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Fantastic show tonight in the Men’s Team Final at #Glasgow2015. The guys hit a higher percentage of routines than did the women the previous evening.

https://twitter.com/johnmason85/status/659476918463500288

Max Whitlock capped the night with as good a Floor routine as he’s ever done to thrill the home crowd. 🙂

Japan had a big lead going into their final apparatus, Horizontal Bar. Rather than play it safe, they went full difficulty. Shockingly Tanaka fell on release. Then Kohei fell on release.

Dramatic music played as we waited for Uchimura’s score. Happily it was enough to pull out their long awaited team victory.

I saw one of the Chinese girls eating a chocolate bar at #Glasgow2015.

Now this.

🙂

I still use Marta Karolyi – not Martha – because wikipedia uses that spelling, with accents. When in doubt, I default to wikipedia spelling.

The Glasgow arena announcers don’t seem to have done much homework on pronunciation. There have been some wild guesses.

https://twitter.com/thegymshark/status/659378092134154241

Korbut Flip linked to a good suggestion. FIG should:

… require that each gymnast upload a sound clip of them saying their name to get an FIG licence and make these available to the press …

That would help. A bit. 🙂

I spoke to one of the Longines guys at #Glasgow2015. Asked him the process for 2015.

He told me everything is TOP SECRET.

Some panel will make the decision. The gymternet will disagree. The usual.

Since it’s impossible to consistently score artistry, I’d love to see a parallel set of awards – something like Longines – at the major FIG meets. Awarded just prior to the medals on each apparatus.

Instead of some mystery panel, those awards should be decided by FIG judges. For 2015 gymnasts like Vasiliki Millousi, Eythora Thorsdottir, Viktoria Komova, Lieke and Sanne Wevers are examples of those in the running.

Floor is the most exciting apparatus this year, I’d say. But of many great routines (Simone, for example) I’d vote for Eythora.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

The most artistic gymnasts look fantastic … even when they make mistakes. 🙂 A dancer can admire this choreography. A dancer will cringe watching the majority of 2015 routines.

To me, artistry is the ability to perform and sell the routine- while being in sync with the music. Simone Biles does this. Laurie Hernandez does this. Llomincia Hall does this. Catherine Lyons does this. …

My point is- artistry is not always about being the most graceful or having beautiful balletic lines. Sure it’s nice to see, but unfortunately not everybody can move like that. I don’t want to see Simone Biles doing Aliya Mustafina’s floor routine! It just wouldn’t look right! Every gymnast has to do a routine that works for them. …

Triple Twist – The Artistry Debate (2014)

https://instagram.com/p/9Ylt-hQDgc/

related – Hard Way To Success – Episode 19 – Eythora Thorsdottir (July 2015)

Who else? 🙂

Team finals #Glasgow2015. Not geo-blocked.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

MANY have complained about the #Glasgow2015 competition Gymnova Horizontal Bar. And it does seem there have been more weird falls than usual on this apparatus.

nystudios tells that the Japanese will use a DILLON Quick-Check Tension Meter to check for each athlete.

Watch for that.

I’m predicting CHN, JAP, GBR. Cheering loudest for Olympic host Brazil. 🙂

Click PLAY or watch it on Facebook.

Actually Olympic Champ Zanetti did not qualify for the Rings final. Underscored, I thought. But he’ll be in Rio to defend with his team anyway. 🙂

🙂

Russia looked surprisingly good in preliminaries. But had a bad team final.

The domino effect – Russia collapses and must rise again

Viktoria wrote some hasty words last night in the heat of the moment. …

“Dear friends! I want to apologize for my statements about American girls, about drugs, all my words were spoken on emotions. Of course I haven’t any proof and didn’t really mean it and so on… I am so sorry. I want to apologize for my character to all of you”.

Viktoria Komova – apology

Viktoria Komova did an excellent vault. But fell on both Bars and Beam. 😦

All 8 nations had falls aside from the USA. It happens.

No doubt she was very unhappy at her performance. A more mature athlete would have taken it on the chin. Taken responsibility. And moved on. Apparatus finals are coming up. Redemption time.

Hopefully this will be a learning experience for her.
___

Vika is inconsistent. That’s a fact.

She’s one of the best gymnasts in the world on Bars and Beam. But I’m sure the Russian coaches are well aware of her hit percentage in pressure situations.