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The best “composition” of a Bars routine ever, in my opinion, was Nastia Liukin. A great variety of skill families.

Good pirouettes, forward and backward Stalder, stoop Stalder. And an interesting dismount. The weakest elements are the releases, especially the low Tkachev. On the other hand, the Geinger is as good as any ever competed.

Click PLAY or watch one of her routines on YouTube.

Compare World and Olympic Champ He Kexin:

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Superb routine. But 3 Jaeger skills? … And a very average dismount, not connected directly to another value part. For me, construction wise, I prefer Nastia. (Execution, obviously, I prefer He Kexin.)

Next, the monster routine of Beth Tweddle:

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Likely she’ll do even a harder routine in Finals. … Is this overuse of release moves? … NOPE. There’s no such thing.

And lastly the routine that got me ranting on this topic, Huang Qiushuang. This is clearly overusing one skill family, pirouettes. And to combine them ALL together like this is simply asking FIG to restrict it next code.

Click PLAY or wach it on YouTube.

What I want is routines more like Nastia, less like Huang Qiushuang. Variety. The thrill of release moves, especially when they are connected is what should be rewarded IMHO.

Bars rules need to be changed to discourage coaches from overusing pirouettes.

… We have a similar problem on Men’s Horizontal Bar. I’ll start with the embarrassing Olympic Gold medal routine of Zou Kai, comparing it with great routines like Nemov, Hamm, even Trent Dimas 1992. … But that’s another post.

To me there’s no issue here. It’s a no brainer. But likely they’ll be some lively comments on this topic. Leave yours too. … Start by comparing the current Russian Bar routines. Are they even better than Nastia’s?

Casey Sandy
Jackson Paine
Jayd Lukenchuk
Nathan Gafuik
Kevin Lytwyn
Ken Ikeda

Live blog. Top 2 teams in the flight Canada and Great Britain. I’ll watch Canadia.

Floor

Jayd Lukenchuk: Huge stuck Arabian double front pike. 2.5 to front layout half, stuck. Front layout full to tuck front full. Double twisting front. Split. Double full. Double Arabian with a step forward to end. Nice routine from the rookie.

Nathan Gafuik: Arabian double pike OOB. Front double full to front tuck full, stuck. Randi side pass, great, maybe chest just a tad low…Press handstand. Tucked Thomas. 1.5 to Rudi. 2.5 with a hop forward. Very prepared, very well controlled routine for him. Too bad about the OOB on first pass, otherwise it was terrific. 14.1. Three scores above 14 for Canada in rotation one here…

Gymnastics Examiner

Pommels

Casey Sandy leads off, consistent. HIT.

Jayd fights through. No fall.

Jackson swings great. Blast … tries to muscle dismount, yet falls on it. He considers remounting to finish with credit for dismount. But the score would be higher without doing so.

Mr. Kenji Ikeda. One of the sweetest swings in the competition. “Perfect” routine … but falls just before dismount. Takes 30sec. He does remount, increasing the difficulty of his dismount. (I think.)

Nathan Gafuik HITS.

Rings

Casey HITS. The veteran. He’s a perfect guy to lead off on this team. It’s essential to HIT routine #1 in a team meet. Otherwise the middle of your order can feed pressured to stay on. One reason UCLA won the NCAA Women’s competition last year is that Anna Li, one of their best gymnasts, led off on Beam all year.

(Recall that the Canadian women had falls on Beam and Bars from their leadoff yesterday.)

Jackson is young. But hit a GREAT routine for him. Congrats.

Jayd HITS. Rookie of the Senior team looks just great at his first World Championships. Love his psychology.

Nathan HITS and STICKS near perfectly. Low start value as this is his weakest apparatus.

Kevin is our only “Ring Man”. We miss Grant Golding and Dave Kikuchi, both now retired. HITS. Excellent execution, one slight balance check. Small step on landing.

Great Rings rotation Canada!

Michail Doulkeridis from Greece leaves in a wheelchair. (I’ve lost track of how many stretchers and wheelchair exits we’ve seen already.) He was injured competing Floor.

VAULT

Ken and Sandy both hit DTY. Jayd STICKS his. Kevin rockets a Kaz + 1 ½ twist. Then balks on his second vault, a new double front, I think. … Nathan booms a “Shewfelt” Vault. Nice rotation, guys.

Parallel Bars

Kevin HIT. Jayd HIT … love his swing. Jackson HIT and near STICK. … Keep it rolling, guys.

Ken HIT and STICK. Maybe the best double pike in the world. … 15.20 … 3rd highest score, so far !!

Nathan HIT. … Fantastic rotation. Take to the max on H Bar. That’s Canada’s strongest apparatus, I’d say.

Canadian coaches on the Floor are Liang and Tony.

