Category: Olympics

There were thrills.

And spills.

More MAG day 1 photos.

As always, the Men’s competition was more exciting and unpredictable than WAG.

FIG – Russian men romp to early lead at Stuttgart Worlds

Click PLAY or watch highlights on YouTube.

related – Lauren’s summary on theGymter.net.

The biggest story of World Championships 2019 will be the astonishing performance of Chinese Taipei.

That’s the name recognized by the China (PRC) for events like Olympic Games.

Sadao Hamada:

“I think a 250 [team score] will get us into the Tokyo Olympics,” he said. …

Chinese Taipei last qualified to the Olympic Games in 1964, also held in Tokyo, where they placed 17th. The team has two World medals in history; the silver on Pommel Horse won by Lee Chih-Kai‘s silver medal on Pommel Horse last year in Doha came 25 years after a silver on Vault from Feng Chih Chang.

FIG – ‘Harvest day’: Chinese Taipei turns in Tokyo-worthy performance

Scores should be higher this year as teams peak for Olympic qualification, but I’m penciling in TPE for Olympic team qualification. No number crunching pundits predicted that. They were 17th last year.

Senior coach Sadao Hamada, who coached Stanford for decades, says he only has 15 guys at the National Training Centre, an excellent facility. Therefore they need do everything right to have this kind of success.

250 was their goal.

Netherlands worked together like there was no tomorrow it paid off. Eythora, Sanne, Lieke, Vera, Tischa and Naomi were fighters in the arena and they killed it.

1 SARAIVA Flavia BRA
2 STEINGRUBER Giulia SUI
3 GODWIN Georgia AUS
4 VARINSKA Diana UKR
5 LEE Yunseo KOR
6 KOVACS Zsofia HUN
7 DOMINICI Martina ARG
8 MORENO Alexa MEX
9 FRANCIS Danusia JAM
10 KIM Su Jong PRK
11 HOLASOVA Aneta CZE
12 VIDIAUX Marcia CUB
13 HOLBURA Maria ROU
14 HAEMMERLE Elisa AUT
15 ALISTRATAVA Anastasiya BLR
16 ABDUL HADI Farah Ann MAS
17 MOHAMED Mandy EGY
18 SAVRANBASI Nazli TUR
19 MOKOSOVA Barbora SVK
20 MARTINS Filipa

On 12 and 13 October, the three highest placed eligible gymnasts (not already qualified in another way) in each apparatus final in Stuttgart will also book their Olympic tickets.

The specialists have another opportunity to qualify with the current Apparatus World Cup series that ends in March 2020. The four women’s and six men’s winners on each apparatus – a ranking decided by taking the best three results of each participant in the series – will be Tokyo-bound (on the condition that these gymnasts have not actively participated in the qualification of their respective teams).

There will be the possibility of gaining extra individual places for the competing countries via the 2020 All-around World Cup series – these will be available to the top three countries in this four-stage series running in March and April of that year.

The final qualifying opportunity will come at the continental championships in spring 2020 when there will be two individual places at stake for each of Africa, America, Europe and Asia and one place for Oceania.

The most important 2 days — top 12 team qualification to Olympics 2020 Tokyo.

Here are the top 8 teams, so far. I’d say day 2 has more of the best teams including China and Japan, who are already booked for Olympics.

1. RUS 259.928
2. TPE 250.093
3. BRA 247.236
4. ESP 246.727
5. GER 246.508
6. ITA 245.966
7. FRA 245.127
8. TUR 244.652

https://twitter.com/russiangymstan/status/1180916971925323777

Some will be asking, who’s TPE?

That’s Chinese Taipei, a squad that none of the media predicted to qualify to Tokyo. They killed it in the very first session of day 1.

Russia was fantastic. China v Russia team final will be epic.

Spain and Italy had great performances. They’ll be celebrating.

Germany and Brazil had big problems on their first apparatus, then fought their way back into Olympic contention.

It’s a large, knowledgable crowd. The kind that cheers for great Pommel routines.

Click PLAY or watch it on Twitter.

Turkey will be disappointed. With a perfect meet today it was possible to finish top 12 at the end.

One of the few problems at this event is how FIG put together groups. Some have only 2 competitors. Some 7 gymnasts. That slowed down the competition. #FixIt

I’ll be commenting LIVE via Twitter @GymCoaching. And partnering this year with @kensleyanne Kensley Behel. We both will be guest MAG pundits on the GymCastic podcasts this week.

More LIVE coverage:

• The All Around on Twitter
• MAGnastics
• Balance Beam Situation
• GymCastic
• gymnovosti
• theGymter.net 
• Olympic Channel
• Stuttgart 2019 YouTube channel 
• FIG on Twitter
• Inside Gymnastics 
• International Gymnast Magazine Facebook

Roxana did.

Tokyo Olympic qualifications start with the ladies this time. The next two days will decide which 12 teams qualify. USA, RUS and CHN have already booked their tickets from Worlds last year.

I’ll be commenting LIVE via Twitter @GymCoaching.

More LIVE coverage:

• Balance Beam Situation
• GymCastic
• theGymter.net 
• Olympic Channel
• Stuttgart 2019 YouTube channel 
• FIG on Twitter
• Inside Gymnastics 
• International Gymnast Magazine Facebook

What an honour to watch all these great gymnasts at one of their career peak competitions — Olympic qualification.

• • Australia and Ukraine were unlucky to draw the first flight of 10. I don’t have confidence that scores won’t escalate over the two days.
  • Australia really looks back on the right track. They competed less difficulty than they train, looking to improve E-score. On vault for example, their landings were  fantastic. Fans down under had no streaming video nor TV coverage. That’s bad for the sport.
  • Belgium killed it. A terrific team performance, especially Bars. Led by the great all-arounder Nina Derwael, looks to me like they will qualify a full team to the Olympics.
  • Jade Vansteenkiste competed the best triple twist I’ve seen in a long time
  • Danusia Francis, now competing for Jamaica, likely punched an AA invite to Tokyo. It’s been a long road. I’m thrilled for her.
  • Aneta Holasova CZE is another I really enjoyed watching today. Great Floor.
  • Oksana Chusovitina fell on her second vault. And Beam. She’s at risk of not qualifying for Tokyo. That would be a disaster for both Gymnastics and the Oympics. She’s one of our best stories.
  • Milka Gehani from Sri Lanka had everyone raving. Best ever from Sri Lanka.
  • the team that surprised me most and best today was Egypt.  Gymnastics is booming in that nation. One double twisting Yurchenko. Great stuff on all 4 apparatus.
  • Big crowd. Especially for the Germany session. And they did not leave unhappy.
  • Both North and South Koreas were excellent. Some of the best form and technique in the competition. It was great to see them on the floor at the same time.
  • Stars of the day were Germany and France. Both fantastic, but France finished ahead and is gunning to challenge China and Russia for the podium. They could do it.
  • Mélanie scored 56.482 and is definitely a favourite for podium AA. Love her unique Bars construction.
  • Congratulations to Team Canada. Despite some injury problems, they pulled off another very good prelims performance. Good chance to qualify to the team final.