Gymnastics Coaching.com

Following last weekend’s Elite Canada competition, here’s the updated list of the top female gymnasts in Canada:

Gardiner
Hurt
Klarenbach
Leblond-Chartrand
Lemieux-Guillementte
Mackie
Meyer
Pegg
Pepin-Gagné
Rogers
Sawa
Unick
Vaculik

Damianova
Dancose-Giambattisto
Willis

Up to 8 more spots are available based on “petition” by the coach.

Can this group qualify for Olympics 2012 as a team? … Or will Canada be relegated to 2 specialists as we were in Beijing?

All of Grace’s photos are posted on GraceClick.com.

Click PLAY or watch her Beam on Gymnastike.

Click through to see Rylie’s Floor routine.

More Elite Canada coverage on Gymnastike.

Senor Nico on the IG forum lets us know that Gimnastika magazine #2 has been published. Of course it’s in Russian.

Viktoria Komova – Talks about her background, rising status, and hopes for the future.

Elena Zamolodchikova – Reflects on her career and how she is enjoying life as a judge.

Alexei Nemov – How he keeps in shape after his career.

Olga Mostepanova – Her role on developing youngsters and how they’re coming along (there’s nothing about her career in the article).

Ksenia Semyonova – Talks about this past year, how’s been dealing with her growth, and what goals she has left to accomplish.

Yury Ryazanov – His last interview before his death.

I can’t seem to open it from the Russian website.

Leave a comment if you find a way to do so.

Related post: new – Russian Gymnastics magazine

by site editor Rick McCharles

I posted some photos from my 9 day coaching course in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

As you see, my camera is very bad in low light. Actually the gym has some nice indirect natural light … but my camera still did not work in that facility.

See the rest of my pics from this course.

I’ll be posting a report and details on the excellent course soon.

Bangladesh is looking for international coaches who would like to volunteer at this gym for a minimum of 3 months.

I’ve been considering attending Commonwealth Games 2010, Delhi, India, as a spectator.

But I see on Gymnastics Examiner that the top British gymnasts including Beth Tweddle will not attend.

Gymnastics events at the Commonwealth Games are scheduled for Oct. 4-8. The 2010 World Championships in Rotterdam, Holland begin Oct. 17.

The timing is too tight.

I have to assume the same decision will be made by Australia and Canada. Nations that want to qualify for Olympics 2012 will send B Teams to Commonwealth Games this time around.

A power packed lineup at the competition in Japan required amazing routines to medal.

Gymnastics Examiner has a good wrap-up of what happened.

The Japanese men’s and women’s teams cleaned up at this weekend’s Toyota Cup, capturing six of the 10 gold medals available at the competition in Toyota City, Japan.

2009 World all-around bronze medalist Koko Tsurumi won the women’s title on uneven bars (15.1) and placed second on floor (14.2) behind teammate Kyoko Oshima (14.275). Their countrywoman Yuko Shintake defeated World beam champion Deng Linlin for the beam gold (14.125-13.9), with vault champion Ekaterina Kurbatova of Russia third (13.875). …

read more

Kristina Vaculik proved to be the most dominant gymnast today as Elite Canada wrapped up with the apparatus finals. Vaculik claimed gold on both bars and floor, sharing the latter with newly crowned Elite Canada all-around champ Dominique Pegg. Not surprisingly, vault was won by Brittany Rogers, who debuted a double twisting Yurchenko at World Championships in October. Madeline Gardiner claimed the beam title.

In the junior women’s field, Briannah Tsang claimed the title on both vault and floor. Newly crowned junior Elite Canada champ Riley Cholod claimed the victory on beam, and Stefanie Merkle topped the field on floor.

Gymn.ca

More of Grace Chiu’s photos from the event are available on GraceClick.com.

Results (and more) posted on Gym Score Depot.

Emily Blackner at the 2009 Elite Canada Championships. Posted by Grace Chiu on Facebook.

All of Grace’s photos are posted on GraceClick.com.

Andrew Thornton posted routines from yet another up-and-coming Russian superstar …

Anastasia Grishina, and from what I’ve read, I believe she is 13 years old …

Beam is so “easy” for her.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Wow, throw her on a team with Komova, Mustafina, and Nabiyeva, not to mention Semenova and Afansyeva if they stick around, and Russia will have a phenomenal team. I haven’t seen this much talent from the Russians in a really long time. Could they be the ones to beat by the time London rolls around?

Seems near certain that Russia will be on the Podium at the 2012 Olympics.

See more of Grishina’s routines on this post: Russia’s got another one.

Fourteen-year-old Riley Cholod of Bowmanville, Ont., used a new move for the first time in competition to help propel her to the women’s junior all around title on Saturday at the Elite Canada women’s gymnastics meet.

Cholod landed a variation of a back handspring layout on beam and also performed solid routines on floor and uneven bars to place first in a field of 27 competitors with a score of 54.800 points.

Bianca Jordaan of Oakville, Ont., placed second with 53.00 points and Briannah Tsang of Coquitlam, B.C., was third at 52.850.

“I was a little nervous putting the new move in there, but it went really well,” said Cholod, who is coached by 1980 Soviet Olympic gymnastics champion Elena Davydova and Valery Yahchybekov at Gemini Gymnastics in Oshawa, Ont. …

Gymnastics Canada

Jordyn Pedersen, also from host Oakville, won National Novice, the youngest age division. Full results (PDF)

danafan1 has more Senior routines posted on YouTube.