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Horizontal Bar

Jayd has to fight a bit … but gets through and STICKS double double layout. He’s a great HBar talent.

Ken hits. Two releases. I think he left out something out of Tak 1/2 … almost STICKS dismount.

Jackson HITS. Nice job. Near stick. Smart routine.

Facebook album – Grace Chiu

Last man. Certainly a good routine will carry Nathan Gafuik into the AA Final.

HIT. Not his best. But Nate will now fight for a spot in the top 10 in the world. I think he deserves it. This is his 3rd or 4th excellent AA meet in series in 2010.

… Talked to Tony Smith. He’s not happy with the scores. Nor Nathan’s rank in the all-around.

_____
WAG coach Kelly Manjak and some Swiss guy … Jade Kalinowsky:

Kosmidis Greece – highest score so far on Floor – 15.466.

World Champion Kohei Uchimura convinced the last doubter on Earth that he’s the greatest gymnast ever by finishing the preliminary competition with a score of 92.231. That’s counting a partial fall on Floor. That’s after being limited in training since July with shoulder injury.

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

Japan scored 361.40 with a disastrous final apparatus, Floor.

1 JPN 361.400
2 KOR 352.042
3 FRA 350.284
4 ROU 350.134
5 ESP 349.610
6 COL 337.260
7 NZL 327.108
8 EGY 320.307

1 UCHIMURA Kohei JPN 92.231
2 YOO Won Chul KOR 89.423
3 KOCZI Flavius ROU 89.398
4 UEMATSU Koji JPN 88.698
5 KOBAYASHI Kenya JPN 88.140
6 TOMMASONE Cyril FRA 87.415
7 MUNOZ Sergio ESP 87.099
8 KIM Soo Myun KOR 86.790

There are plenty more teams to come over the next 2 days.

LIVE blog.

Second flight at the World Gymnastics Championships. Japan is starting on Pommels.

Will reigning World Champion Uchimura try to defend his all-around title, despite injury?  

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Kenya Kobayashi of Japan performs on the pommel horse while his teammate Kohei Uchimura receives medical treatmen

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Shoulder all taped up, Kohei DID do Pommel horse. HIT. 6.00/15.133 … Next is Rings, however. The most problematic apparatus with his shoulder injury. … He has no Ring grips on. He tested his shoulder in cross support. Perhaps it’s a last minute decision.

Japan counted one fall on Pommels, I think.

International Gymnast – Preview: Uchimura Put to Test in Session 2

Uchimura. Here we go … HIT and STICK. 6.4/15.4 … Animal. … Has he done any rings in training this week?

Respect for Uchimura will be even greater (if that’s possible) after this gutsy performance.

… Japan is GOOD. But it doesn’t look to me, so far, that they can challenge mighty China. Especially on Vault. Perhaps in the 3-up, 3-count Team final, if China makes mistakes.

UCHIMURA IS A GOD. Sticks Vault 6.6/16.33… (9.733 E score!).

HIT P Bars. Three double back to underarm skills. (Even he can’t make those look flawless.) Small hop on double pike dismount. 15.366 Ho hum. Another 15+ …

Japan’s best apparatus so far is P Bars. NICE stuff.

Japan’s weakest apparatus: H Bar. Minimal difficulty and they nearly had falls on pirouettes from 2 guys, so far. …

Uchimura on pipe. WOW. A little wild at times, yet still one of the best routines in the world today. Clean, high Kovacs was the highlight for me. Does anyone do that better?

Uematsu from Japan had a very high difficulty routine, too. Not so pretty as Uchi.

Uchimura is last up on Floor, the first time he’s anchored the team all day. … Their first 2 competitors are not strong tumblers. Third up Yamamuro bailed out on 2 different roll out skills. And fell on dismount. Disaster. … Long judge’s meeting. … Suddenly it looks like the USA or another team could beat JPN.

Their 4th competitor is good, Uematsu. But he took a fall, mid-routine.

Uchimura puts hands down Arabian piked, half out. The rest of the routine good, not great. Overscored at 14.966. Still, I’d be shocked if he’s not the leader in the AA by the end of day 2. With a fall, he’s still the best gymnast in the world.

JAPAN must go back to the drawing board for Team Finals on Floor. This apparatus could kill them.

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Romania’s vault line-up is awesome. They have 3 guy doing two vaults, trying to make Finals. Berbecar nearly flew past the end of the really long landing mats!

Dragalescu had a poor landing on his signature vault. I doubt he can make finals now. … Ah ha. He stuck vault #2. There’s still a chance.

Dragalescu fell on H Bar. And fell on Floor dismount. Clearly he’s not in shape for this meet, yet wanted to try to help his team. That’s it. He’s only competing the 3 apparatus.

Here at the World Gymnastics Championships in Rotterdam, the first Men’s rotation, what’s obvious is that there are fantastic gymnasts from almost every nation participating.

