Canadian pommel horse

Anthony Tawfik finished 1st on Pommel Horse in preliminaries of the Canadian National Championships with this routine. He’s competing in the Argo division (born 1998-2001).

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube. (14.55)

He’s coached by Zhaohui Huang. Last year’s Argo champion, Justin Karstadt, was from the same club, Futures.

Follow what’s happening in the Great White North via the Canadian Gymnastics Championships blog.

Jessica Lopez – better with age

One of the great stories in gymnastics today.

Lopez, 25, is fresh off winning a gold medal in the uneven bars at the Moscow World Stars competition this month. …

“When you have someone who wants to work this hard, it’s not hard to coach them,” said Lopez’s coach, Nilson Savage, who also runs the Thornton gym.

… Lopez, though, “seems to get better with age,” said NBC commentator Elfi Schlegel, …. “(Lopez) was one of those late bloomers. I really believe her time at Denver enriched her gymnastics and helped her become a better competitor. She’s becoming more than she ever was in university. …

read more –

new USAG Behind The Team

Men’s Sr. Training Camp at Oklahoma. Nice edit. Watch video on the AT&T site as they are not providing an embed code.

CLICK to go to video page

Canadian Gymnastics – a rant

Gymnastics Examiner has the full list – Who made event finals at the Canadian Championships?

Full results are linked from Gym Score Depot.

Elise Bolger – Photo by Grace Chiu on Facebook.

I felt the Junior competition was comparatively good. There were falls, especially on Bars, but the small group of competitors showed a lot of potential, much good gymnastics.

Some disagreed, calling it a splatfest.

The Senior competition was a splatfest. Especially on Bars. Read the LIVE blog on Gymnastics Examiner.

On the upside, gymnasts who were able to hit 4/4 ranked high in the all-around. Congratulations. Sarah Flett (age-21) made a strategic decision to try to go clean, leaving out her double layout on Floor (VIDEO), for example. It worked. Sarah finished a best ever 7th AA.

Having flown directly to this meet from the USA Level 10 Jr Olympics, it’s obvious that the American system (out of a perfect 10) is superior. Coaches and gymnasts are happier, healthier.

The Level 10 / NCAA requirements are reasonable. There’s some bonus for doing very difficult routines, but only a tenth or two. Chris Waller from UCLA noted that J.O. has written bonus, and unwritten bonus.

The Canadian Elite system streams some gymnasts (of about Level 10 ability) into FIG requirements. There’s too much incentive to compete high start values for those girls. Yet if Canada does not, how can they produce a National Team to compete at Worlds against Russia, USA and China?

It’s the dilemma faced by all the middle nations of the world.

Coaches will do what they must to win under any set of rules. The FIG rules we have now do not serve the best interests of our athletes and coaches.

When will they be improved?

CAN Championships – Dominique Pegg 53.90

It was a rocky meet. In the preliminary Senior competition those girls who opted for cleaner, safer routines were most successful. There were many falls.

1. Dominique Pegg 53.90
2. Kristin Klarenbach 52.675
3. Bianca Dancose-Giambatti 52.60
4. Jessica Savona 52.250
5. Talia Chiarelli 52.075
6. Shae Zamardi 50.80

Full results will be up soon on Gym Score Depot.

Victoria Moors – Floor

World class routine.
The highlight of the meet, so far, for me.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

That’s from the preliminary Junior Women’s competition.

(via Canadian Gymnastics Championships blog)

Victoria (53.00) leads the AA, as well, despite a fall on Beam. She over-rotated double tuck.

DialMyCalls.com

Do you use PHONE to make sure important messages get home to parents?

We all know that photocopied memos often don’t make it out of the gym bag.

DialMyCalls lets anyone tap into the power of sending voice or text message broadcasts to an entire phone list in seconds. No hardware or equipment to buy – now you can record & send your messages out to 2 or 200,000 phone numbers within minutes. Try us today and you’ll see why thousands of customers around the country rely on DialMyCalls.

It’s FREE for 1 call per week (30sec) to a maximum of 25 people. So far only available in the USA, Canada and Puerto Rico.

Do parents complain about “communication” at the gym? This is ideal for one coach and their personal gymnasts. Prevent miscommunication problems.

For your club to sign-up, check the pricing. There are monthly plans as well as pay-as-you-go for what you use plans if you want to call all your Rec members, for example.

Check it out – DialMyCalls.com. I’ve added a link in the right hand navigation.

gymnast Victoria Moors

Victoria Moors, Junior at Nationals 2011, but eligible for Senior in 2012, impressed at day 1 podium training at the Canadian National Championships.

She makes double double on Floor look easy.

And her Shaposhnikova 1/2 on Bars is terrific.

photo by Grace Chiu - GraceClick.ca

See more 2011 Canadian Gymnastics Championships photos on Facebook. By Grace Chiu GraceClick

China Gymnastics photos – Kunshan

Chinese Gymnastics Blog links to photos of the recent Kunshan Championships.

Christian Thomassen (Norway) and AFeng are the shooters.

Here’s one of the favourite captures …

That’s HIGH. That’s the kind of gymnastics that should get BONUS.

See more – Photos and Photographers @ 2011 Kunshan Championship