Author: Rick Mc

The international Gymnastics Federation did a fantastic job at getting out information from World Championships in London.

And they negotiated the best TV / internet video contract in history.

Kudos FIG. Kudos to Longines.

Only hours after the competition they’ve distributed the official Longines Results Book. If you are a stats junkie, download to your computer London_Book (PDF).

On that document you can check the official FIG Passport age of all competitors. (Ha!)

Check the Execution scores for each routine. Individual judge’s names are not listed in preliminaries. But for finals the Nationality of each judge is shown.

You can see who liked Dragalescu’s execution on Floor, for example:

See the medal total by nation. And much more.

The best wrap-up report I’ve seen as yet was posted by Anne on Gymnastike:

Dragalescu did not crash his second vault this competition. He cranked a half-on, Front Layout with 2 1/2 twist. He just might be the greatest vaulter of all time. Him… or Scherbo.

For his first vault, Marian launched his trademark vault, handspring double front with a half twist out, aka the Dragulescu. This vault was competed by nearly all of the vault finalists, but performed the best by Dragulescu who earned 9.550 exectution. His second vault had the highest start value of the competition at a 7.2. There was a lot of hype surrounding Ri Se Gwang of North Korea, but you just never know what he is going to do. Today he threw 2 scary vaults, the first was a piked Dragulescu which he landed on his head. ouch.

Click PLAY or watch 28yr-old Marian Dragalescu win Vault on YouTube.

Regarding Olympics 2012, Marian was quoted as saying: “… But maybe next time, you never know …”

===

… Crowd favorite Beth Tweddle was the first competitor up, and hit her insanely difficult floor set. To the delight of the crowd, her score held throughout the competition. …

Click PLAY or watch Beth Tweddle’s Gold Medal on Floor on YouTube.

At age-24, she’s not committing to 2012.

Click through for the other apparatus. Gymnastike – 2009 World Gymnastics Championships Recap

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Not brilliant. But congratulations on the medal to Ivana.

Congratulations Australia.

For me, the highlight result of the entire World Gymnastics Championships was Lauren who trains at the Western Australia Institute of Sport in Perth, Australia.

Mez on the Australian Gymnastics Blog declares this LAUREN MITCHELL DAY.

Women’s Balance Beam:
1. DENG Linlin CHN 15.000
2. LAUREN Mitchell AUS 14.875
3. IVANA Hong USA 14.500

Women’s Floor Exercise
1. BETH Tweddle GBR 14.65
2. LAUREN Mitchell AUS 14.55
3. SUI Lu CHN 14.300

by site editor Rick McCharles

I wrote this post during the preliminary competitition. But resisted posting it until after the Final:

=== The talented 17yr-old Danell qualified to Horizontal Bar Finals at World’s. Congratulations.

But will his Dad cause an incident on international TV?

Danell Leyva is coached by his father, Yin Alvarez (pictured) whose reactions to well-performed routines (heck, sometimes even so-so routines!) are well known in the USA, but they’ve now hit the Worlds stage. He almost sent nearby gymnasts scattering at the end of Levya’s routine, throwing his famous fist punches in the air and side skipping the entire length of the men’s high bar to greet Levya after a job well done. The drama wasn’t missed on the observant British crowd, and injected some genuine smiles into what was a long day. Imagine the reaction if Levya wins a medal in Sunday’s apparatus finals! …

Inside Gymnastics

Personally I feel Yin’s antics are unsportsmanlike.

Leave a comment if you disagree.

=== Happily, in Finals it seems Yin only amused the international audience.

On Universal they merely commented on how excited the coaches can get.

Danell Leyva is a great talent. His consistency at this young age is really impressive. Congratulations to Danell and his coach.

http://cdn.pis.picapp.com/IamProd/PicAppPIS/JavaScript/PisV4.js
Danell Leyva

World Championships Finals – Horizontal Bar

1. Zou CHN,
2. Zonderland NED,
3. Cassina ITA,
4. Leyva USA,
5. Pegan SLO,
6. Uchimura JPN,
7. Tsarevich BLR,
8. Horton USA

full results (PDF)

Give me a break.

You cannot tell me Zou Kai is better on High Bar than Uchimura. Never has an athlete been more over rewarded than Zou Kai on this apparatus. This is embarassing for our sport.

In fact, horizontal bar is the least interesting apparatus right now, men and women.

The judging regulations are to blame. Why doesn’t the FIG devalue Rybalko?

We need to go back to rewarding connected release moves. And taking more deduction for glaring form breaks on Kolman.

http://cdn.pis.picapp.com/IamProd/PicAppPIS/JavaScript/PisV4.js

The newest code does seem to be rewarding great leaps.

Elisabetta Preziosa of Italy competes in the beam event during the Apparatus Finals on the sixth day of the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships 2009 at the at O2 Arena on October 18, 2009 in London, England.

http://cdn.pis.picapp.com/IamProd/PicAppPIS/JavaScript/PisV4.js

(Photo by Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)

Women’s Floor Final Results:

1. Tweddle GBR,
2. Mitchell AUS,
3. Aui CHN,
4. Myzdsrikova RUS,
5T. Bross USA and Porgras ROM,
7. Deng CHN,
8. Gil Ortez COL

full results (PDF)

This is great for Beth. Great for the U.K. Great for the Olympics 2012. … And for all of the “older” female gymnasts who decide to fight on.

I hope Nastia is inspired.

Wang Guanyin edged out team mate Feng Zhe as China underlined their mastery on the parallel bars by completing a 1-2 finish at the world gymnastics championships on Sunday. …

With just two finals left, China had won five gold medals at the O2 Arena which will stage the gymnastics competition in the London 2012 Games.

Universal

full results (PDF)

Wang Guanyin of China in action in the men’s parallel bars final, during the World Gymnastics Championships at the O2 Arena in London, Sunday, Oct. 18, 2009.

(AP Photo/Matt Dunham) – ESPN

LONDON (Reuters) – Marian Dragulescu grabbed gold on the vault to claim his second title at the world gymnastics championships on Sunday. …

As soon as Dragulescu nailed his second vault — an ambitious Yurchenko half-on with 1-1/2 twist 2 1/2 twist — he punched the air in delight and held up his index fingers to the crowd as if to say, “That’s why I’m number one.”

Victory increased the 28-year-old’s haul of world titles to eight.

Reuters

ESPN

full results (PDF)