Gymnastics Coaching.com

Another FIG preview edit.

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The latest update in the Doug Boger story:

The owner of ArtSports World, a convicted sex offender, will no longer be coaching and plans to sell his gym. …

“I am officially in charge of everything in here. Mr. (Michael) Zapp is now out,” said Richard ‘Tex’ Womak. “That was the ultimate, it had to be done.”

Womak said since this story surfaced the group has taken a bit public relations hit but added that steps are in place to make sure this kind of situation never happens again anywhere in the country.

“I got word from USA Gymnastics that it was changing anyway and the loophole that allowed anyone with any background, negative background especially with kids, would change and it would either change by December or sooner,” said Womak. …

read more – KRDO

Zapp denies any wrongdoing:

… TARGET 13 Investigates talked to Zapp on Sunday about his conviction. He said there was never any misconduct on his part, and suggested the claim had to do with a group of parents who owed him a lot of money.

“You don’t have to have much anymore for something like this, for any accusation, to cause you to go through this horrible experience,” said Zapp. …

In the States.

Alicia Sacramone of Winchester, Mass./Brestyan’s American Gymnastics, tore her Achilles tendon yesterday during a tumbling pass at a training session. …

IG2 – SACRAMONE TO HAVE SURGERY MONDAY

It’s possible to recover in time. But won’t be easy. She needs to pull a Kupets.

In Tokyo I’m still mainly following the meet online: LIVE scores, Facebook, LIVE blogs.

But Twitter is down right now. Its back. Truly an unreliable service. I wish Google would buy the company and fix their many problems. (Not likely now that they launched Google+)

ROM, VEN, CRO, POR, FIN, DEN

A few highlights:

Porgras out of beam finals. Racea and Ponor higher scores. Need to wait to see if the Romanians make Finals. It would be a first if they didn’t.

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Jessica López (VEN) UB – Hit routine. I hope 13.966 gets her into Finals. … She hit Beam, too, looking determined. Big wobble on side somi save.

Whip triple twist on Floor. Clean routine. Vault 13.566 for Yurchenko 1/1.

She finishes with 54.731. Can Jessica improve her 10th AA (56.298) from Worlds 2010?

She was playing it safe today for the team. Upgrades are planned for AA on Vault and Beam.

Click PLAY or watch a post-competition interview on Gymnastike.

http://www.gymnastike.org/embed/NzY0NTA5Mzk0?related=1

Watch more video of World Gymnastics Championships Tokyo 2011 on gymnastike.org

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Quite a few double twisting flyaways today. Nice. I love that dismount. … Triple twisting flyaway should be an option for many good twisters — yet it isn’t yet in 2011.

Annica Urvikko of Finland hit Bars. Nice. Very unusual technique on Blind change skills. She arrives short of hanstand, then does a fast, late twist.

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Romanian not perfect on Beam and Floor, yet still very very good. They’ll be one of the top teams on those two apparatus.

In white, they remind me of great Romanian teams of old.

Everyone calmly hits Vault. Some good landings, too.

Overall, I’m impressed with Romania. They are good competitors. Room to improve in team finals.

But Bars … when will they improve Bars?

Two falls today: Bulimar (Shaposhnikova) and Porgras, under-rotating dismount.

Certainly Romania should address the Bars problem with their young gymnasts, bringing in a new coach.

Rule #1 — When you’re in a hole, stop digging.

… so far is: 1. Haidu ROM–56.465, 2. Porgras ROM-54.832, 3. Lopez VEN-54.731, 4. Maksiuta ISR-52.915

In bold are the scores from prelims last year:

Russia- 234.521
China- 233.778
USA- 233.643
Romania- 228.495
Romania 2011- 227.228 …
Great Britain- 224.921
Australia- 224.785
Italy- 219.179
Japan- 218.895

I thought they’d be reasonably happy to get throught that — and move on. But one reliable sources says Romania is pissed.

Romanian girls got a bad draw. They compete next in the second of 10 flights.

Romanian team to Worlds in Tokyo:

MAG: Flavius Koczi, Cristian Bataga, Vlad Cotuna, Marian Dragulescu, Marius Berbecar, Ovidiu Buidoso and Andrei Ursache.

WAG: Catalina Ponor, Ana Porgras, Raluca Haidu, Diana Chelaru, Amelia Racea, Diana Bulimar and Daniela Andrei.

10.07.2011 – Hai Romania!

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Dedicated to the FanGymnastics blog.

She’s good.

The biggest surprise of the first session for the audience.

New Double Twisting Yurchenko today – 14,366/5.8.

But, due to errors, only scored 52,54 at her first Sr. Worlds.

Ana Sofía first started gaining attention at Youth Olympic Games (54.050):

Sofi Gomez of Guatemala snatched many gymnastics fan’s attention away from the big names last month when she steamed her way among the contenders during the qualifying rounds of the Youth Olympic Games. Here was a young, unknown gymnast from a nation not known for a gymnast qualifying sixth in the all-around and unveiling incredible skills such as a triple twist on floor and a full-twisting back somersault on beam.

Trained by Romanian coaches Adrian and Elena Boboc, Sofi works beam effortlessly and has good difficulty across all apparatus.

Sofi finished fifth in the all-around finals and, perhaps unluckily, placed fourth on her two strongest events, beam and floor. …

Couch Gymnast – GUATEMALAN NEWCOMER SOFI GOMEZ

Watch her Beam from that meet.

Any chance of a “wild card” berth for the Olympics?

Raj Bhavsar knows of what he speaks.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Here’s the IG interview with Svetlana Boguinskaia. (VIDEO)

Prior the competitions start, Tokyo already broke a record! The media attendance!

530 journalists and photographers, technicians. This is a first in the history of the FIG World Championships.

Another record! The television coverage: more than 120 territories!

Public and media are coming to support our gymnasts:

81 delegations and 533 gymnasts
288 male gymnasts
245 female gymnasts

Bruno Grandi – OPENING PRESS CONFERENCE (PDF)

Why is the online coverage of Worlds so much better than in the past?

Thank FIG staff Philippe J. Silacci, Meike Behrensen and team. Volunteer Slava Corn is the Executive member in charge of media here.

From my perspective, the official addition of “bloggers” has enriched the coverage greatly. Most of my links are to (almost) unpaid volunteers.

The Spidercam, first introduced in Rotterdam, is back.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Personally I love the new perspectives gained. And the sloppy cameramen taken off the field of play. Marcus points out that many people would prefer a fixed camera.

They have the Vault track camera here too, following the gymnast during the run.

Check with your national federation to see if you get TV coverage from Tokyo. I’ll link to any video feeds that come online.

Kieran Behan from Ireland is competing this skill at Worlds.

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Tong Fei introduced the full twisting butterfly on Floor back in the 1980s. This is similar, but backwards.

It’s nice to see something interesting that’s not tumbling. In the good old days, every male gymnast had a “floor exercise” that made his routine unique.

(via Full Twist)

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.