Gymnastics Coaching.com

The best report I’ve seen on training in Boston was posted by philagym.

– Biggest story of the afternoon was definitely Ivana. She was struggling on her opening low bar sequence and Al Fong was ignoring her, obviously pissed. She did about 20 turns on bars before moving on to beam. Then she skipped floor and vault in favor of massive amounts of conditioning (arms and abs stuff) that was done on the floor mat in front of everyone. It looked like punishment. Then she went back to bars after everyone else was done and was hitting the opening stalders better. Definitely felt sorry for her though. No one was cheering her on or anything and she looked lonely/sad. I wonder if reality is setting in for her re: her Beijing chances. …

photos in the post by flying robin

Live.Breath.Love.Gymnastics

The competition finishes Saturday.

I’m reading several commentators saying Shawn was overscored. I still see no advantage in that for the USA. Only stupid people and the media will believe inflated numbers. It’s not going to result in higher scores in Beijing.

Related post: Is gymnastics coach Al Fong a changed man?

For the 23-year-old Wong, the all-around couldn’t help but be a huge confidence booster. He proved to be a model of consistency Thursday. Besides winning the two events, he finished no lower than fifth in any of the other four disciplines.

“Sure, it’s nice to win this,” he conceded. “But the goal coming in was come out and do my routines well, no matter where I finished. I’ve been training hard and working on a lot of components in my routines. To compete well is always No. 1. Then everything pretty much falls into place.” …

And the aspirations for Beijing?

Coach Bin Fan“:

“No. 1 for Adam,” he replied, “would helping the team get to the final. That would be a big accomplishment for Canada. But it is very possible with the team they do have. It is very strong, very deep.

“In individual events, the competition is very tough to get to finals.” …

Calgary Herald – Now, it’s Wong’s world

Adam is one of the Olympic Training squad from which the eventual team will be selected. No one is guaranteed a spot. But expect Adam to be in Beijing, his second Olympics.

Note: The bigger drama in Adam’s evening was when his elderly Grandmother fainted in the audience. There was flurry of commotion as Adam’s father rushed to get the in-gym medical staff to see to her quickly. Happily, there was no harm done. The family all could not be prouder of Adam.

photo by Grace Chiu – Gymnastics Canada

I have to make that prediction after Chellsie scored 16.0 on bars out of 16.80. This narrows the gap in start score between the USA and China on that apparatus.

Shawn, Nastia, Alicia AND Chellsie are locks for the team now, barring injury.

The USA would have a huge advantage in maturity and experience in high level international competition, as well, over Team China.

Chellsie Memmel is congratulated by her coach, Andrew Memmel, after competing on the uneven bars at the U.S. Gymnastics Championships, Thursday, June 5, 2008, in Boston.

(AP Photo/Mary Schwalm) – ESPN

… Chellsie Memmel won the evening to me. She right now sits in 3rd place. Her 6.8 bar set rocked a 16.000, beam of a 6.9 got a 16.150, and floor of 6.1 got a 15.100. She started with vault and at first I was scared as she ended up doing only a Yurchenko full. But wow. Chellsie did more than just perform to the best of the ‘bars club’ tonight; she beat out both Shawn Johnson and Alicia Sacramone’s beam scores!!! Chellsie keeps doing this, there’s no way they can’t put her on the team. There’s just no way. Wow am I excited for her. …

Gymnastics and stuff

The first time I’ve heard this news was today:

The International Olympic Committee has announced that new rules would make it impossible for doping offenders caught at the Beijing Olympics to participate in future games.

The rules which were ratified during an IOC executive board meeting in Athens will see athletes who are sanctioned for six months or more for a doping offence being banned from taking part in the next Olympics.

The rule goes into effect on the first of July.

First time offenders of doping and steroid use normally earn a two-year suspension.

Olympic Games blog

Last night Shawn won Floor with a new routine. A new record high score final score under the new code of points.

16.05 from 6.6

Click PLAY or watch Shawn on YouTube.

I like it. The routine to beat in the Olympics.

(via Addicted to Gym)

AA rank … so far

1. Shawn Johnson
2. Nastia Liukin
3. Chellsie Memmel
4. Samantha Peszek
5. Jana Bieger
6. Ivana Hong

Alicia Sacramone did 3 events and is looking fantastic. Bridget Sloan competed bars and beam — the most important events for the USA — and added a full-twisting double layout on bars.

All-in-all, not many surprises. Shayla Worley petitioned to Olympic Trials. But most think she still has a shot at making the team.

