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Twitter really is the best way to follow a LIVE event. If you have the right hash tag.

It's so cool that #WChAntwerp is now trending! pic.twitter.com/tWXybpfibV

— Fiona O'Sullivan (@SullivanShiloh) October 4, 2013

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Vanessa had a great day. I’m thinking this is her best choreography ever. She’s always been a great tumbler, skillful at sticking landings.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Rumour is that she’s engaged to be married. 🙂

More WAG AA Final VIDEOS.

#WChAntwerp

It was fairly certain that Simone and Kyla would go 1-2 … if they hit 4/4.

They did.

The strongest rival was Iordache. But even 4/4 I don’t think she would have overtaken either.

Sadly, she fell on Beam.

The happiest story was Aliya Mustafina. Once again coming through when it counted, confirming her place in the Gymnastics HALL OF FAME.

Click PLAY or watch her Bars on YouTube. New skill. Her dismount back.

CONGRATULATIONS to our WORLD CHAMPIONS. 🙂

1. Simone Biles, USA, 60.216
2. Kyla Ross, USA, 59.332
3. Aliya Mustafina, Russia, 58.856

4. Larisa Iordache, Romania, 57.766
5. Yao Jinnan, China, 57.632
6. Vanessa Ferrari, Italy, 56.732
7. Giulia Steingruber, Switzerland, 56.699
8. Shang Chunsong, China, 56.132
9. Asuka Teramoto, Japan, 55.532
10. Victoria Moors, Canada, 55.466

Longines Elegance Prize goes to Kyla Ross (USA) and Kohei Uchimura (JPN)

Highlights to come.

Most catastrophic injuries in gymnastics result from variations of multiple front somersaults.

There’s no more dangerous skill being competed at World Championships Antwerp 2013 than the Handspring double front for WAG.

Click PLAY or watch Yamilet Peña on YouTube. Podium training.

Here it was in competition.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

1st Vault : 14.900 = D score : 7.0, E score : 7,90)

2nd Vault : 14.466 = D score : 5.80, E score : 8.666).

Average : 14.683

Yamilet Peña qualified to the Vault Final.

Fadwa Muhammad also competed that Vault in Antwerp. Body position at contact with landing mat was similar, but she did not roll out. (I don’t see that video on YouTube.) She also might have made the Vault final, except that her 2nd vault was too low a start value.

But here’s Fadwa’s (worse) Prudnova from African Championships 2012.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Terrifying. Yet she went on to win the Gold medal on Vault.

I’ve heard she went to the hospital after that Vault. Can anyone who was at the competition verify if that is true?

It’s not. Turns out you can’t believe what you read on the internet. 🙂

What kind of message is FIG sending?

😦

Almost everyone I speak with feels that kind of lack of control should not be rewarded with a trip to Finals. Yet the actual deduction for “falling” on it results in only 0.5 deduction, when averaged over two Vaults.

FIG WTC could ban the Vault. I’d hate to see that. We know that it’s possible for a woman to do it very well.

But any kind of dangerous landing must be penalized more.

Another solution would be to double the deductions on Vault.

Of course that would go for WAG and MAG.

The Men are plenty dangerous on Vault too, in 2013.

If dangerous landings were more severely penalized, super clean vaulters like Ryohei Kato would benefit. Crash and burn gamblers would be dissuaded from chucking their hardest Vault.

Click PLAY or watch Ryohei Kato on YouTube.

Uncle Tim noted that Ryohei is one of the few gymnasts who can keep legs together on preflight of Tsukahara approach vaults.

FEWER INJURIES is the goal.

related:

• Yamilet Peña Abreu (DOM) 2011 Worlds EF VT

• Yamilet Peña Abreu DOM | Qual – Salto @ ZiBo 2012 (her best one, so far)

Many are speculating about Aliya Mustafina’s problems in Antwerp.

Was she, like the other Russians, peaked for European Championships and FISU?

No matter how injured or under-prepared, in the past she’s found some way to get through her routines under pressure.

A superbly psychologically tough competitor.

Click PLAY or watch her Vault prelims fall on YouTube.

Contact positions.

Yurchenko looks pretty good. She landed YDT easily.

I’m guessing she’ll find a way to hit 4/4 tonight in the AA Final.

Both those screen grabs linked from GymFever.

Bob Dickson:

Several of us (former gymnasts) bought tickets early so that we could have the best view of the competition (duh!!!). Our seats were almost in the center of the FX with a great view of all events. On the other side of the podium was vaulting.

But when we got to the arena, we found out that the FIG had built up a grandstand (for VIP’s?) covering that whole side of the arena.

We had to miss the first part of the competition to go downstairs and get our tickets changed. The tickets we then got were right at the end of the vaulting landing mat.

After much complaining (and missing more of the competition) we were moved to the other end of the arena with a straight on view of HB but, even with binoculars, it was impossible to see most of the moves on PH. …

UPDATE: The seating has been improved for Oct 4th.

On the official media platform, high above the arena, my chair was the only one that could easily see Vault. Most everyone else had to stand.

#WChAntwerp

Out doing a bit of exploring with @louissmith1989 pic.twitter.com/3bFcGofZgR

— Beth Tweddle (@bethtweddlenews) October 4, 2013

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There seems to be a HUGE contingent from Great Britain here. A Gymnastics superpower.

A few NEW stars born #WChAntwerp.

Simone BILES (16, USA), Kenzo SHIRAI (17, Japan) and LIN Chaopan (18, China) are the new stars of the 44th Artistic World Gymnastics in Antwerp : 10 finals …

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Note that if minimum age was RAISED, as is occasionally proposed, Simone would not have been eligible. Nor Kenzo if it was age-18.

Oksana Chusovitina was age-17 at her first Olympics, 1992.

#WChAntwerp

Dan Purvis looked GREAT in the AA Final.

more Inside Gymnastics photos

It really was an INCREDIBLE competition. I’ll never forget this night.