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More excellent commentary from the publisher of International Gymnast magazine

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9. China’s Yang Yilin and Xiao Sha were wonderful today. Both girls hit all of their routines and landed in 6th and 7th. That’s probably lower than they should have been, but it doesn’t seem the bother their performances now. The judges who continue to shave them are in reality helping them to toughen up and hit routines. It won’t be long before the world will not be able to “expect” China to miss. Their style of gymnastics will endure long after these incompetent judges retire or get ejected from the sport. …

7. Vanessa Ferrari again earns her name. This young lady is remarkable. Competing on a stress fracture, she has produced some wonderful routines so far. Although she fell on her Comaneci release on Bars, she bounced right back and fought her way to the podium to tie Barbosa for the bronze. She came here with the most ambitious program and will continue to fight for medals in every meet she competes. She is a real champion in every way you can imagine and the audiences love her. It will be fun to watch the fight between Vanessa and Shawn through Beijing. Please stay healthy both of you!

6. Nastia Liukin is such a classic beauty. With her concentration to detail and her perfectly straight lines, she is wonderful to watch as an artist, but don’t be fooled, she is a tigress. No one wants to win more that Nastia, and she pushed herself very hard here to be in a position to do just that today. Unfortunately, beam again did her in, but this time it was a fall on her layout of her series. I am betting that she rocks beam in the event finals and winds up with a medal.

5. What a surprise Jade Barbosa was. She and Hong Un Jong (North Korea) were the only two gymnasts who did more than a Yurchenko double twist, and she used her 15.90 there to help her past bars (only 14.95) to be in a tie for first with Liukin after two events. She is wonderful on beam, getting the second highest score (15.70), but gave way to the pressure in the fourth event when she touched out her full-in third pass on floor. Nevertheless, she could make some noise in Beijing if she could raise her bars to the next level. This was the first all-around medal for Brazil, yet another milestone for this nation on the move.

4. Jonathan Horton is so much fun to watch, especially when he gets pommel horse out of the way. Today after horse, even though he hit, he was in last place. Five rotations later, he was just .2 from the bronze medal. Finishing fourth is remarkable for him and should give him the motivation to work even harder to raise his A-Panel scores. If he wants to medal in Beijing, he will have to risk more than he did here. He started the finals in eight place on the planned A-Panel list, more than 1 point behind Tomita and 2.9 behind Yang Wei. …

2. Shawn Johnson, solid as a rock, had only to watch as all of those who could challenge her made mistakes. She is so comfortable with these routines that she can perform them with confidence; hence, she can maximize her B-Panel scores. Remember she entered the all-around finals sixth of all the top girls as far as far as planned A-Panel scores! In fact she was giving up .9 to Ferrari. Nevertheless, when the chalk settled, she was the champion! Congratulations Shawn! You put Iowa on the gymnastics map much in the same way Nadia put Romania there in 1976.

1. Yang Wei is the MAN! Although he showed himself to be somewhat human with a high bar routine that included two dismounts (he peeled off the bar on one of his pirouetting move), he was so steady up to that point that he only needed a 12.125 to win. With a planned 6.0 A-Panel, he had no problem making that. With his superior A-Panel scores, it will be very difficult to beat him without risking a lot more than most of the other gymnasts are willing.

International GYMNAST Online | 2007 World Championships

Yang Wei – ESPN

STUTTGART, Germany –

First, a national champion. Now, a world champion. And everyone knows what’s coming up next on Shawn Johnson’s schedule.

America’s new queen of gymnastics also proclaimed herself best in the world Friday, winning the all-around title with her bright smile and sky-high jumps and setting herself up as the woman to beat next year at the Beijing Olympics.

The 15-year-old Iowa girl scored 61.875 points to defeat Steliana Nistor of Romania by 1.25.

“I’m so happy and so proud of myself,” Johnson said. “I just, I don’t know. I’m overwhelmed with everything right now.”

Brazil’s Jade Barbosa and defending champion Vanessa Ferrari of Italy tied for third and shared the bronze. American Nastia Liukin put in her usual exotic, graceful performance, but a fall off the beam doomed her chances and she finished fifth. …

Johnson Wins Title at World Gymnastics – Forbes.com

No one was surprised that Yang Wei defended his All-around title. They were surprised when he fell.

STUTTGART, Germany (AFP) — Yang Wei survived a fall from the high bar to give China their second gold medal of the world gymnastics championships here on Friday.

A day after helping China win a record-equalling eighth men’s team crown the 27-year-old Yang took his seventh world gold.

The veteran had looked to be coasting to victory when he dominated the competition, scoring highest on three of the six apparatus – pommel horse, rings and parallel bars.

But despite taking a confortable 3.550-lead onto the final apparatus Yang’s gold medal hopes had looked in the balance when he fell badly from the high bar, scoring the lowest mark in the 23-man field with just 13.600.

