Gymnastics Coaching.com

Normally my favourite commentator on the major gymnastics competitions is Dieter Hoffman on GYMmedia.com.

Dieter is one of the most successful coaches of all time, many years the Head Coach of East Germany.

For Worlds in Germany, however, I found that his commentary was slow to be posted on-line. And slow to be translated to English.

For Day 1 event finals, it sounds like Women’s Vault was the most interesting apparatus:

GOLD — CHENG Fei CHN –
1. Yurtchenko, 2 1/2- … adjusting step … (16.5) – 16.000;
2. Rondat-1/2, salto fwd. stretched 11/2- … step back … (16.5) – 15.875
– total = 15.937

SILVER — HONG, Su Jong PRK –
1. Yurchenko, 2 1/2-, correcting step .. (16.5) – 15.850;
2. Rondat, 1/2, salto fwd., 1 1/2- secure landing .. (16.5) – 15.775;
total = 15.812:

BRONZE — SACRAMONE Alicia USA –
1. Handspring, salto fwd. stretched, 1 1/2- … (16.3) – 15.750
2. Yurchenko, 2/1 …..hop on landing… (15.8) – 15.075,
total =15.412;

4. HONG Un Jong PRK –
1. Yurchenko, 2/1 – … correcting step .. (15.8) – 15.000;
2. Rondat-1/2, salto fwd. stretched 1 1/2 … techn. posture fault… (15.8) – 15.400; = total = 15.200.

5. BARBOSA Jade BRA –
1. Yurchenko, 21/2, problems on landing… (16.5) – 15.625:
2. Rondat, 1/2, landed outside zone… (15.6) -14.700; – total= 15,162;

6. CHUSOVITINA Oksana GER –
1. handspring, stretched salto 11/2, … four point landing, out of zone… (16.3) -14.425;
2. Tsukahara, stretched, 1 1/2- … (15.7) – 14.950; – -total = 14.687;

7. KOMRSKOVA Jana CZE –
1. Rondat-1/2, salto fwd. peaked 1/2 … (15.2) – 14.450;
2. Yurchenko 1/1 … (15.0) – 14.375; -total = 14.412;

8. ZAMOLODCHIKOVA Elena RUS –
1. Yurchenko 2/1- … hop on landing .. (15.8) – 15.000;
2. Rondat-1/2, salto fwd. stretched 1/2 … fall on to front !! (15.2) – 12.750; total = 13.857;

>> Detailed Results

Commentary:

– a high class struggle between the quartet of Chussovitina, Cheng, Fei (title holder), HONG, Su Jong and Saramone was to take place…

– CHENG, Fei – performed last and and showed the same vaults as the Korean performing before her, the reason for the one tenth difference in the B-score that gave her gold remains the secret of the judges; nobody would have thought it strange to have two world champions!

– HONG, Su Jong – (for the first time ever two sisters qualified for a WCh-final; her sister HONG, Un Jong came fourth) she had two starting values of 16.5 and in the end came second by 1/10 due to the ‘interpretation’ of the judges.

– SACRAMONE – her first vault ‘only’ had 1 1/2 turns, and with a starting value of 15.8 for the second exercise a title is out reach, bronze is justified,

– CHUSSOVITINA – during her first vault she had to little rotation aroud her latitudinal axis… touched the mat with her hands (fall), which destroyed all hopes; even if the first vault had been a success, a starting value of 15.7 would not have been sufficient to beat her rivals!

Nevertheless the finals performance of this gymnast, at 32 an anomaly, deserves our respect!
**********************************************************************

* Hattrick of the threefold vault world champion CHENG, Fei who achieved her titles in series, but is also the only Chinese vault women’s world champion in gymnastics history;

* HONG, Su Jong (PRK) – wins the first silver medal for North Korea on vault and the second in total, after the contended (age of gymnast) uneven bars success for KIM, Kwan Suk 1991 in Indianapolis.

* Alicia SACRAMONE (USA) – after silver the year before, now her second bronze medal after Melbourne 2005 on vault,

… bad luck for co-favourites Samolochikova (1st WM 1999 and 2002) and Chussovitina (1st WM 2003)…

GymFamily.Com

Click PLAY or watch HONG, Su Jong vaulting at Asian Games 2006 on YouTube.

Scores were lower than I would have hoped in the Men’s Floor Exercise Final. And I was disappointed that superbly artistic Brandon O’Neill from Canada did not qualify for the Final.

But congratulations to Diego Hypolito who seems always to qualify and often surprises me with a strong performance when it counts.

… Diego Hypolito regained his title on floor. The Brazilian was the world champion in 2005, then finished second to Romania’s Marian Dragulescu last year. But Dragulescu and Olympic floor champ Kyle Shewfelt both missed worlds with injuries.

