President Watanabe opened the meet in traditional Qatari dress.
Read CHRISTIAN IVANOV’s day 1 preview.
Category: Gymnastics
2018 Men’s Worlds AA champion?
MAGnastics discusses these amazing gymnasts:
Xiao Ruoteng
Lin Chaopan
Sun Wei
Kenzo Shirai
Kazuma Kaya
David Belyavskiy
Nikita Nagornyy
Artur Dalaloyan
Sam Mikulak
Oleg Verniaiev
Yul Moldauer
James Hall
Brinn Bevan
Ahmet Onder
Jossimar Calvo
Marios Georgiou
Julien Gobaux
Nestor Abad
Ferhat Arican
Rene Cournoyer
Manrique Larduet
2018 Worlds All Around Preview
They’ll first need to qualify to the AA final from prelims, of course.
From training so far I’ll wildly predict two of the podium spots will go to China. The other … I’d love to see Sam Mikulak put it together and silence the critics.
related – MAGnastics – 2018 Worlds Individual Apparatus Preview
BEST routine in Doha – Zou Jingyuan
Of everything I saw over the past 4 days, best was defending World P Bar Champion – Zou Jingyuan in podium training. I scored his podium set 9.8. It was better than this one from Asian Games where he scored 9.5
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
new WAG elements submitted Doha Worlds
See them here.
Yesterday I was honoured to meet Koichi Endo, the genius who does the FIG illustrations. His father popularized the Endo on H Bar.
Averie Mitchel meets Laurie Hernandez
You’ve seen videos of one legged gymnast Averie Mitchel. She’s awesome.
Watch what happened on Steve TV. Very inspiring.
Worlds opening Press Conference
FIG makes history hosting Worlds in the Middle East
FIG President Watanabe thanked Ali Al Hitmi, Chief Executive Officer of the Local Organising Committee, for his courage in hosting such an important event.
Actually, the media event started off with a laugh. Watanabe had arrived in Doha just in time. But security wouldn’t let him into the venue. They insisted he go get his credential first.
All agreed strict security is a good thing.
Watanabe spoke in English. He thanked media for coming to Qatar.
He first visited for Asian Games 2006. At that time our sport was not much developed. Watanabe considers it a miracle that only 12 years later the sport has come so far. Qatar has 3 competitors (2 MAG, 1 WAG).
I’ve been to the Gym here several times over the years. Ali Al Hitmi deserves much of the credit.
Aside from sport, I’m optimistic that bringing the world to Qatar will help advance the cause of human rights.
Svetlana Boginskaya unveiled the Worlds medals. In fact, Al Hitmi put a gold medal around her neck. She liked it. Very heavy!
Aliya’s acro flight series
chalking Bars at Worlds
Heart this on Instagram.
Between competitors China used towels on the mats to catch chalk.
Finished now, I thought the team looked better than expected. Calm. Ready. Beautiful form. The weak apparatus is Floor. Vault looks great.
Simone’s SET on Moors
Incredible. She could probably do triple twisting double layout.
Click PLAY or watch the first pass on YouTube.
Look how much later Simone initiates the twist than others. It’s almost lay-in, double full out. She gets that technique from her Biles.
USA looks good in podium training
If you didn’t watch the meet on the USAG YouTube channel, read Scott Bregman’s review for Olympic Channel.
Gymnastics Coaching.com 