Gymnastics Coaching.com

Excitement is building, just a few hours before the Women’s TEAM Final. There’s a lot of pressure on the top 3 teams: CHN, RUS, USA.

How would you like to be Alicia Sacramone, just before mounting Beam?

Alicia’s the bomb. She can handle it if anyone can. … In fact, that fall is a big part of the reason she made the comeback. Redemption, baby.

Click PLAY or watch Spanny Tampson’s take on what you need in the BIG SHOW.

by site editor Rick McCharles

Cirque is the world’s biggest employer of acrobats. They are here at the World Championships. (A pairs balancing act will be performing at the closing ceremonies.)

As an occasional consultant to casting, Cirque was kind enough to invite me along last night to see TOTEM, a new show, currently playing in Amsterdam. (Review coming soon.)

If you are in Rotterdam and want to chat about future opportunities for your athletes, message either of the casting scouts here in town.

Look for PHILIPPE AGOGUÉ from France (Facebook).

Or STACY CLARK from Montreal (Facebook).

For more general information click through the Cirque link atop any page of Gymnastics Coaching. (Atop any gymnastics page on the internet, for that matter.)

This company hires dozens of new performers every month.

That’s the title of an excellent post by Amanda Turner on IG –
Mustafina: Don’t Congratulate Us Yet.

Team Russia could easily self-destruct. It’s happened before.

Sudden Victory is what I call the 3-up, 3-count Team Final format. … But it’s just as accurately called Sudden Defeat.

Still … you can bet the mortgage that the top 3 teams tonight will be USA, CHN, RUS. … Whomever HITS best will be atop the podium.

Mustafina’s in the zone right now. Magic. I doubt she’ll miss. … But as many have noted, her form twisting is a mess.

http://view.picapp.com//JavaScripts/OTIjs.js

… Perhaps the Women’s NCAA should adopt a 3-up, 3-count Team Finals format. Eight teams would reach the final. There would be a far greater chance of upsets.

In the media section at the World Championships, the 2 hardest working people so far as I’m concerned are Anne Phillips of Gymnastike and Blythe Lawrence of Gymnastics Examiner.

Read Blythe’s summary of the competition so far:

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: one of the things I’ve learned this week is how a team does in podium training is not necessarily indicative of how it will perform in the competition. …

… The question of the women’s competition now is how much of a gap is there between the top three from China, the top three from Russia, and the top three from the U.S. on each event? The answer: Not much. …

Nice surprises: China’s consistency, Australia and Russia’s women’s teams (Russia given the reports that came out of podium training), Great Britain’s men and women, Vanessa Ferrari, He Kexin on floor, Jade Barbosa, Yana Demyanchuk (hit routines on both bars and beam for Ukraine, made event finals on beam), Ariella Kaeslin on vault (DTY!), Aliya Mustafina on vault, Ali Al Asi on events other than rings, Kohei Uchimura, the Dutch women’s determined performance, Ashleigh Brennan on beam (extraordinary), Imogen Cairns on floor (hit the hell out of the set), Philipp Boy in the all-around (second place in qualifying

Gymnastics Examiner – Rotterdam reflections: Men’s and women’s team/individual qualifications

I’m super excited for the Team Finals over the next 2 days. What gymnasts can HIT under the pressure of 3-up, 3-count. There could easily be big changes in the ranking from prelims.

Gymnastike specializes in video interviews. But does much, much more.

If you speak German, the excellent GymMEDIA site is doing something similar. Click through to see their interviews auf Deutsch. GymMEDIA reports that Germany was quite happy with a 5th place finish.

