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Did the World Vault Champion land …
… in the Corridor, but close to the corridor line.
If so, that’s a 0.1 deduction.
Screen grab from this video of her Rudi in Finals.
Personally, I think not. That 0.1 penalty has not often been taken in the past. Was not taken for other gymnasts in Rotterdam much more off line.
And the wording in English is vague. It should say “one foot on the line”, or something specific.
In that Final that Alicia Sacramone was easily best.
I’m sure we’ll hear other opinions.
related posts – … 0.1 penalty on Vault (compare Nabieva and Mustafina)
Remember the days when gymnasts from only a handful of nations would qualify to the Finals at the World Gymnastics Championships.
No more.
EIGHT different countries were represented in the men’s pommel horse final, and NONE of them were China or Japan?
In fact, none of the top four teams from the team final were represented in the pommel horse final, and this created a very unique and diversified field that included Hungary, Great Britain, Australia, France, Croatia, Armenia, Belgium, and Slovenia! All non-powerhouse countries, and what’s even better…it was one of the best pommel horse finals ever! Six guys scored above a 15, and we’re seeing some of the coolest and most stylish pommel horse routines ever done. …
Andrew Thornton – American Gymnast – Top Three Highlights of Event Finals Day 1
http://view.picapp.com//JavaScripts/OTIjs.js
How are gymnasts from Venezuela and Armenia finishing top 10 in the world?
The main reason, I feel, is the diaspora of coaches from the former Soviet Union. Skillful coaches find talent wherever they end up.
On the Men’s side, the emergence of specialists has really helped smaller nations compete.
It’s a great trend, in any case.
Young coaches get sick and tired of us dinosaurs always talking about the Golden Age of women’s gymnastics, the late 1980s Soviet Teams.
One of those dinosaurs, Queen Elisabeth, has started a new blog called Russian gymnastics – risk, originality, virtuosity:
… For the past 17 years, since the break up of the Soviet Union, gymnastics has stagnated somewhat. If you are a fan of British or American gymnastics, or any of the other states who have benefitted hugely from the ‘retirement’ of the Soviet Union from big-time sport …
I agree.
Especially since so many of those Russian gymnasts and coaches migrated around the world. (See a partial list of former Soviets at Rotterdam.)
… I’ll give you a link to a routine that I consider to represent the epitome of ROV….
I’ve chosen beam as an example of the degradation of ROV in the sport because to me it’s where the changes in the sport have become most obvious. The gymnast is Tatiana Groshkova, who rested on the margins of the Soviet team around the late 1980s and early 1990s. …
Click PLAY or watch Tatiana Groshkova Beam on YouTube.
Click PLAY or watch Deng LinLin‘s 2009 World’s Gold medal routine on Youtube.
Deng’s form is obviously beautiful, the somersaults are high, the exercise is technically correct. However, where is the ‘routine’? What makes this exercise more than an assemblage of difficulties out of the pages of the Code of Points? …
read more – What is this about? Gymnastics at a turning point?
Agree?
Check that blog for yourself – Russian gymnastics – risk, originality, virtuosity
(via Full Twist)
Groshkova was first to compete double full-in on Floor (VIDEO), in an era when it wasn’t needed to have the maximum 10.0 start.
She was simply trying to earn a spot on the Soviet A team.
Update: Canadian gymnast Anysia Unick does the Groshkova sideways backspring (Tousek). Who else is using it in 2010?
Everyone was happy that this German gymnast made the Final. We all wanted to see the Def.
Unfortunately, she missed.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Remind me never to spot that skill.
http://view.picapp.com//JavaScripts/OTIjs.js
The French had a good World Championships, despite the injury (snapped Achilles tendon) to Carnobe.
Here’s some video footage from MTC member Edouard Iarov coaching boys from France in the 1990s. That nation has had strong gymnasts for a long time.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
The World Champion has arrived back home in Moscow. Catching up on school work.
