Romanian Bars Highlight Reel

OK, … it’s a fairly short highlight reel.

Bars has been the weakest apparatus for Romania since … Nadia. And I’ve never heard of any national team effort to improve. Why don’t they bring in a Bars specialist coach?

Or put younger kids in proper grips?

Porgras was third on Bars at Worlds 2009. And made Finals again this year.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Bea posted more medal winning routines at Worlds and Olympics on Gymnastics – No Ceiling – Best Romanians on Uneven Bars

the week in gymnastics

There’s not much that happened this week not linked in one of these two posts:

• Gymnastics Examiner – gymnastics week in review

• THE ALL AROUND – Weekly round-up

GUANGZHOU, CHINA - NOVEMBER 22: (L-R) Shanshan Huang and Wenna He of China pose with their medals in the Women's Individual final of trampoline gymnastics at Asian Games Town Gymnasium on November 22, 2010 in Guangzhou, China. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)

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TV tonight – reminder

In the USA,

At 9 p.m. EST/8 p.m. CST, Liukin guest stars on NBC’s “The Biggest Loser,” the hit reality series that challenges overweight contestants to get in shape. …

At 10 p.m. EST/9 p.m. CST, the annual “Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show” airs on CBS, and includes current and former U.S. team members Sasha Artemev, Alexy Bilozertchev, Chris Brooks, David Durante, Morgan Hamm, Wes Haagensen, John Macready, Steve McCain and Derek Shepard.

IG

Spider-Man, the musical

Spider-Cam, Spider-Cam …

… This is going to out-Cirque Cirque … or be an “epic flop“.

Click PLAY or watch the 60 Minutes preview on YouTube. (14min)

Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark is a rock musical with music and lyrics by Bono and The Edge and a book by Julie Taymor and Glen Berger. …

After being delayed multiple times, the musical began previews on November 28, 2010 at the Foxwoods Theatre on Broadway, with the official opening night scheduled for January 11, 2011 …

I hope they can solve the technical problems in time.

Ashley Kent Iowa State coach

AMES, Iowa—Former Cyclone gymnast Ashley Kent was named assistant gymnastics coach Iowa State head coach Jay Ronayne announced Monday.

“As a three-year captain of the Cyclones, Ashley was the strongest team leader I have encountered in over 20 years in coaching collegiate gymnastics,” Ronayne said. “She was also a fierce competitor, especially on balance beam, which will be quite an asset to our team as she takes on the full responsibility of our balance-beam squad.

Kent, a native of Calgary, Alberta, was a member of the Iowa State gymnastics team from 2006-2010 …

Cyclones

Rotterdam World Gymnastics Championships

Click PLAY or watch a montage on YouTube.

The highlight of the highlight clips in there is Porgras on Floor. God she’s awesome!

Update: more Rotterdam montages via Gymnastics No Ceiling.

Paul Ruggeri snaps High Bar

LIVE I’ve seen 3 horizontal bars fall. A couple of sets of girls bars.

It’s never pretty.

Click PLAY or watch Paul Ruggeri on YouTube.

Looks like he’s OK.

This time something snapped at the Floor plate. In some gyms we’ve doubled chained the Men’s Horizontal Bar so that if one floor plate attachment breaks, the second just might hold.

(via Aunt Joyce)

Marta stole Sabrina Gill

Doesn’t she have enough gymnasts, already?

Sabrina’s the Canadian Junior National Champion.

Actually she and coach Sue Manjak were attending the 2010 Women’s Junior PAGU Training Camp at the Karolyi Camp, Nov. 9-14.

Argentina, Barbados, Bolivia, Canada, Chile, El Salvador, Guatemala, Panama, Peru, Puerto Rico, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay, Venezuela and the United States …

Included on the staff were Steve Rybacki, Antonia Markova, Luminita Garcy, Enrique Trabanino and Debbie Kaitschuck. Sean Golden …

(via Oakville Gymnastics)

new gymnastics blog – Stoi!

Smart and opinionated, I recommend a new site out of the U.K. …

Most gymnastics blogs around the net seem to focus heavily on the reporting aspect, so the direction that my sidekick, Clara, and I will be (mostly) moving in is more opinion and commentary. We’ll do our best to be as informative as possible, but with the unique twist of our individual personalities. …

Bronwyn

So far they have a good deal of content up on the Russian and eastern European WAG.

For example, Komova & the Hype Machine:

As 2010 comes to a close, many in the gymnastics community are counting down the days until Komova is finally age eligible to compete as a senior (she turns 16 on January 30th). Like many others that boarded the Komova bandwagon back when she was barely a teenager, I’m hoping that she’ll live up the hype, her potential, promise, and the high expectations we’ve set for her.

Following Russia’s team gold and Aliya Mustafina’s crowning moment in Rotterdam, those expectations have seemed to increase exponentially; even Tim Dagget referred to her as “the best gymnast in the world.” And for once, I had to agree with him. Her parents were both gymnasts and seem to have instilled a “winning is all” attitude in her. Like many things in life, I find that hype is only good in doses. Have we set the bar too high? …

posted on Couch Gymnast by Bronwyn

read more like that on Stoi!

MOSCOW, RUSSIA. AUGUST 29, 2010. Viktoria Komova, Artistic Gymnastics champion, appears at Moscow s Domodedovo Airport upon her return from the Singapore Youth Olympic Games. (Photo ITAR-TASS / Stanislav Krasilnikov) Photo via Newscom

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She’s still a very little girl.

I like the cloud of chalk on the grunge header of the site – Stoi

Update: Russia has no shortage of super talents. Anastasia Sidorova scored scored 59-plus in the all-around — twice — at this week’s Russian Sports Schools Championships. (Russian FIG includes bonus points. )

Another young Russian with an Amanar.

Anastasia scored 56.917, winning at Top Gym in Belgium, under straight FIG rules using just a double twisting Yurchenko. And with a fall on Beam (VIDEO). … So 59 is certainly realistic.