Rio 2016 Olympic MAG/WAG Event Finals & Final Thoughts PART 2

Uneven Bars Results
1. Aliya Mustafina 15.900
2. Madison Kocian 15.833
3. Sophie Scheder 15.566

Aliya Mustafina is the Queen of uneven bars. She is the 2x Olympic champion on this event. I am really happy she won! Madison Kocian in 2nd and I think this was her best routine. And Sophie Scheder! Wow I forgot that she was in this finals. I have always knew about her and even blogged about how much I liked her routines. I wasn't expecting her to medal at the Olympics. This is a great win for her.

MAG Vault Results
1. Ri Se Gwang AVG 15.691
2. Denis Abliazin AVG 15.516
3. Kenzo Shirai AVG 15.449

Man this finals was exciting to watch. Two new crazy vaults were performed. Igor Radivilov was 2nd to perform and he attempted a 3/1 front tuck! This guy is crazy gutsy. He was awarded the full 7.0 difficulty but I read he will not get it named after him since he fell. Then there was Kenzo Shirai. After his disappointing floor finals he came back with a crazy 7/2 (3.5) Yurchenko! I am happy Kenzo was able to medal individually. He also had the highest execution in this finals. Ri Se Gwang is another fearless competitor. He is truly the champion because he did two vaults that is named after himself. His vaults may not look pretty but they are crazy difficult. I'm happy he won. Then there's Abliazin who maybe could have won if he stuck his Ri vault. I think he could of but who knows. In this case it's still nice to see him medal for team Russia.

Balance Beam Results
1. Sanne Wevers 15.466
2. Laurie Hernandez 15.333
3. Simone Biles 14.733

As always this was a nerve wrecking event to watch. Simone could have won this event but she grasped the beam and almost fell from front tuck. I was so nervous. In the end she was able to win 3rd. Laurie had a chance to win after Wevers but her execution and difficulty was not quite enough and she had to settle for 2nd. Then there is Sanne Wevers! I absolutely love her beam routine. Very unique and beautiful with all the difficult turns. The judges took quite a long time for her score and when it came out I clapped in happiness. I think it was the suspense that made it all exciting. Sometimes Wevers is inconsistent but this was her year. So happy for her. In a lot of ways this was probably my favourite win of this Olympic gymnastics.

Parallel Bars Results  
1. Oleg Verniaiev 16.041
2. Danell Leyva 15.900
3. David Belyavskiy 15.783

Again I was disappointed with the Chinese guys Deng Shudi and You Hao. Deng was shaky and lost lots in execution. You Hao was doing really well up until his difficult double front 1/2 out. So close he was but it was not meant to be. It's also clear to see which style the judges like. Danell performed very well and stuck his landing. I'm happy he won after from being an alternate. Belyavskiy won 3rd. His routine is nice and its awesome how he got 3rd in such a difficult finals. Never giving up and fighting is the name of this sport. Then there's Verniaiev. He had an error issue with handstand but his routine has good difficulty and execution through out to make him win. It also didn't hurt that he was a major favourite to win this event. I'm happy he can leave with a gold medal from these games.

WAG Floor Exercise Results 
1. Simone Biles 15.966!
2. Aly Raisman 15.500
3. Amy Tinkler 14.933

This was another good finals. I really enjoyed watching Wang Yan on floor. I think she was low balled on this event. She deserved a better score. Through out this competition I have been impressed with Wang. She hit all her routines through out the games. Very impressive. Amy Tinkler was a nice surprised. How nice that Great Britain won an individual medal on the WAG side. If it wasn't Claudia Fragapane to qualify and medal it was a nice surprise to see Tinkler do it. Aly Raisman was simply amazing. I really like her on this event. This is her forte. This is her event. Her third pass sticking a DLO gah. She was not able to defend her 2012 title because Simone Biles was also amazing. Biles difficulty is out of this world! Such difficult tumbling and very energetic routine. Simone Biles won her 4th gold on this event in Rio. Wow.

High Bar Results 
1. Fabian Hambuchen 15.766
2. Danell Leyva 15.500
3. Nile Wilson 15.466  

This is always an event to look forward to. I'm disappointed that Kohei fell in qualification but there were great guys in this final. Sadly Zonderland was not able to defend his title. His friendly rival friend Fabian Hambuchen was first up and killed his routine. It was a thrilling and exciting routine. This was his last time to compete as he is retiring. What an amazing way to end his competitive gymnastics career with an Olympic gold medal! He now has all the collected medals of bronze from 2008, silver from 2012 and now Gold. That's cool. Danell Leyva was also amazing to see on bars. It's nice to see him medal again. Some people are calling him the silver prince. Nile Wilson fought and did a great job to place 3rd. Never give up because you never know what can happen. It's great that Great Britain has been winning several individual medals. That is a success for their program.

Sanne Wevers 2016 IAG Beam

That triple turn.

Seda Tutkhalyan Russian Championships 2016 BB QF

This routine is currently the hot topic at Russian Championships. Mostly because Tutkhalyan upgraded to a full in pike dismount and was consistent. Russia really needs a beam routine like this. Let's hope for their sake that Tutkhalyan can stay consistent and hit her routine every single time.

  

Sanne Wevers 2016 Cottbus World Cup QF BB || D-Score

Very lovely and interesting routine. Some may say she overuses many same skills but this is a unique and different kind of beam routine than we are use to seeing. She is very good at turns and the first double L-turn is named after her. I think she did everything she intended to do except she can connect switch leap into Kochetkova.