“I’m very sad the other people are sick, and I hope they get better for the competition next year,” Hypolito said.

But nothing could take away from Hypolito’s happiness on this day. Not only was he the world champion, he won on big sister Daniele’s 23rd birthday. Daniele, a member of Brazil’s women’s team, rushed down from the stands to congratulate her brother.

“I gave her my flowers,” Hypolito said. “I will buy her something, but I couldn’t go out from the hotel.” …

Chinese piling up the gold medals at world championships – IHT

… Chen Yibing won his second title on still rings, beating out former world champions Yuri Van Gelder of the Netherlands and Jordan Jovtchev of Bulgaria.

Chinese piling up the gold medals at world championships – IHT

Chen Yibing of China is seen in action to win the gold medal in the men’s rings final at the Gymnastics World Championships in Stuttgart, southern Germany, Saturday, Sept. 8, 2007. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)

ESPN – Gymnastics Photo Wire

… Xiao Qin won his third title on pommel horse, topping Krisztian Berki of Hungary and Britain’s Louis Smith.

Chinese piling up the gold medals at world championships – IHT

Xia Qin of China is seen in action to win the gold medal in the men’s pommel horse final at the Gymnastics World Championships in Stuttgart, southern Germany, Saturday, Sept. 8, 2007. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)

ESPN – Gymnastics Photo Wire

STUTTGART, Germany (AFP) — Cheng Fei became the first gymnast to win three consecutive vault titles …

The 19-year-old from Beijing, who has now five world titles to her name, scored 15.937 as North Korea’s Hong Su Jong took silver (15.812) and Alicia Sacramone of the United States bronze (15.412).

Sydney Olympic champion Elena Zamolodchikova, the winner in 1999 and 2002, finished last in the eight-woman final after falling badly on her second jump. …

AFP: Cheng leads China to fifth world title

Russia’s Ksenia Semenova performs on the uneven bars during the women’s qualifications of the 40th World Artistic Gymnastics Championships 02 September 2007 at the Hanns-Martin-Schleyer hall in Stuttgart, southern Germany. … (OLIVER LANG/AFP/Getty Images)

Yahoo! Sports

Nastia was second, a decision openly criticized by her father coach, not normally known for being so outspoken:

Liukin Wins Silver in Uneven Bars

By EDDIE PELLS

STUTTGART, Germany (AP) — Nastia Liukin moved within one medal of joining Shannon Miller as the most decorated American gymnast in world championship history Saturday.

Maybe when she ties the record, she’ll do it by winning a gold.

This time, Liukin settled for the silver medal in the uneven bars finals, falling one spot short of becoming a world champion in her signature event for the second straight year. Ksenia Semenova of Russia beat Liukin for the gold by 0.05 points.

Liukin’s father and coach, Valeri, wasn’t pleased with the result — but not so much because of any mistake his daughter made.

Rather, he was miffed that an Australian judge gave his daughter an 8.8 execution mark in this event when the other judges awarded her at least 9.1s. There were similar discrepancies in preliminaries.

“It’s cheating, and it’s been going on this whole competition,” Liukin said. “Even when she’d stick it, the scores were bad. So, I don’t know. There’s something going on. …

Associated Press

We should study the Finals routines closely and see if the ranking is correct. I love Nastia’s Bars, but she does take execution deductions.

Shawn Johnson trains only 25hrs / week and attends regular school. What an accomplishment.

Congratulations to Shawn and her coaches.

The risk of burn-out is far less than those gymnasts training 36hrs / week.

American all-round champion Shawn Johnson said she had training by Chinese coaches to thank for her rise to the top of world gymnastics.

The 15-year-old charmed the judges with a cheeky floor routine to win the all-round gold on Friday, two days after she helped the United States beat defending champions China to pick up the team gold at the world championships.

Johnson has been learning from Chinese coaches Chow Liang and Zhuang Liwen since she was five.

“They do things differently to other people but what they’re doing seems to be working,” Johnson told reporters.

“I don’t know any different. They train me perfectly and they’re like my parents, it’s amazing.” …

Javno – Sports
Johnson Has Chinese To Thank For Rise To Top

More excellent commentary from the publisher of International Gymnast magazine

…

9. China’s Yang Yilin and Xiao Sha were wonderful today. Both girls hit all of their routines and landed in 6th and 7th. That’s probably lower than they should have been, but it doesn’t seem the bother their performances now. The judges who continue to shave them are in reality helping them to toughen up and hit routines. It won’t be long before the world will not be able to “expect” China to miss. Their style of gymnastics will endure long after these incompetent judges retire or get ejected from the sport. …

7. Vanessa Ferrari again earns her name. This young lady is remarkable. Competing on a stress fracture, she has produced some wonderful routines so far. Although she fell on her Comaneci release on Bars, she bounced right back and fought her way to the podium to tie Barbosa for the bronze. She came here with the most ambitious program and will continue to fight for medals in every meet she competes. She is a real champion in every way you can imagine and the audiences love her. It will be fun to watch the fight between Vanessa and Shawn through Beijing. Please stay healthy both of you!