Mans Stenberg from Sweden mounts Floor with a perfect full twisting double layout.M. El Saharty from Egypt sticks Yurchenko double full. … The Egyptians have all shaved their heads as a team bonding thing.

Korea’s having problems on Horizontal Bar. Their last competitor was GREAT, using a hop 2/1 twist over the bar. (LIke a Rybalko with an extra ½ twist.

I’m cheering New Zealand, fighting through after finishing 4th as a team at Commonwealth Games just prior to flying here.

On a terribly sad note, Carnaobe from France (Olympic Bronze medalist), was badly injured on Floor. He was taken away on a stretcher.

Here’s the first News article on the injury. (There’s a sports medicine congress in Rotterdam this week. Certainly they’ll be discussing the number of gymnasts who left this arena on a stretcher. This sport is too dangerous.)

Gymnastics Examiner is trying to do a LIVE blog. … It’s not easy with 6 apparatus simultaneous. Who volunteers to be a “spotter” for Blythe?

Flip between that page and International Gymnast on Facebook, doing a great job this meet. It’s tricky to find this page by searching Google, so bookmark THE ALL AROUND Live blog page. They are here too.

Leave a comment if you are accessing the LIVE TV feed on the internet.

» check Gymnastics Examiner, USAG, Gymnastike, IG Facebook, THE ALL AROUND on Facebook, Full Twist.

WAG finalists, MAG finalists, #2010wc … Results via Longines

NEW from my region. And unique.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

The Alberta Gymnastics Awards dinner is missing a few people at World Championships: GOOD LUCK Nathan Gafuik and Jackson Paine.

Anyone can attend the Spotting Techniques Workshop on Nov 6/10 in Calgary.

Details on all things gymnastics are posted on the Gymnastics Alberta website.

Thanks Miguel.

At World Gymnastics Championships 2010.

… 32 day 1 and 37 day 2.

Afanasyeva had one of them.

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

Only 1 “landing w/o feet first on dismount“.

Wow. Nabieva missed Bar finals.

Unofficial:

Results for event finals according to IG

VT EF (scores were already averaged):
1. Aliya Mustafina (Russia) – 15.283
2. Alicia Sacramone (USA) – 15.266
3-4. Jade Barbosa (Brazil) – 14.633
Ekaterina Kurbatova (Russia) – 14.633
5. Ariella Kaeslin (SUI) – 14.603
6. Jo Hyunjoo (KOR) – 14.250
7. Imogen Cairns (GBR) – 14.195
8. Diana Chelaru (Romania) – 14.016
Huang Qiushuang (China) – 14.016 – not qualified because of lower execution

UB EF:
1. He Kexin – 16.066
2. Huang Qiushuang – 15.666
3. Elizabeth Tweddle – 15.600
4. Aliya Mustafina – 15.300
5. Elisabeth Seitz – 14.966
6. Rebecca Bross – 14.933
7. Ana Porgras – 14.733
8. Bridget Sloan – 14.700
Tatiana Nabieva – 14.700 – not qualified because of lower execution

BB EF:
1-2. Ana Porgras – 15.266
Rebecca Bross – 15.266
3. Anna Dementieva – 15.133
4. Deng Linlin – 15.100
5. Lauren Mitchell – 14.966
6. Aliya Mustafina – 14.933
7. Alicia Sacramone – 14.866
8. Yana Demyanchuk – 14.533
9. Elisabetta Preziosa – 14.525 – sorry but I would just like to emphasize that my Preziosa failed to qualify for beam EF by 0.008!!!

FX EF:
1. Aliya Mustafina – 14.833
2-3. Ksenia Afanasyeva – 14.766
Sandra Izbasa – 14.766
4. Sui Lu – 14.633
5-6. Lauren Mitchell – 14.466
Diana Chelaru – 14.466
7. Vanessa Ferrari – 14.458
8. Alexandra Raisman – 14.383

gymtruthteller

Here’s Elisabetta Preziosa of Italy, another good candidate for the Longines Award for Elegance and Crowd Appeal.

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

Good night.

Hot off the presses

Mustafina RUS
Bross USA
Raisman USA
Jiang CHN
Huang CHN
Porgras ROM
Mitchell AUS
Nabieva RUS
Kaeslin Switzerland
Haidu ROM
Ferrari ITA
Tanaka JPN
Lopez VEN
Whelan GBR
Seitz GER (… Def on Bars)
Van Gerner NED
Bonora AUS
Hypolito BRA
Malaussena FRA
Fernandez BRA
Tsurumi JPN
Pihan-Kulesza POL
Preziosa ITA
Hibbert GBR

Switzerland’s Ariella Kaeslin also made the Vault final.

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

Alternates:
Vanwalleghem BEL
Vaculik CAN
Brevet FRA
Goedkoop NED