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Zhang Chenglong competed only his specialty in the Team Final.

Last competitor. Last apparatus.

He hit.

The host team China won the meet with that routine. He’s a National hero today.

But when his final score was flashed and the score was exactly enough for Team China to win by 0.10, I was angered and outraged. It looked very suspicious to me (and many).

We were in China. The apparatus supervisor was from China. Thousands of local fans were raising the roof with their cheering.

Was the score manipulated?

Were the Execution judges swept up in the moment?

Because the E-score for ZHANG Chenglong was too high.

Click PLAY or watch the big moment on YouTube.

ZHANG – Difficulty 7.500 + Execution 8.466 = 15.966

UCHIMRA – Difficulty 6.900 + Execution 8.500 = 15.400

Click PLAY or watch Kohei on YouTube.

Uchimura’s routine is cleaner. His angles are better. Kohei has fewer unnecessary hand placements. Kohei’s landing is better. The difference is far more than 0.034.

The judges got it wrong.

FIG MTC will review the scores from this meet, as they always do. Perhaps some action will be taken. More likely not.
___

Uncle Tim posted the best summary of the JPN vs CHN Team Final – 2014 Men’s World Team Finals: When Difficulty Edges Out Execution:

… Sure, judges will mess up from time to time. They are human – just like the gymnasts. When it is crystal clear that the judges did mess up, they should be castigated.

But was Zhang Chenglong’s high bar score as painfully wrong as the Marian Dragulescu’s 2004 vault score situation?

No. … Don’t be so dramatic. …

Perhaps I did get too wrapped up in the competition myself. Too emotional.

But FIG Judges are not nearly held accountable enough when they make mistakes. I was a Brevet Judge myself for decades.

Here are the official results if you want to do more analysis yourself.

In my opinion Japan were the rightful winners of the Team competition at Worlds 2014. Just as I felt Japan should have finished 4th in Team at the London Olympics. The judges got it wrong there, as well.

And if anyone would like to put up a contrary opinion on this site, I’m happy to post if for you.

The former World Horizontal Bar Champion competed only his specialty in the Team Final. Last competitor. Last apparatus.

He hit.

The host team China won the meet with that routine.

That pic is from Inside Gymnastics excellent MEN’S TEAM FINALS photo series.

ZHANG Chenglong is a National hero. My interpreter next morning was thrilled with that performance. And with Gymnastics.

He upped his difficulty to a massive 7.50 to be competitive with Zonderland, Hambuchen, Uchimura and the best of the rest. Respect.

That all said (if a day late) the judges got his score wrong.

Dan has detractors. But far fewer than before Worlds 2014. 🙂

His hard routine is the best in the world right now, I’d say. But in both prelims & Team final he had conspicuous form breaks. For the Pommel final he’ll need a set like the one he showed at Commonwealth Games to win.

Pink Panther. So retro. I love it.

Here’s one of our Longine’s Elegance candidates. At age-27, Marta‘s savvy enough to dance out of a deep landing at the end of this routine.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

13.900 (Difficulty : 5.800, Execution : 8.100)

The battle China vs Japan was the biggest story in the Men’s Team competition.

1. China 273.369*
2. Japan 273.26*
3. USA 270.369
4. GBR 269.170
5. RUS 266.503
6. BRA 263.562
7. SUI 257.293
8. GER 256.160

full results

But the fight for Bronze was just as thrilling, perhaps more.

It came down to the final routine, Jake Dalton on Floor. He nailed it.

This edit reminds me of the Cirque show KÀ. 🙂

We can’t actually do flips and tricks in real life, so we applied a bit of video magic.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Thanks George.

Coverage of the World Championships with a recap of the men’s and women’s qualifying rounds from Nanning, China.

Jessica, Coach Rick, Lauren Hopkins and Spanny Tampson …

//html5-player.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/3106669/height/360/width/640/theme/standard/direction/no/autoplay/no/autonext/no/thumbnail/yes/preload/no/no_addthis/no/

GymCastic 121 – Qualifications Recap from the 2014 World Championships

#FIGWorlds2014ART

How disappointing.

A fantastic Men’s team final at the World Gymnastics Championships was ruined by the Horizontal Bar judges.

full results (PDF)

The battle for team gold came down to the final routine on Horizontal Bar, former World Champion Zhang Chenglong.

He hit. But not perfectly. It was clear that Japan had won the team competition.

Yet (somehow) the H Bar panel came up with an impossible score of 15.966.

15.966 was far too high. The highest score of the competition, so far. Impossibly high.

It will be obvious to anyone when we compare Uchimura’s vs Chenglong’s routines and scores.

ZHANG – 7.500 + 8.466 = 15.966
UCHIMURA – 6.900 + 8.500 = 15.400
(full results)

When we compare the E-scores. 😦

Japan was robbed.

I’ll forever regard JPN as the legitimate winners of the World Championships 2014.

Here’s the Judging panel.

HUANG Liping (CHN) – Horizontal Bar Supervisor

E1 TSAI Heng Cheng (TPE)
E2 LESIV Genadi (BLR)
E3 RODRIGUEZ Joseph (PUR)
E4 IANEZ RAMOS Miguel Angel (ESP)
E5 ??

The E panel should be sanctioned for handing out an impossible score.

This is worse than the Uchimura pommel dismount scandal at the 2012 Olympics.

On par with the Dragalescu 2nd Vault scandal at the 2004 Olympics. Four judges were sanctioned that time.

I’m disgusted. 😦

Here’s the man who paid for a good chunk of the US$13 million dollar budget for this competition. The Canadians went shopping at one of his many sporting goods stores today to help pay that back. 🙂

Check the astonishing sports complex hosting World Championships 2014 in southern China.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

I’m still looking for good video of the colourful light show playing over these venues at night.