Mustafina is Mustafina. Tough to beat anywhere. The World AA Champ sets the score to beat D 5.8 ; E : 8.966 ; 14.766 (had a 14.833 in qualifications)
Sandra Izbasa is so beautiful on Floor. I would love to see her win. … But she landed twice out of bounds, the first time with both feet over the line.
Staying in bounds is a huge factor in deciding what tumbling lines to use.
Afanasyeva (RUS) showed huge tumbling difficulty, but buckled landing double layout. Later fell on double pike. … Things have not gone well for team Russia in finals. They are looking far more vulnerable than they did before Worlds.
HEY. The Ferrari came up BIG in Finals. How fantastic. She hit her routine just about as well as possible. GREAT landings. Give the former world AA champion a medal!
Raisman has the most power of any tumbler at Worlds. She could compete double double instead of a double tuck – what’s with that easy line?
Still, it’s the second best routine of the day, so far …
Chelaru finishes with a good routine in the Romanian tradition.
Double tuck? … That’s a weak line, I feel, for the World Championships Final …
Nice routine from Siu Lu.
Last up is Mitchell, wanting a medal after getting 4th on Beam. Gorgeous double Arabian. Nice. A couple of landing deductions. She’s a beautiful gymnast. Go Aussie.
SHE WINS IT.
Not a great Floor final. But better than I expected. They’ll be some discussion over the scores.
2 BROSS Rebecca USA 15.233
2 DENG Linlin CHN 15.233
4 MITCHELL Lauren AUS 15.200
5 SACRAMONE A. USA 15.066
6 DEMENTYEVA Anna RUS 13.966
7 MUSTAFINA Aliya RUS 13.766
8 DEMYANCHUK Yana UKR 13.733
First competitor, Alicia Sacramone opted to mount with just front tuck instead of infamous pike (fall at Olympics).
SOLID. Beautiful form on double pike dismount. … She’s jubilant. What a triumph of a comeback.
The beautiful Lauren Mitchell goes up second. HIT. Love the layout. Love the careful wolf turn. … Every little girl in Australia must be working that.
Rebecca Bross. What a rock! No problem with Arabian, this time. Switch ring shaky. Small hop on front tuck. GREAT Patterson, small step. Carly must be cheering.
Loving this Beam final. It’s great to see HIT routines in finals.
The American strategy was to go consistent, not having the highest start values as a team at this meet.
Let’s see what happens now that the pressure is on the rest …
Wow. I love Ana Porgras. This routine flows better than any other gymnast in Rotterdam. NICE. … Small errors. … Judges? … She jumps into 1st place. I’m OK with that. It might motivate the Chinese not to be so choppy in future.
Reigning World Champ Deng (CHN) is next, under pressure from so many hit routines. NICE. Choppy. Small errors. … hmm. Moves to 2nd.
Super gymnast Mustafina. … Wot. Jumps off after Arabian. No medal here. … She really should do Patterson dismount instead of the messy triple twist.
Dementieva is a favourite of everyone here. But after a fall in the Beam final, she’s really not a proven commodity on a team that plans to win the Olympics.
Mitchell had a 0.1 higher start than Bross and Porgras. What routine should have scored higher?
Bouhail (FRA) did the same vaults, almost as well. But the judges score him higher. (… Don’t they have slow motion replay from different angles, like I do?)
Kaspiarovich (BLR) showed great Dragalescu. Then excellent Tsuk double pike. … I’d rank him second at this point. But the judges have him 3rd.
Oops. Isayev (UKR) planned a Dragulescu, but for some reason only did the handspring double front (Roche). Nice Tsuk double pike for second vault. These vaults are very dangerous, of course.
Yang (KOR) did the big cheat: virtually the same vault twice calling one Handspring 2½ twist, the second a Kazamatsu. The system still allows this. I don’t like it.
Cleanest twisting (Kyle Shewfelt clean) was Rivera. Nice!
… One of the nicest gifts I have had this Worlds is the cheeky pleasure of standing behind Beth Tweddle and Amanda Kirby as they watched the rest of the final unfold. The fun of listening to them chat lies in the way they are just so very mundane and real in these major sporting moments. It was more like listening to an old married couple watch television than watching a World Championship event final.
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