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Jason Burnett of Canada competes during the men’s qualification at the 2007 Trampoline Gymnastics International Invitational Tournament in Beijing, China, Nov. 30, 2007

(Xinhua Photo)

Canadian Head Coach Dave Ross also manufactures some of the world’s best trampolines. He was not happy with the venue, timing or format of the competition in Beijing:

“I think there are mainly three reasons for the mistakes and accidents that happened to the athletes today. First reason: I think it’s the podium. It’s not stable and as men are more powerful than women, when men are landing, it moves and causes the problems. The second reason is the time for this competition. It is not long after the World Championships competition, so the athletes seem to be relaxed. So they were not well prepared for today’s performance. The third is: there is no warm-up. We wanted to do a warm-up but we are not allowed because of the regulation. It should be changed. It’s good for the audience to enjoy the performance, but bad for our athletes to prepare and get ready for competing. We know how important warm-up is for the athletes, as a coach. We do hope that in 2008 in the Olympics there will be the warm-up for trampoline.”

Flash quotes after men’s qualification – 2007 Trampoline Gymnastics International Invitational Tournament

Competitors are saying the bed is “hard”.

… six athletes failed to finish their routines in the men’s preliminaries at the star-studded trampoline Olympic test event here on Friday.

China View

Finals to come.

Artistic Gymnastics Finals are sold out: 18,000 seats. Gymnastics will factor HUGE in Olympic media coverage next summer.

China took all the gold medals, so far, save Japan’s Makoto Okiguchi on Floor.

Many competitors have “watered down” their routines, including Cheng Fei. Most are not in peak competition readiness.

Day 1 results:

– Men’s Floor exercises and pommel horse and
– Women’s vault and floor exercises

* Women’s APPARATUS FINALS

* Results, Floor Exercises
1. CHENG, Fei CHN) – (16.2) = 15,275
2. SLOAN, Bridget (USA) – (15.9) = 14,925
3. MEMMEL, Chellsie (USA) – (16.1) = 14,725
…

* Results – Vault (women)
1. CHENG, Fei CHN) – (15.8 / 15.2) = 15,150
2. HONG, Sujong (PRK) – (15.8 / 15.2) = 14,450
3. KING, Marissa (GBR) – (15.7 / 15.0) = 14,187
…

* Floor exercises
1. OKIGUCHI, Makoto (JPN) – (16.3) = 15,800
2. O’NEILL, Brandon (CAN) – (16.5) = 15,800
3. HAMBUECHEN, Fabian (GER) – (16.5) = 15,750
…

* Results, Pommel horse
1. LU, Bin (CHN) – (16.4) = 15,575
2. KIM, Soomyun (KOR) – (16.1) = 15,100
3. POPESCU, Daniel (ROM) – (16.2) = 15,050

read more – GYMmedia.com

The Radical Reels Film Tour complements the Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour, and focuses on dynamic, high-adrenalin films featuring sports such as skiing, climbing, kayaking, BASE jumping, snowboarding and mountain biking.

Radical Reels Tour: Mountain Culture at The Banff Centre

The upcoming 2008 promo video trailer has not yet been posted. But you can click PLAY or watch last year’s promo on YouTube.

(via besthike)

Another terrific, original, insightful post on the Perfect 10 blog.

Ten Things I Dislike in the World of Gymnastics:

I wrote about my distaste for tank leos, gym shoes & the leg-up full turn a few months ago. The list has now expanded. These are the top 10 things I dislike right now in the world of gymnastics.

1. The jump-up mount on Beam.
2. The leotards worn by the United States Women.
3. The inconsistency of USA Men’s team.
4. The Side Somi on Beam.
5. Criticism after the last Worlds of athletes who cried …
6. Event Specialists.
7. Speaking of Event Specialists, Cheng Fei …
8. Lack of choreography on Beam.
9. … what happened to all the good floor routines?
10. And finally, I dislike the new scoring system.

perfect 10 » Ten Things I Dislike in the World of Gymnastics

I’ll leave my own response on that blog post. You should too.

I love this promo!

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube:

If you can, post this on your Facebook page or blog. These are two superstars of all time. The commercial is excellent. And we want more companies like Adidas lining up to sign our top athletes in future.

The more HITS on this video, the better (There are multiple copies of it on YouTube.)

Related post:

“Stick It” will be a cult classic

Shannon Miller reports:

This morning I interviewed Paul Hamm, Morgan Hamm, Blaine Wilson and their coach, Miles Avery.

…. The guys are doing well with training, and all of them seemed very upbeat. Paul is looking forward to competing all-around for the first time since the 2004 Olympic Games. He will compete at the Winter Cup in February (Las Vegas) and at the American, along with Oklahoma’s Jonathon Horton and Shawn Johnson.

With the poor results of the USA at the Olympic test meet, the team might need Paul after all.

No commitment yet from Morgan (injured) and Wilson (old). But I expect both to compete in 2008, likely as specialists.

Watch for this interview and those of Paul and Morgan Hamm and Blaine Wilson on my show “Gymnastics 360° with Shannon Miller” on CN8 Sports on the Comcast Network. Or watch it online.

WCSN Blogs » Blog Archive » Checking in with the U.S.’s best

Gymnastics competitions in Canada are dull. There’s been very little innovation in format in my lifetime. We have very few winners … and a lot of losers.

The meets in the USA are better, for sure. Each tries to outdo the others with “special” touches. Great West Gym Fest, for example, has a sound and light show for every category. It’s way cool for kids to come running thorough smoke into a darkened hall to start their competition.

But the NCAA is best in finding ways to make gymnastics competitions interesting. And marketable.

The mixed pairs format is always entertaining.

In their annual season opener, the Ohio State men’s and women’s gymnastics team will prepare for the 2008 season with the Mixed Pairs Exhibition slated for 2 p.m. Sunday in St. John Arena. …

…

“The Mixed Pairs event is always one of our favorite preseason events,” Carey Fagan, Ohio State women’s gymnastics head coach, said. “It is a great opportunity for the men’s and women’s teams to compete together as we prepare for our seasons. …

Ohio State Gymnastics Kicks Off Preseason Action with Co-ed Meet – The Ohio State Buckeyes Official Athletics Site – OhioStateBuckeyes.com

Qualifying rounds of the individual competition are already finished.

Huang

Here are the top 6 of those qualifying to finals. (Looks like China, as host, was allowed extra competitors to gain experience in the Olympic venue.)

Full results, news, photos and more on the official website – 2007 TRAMPOLINE GYMNASTICS INTERNATIONAL INVITATIONAL TOURNAMENT

Now this is cool.

TumblTrak has been quietly testing a new video clip interface on their website.

screenshot

You’ve got to see this – TumblTrak Media

Incidentally, I just ordered a Porta Table from TumblTrak this week. The last in stock, ever, I’m afraid. That product has been discontinued.

Justin Guariglia has been studying and photographing the martial-arts monks at Shaolin Temple in Henan Province for the past eight years. He was the first photographer to get permission to photograph the monks inside the temple, and his new book, Shaolin: Temple of Zen, allows all of us an insider’s view of the stunning mastery that these warrior monks have perfected over the centuries.

One for the Road: Shaolin – Temple of Zen – Gadling

Shaolin: Temple of Zen – Amazon

Check out the cool companion website.