His lead was however enough to secure victory with a combined 93.675 points which put him 1.475 ahead of Germany’s Fabian Hambuechen, who snatched his country’s first all-around silver after his acrobatics on the high bar.

Japan’s Hisashi Mizutori took bronze with 91.400, as his teammate Hiroyuki Tomita, the 2005 champion and last year’s runner-up, dropped to 12th after a poor showing. …

AFP: Chinese gymnast Yang wins all-around gold at world championships

GYMmedia coverage of the Men’s AA Final

full results – World Artistic Gymnastics Championships 2007

Congratulations to the German team for doing so well at home!

It’s important for workaholic coaches to schedule holidays that work. Burnout is well documented in athletic coaches.

In North America this is the first week of the regular training year for many clubs. School is back in session.

Coaches are getting back to a NORMAL routine.

Dave and Lisa Adlard of Funtastics Gymnastics in Idaho took the week eco-Adventure holiday in Hawaii. (The competitive team had that same week off.)

By the way, Lisa was a “natural” at surfing.

more photos – flickr

For internet video, this is a pretty good clip showing slow motion of Cheng Fei from Chinga doing Yurchenko 2 1/2 twist and her CRAZY second vault at World’s 2007.

Obviously she will get a chance to defend her title in Finals.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

full results – World Artistic Gymnastics Championships 2007 – GymnasticsResults.com

It looked like a repeat of Worlds Team Finals last year. The favourites USA giving away the Championships after two unexpected errors by Liukin and Johnson on beam.

Then Russian Ekaterina Kramarenko balked on vault scoring ZERO in a 3-up, 3-count Finals.

And Li Shanshan from China over-rotated on Floor.

Here’s what happened:

The Americans finished with 184.4 points, beating defending champion China by .95 for their second world title, and the first they’ve won on foreign soil. Romania took the bronze after getting shut out of team medals last year for the first time since 1981.

Sacramone’s winning floor exercise was as clutch as any pass ever thrown by Peyton Manning or basket made by M.J.

Though in this case, the coup de grace was every bit as much a stage show as an athletic performance.

Sacramone powered through her flip combinations and landed without looking down, knowing she’d stayed inside the lines.

… The American comeback became necessary when Liukin, a former world champion on beam, couldn’t close out what had been shaping up as one of the best routines of her life on the sport’s most difficult event.

… The landing of her last flip resulted in an awkward thud. Later, she said she thought her foot slid halfway off the beam. So instead of poising herself for a flip with 2 1/2 twists on the dismount, she settled for a back tuck — the kind of thing you’d see at the kid’s meet down the street on Saturday mornings.

She scored a 15.175, losing about a point off her usual mark. She rattled the team, and national champion Shawn Johnson followed with an equally costly and unexpected mistake, a fall off the beam that knocked her score down about a point, as well.

That’s two misses out of 12 in a meet where scores from every routine count. Last year, two mistakes cost the Americans the gold, leaving them befuddled as they walked out of the gym in Denmark, feeling they were better than the Chinese team that won.

… The Chinese went into the last event leading but made a mistake on floor that brought the Americans right back into contention.

Li Shanshan put way too much power into her last tumbling pass, two piked somersaults. She stumbled backward, toppled onto her backside and ricocheted wildly out of bounds.

… About the same time Shanshan was falling, Russian vaulter Ekaterina Kramarenko flew down the runway and put her arms up to ready herself for a roundoff onto the springboard. But she suddenly cut her speed, stayed upright and touched the springboard then stopped.

She received a 0.0 for that unheard-of mistake. The sight of her weeping on the sidelines wasn’t as jarring as that of her teammate, Elena Zamolodchikova, heaving with sobs as she stood on the runway to prepare for her now-meaningless vault.

Russia led the meet halfway through, but finished in last place.

The United States finished in first, and Johnson, the national champion, also deserves heaps of credit.

Shawn Johnson

She had to recover from her error on beam to put together a floor routine that would give Sacramone a chance to win it. She came through.

Her floor routine was a perfectly steady, high-flying roam around the mat, her face always gleaming with a smile. She scored a 15.375, and when she strutted off, she stopped to hug Sacramone as if the Americans had already won.

“All the girls were like, ‘You can do it, it’s fine,'” Sacramone said. “I was like, ‘C’mon guys. I’m fine.’ I’m like ‘OK, I’ve done this routine so many times.'”

She did it once more with feeling. This time, it resulted in a team gold medal — the first in a competition this big since 2003.

The Associated Press: U.S. Golden Again at Gymnastics Worlds

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Another PowerPoint presentation from philosopher Dave Adlard, Head Coach of Funtastics, Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, from USA Congress 2007 entitled:

>>> Myths and Legends

It’s an interesting, comic listing of typical wrong thinking that has permeated the culture of Artistic Gymnastics coaching.

