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It seems inevitable to me that all Floors will one day be constructed with the new springs designed by Scott Weller.

Weller Spring Floor gymnastics tumble test with Olympian Justin Spring

Powerful gymnasts, both male and female, test it at Illinois …

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Note that Scott, a former gymnast, couldn’t resist leaving a clip of Horizontal Bar at the end of the video.

For more information, click through to softer Floor – Weller springs.

The springs are available from King Bars Sports, LLC.

From Inside Gymnastics:

Still Missing Artistry.

The new Code was meant to encourage artistry, but so far, it doesn’t seem to have been too successful. The judges aren’t allowing enough separation in the Execution score among gymnasts to really distinguish in a significant fashion. And so many gymnasts and coaches seem to be neglecting this side of the sport still, with unimaginative choreography and still not enough focus on the details. The judges have 10 full points to work with in the Execution score, but they’re not using enough range. …

The Daily 9

Nobody names either Bridge Sloan #1 or Rebecca Bross #2 as one of the most “artistic” gymnasts in the world.

Both are fantastic athletes. Both could contend for Olympic AA medals in 3yrs if they can stay healthy.

Actually, my opinion of Rebecca went way, way up at this her first major international meet. That kid is tough. She handled catastrophic disaster perfectly. Impassive. … In fact she reminded me of the psychological toughness of Ludmilla Tourischeva.

Sounds like her coach and Nastia did not handle Rebecca’s fall on the last tumbling line of the last apparatus nearly as calmly. Disappointing.

Later, Valeri put a braver face on it:

… said Bross’s fall was a good learning experience.

“She’s still very great,” Liukin said. “She’s still very young. We learn.” …

Gymnastics Examiner

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In any case, the majority of bloggers were naming Ana Porgras the most artistic gymnast. Check a thread on the IG Forum comparing Ana against the best switch ring leaps in history.

Certainly Ana cannot contend against the best gymnasts in the world under this code without getting much, much stronger. We can hope she improves to the level of former Romanian World Champion, Aurelia Dobre.

Perhaps the most artistic gymnast at World’s in the AA was Yang Yilin. What do you think?

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Elsa Garcia won the Longines Prize for Elegance. … But I’m wondering how much her being disallowed to compete in Beijing factored into that award.

I only saw some of the routines broadcast on Universal. … Leave a comment if you have your own ARTISTIC World Gymnastics Champion.

Seems “highlight” clips are available on this page.

Some in Europe are not able to stream Universal, I’ve been told.

The international Gymnastics Federation did a fantastic job at getting out information from World Championships in London.

And they negotiated the best TV / internet video contract in history.

Kudos FIG. Kudos to Longines.

Only hours after the competition they’ve distributed the official Longines Results Book. If you are a stats junkie, download to your computer London_Book (PDF).

On that document you can check the official FIG Passport age of all competitors. (Ha!)

Check the Execution scores for each routine. Individual judge’s names are not listed in preliminaries. But for finals the Nationality of each judge is shown.

You can see who liked Dragalescu’s execution on Floor, for example:

See the medal total by nation. And much more.

The best wrap-up report I’ve seen as yet was posted by Anne on Gymnastike:

Dragalescu did not crash his second vault this competition. He cranked a half-on, Front Layout with 2 1/2 twist. He just might be the greatest vaulter of all time. Him… or Scherbo.

For his first vault, Marian launched his trademark vault, handspring double front with a half twist out, aka the Dragulescu. This vault was competed by nearly all of the vault finalists, but performed the best by Dragulescu who earned 9.550 exectution. His second vault had the highest start value of the competition at a 7.2. There was a lot of hype surrounding Ri Se Gwang of North Korea, but you just never know what he is going to do. Today he threw 2 scary vaults, the first was a piked Dragulescu which he landed on his head. ouch.

Click PLAY or watch 28yr-old Marian Dragalescu win Vault on YouTube.

Regarding Olympics 2012, Marian was quoted as saying: “… But maybe next time, you never know …”

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… Crowd favorite Beth Tweddle was the first competitor up, and hit her insanely difficult floor set. To the delight of the crowd, her score held throughout the competition. …

Click PLAY or watch Beth Tweddle’s Gold Medal on Floor on YouTube.

At age-24, she’s not committing to 2012.

Click through for the other apparatus. Gymnastike – 2009 World Gymnastics Championships Recap

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Not brilliant. But congratulations on the medal to Ivana.

Congratulations Australia.

For me, the highlight result of the entire World Gymnastics Championships was Lauren who trains at the Western Australia Institute of Sport in Perth, Australia.

Mez on the Australian Gymnastics Blog declares this LAUREN MITCHELL DAY.

Women’s Balance Beam:
1. DENG Linlin CHN 15.000
2. LAUREN Mitchell AUS 14.875
3. IVANA Hong USA 14.500

Women’s Floor Exercise
1. BETH Tweddle GBR 14.65
2. LAUREN Mitchell AUS 14.55
3. SUI Lu CHN 14.300

by site editor Rick McCharles

I wrote this post during the preliminary competitition. But resisted posting it until after the Final:

=== The talented 17yr-old Danell qualified to Horizontal Bar Finals at World’s. Congratulations.

But will his Dad cause an incident on international TV?

Danell Leyva is coached by his father, Yin Alvarez (pictured) whose reactions to well-performed routines (heck, sometimes even so-so routines!) are well known in the USA, but they’ve now hit the Worlds stage. He almost sent nearby gymnasts scattering at the end of Levya’s routine, throwing his famous fist punches in the air and side skipping the entire length of the men’s high bar to greet Levya after a job well done. The drama wasn’t missed on the observant British crowd, and injected some genuine smiles into what was a long day. Imagine the reaction if Levya wins a medal in Sunday’s apparatus finals! …

Inside Gymnastics

Personally I feel Yin’s antics are unsportsmanlike.

Leave a comment if you disagree.

=== Happily, in Finals it seems Yin only amused the international audience.

On Universal they merely commented on how excited the coaches can get.

Danell Leyva is a great talent. His consistency at this young age is really impressive. Congratulations to Danell and his coach.

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Danell Leyva

World Championships Finals – Horizontal Bar

1. Zou CHN,
2. Zonderland NED,
3. Cassina ITA,
4. Leyva USA,
5. Pegan SLO,
6. Uchimura JPN,
7. Tsarevich BLR,
8. Horton USA

full results (PDF)

Give me a break.

You cannot tell me Zou Kai is better on High Bar than Uchimura. Never has an athlete been more over rewarded than Zou Kai on this apparatus. This is embarassing for our sport.

In fact, horizontal bar is the least interesting apparatus right now, men and women.

The judging regulations are to blame. Why doesn’t the FIG devalue Rybalko?

We need to go back to rewarding connected release moves. And taking more deduction for glaring form breaks on Kolman.

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The newest code does seem to be rewarding great leaps.

Elisabetta Preziosa of Italy competes in the beam event during the Apparatus Finals on the sixth day of the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships 2009 at the at O2 Arena on October 18, 2009 in London, England.

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(Photo by Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)