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… Last season, Georgia’s poor performances on the road led to the Gym Dogs failing to advance to the NCAA national meet for the first time in 27 years. …

This season, coach Jay Clark will begin meet simulations possibly as early as the first day. …

Georgia will have a youth-heavy roster with just two seniors (Hilary Mauro, Cassidy McComb) and three juniors (Kat Ding, Mariel Box, Nuccio) out of the 13 Gym Dogs. …

Online Athens

I dunno.

Most pundits will count Georgia out until they prove themselves.

… NOTEWORTHY: Georgia will begin practice without much of its freshman class. Cat Hires is out for at least 5-6 weeks with a broken foot. Bekah Bennetts had offseason ankle surgery and is out indefinitely. Lindsay Cheek will join the team and be eligible to compete in January after she graduates early from Oconee County High School. The seniors, juniors and sophomores reported to conditioning camp healthy and should be ready to go today.

(via sohalia on College Gymnastics Board)

Couch Gymnast reposted a hilarious tweet from Alicia en route to National Team training camp at Karoli’s ranch:

“Just landed in Houston- 9 workouts until freedom“

The US girls are in the FIRST OF TWO selection/verification camps in what is always a breathtaking and seemingly agonising selection process …

Couch Gymnast

UCLA’s 2010 NCAA Championship Gymnastics and Softball teams traveled to Washington DC along with over 30 other NCAA Championship squads for a White House ceremony honoring … teams and student-athletes ….

UCLA senior gymnast Allison Taylor documented the Bruins’ final day in Washington DC on UCLAbruins.com.

You can click through to read that. Or simply watch the highlight, Anna Li doing backward handsprings at the Whitehouse on YouTube.

(via Gymnastics Examiner Week in Review)

Seems Youna has not recovered quickly enough from the knee injury suffered on Bars in Albertville.

… A year ago, Youna Dufournet was en route to London, the world championships and a bronze medal on vault. Today, the worlds seem far to the gymnast …. Not sufficiently recovered from her left knee surgery, she had to withdraw from the selection test, held Saturday evening at Insep …

Google Translate – La Nouvelle Republique

This is what you get for being a famous media celebrity. Controversy.

… His autobiography goes on sale in Germany on September 15 and excerpts were published in the country’s biggest tabloid last week. They offered readers an unexpected glimpse at Hambüchen’s most private moments, including a description of him losing his virginity as well as his mother walking in on him having sex with a girl friend.

While Hambüchen himself has said he is proud of the book, the German gymnastics community is caught up in a mixture of ridicule, shock and disbelief. The federation has no official position on the book but Hambüchen’s team mates sounded off to the media. “Everybody I have spoken to about it thinks it’s just ridiculous,” Philipp Boy told newsagency dpa. European floor champion Matthias Fahrig told Mitteldeutsche Zeitung that he wasn’t sure that “somebody really needs to write down their whole life at only 22.” …

The All Around – Hambüchen Injured, Status for Worlds Uncertain

… The reigning European all-around champion was limited to four events (pommel horse, rings, parallel bars and high bar) at the German national championships last weekend. …

Gymnastike Technique Tuesday:

… OU gymnast David Finning shows us a drill he does on trampoline to help with the timing of the regrasp of a kovacs on high bar.

Click PLAY or watch it on Gymnastike.

http://videoplayer.flocasts.org/player.swf

I’ve not yet seen it, but this show is getting good buzz.

TOTEM traces the fascinating journey of the human species from its original amphibian state to its ultimate desire to fly. The characters evolve on a stage evoking a giant turtle, the symbol of origin for many ancient civilizations.

Click PLAY or watch the trailer on YouTube.

TOTEM – home page and upcoming shows

Congratulations!

And welcome Athena Louise Fong.

As you can see, Athena’s already learning inversion.

The gymnasts at G.A.G.E. are going to be baby sitting soon.

(via email from Al Fong)

Many are happy and happily surprised that the Floor champion from Romania actually made a comeback, winning Floor at the World Cup last weekend.

But is this truly a good Floor routine?

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

I think not. It’s hard to say what’s more depressing in 2010: Women’s Floor or Men’s Horizontal Bar. Both are dreadful, far less impressive than the best routines of 2004 and earlier.

I blame the F.I.G. rules on those apparatus.

I’ve never been a fan of Sandra’s Floor. But, to be fair, I expect it will improve. She’s only been cleared for full routines recently.

Chinese National Champion Guo Weiyang won 3 apparatus finals.

Men’s Floor
1 KOSMIDIS Eleftherios GRE 15.425
2 GONZALEZ SEPULVEDA Enrique Tomas CHI 15.075
3 MARKOVIC Tomislav CRO 15.025

Pommel Horse
1 GUO Weiyang CHN 15.100
2 SMITH Louis GBR 15.050
3 BUSNARI Alberto ITA 14.550

Still Rings
1 VAN GELDER Lambertus NED 15.475
2 LIAO Junlin CHN 15.400
3 PETROUNIAS Eleftherios GRE 15.275

Men’s Vault
1 WAMMES Jeffrey NED 16.000
2 SAPRONENKO Jevgenijs LAT 15.838
3 TUUHA Tomi FIN 15.800

Parallel Bars
1 GUO Weiyang CHN 15.600
2 KULESZA Roman POL 15.300
3 CARBALLO Manuel ESP 15.050

Horizontal Bar
1 GUO Weiyang CHN 15.425
2 MARAS Vlasios GRE 15.275
3 KULESZA Roman POL 14.975

It was a good day for the Netherlands too. Congratulations on the comeback of drug fiend Van Gelder. We trust he’s given up the habit.

Women’s Vault
1 GIL ORTIZ Jessica COL 13.925
2 CHELARU Diana Maria ROU 13.750
3 WONG Hiu Ying Angel HKG 13.688

Uneven Bars
1 WU Liufang CHN 15.050 (VIDEO)
2 PORGRAS Ana ROU 14.375
3 LOPEZ Jessica VEN 13.950

Balance Beam
1 PORGRAS Ana ROU 14.775
2 YANG Yilin CHN 14.100
3 WU Liufang CHN 13.650

Women’s Floor
1 IZBASA Sandra Raluca ROU.325
2 CROKET Julie BEL 13.600
3 RABINOVITZ Roni ISR 13.450

The big story on the women’s side is the successful return of Romanian veterans Sandra Izbasa (GOLD Floor) and Ana Porgras (GOLD Beam). Suddenly Romania jumps to become a much stronger contender for World’s.

Once again, crisis what crisis. Congratulations to new coaches Octavian Belu and Mariana Bitang.

Click PLAY or watch Ana Porgras’ Beam on YouTube.

official results page

Read commentary on Gymnastics Examiner and Couch Gymnast. Or the official FIG press release.

… The next stopover of the 2010 Artistic Gymnastics World Cup circuit and the last one before the 2010 World Championships in Rotterdam (NED) will be in Ostrava (CZE) from September 29 – October 1 …