Gymnastics Coaching.com

by John Cheng

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Is this the most artistic Artistic Gymnastics team USA has fielded?

If you’re still wondering who won the World Championships in Nanning 🙂 , click over to the Gymternet right now as they have a good write-up.

One of the biggest stories is Romania’s Bars.

Starting to wear grips this cycle has helped, but that Gymnastics superpower still has a long way to go.

See more Romania photos from Nanning on Couch Gymnast.

The Aussies looked super prepared. Very clean. Had smart routines.

With a 7th place finish in Team without former world champion Lauren Mitchell who withdrew last minute after an ankle injury in training, you’d best put the Aussies on the list of teams that will qualify for Rio. Some Down Under had doubts.

See more Australia photos on Couch Gymnast.

Nadia Boyce, the photographer, is posting the other nations as well on the Couch Gymnast 2014 Worlds Pictures page.

Who hit best and cleanest according to our Execution judges?

1. USA
2. ROM
3. GBR

These charts compare the official E-Scores scores posted by all the athletes who competed in the Women’s Team Finals at the 2014 World Gymnastics Championships in Nanning, China. Countries are listed in descending rank, 1st through 8th respectively. The data was compiled and visualized by Amanda Leigh Verhaeg from official scores at http://www.nanning2014gymnastics.com.

Artistic Gymnastics Institute

Click through for interactive details.

Back in the day, it was common practice for some nations to take out one of their finalists and replace them with a team mate with a better percentage chance of results.

It’s normal in team sport, of course. The coach makes the decision who to put in for the big game.

British Gymnastics:

Nile has been carrying a sore wrist throughout the competitions in Nanning, China, that has been superbly managed by the medical staff. However, in light of this and with the priority being Nile’s long-term gymnastics career, Max Whitlock will replace Nile in the all-around final. Max qualified by right as the third placed GB gymnast but was initially excluded from the final by the “only two gymnasts per federation” rule. Nile still intends to compete in the high bar final on Sunday 12th.

Nile said “I’m obviously very disappointed, as I’m feeling great otherwise and have been really enjoying my first World Championships but my wrist was pretty sore today so I made the decision to pull out and save myself for the high bar final. The medical staff and coaches are unanimous that this is the right decision to make. I’ll be right behind Max and Dan Purvis in the all-around and can’t wait for the high bar on Sunday.”

(via Full Twist)

🙂

Great meet. Though not without errors.

1. USA–179.280
2. China–172.587
3. Russia–171.462

4. Romania–170.963
5. Italy–169.023
6. Great Britain–168.495
7. Australia–165.988
8. Japan–165.422

Now with strong Bars, team USA is a few falls ahead of the best of the rest, even if they hit.

@uncletimmensgym:

In 2011, Team USA won the gold by 4.082.
In 2012, Team USA won gold by 5.426.
In 2014, Team USA won gold by 6.693.

Everyone needs study the U.S. system. They are doing most everything right.

What can other nations emulate?

I’m happy Canada is adopting the U.S. age group program. A bigger base is one of their secrets to success.

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.