tkachev.

See more of Anne Sophie Henri’s photos from Bercy on Couch Gymnast.

And check the start list for each apparatus. Only the TOP 4 will move on to the Final.

Day 1 of a two day combined competition used to select National Teams.

Senior:

1. Jackson Payne 87.050
2. Tariq Dowers 83.200
3. Casey Sandy 83.050
4. Jayd Lukenchuk 82.450
5. Hugh Smith 82.400
6. Anderson Loran 81.750

CONGRATS Jackson and coach Liang.

Canadian #1 Nathan Gafuik is resting a sore ankle, I understand.

results for all competitive divisions are posted on Gymnastics Canada.

Simon Porter is leading in Junior. Teagan Marsden in Tyro. And Samuel Zakutney is dominating the (normally) super competitive youngest Argo division.

Grace Chiu is posting photos on Facebook.

How NOT to get linked by blogs.

• do NOT provide an embed code
• use deadly slow brightcove rather than the fastest streaming service, YouTube.

British Gymnastics TV decided to make both of these mistakes, in an effort (I assume) to force viewers to go to their website to see BGTV videos.

Right now there’s a tutorial with coach Paul Hall. … But will you bother to click over to watch it?

… If I email British Gymnastics, they are gracious enough to send me an embed code. But why not simply include the embed code for one and all?

Thanks for the link, Sarah.

I LOVE Gymnastics Examiner … but Examiner videos are even worse than BGTV. If you have a fast internet connection and a tolerance for pre-roll ads, click over to watch podium training at the French Invitational.

Blythe Lawrence is at the French Invitational in Bercy. Watch for detailed coverage on Gymnastics Examiner. And @GymExaminer.

Podium training:

… Aliya Mustafina looks…well, better than she did during American Cup training (though she still missed her piked Jaeger on bars the one time she did one). It looks like her new floor combo, the one she biffed at the American Cup, is going to be a 2.5 twist to Rudi. Yes, a 2.5 to Rudi third pass. Ooh. A natural upgrade for her, and very exciting to see.

She also tossed the new combination on bars she didn’t throw in Florida: Tkatchev to Pak to immediate stalder Khorkina II. Nabieva looks exactly the same on bars as she did five months ago. …

… On beam, Deng Linlin flirted with but never quite made her two bhs to layout full to Korbut. It was very obvious that the combination was weighing heavily on her mind. Too heavily, perhaps — she did several timers, and also two or three with the layout full, but never actually threw the entire series. To my eyes she doesn’t have enough room at the end of the beam. But I guess we’ll find out…

Click PLAY or watch Deng Linlin on YouTube.

There’s much much more: Epke Zonderland, Lauren Mitchell, Jessica Lopez, Elisabeth Seitz, Ana Porgras, Sandra Izabasa (new Floor), Chen Yibing.

read about it on Gymnastics Examiner

It’s a HUGE meet.

… bit of a shame the Americans are over at a smaller Invitational.

Couch Gymnast has more videos from the French Invitational as well as Jesolo and links to the GBR, NED, GER competition.