6. Nastia Liukin is such a classic beauty. With her concentration to detail and her perfectly straight lines, she is wonderful to watch as an artist, but don’t be fooled, she is a tigress. No one wants to win more that Nastia, and she pushed herself very hard here to be in a position to do just that today. Unfortunately, beam again did her in, but this time it was a fall on her layout of her series. I am betting that she rocks beam in the event finals and winds up with a medal.

5. What a surprise Jade Barbosa was. She and Hong Un Jong (North Korea) were the only two gymnasts who did more than a Yurchenko double twist, and she used her 15.90 there to help her past bars (only 14.95) to be in a tie for first with Liukin after two events. She is wonderful on beam, getting the second highest score (15.70), but gave way to the pressure in the fourth event when she touched out her full-in third pass on floor. Nevertheless, she could make some noise in Beijing if she could raise her bars to the next level. This was the first all-around medal for Brazil, yet another milestone for this nation on the move.

4. Jonathan Horton is so much fun to watch, especially when he gets pommel horse out of the way. Today after horse, even though he hit, he was in last place. Five rotations later, he was just .2 from the bronze medal. Finishing fourth is remarkable for him and should give him the motivation to work even harder to raise his A-Panel scores. If he wants to medal in Beijing, he will have to risk more than he did here. He started the finals in eight place on the planned A-Panel list, more than 1 point behind Tomita and 2.9 behind Yang Wei. …

2. Shawn Johnson, solid as a rock, had only to watch as all of those who could challenge her made mistakes. She is so comfortable with these routines that she can perform them with confidence; hence, she can maximize her B-Panel scores. Remember she entered the all-around finals sixth of all the top girls as far as far as planned A-Panel scores! In fact she was giving up .9 to Ferrari. Nevertheless, when the chalk settled, she was the champion! Congratulations Shawn! You put Iowa on the gymnastics map much in the same way Nadia put Romania there in 1976.

1. Yang Wei is the MAN! Although he showed himself to be somewhat human with a high bar routine that included two dismounts (he peeled off the bar on one of his pirouetting move), he was so steady up to that point that he only needed a 12.125 to win. With a planned 6.0 A-Panel, he had no problem making that. With his superior A-Panel scores, it will be very difficult to beat him without risking a lot more than most of the other gymnasts are willing.

International GYMNAST Online | 2007 World Championships

Yang Wei – ESPN

STUTTGART, Germany –

First, a national champion. Now, a world champion. And everyone knows what’s coming up next on Shawn Johnson’s schedule.

America’s new queen of gymnastics also proclaimed herself best in the world Friday, winning the all-around title with her bright smile and sky-high jumps and setting herself up as the woman to beat next year at the Beijing Olympics.

The 15-year-old Iowa girl scored 61.875 points to defeat Steliana Nistor of Romania by 1.25.

“I’m so happy and so proud of myself,” Johnson said. “I just, I don’t know. I’m overwhelmed with everything right now.”

Brazil’s Jade Barbosa and defending champion Vanessa Ferrari of Italy tied for third and shared the bronze. American Nastia Liukin put in her usual exotic, graceful performance, but a fall off the beam doomed her chances and she finished fifth. …

Johnson Wins Title at World Gymnastics – Forbes.com

No one was surprised that Yang Wei defended his All-around title. They were surprised when he fell.

STUTTGART, Germany (AFP) — Yang Wei survived a fall from the high bar to give China their second gold medal of the world gymnastics championships here on Friday.

A day after helping China win a record-equalling eighth men’s team crown the 27-year-old Yang took his seventh world gold.

The veteran had looked to be coasting to victory when he dominated the competition, scoring highest on three of the six apparatus – pommel horse, rings and parallel bars.

But despite taking a confortable 3.550-lead onto the final apparatus Yang’s gold medal hopes had looked in the balance when he fell badly from the high bar, scoring the lowest mark in the 23-man field with just 13.600.

His lead was however enough to secure victory with a combined 93.675 points which put him 1.475 ahead of Germany’s Fabian Hambuechen, who snatched his country’s first all-around silver after his acrobatics on the high bar.

Japan’s Hisashi Mizutori took bronze with 91.400, as his teammate Hiroyuki Tomita, the 2005 champion and last year’s runner-up, dropped to 12th after a poor showing. …

AFP: Chinese gymnast Yang wins all-around gold at world championships

GYMmedia coverage of the Men’s AA Final