Photos from Facebook: 2010 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships by Grace Chiu GraceClick

2010 Team Finals Qualifiers:
1 China 362.482
2 Japan 361.40
3 United States 357.092
4 Great Britain 357.033
5 Germany 355.383
6 Russia 355.076
7 Korea 352.042
8 France 350.284

2011 World Championships Team Qualifiers (including the above teams):
Romania, Italy, Spain, Puerto Rico, Ukraine, Canada, Switzerland, Belarus, Netherlands, Australia, Brazil, Colombia, Kazakhstan, Hungary, Uzbekistan, Portugal

All Around Finals:
UCHIMURA Kohei JPN, 92.231
BOY Philipp GER, 90.156
LU Bo CHN 89.639
HORTON Jonathan USA 89.598
PURVIS Daniel GBR 89.498
YOO Won Chul KOR 89.423
KOCZI Flavius ROU 89.398
KHOROKHORDIN Sergey RUS 89.241
TENG Haibin CHN 89.181
HUNTER Samuel GBR 89.090
KUKSENKOV Mykola UKR
LEYVA Danell USA
UEMATSU Koji JPN
RIVERA Luis PUR
DEVYATOVSKIY Maxim RUS
SPIRIDONOV Evgenij GER
TOMMASONE Cyril FRA
SHATILOV Alexander ISR
GONZALEZ SEPULVEDA CHI
MUNOZ Sergio ESP
VARGAS VELAZQUEZ L. PUR
SAVITSKI Dzmitry BLR
FOKIN Anton UZB
KIM Soo Myun KOR

Reserves:
VALEIEV Ildar KAZ
GIRALDO LOPEZ J. COL
JEFFERIS Joshua AUS
GAFUIK Nathan CAN

Floor Exercise Final:
1 KOSMIDIS Eleftherios GRE 15.466
2 SHATILOV Alexander ISR 15.308
3 PURVIS Daniel GBR 15.266
4 LEGENDRE Steven USA 15.233
5 PENEV Eddie BUL 15.066
6 KOCZI Flavius ROU 15.000
7 BOUHAIL Thomas FRA 14.966
8 UCHIMURA Kohei JPN 14.966
Reserves
R1 GONZALEZ SEPULVEDA E. CHI 14.933
R2 BOTELLA PEREZ Isaac ESP 14.866
R3 PICHLER Thomas AUS 14.825

Pommel Horse Final:
1 BERKI Krisztian HUN 15.900
2 SELLATHURAI Prashanth AUS 15.566
3 TOMMASONE Cyril FRA 15.500
4 UDE Filip CRO 15.500
5 TRUYENS Donna Donny BEL 15.416
6 BERTONCELJ Saso SLO 15.400
7 MERDINYAN Harutyum ARM 15.333
8 SMITH Louis GBR 15.300
Reserves
R1 SELIGMAN Robert CRO 15.200
R2 NAKASHIMA Tatsuki JPN 15.166
R3 BUSNARI Alberto ITA 15.166

Click PLAY or watch the #1 Pommel routine on YouTube.

Still Rings Final:
1 CHEN Yibing CHN 15.966
2 YAN Mingyong CHN 15.700
3 YAMAMURO Koji JPN 15.633
4 MORANDI Matteo ITA 15.500
5 YOO Won Chul KOR 15.466
6 CHEN Chih Yu TPE 15.466
7 KOBAYASHI Kenya JPN 15.433
8 SAN MIGUEL Ivan ESP 15.400
Reserves
R1 WYNN Brandon USA 15.400
R2 ANGIOLETTI Matteo ITA 15.366
R3 TARANU Thomas GER 15.266

Vault Finals
1 GOLOTSUTSKOV Anton RUS 16.475
2 KASPIAROVICH Dzmitry BLR 16.433
3 BOUHAIL Thomas FRA 16.366
4 YANG Hak Seon KOR 16.266
5 KOCZI Flavius ROU 16.266
6 ISAYEV Andriy UKR 16.233
7 WAMMES Jeffrey NED 16.216
8 RIVERA Luis PUR 16.133
Reserves
R1 YAMAMURO Koji JPN 16.116
R2 YAKUBOVS’KYI Oleksandr UKR 16.083
R3 TUUHA Tomi FIN 16.016

Parallel Bars Finals:
1 FENG Zhe CHN 15.866
2 TENG Haibin CHN 15.633
3 HAMBUECHEN Fabian GER 15.433
4 UEMATSU Koji JPN 15.400
5 KIERZKOWSKI Adam POL 15.366
6 UCHIMURA Kohei JPN 15.366
7 PIASECKY Samuel SVK 15.366
8 VALEIEV Ildar KAZ 15.366
Reserves
R1 ZONDERLAND Epke NED 15.333
R2 BOY Philipp GER 15.258
R3 CAPELLI Claudio SUI 15.241

Click PLAY or watch the #1 PBar routine on YouTube.