Im just practicing putting her difficulty together since I want to keep understanding the code of points. Also this routine is pretty hard to understand when you don't understand the CoP well. I'm sure I did this correctly.

Wevers Turn (E)
2 Aerial Cartwheel (D) 0.1CV
Front Aerial + Wolf Jump (D) 0.1CV
L-turn + 1/1 Turn + 2/1 Turn (C+A+D) 0.2CV
Split leap+Straight Jump 1/1
Switch Leap (C)
Kochetkova (D)
Layout Gainer Dismount (D)

Dance = E, C, D, C
Acro = D, D, D, D

3.1 + 0.4CV = 3.5 + 2.5CR = 6.0 D-Score

Catalina Ponor's 2016 Doha World Cup BB EF

She's back in time for the Olympic year. Romania really needs her. I like her confident and aggressive style. In my opinion the difficulty is a bit lacking to contend for a gold in Rio but anything can happen in this crazy sport. Sometimes execution and consistency can outweigh a more difficult D-score. Not a fan of the switch ring leap but everything else is good. She still makes gymnastics interesting to watch. Good luck to her and team Romania.

D5.9 + E8.75 = 14.65

  

Double Throwback Thursday

In the wake of Ross's and Maroney's retirement here are some of their routines that I liked. Admittedly these routines don't feel like 4 years ago to me. Time has really gone by.

Flavia Saraiva 2016 Baku Cup - BB QF

This is only from qualification but this routine was good. Saraiva was almost credited all her connections. With Rio coming up close this is a beam routine to watch. She has the potential to win gold in her home country on this event.

Happy 21st Birthday Viktoria Komova

After all these years she is still one of my favourite gymnast.

I truly think Komova should have only won UB gold at 2015 worlds. Such a beautiful routine.

Also it's a routine like this that makes Komova a special gymnast.

 

Afanasyeva's BB & FX || Glasgow 2015 Podium Training

Oh Afan. She is my favourite to watch on the Russian team. Her beam is lacking in difficulty but it's nice to see her helping the team on this event. I had to giggle a bit at her mount sequence. I blame it on her kidney situation :P. I wish she could keep a consistent stable routine. Her composition is always changing and I can see she is doing a 180 leg split turn now. We'll see what she does in qualification.

On floor nothing unusual to report except for the weird music that I only like because I'm bias :P. I still like the way she moves and I can see she was trying to be creative and playful in this routine but somehow it didn't work. I like the short low floor choreo though and she has one of the best double L-turns in the world. Sadly I think she'll get lots of corner deductions and she'll have to hit the hell out of this routine to accomplish something amazing at this championships. I'm not expecting much from her this competition. It's just nice to see her competing at worlds again. I'm wishing her good luck.

Ksenia Afanasyeva 2015 Russian Cup BB EF

Not the highest difficulty. I hope she can keep working up to her older connections to get her difficulty up again. I say this is a good start for her since she recently started training beam again. Her past injuries prevented her from training it till now. She looked confident enough. What's new is the 5/2 twists dismount. That was a good idea since her double tuck and pike dismounts looked like they always gave her issues. Oh and not that it matters but she does a split jump mount now. She has a variety of mounts to choose from. I guess doing the same mount can be boring for her so she changes it up. I feel she can do more with her routine so here's to hoping she can keep improving.

Just Because...Deng Linlin 2011 Chinese National BB

Deng's layout on beam is one of the best in the world. It's high, powerful, straight and exciting. Here is when she did layout 1/1 and trying to connect to Korbut flip. I believe she first tried this in 2010.

 

Just Because...Larisa Iordache's Nanning 2014 TF BB

It's been awhile since we've seen Iordache compete. I'm interested in seeing what she will show this year.

Ellie Black BB & FX Gold @ Pan Ams 2015

Good routines from Black. She looked so confident on beam. I really like her beam routine. She made beam finals at last year's world championships. I'm looking forward to her making the beam finals this year in Glasgow. She should be able to make it, she is that good. And you never know what can happen in this crazy sport, she could medal or win :P.

I like her floor routine too. She is capable of more difficulty. She can do DLO and her signature combo of 5/2 twists indirect to 3/1!

Komova BB Prelims @ Baku 2015

Oh Komova. She still has that lovely line. Lot's of wobbles but she fought and that is a very good sign. She made no finals but she got to win team gold as prelims was also used as team finals.

I really like the camera angle around 0:33 . It captures the standing Arabian, leap series, 180 split turn, and front tuck. I like the angle because it shows how well balanced a gymnast is. These athletes are daring and strong.

Seda Tutkhalyan BB & FX Prelims @ Baku 2015

Tutkhalyan is slowing growing on me. I like her floor routine and her beam has lots of potential. She qualifies first with 14.600 on beam.

Maria Kharenkova AA - BB & FX @ 2015 European Championships

Kharenkova is growing on me. The more she competes the more I see that she is getting better. She came in 2nd AA.

Thanks to susanw1984 videos.

Phan Thi Ha Thanh (VIE) Gold BB EF @ Doha 2015

Just Because...Catalina Ponor's 2012 European BB QF

I'm hearing she is considering a comeback if everything goes well. I hope she can make it. I really like her switch leap + Omelianchik combination.

 

Eythora Thorsdottir 2014 Beam Routine

Lots of nice cool combination ideas. Only flaws in my opinion are there's too many dance elements. Which can cause too much execution and connection deductions. Either then that its an interesting routine.

Huang Huidan's 2014 Team Finals World Beam

One of my favourite routine from team finals.