Defending U.S. all-around champion Shawn Johnson of West Des Moines, Iowa/Chow’s Gymnastics, leads the senior women’s all-around at the 2008 Visa Championships at Agganis Arena at Boston University after the first of two days of competition. The 2008 Visa Championships is the women’s qualifying event for the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Gymnastics, scheduled for June 19-22 in Philadelphia. …

“I had a great routine on beam but when I got to my dismount, I cut it short a little bit,” Johnson said. “It’s a mistake and I can fix it. It’s something that I can work on tomorrow (during training) for Saturday. I definitely think there are quite a few things I can improve on.”

read more … USA Gymnastics

Gymnast.com was impressed:

Overall, the competition was a superb start for the Olympic Team selection process. With some obvious front-runners like Johnson, Liukin, Sacramone and Memmel showing impressive performances tonight …

read the commentary – Gymnast.com

Adam Wong is back from an Achilles tendon injury. And tonight was named National Champion. Congratulations.

It was a tight competition between Adam, Dave, Casey and Grant. Unfortunately, Grant missed Pommels last apparatus.

Senior Men, Day 1

1. Adam Wong (CGC, AB) 90.550
2. David Kikuchi (Halifax Alta, NS) 89.450
3. Casey Sandy (Burlington BGs, ON) 88.850 … NCAA Champion
4. Grant Golding (UofC, AB) 88.000
5. Nathan Gafuik (UofC, AB) 86.250
6. Jared Walls (CCGC, AB) 86.150
7. Ken Ikeda (Twisters, BC) 85.450
8. Hugh Smith (Halifax Alta, NS) 84.950
9. Pat McElroy (UofC, AB) 84.200
10. Peter Andersen (Surrey, BC) 82.400
11. Cam Taylor (CGC, AB) 80.750
12. Matt Beiler (UofC, AB) 79.950
13. Matt Albrecht (Oakville, ON) 78.900
14. Terrance Lowe (CCGC, AB) 78.350
15. Scott Chandler (Island Gym, PEI) 78.000

Though Kyle Shewfelt sat out the official competition, in the training gym he was hitting routine after routine on 4 apparatus. Workouts have been great all week, Kyle told me.

Add Olympic Floor medal threat Brandon O’Neill who looked great, but did not compete, AA.

Bottom line — Canada will be strong in Beijing. The final Olympic training squad will be named after the second day of competition.

The All-Around Championships were not nearly as strong as preliminaries. Even National Champion Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs, who had a great meet overall, stepped out of bounds on three tumbling passes.

2008 Canadian Championships
June 5, Calgary

Senior Women’s All-Around Final
1. Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs (Sport Seneca, ON) 57.900
2. Kristina Vaculik (Gemini, ON) 57.200
3. Peng-Peng Lee (Sport Seneca, ON) 56.200
4. Alyssa Brown (Mississauga, ON) 55.850
5. Sydney Sawa (CGC, AB) 55.250
6. Brittany Rogers (Omega, BC) 54.850
7. Charlotte Mackie (Omega, BC) 54.800
8. Emma Willis (Bluewater, ON) 53.200
9. Stephanie McGregror (Gymtastics, AB) 52.650
10. Sarah Flett (Springers, MB) 50.850
11. Barbara Gasser (Bluewater, ON) 50.350
12. Nansy Damianova (Gymnix, QC) 27.950 … (only 2 apparatus)

UPDATE:

Day 1 scores were higher:

Kristina Vaculik 58.95
Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs 58.45
Nansy Damianova 57.80

Junior Women’s All-Around Final
1. Dominique Pegg (Bluewater, ON) 55.700
2. Anysia Unick (Stampede City, AB) 55.650
3. Ti Liu (Gymnix, QC) 54.300

full results will be posted on Gym Score Depot

Hopfner-Hibbs outscored top qualifier Kristina Vaculik by seven tenths of a point to recapture the title she won in 2006. The 18-year-old Hopfner-Hibbs was the top scorer on vault, uneven bars and balance beam.

Vaculik, the defending champion, earned the high mark of the night on floor exercise. …

Nansy Damianova, third in qualification, performed uneven bars and floor exercise only in the all-around final. Damianova is currently second behind Hopfner-Hibbs in the points rankings system used to determine Canada’s two Olympic berths.

International Gymnast

I was impressed with home town girl Anysia Unick (recently moved from Regina, SK) who finished 2nd in Junior by only .050, a best ever performance.

Schedule

* Thur. – Jr 1:00pm ET / Sr 7:00pm ET
* Sat. – Jr 10:30am ET / Sr 3:30pm ET
* TV Broadcast – NBC – June 7, 4-6PM ET

Gymnast.com links to interviews:

* Nastia Liukin
* Shawn Johnson
* Alicia Sacramone
* Chellsie Memmel
* Jana Bieger
* Darlene Hill
* Ivana Hong
* Marta Karolyi
* Samantha Peszek

The best way to make yourself ESSENTIAL to the USA Women’s Gymnastics Olympic team is to show a strong, consistent routine on Bars … with a reasonably high start value.

Certainly China will have higher start values on Bars. But the Americans do not want to be too far behind.

Gymnicestics posted 3 routines from VISA Championships podium training. I like Chellsie Memmel’s best.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

See the other two on Gymnicestics.