Is she a super confident, fierce competitor?
http://view.picapp.com//JavaScripts/OTIjs.js
Or a shy little girl still in shock to find herself the centre of all this attention and speculation? … One who runs away from the media, every chance she gets.
http://view.picapp.com//JavaScripts/OTIjs.js
I’m not sure.
Aliya talks tough in an excellent, likely controversial, interview on Sportbox.ru, translated by Senor Nico on IG forum:
Anton Golotsutskov, who won the silver medal on vault, said that the judges are prejudiced against Russian athletes.
-I repeat, athletes shouldn’t interfere with the judging. Our small matter is to compete. But in part I agree with Anton. To some extent I think the judges were against me.
-What do you think about being called the next Khorkina?
-Nothing. It’s all the same to me. Svetlana was, of course, an amazing gymnast. But I have no idols and never have.
read the full interview
Like the American girls, the Russians saw very little other than the hotel and Ahoy arena. The Romanians were in the shopping mall every day, even before the competition finished.
Ortona Gymnastics Club (Edmonton, AB) is now accepting applications for WAG competitive gymnastics coaches.
Full and part time availability … Benefits available to full time staff. Requirements: Women NCCP Level 2 minimum, national experience, international experience an asset. Fluent English (spoken & written) is required.
Ortona Gymnastics (780) 465-8973
businessmanager AT ortonagymnastics.com
The club’s been housed in the “Wonder Bubble” for years. But are moving in June to a shiney new facility called the Go Center.
Successful applicants are required to cheer for the woeful professional sports teams from that city.
The former Romanian Women’s National coach, dissatisfied with a lesser role, is packing up and moving to Milan.
Sounds like he will do a talent search on arrival. Start from scratch.
Click for a Google Translate gobbledygook version of the original article linked by THE ALL AROUND on Facebook.
Romania did extermely well, I thought, without Forminte at Worlds. Perhaps it is time for a fresh start.
Before seeing the new show, now playing in Amsterdam, I knew I’d love it.
At least 20 friends from Cirque told me I would, and they tend to be very critical of their own product.
TOTEM is great. Weird, but great.
Normally I go to see the acrobatics. The more flips and twists, the better.
This show does not have as much acrobatics as usual. But I still loved it. Our group, mostly women’s judges from World Championships, enjoyed a backstage tour.
Themes: evolution, physics, indigenous peoples … Totem has plenty of monkeys. … I assume that’s Darwin juggling flourescent balls in the big plexiglass cone. (Why didn’t I think of that act! I’d be rich.)
The hoop dancer, Nakotah LaRance, is fantastic. He does a traditional act straight up. It’s awesome.
In another act, First Nations peoples are on roller skates! … And it’s intensely sensual. Only Cirque would conceive something like this.
Sometimes the shocking costumes are a distraction. But they really work well in this show.
Not shown there is the best of all, the Crystal Man, a human disco ball. That suit has 4,500 mirrors, costing $15,000. And they have 3 back stage!
The music is wonderful: Bollywood, First Nations drumming, ambient, world beat, didgeridoo, throat singing, even flamenco.
As in all the new shows, the computerized lighting effects are critical. Click PLAY to watch a feature on how they were created.
Robert Lepage created this show, a mad genius. I never attempt to decipher the plot lines of Cirque shows. Better to let it wash over you.
Click PLAY or watch Lepage on YouTube.
Last shout out. Everyone loves one comic character, an oddball Italian tourist. (Or something.) That guy is hilarious, perhaps my favourite Cirque clown yet.
If you get the chance, see it. TOTEM is an astonishingly mature show for one so new. I doubt they’ll tinker with it much. It works.
Disclosure: Cirque du Soleil paid for my ticket. But I rave about their shows even when I’m buying. The disclosure is that I love CdS. I’m a bloody fan boy. You can’t trust my opinion.
Gymnastics Coaching.com 