High Bar Final:
1 ZHANG Chenglong CHN 15.766
2 UEMATSU Koji JPN 15.733
3 HAMBUECHEN Fabian GER 15.700
4 LEYVA Danell USA 15.633
5 BOY Philipp GER 15.566
6 BROOKS Christopher USA 15.500
7 ZONDERLAND Epke NED 15.325
8 FENG Zhe CHN 15.266
Reserves
R1 MOZNIK Marijo CRO 15.233
R2 WAMMES Jeffrey NED 15.166
R3 KIM Jihoon KOR 15.166

Updated on October 19, 2010, 6:37pm

This summary via the wonderful Gymnastike. Official results available via the Start Lists and Results link on the competition home page. That’s in detailed PDF format.

related – photo montages of the Chinese men in Rotterdam: Podium and Team competition

Inside Gymnastics has a succinct summary.

Highlights of the Day
• Russia on Floor
• China – technique and artistic gymnastics
• Fabian Hambuechen

Gripe of the Day
• Takemoto full to Voronin on H bar… overused

Favorite Performances of the Day
• Chen Yibin on Still Rings

INSIDE SCOOP: OUR TAKE ON MEN’S PRELIMS 2

http://view.picapp.com//JavaScripts/OTIjs.js

There’s much, much more to talk about. Far more than with the Women’s competition.

Here’s the FIG press release:

… Russia is back! We … were absolutely taken by this generation of seeming champions. …

… Hungary is back with a full team in Rotterdam. The team is led by two-time World Pommel Horse Silver medallist Kristian Berki, who has a shot at the title this time around. Showing an extremely clean routine with high Difficulty, the 25 year old took his first step in the right direction by qualifying in first position (15.900). …

… Armenia was proudly represented by 2008 European finalist Harutyum Merdinyan. The Pommel Horse specialist put on a terrific routine (15.333), qualifying him for the Final …

There will be very few disappointing routines in event finals this year. It was super tough to get into one.

… Led by Olympians Luis Vargas and Luis Rivera, Puerto Rico, who placed 16th at both Worlds in 2006 and 2007, made it to the top 12 this year with 349.260 points. 2006 and 2009 finalist Vargas qualified again for the Individual All-around Final with 86.982 points overall. Compatriot Rivera, who had the brightest moment of his career when he finished 14th in the Beijing All-around, qualified on Vault today (16.133). …

read more on FIG –
China tops men’s qualifications

http://view.picapp.com//JavaScripts/OTIjs.js

Full lists via the official meet homepage.

Top 8 teams:

China
Japan
USA
GBR
Germany
Russia
Korea
France

Romania, somewhat overscored, just missed. Actually, Italy, Spain or  Puerto Rico could have grabbed that 8th spot with just a few more tenths of a point. … Next year.

All-around finalists (24) marked with a Q for qualified, max. 2 / nation.

I’ll post apparatus finals separately.

Congratulations Germany.  … With all the problems and controversy in the program right now, I really didn’t think they could pull this off.

Gymnastics Examiner:

With German national champion Marcel Nguyen out of the World Championships with a broken leg and Fabian Hambuechen’s announcement that Achilles pain will limit him to four events in Rotterdam, 23-year-old Philipp Boy is likely to be the top German competitor in the Netherlands. …

Philipp Boy, Germans seeking to replicate Europeans success in Rotterdam

Their team jacket.

Photographers are observant. explorerdk from Denmark picked up this at a glance.

… I’m abandoning the blog. Off to see TOTEM in Amsterdam  with Cirque casting friends and some of the lady judges.

Will update end-of-day when the chalk dust settles.

Since he competed back in the perfect 10 era, we’ll take it.

This is actually the 14th World Championships for Espen, the eldest here, age-41.

THE ALL AROUND reports his daughters are cheering for him from the stands.