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Another great edit from the International Gymnastics Federation. It compares the Vault of the 3 all-around medalists. Very cool.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

It includes Nabaeva’s harsh fall on beam. Ouch.

And Rebecca’s fall on beam. Sad.

… “The old people won today,” remarked Dutch journalist Peter van Leeuwen in the media center after the meet. He’s right — of the people who have captured individual event titles thus far, the youngest was bouncy 19-year-old Eleftherios Kosmidis of Greece. Tweddle is 25, Sacramone 22. Krisztian Berki is also 25, as is Chen Yibing….

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That’s from a terrific wrap-up on Gymnastics Examiner – Rotterdam reflections: Seen and heard around the Ahoy Arena after event finals – day 1 of apparatus finals at the World Gymnastics Championships.

For videos, scores and more go to Full Twist – Worlds Today 23/10/10 – Mens & Womens Individual Apparatus – A Quick Round Up

Anne From Gymnastike has a summary, too, with links to finalist interviews.

THE ALL AROUND:

Russian protest

In vault finals, Aliya Mustafina’s second vault RO-1/2 on full-twisting front layout off (6.1 D score) was downgraded to a pike (5.7). Both of Tatiana Nabieva’s vaults were downgraded – the Amanar (6.5) to a a double twisting Yurchenko (5.8) and her second vault in the same way as Mustafina’s. The Russian delegation attempted to protest the D scores for both gymnasts but were denied. „They told us we were four minutes too late,“ head coach Andrey Rodionenko told The All Around.

I still don’t know what the 0.1 penalty was for Mustafina.

Leave a comment if you know.

Someday we’ll have a website where for just a few dollars you can watch LIVE World Gymnastics Championships online. Won’t that be wonderful.

In the meantime, we have Universal Sports Gymnastics.

Here’s my experience today:

I don’t have the right version of Microsoft Silverlight. They don’t like my browser. They hate Apple too, I’m guessing.

In the end, something goes wrong.

The streaming service worked for many today. But when bloggers like Tsuk the Pain and Andrew Thornton can’t watch, that’s bad.

It can be intense coaching at this level. Some handle it better than others.

Berki – GOLD pommels

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Eleftherios Kosmidis – GOLD Floor

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Philipp Boy – GOLD all-around (… Gold medal for coming second after Uchimura)

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Women’s all-around World Championships 2010, Rotterdam.

Aliya Mustafina landed Vault 1st apparatus. Then kept the lead through the rest of the competition.

Click PLAY or watch Aliya on YouTube.

I think she’s only going to get better.

The best write-up by a Dostoyevsky mile on the superb women’s competition yesterday is by a self-described Couch Gymnast:

… Frankly, there was one girl out there who could trust herself, her body and her relationship with the apparatus from the outset. Aside from a few checks on beam, there was nothing in Aliya Mustafina’s face, in her manner, or her relaxed talk to her team mates and coaches, or certainly in her performance that betrayed a moment of doubt in her own ability to win this competition. She had routines that she could do and that she would do without significant error and she knew it from the beginning.

There was faith in preparation, but there was also a quiet self-certainty- a confidence that no other gymnast showed throughout her entire performance. …

ABOUT LAST NIGHT: THE ALL AROUND

(via Full Twist Gymnastics Blog on Facebook)

No surprise here. The defending Olympic Champion, Chen Yibing, was expected to win. And he delivered. World champion now 2006, 2007, 2010.

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1 Chen 15.90, 2 Yan 15.70, 3 Morandi 15.666, 4 Yamamuro 15.50, 5 Yoo 15.433, 6 San Miguel 15.333, 7 Kobayashi 15.30, 8 Chen 15.266

Unbelievable strength sequences from Yan (CHN) 15.70 (6.8/8.9). … How is China training strength?

This Ring final was not the battle of the strong men we’ve seen in Worlds past. Many hold positions were not quite perfect. Many took small deductions. The Chinese were not really challenged.

That’s the final apparatus for today. The rest go tomorrow. I’ll post video of the most interesting and controversial routines when they come online.

Hambuchen was training connected Kovacs – Kolman in training today. It will be interesting to see what gymnasts go for it in the Horizontal Bar final.

Tweddle
Mustafina
Bross

After the first 2 competitors from China both fell, this apparatus final became a lot more interesting.

Beth Tweddle rocked her amazing set. LOVE her.

Great to see Bridget Sloan hit and stick such a solid set. Forward toe-on toe-off adds a touch of variety.

Mustafina hit more handstands than an NCAA Bars champion, yet scored only 8.8 something on execution ?? … Bottle of what? … I love Beth, but Mustafina‘s routine was better. No matter what the scores show.

(We do have an end on angle on Bars and Horizontal Bar. I’m looking forward to seeing that routine from the side.)

The lovely Ana Porgras hits Bars. Is she the greatest Romanian on Bars ever? …

Bross HIT and STICK. Awesome.

Shocker.

The World and Olympic Champion falls on layout Jaeger. As she was first competitor, the podium is open.

Huang then falls on pirouette on low bar. What’s going on here?

1.Kristian Berki (HUN) … 6.7 start
2.Louis Smith (GBR) … 6.9 start
3.Sellathurai (AUS) … … 6.5 start

1 BERKI Krisztian HUN 15.833
2 SMITH Louis GBR 15.733
3 SELLATHURAI P. AUS 15.566
4 TOMMASONE Cyril FRA 15.433
5 UDE Filip CRO 15.316
6 MERDINYAN H. ARM 15.166
7 TRUYENS D. BEL 14.133
8 BERTONCELJ Saso SLO 13.933

The best apparatus final, so far. The top 5 routines were all worthy of a World Championships title. I don’t know how you can differentiate such perfection.

If you put a gun to my head and forced me to judge, I’d have handed the gold medal to Louis Smith. He takes the least deduction on scissors, the only gymnast not to even brush the leather at any time. But Louis’ coach, Paul Hall, was totally impressed with Berki. No complaints. … I thought Berki had some tiny form breaks.

Krisztian Berki has the best single leg work, by far. He looks like the classic tall gymnast of the 1970s. … And I think he’s been competing about that long. FIG calls him the best pommel man of all time.

Personally, I was cheering for Sellathurai. He must have the fastest circles of all time.

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Olympic Silver medalist Filip Ude (Croatia) had the flattest circles, no question. Awesome.

No gymnasts from China in Finals. They’re Ring specialists, now.