I don’t always agree with Paul Ziert of International Gymnast. But I have to admit his Daily “Top 10” list from Stuttgart has been excellent, so far.

Here’s a sample, noting Paul’s 10 biggest impressions of the past 24 hours:

Tuesday, September 4

10. The Canadian team managed a top-12 finish without their two biggest names: Olympic champion Kyle Shewfelt (both knees broken last Monday in training) and Adam Wong (torn Achilles this past spring). It was hard to see Shewfelt faithfully follow the team around the arena in his wheelchair, with both his legs sticking straight out and in restraining bandages. This team had very smartly choreographed routines that made good use of the Code and their excellent execution. Casey Sandy, the original alternate, not only stepped in and did his job for the team but also qualified for the all-around final. Who knew Canada had such depth?

9. Congratulations to Slovenia’s Mitja Petkovsek (third qualifier on parallel bars) and Aljaz Pegan (second qualifier on high bar) who continue to motivate themselves to excel without a team to surround them. They are the crème de la crème of their events, and they have learned to perform consistently so that they can keep bringing home medals for their country. Slovenia didn’t qualify any gymnasts to the Olympics via the team competition, so for both these guys to go to Beijing, each will have to win an apparatus gold medal on Sunday.

8. North Korean Ri Jong Song on floor exercise performed the most insanely difficult routine of these entire championships with count them, SIX TUMBLING PASSES: triple-twisting double tuck; layout double-double; the requisite “Magic Pass” (1 and 1/2, front full, Rudi); layout Thomas; a whip 1 1/2, front layout, barani; tucked double-double dismount. He faced passes 5 and 6 and ended up with a headache and a score of 14.075 (A-Panel: 6.8) for 128th place. Can you imagine! This is the same guy who actually hit a routine similar to this at the 2004 Olympics in Athens and yet still didn’t make finals. I will still never forgive Hardy Fink (the head floor judge in Athens) who didn’t step in to make sure Ri got the score his routine merited. Trying to do even more here, it looks like Ri overestimated himself in a desperate attempt to be properly estimated.

7. 19-year-old Fabian Hambüchen is so good for our sport. He’s talented, well coached, comfortable in his own skin and looks like he loves what he’s doing. Most of his routines are magical, especially in the way he presents them. He is always a crowd favorite wherever he competes, but here in Germany he has reached rock star status!

6. The Romanian team did a wonderful job considering that they lost two gymnasts, notably their superstar Marion Dragulescu just before the competition started. Their vaulting without Marian was still the best of all the teams. We would all like to know how they develop that kind of explosive power!

5. I felt so sorry for the Ukrainian team. This group is a very talented one that just couldn’t do enough to make it to Beijing. I personally feel that the Ukrainians, competing without some of their best guys, were asked to do too much. Instead of concentrating on the goal of qualifying to the Olympics, they seem to be performing routines that might have been ready for the Olympics. These guys are talented, explosive and technically sound, but it seems they have no confidence that they can make their routines. The worst part is, I’m not sure that this country will continue to support a team that appears to be dropping out of sight.

4. The Spanish team was the biggest surprise for me. I have watched most of these guys over the past several years and they have many times not performed up to their abilities and/or expectations. Also stuck competing against the German crowd, they were obviously determined to get Spain to Beijing and did exactly what was needed to get the tickets booked. The wild man, Gervasio Deferr, dug deep and really extended himself by competing in four events here to help the cause.

3. The unlucky South Korean team drew the final qualifying session, normally a great round but in this case, one that had them competing against the German team AND the German audience. For a culture that is so quietly respectful of others, this must have been a very difficult environment for the Koreans. We even noticed that some of team members used cotton or ear plugs to help mute the noise. Nevertheless they held it together and qualified for Beijing and the team finals here. Maybe their experience tonight will help them in the finals. (And let’s see if any of the other teams borrow their idea and show up for team finals with ear plugs!)

2. The German team was lucky to draw the final qualifying session, and used that luck to perform very well, landing just ahead of the USA in 3rd place. With three up and all scores counting, plus a very loud and partial audience, they might get lucky yet again and walk away with a medal. They are a fun group of young men to watch—very focused, very determined and very good! Can you believe that this team has one 19 year old, three 20 year olds, one 26 year old and one 27 year old? If the young ones can stay healthy, they will be contenders for a very long time.

1. The American guys happily squashed all doubt that they were still a team to be dealt with. They produced a wonderful team performance with each member stepping up big time to do his job. They looked confident and performed that way. They finished in fourth place in the qualifying, but it’s a new game for the finals. But no matter what, the guys have really earned their tickets to Beijing. Congratulations Jonathan, Sasha, Kevin, Sean, David and Guillermo!

International Gymnast Magazine

Jonathan Horton of the United States – (AP Photo/Michael Probst) ESPN