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!
I'm a little late to report these news but I've been having too much fun watching online coverage of the Sochi Olympic Games. So far Canada has been doing really well in the medal count :).
I haven't forgotten about gymnastics. Lately I've been feeling kind of uninspired and don't know what to post. I guess I'll blog that Elite Canada happened last week and the big news was Victoria Moors's and Ellie Black's upgrades. They had some major mistakes but this is early in the season and they were just getting use to their new upgrades. The upgrades are nice but they need to work on execution. Execution is something that will be holding Canada back in elite gymnastics. Hopefully they will be able to do these new upgrades at world's.
Moors's is now dismounting beam with a full in tuck (G) and Black is doing ff + tuck 1/1 (B+F) on beam. That combo is worth 0.2.
This was a cool routine with double spin + full spin, triple spin and aerial cartwheel + back tuck. Douglas placed 1st QF with D5.9 + E8.275 = 14.175. Sadly in event finals she placed last.
2/1 Spin + 1/1 Spin (D) 0.1CV
Switch 1/2 leap (D)
Leap series
Aerial cartwheel + Back tuck (D+C) 0.2CV
Back pike (C)
3/1 Spin (E)
Front tuck (D)
Dbl tuck (D)
Today is Canada Day so I thought I'll post these routines up. This Canadian team made history when they were the first Canadian team to finish in an impressive 5th place. I was so happy to see our team do so good. They had no major errors. They began their rotation on floor and ended on beam. Their combined total was 170.804.
First congratulations to Dalton and Ohashi for winning. Results here
I missed the first half of the competition for MAG: FX, PH, SR and WAG:
VT. I watched the German coverage which had Philipp Boy commentary. Of
course I didn't understand any of the commentary but he seemed to of
enjoyed Ohashi's beam and I think he even asked his co host if Ohashi's
Memmel spin was elegant, and it was.
I kind of felt sorry for Danell Leyva :( Apparently he was sick so
hopefully that was the reason why he was faltering. I'm happy that
Victoria Moors came in 3rd AA. I like her floor routine but what is up with her spin? I might sound like an ass for saying this but I hate the spin. Someone please
enlighten me on it. I don't get it. One of my friend said that it
looked like she was covering up a hurt knee :D I just don't like how she
falls to the ground. I know that she does it on purpose but why?
I thought the judges were harsh on Asuka Teramoto's downgraded 3/1
twists but then it was fair game because Ohashi was also downgraded on
her leap elements.
I'm still not sure if I like Ohashi's floor routine:
Ohashi's beam is growing on me. Ohashi never connected what she intended to but the
fact that her difficulty score was still 6.8 is astounding, it's just
crazy that it can be up in the 7.3 range when she hits everything.
Vanessa Ferrari is still kicking ass on floor with a dbl dbl tuck! Aside
from Ohashi and maybe Teramoto's beam, I wasn't really impressed with
the beam performances. Well Simone Biles two flic flac to full in tuck
impressed me but not the other parts of her routine.
This
competition is the beginning of the gymnastics season so I can
understand that not everyone was at their best peak. I will say this
though, I miss Kohei Uchimura's good form and execution.
First, happy Canada Day to all the Canadians around the world. I'm proud to be an Canadian. I have been enjoying this long weekend. The sun is shining and the weather is amazing.
By now most gym fans have already know who is on the Canadian Olympic gymnastics team. The five ladies that will represent Canada are: Kristina Vaculik, Victoria Moors, Dominique Pegg, Brittany Rogers & Ellie Black. And only one male qualified on the men's side to London. Nathan Gafuik will be the one to go to London. Good luck to the team and train safely and please be in good health.
In other news, USA's Olympic Trials are going on. I haven't seen night 1 and I will miss night 2 today. I'm going to go see fireworks :) ! From what I have been reading so far the team that everyone is predicting is basically still the same = Wieber, Raisman, Douglas, Maroney and Ross. Some are saying Elizabeth Price could replace Maroney, I can see it. I've also heard that Leyva and Orozco are confirmed to rep the men's Olympic team, not really a surprise.
This is such sad news. Peng Peng Lee injured her knee while attempting the DTY at the Canadian Nationals. Lee withdrew from the Canadian trials. I was looking forward to seeing Lee represent Canada at the Olympics. I kept on telling my friends that she was one of the major stars of Canadian gymnastics and that when they watch the Olympics they should look out for Peng Peng Lee. Now I will have to tell them she won't be competing at the Olympics. Instead she will be the honorary team captain, "Gymnastics Canada has named Lee as the Honorary WAG Team Captain for the
2012 Olympic Games as she is a dynamic and respected leader among the
WAG NT athletes and that her winning attitude and determination are
commendable." Click for source
I wanted to see Lee perform this FX at the Olympics.
Since I already started talking about the Canadian National's I felt like I should finish what I started. There hasn't been any official scores out yet but the very reliable gymnastic blog gymnasticscoaching.com has a lot of Canadian National news. I especially liked how he had some MAG details.
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Olympic hopeful Louis Smith of GBR tied with world champ Krisztian Berki of Hungary on PH in qualification. But with the tie breaking rule Berki finished first because of Smith's lower E-score.
The Canadian Nationals are currently being held in Regina. Here are the results for day 1 Click Here. 1) Kristina Vaculik, 2) Victoria Moors and 3) Ellie Black are currently leading the AA standings. Peng Peng Lee sadly injured her knee doing the DTY and will miss nationals. I wish her a speedy recovery. A lot of gym fans, including me wants to see Lee at the Olympic games. It would feel wrong not having Lee on the team.
Here is Black's floor routine. Note the amazing 5/2 through to 3/1. That is an innovated opening combo.
Lee is my favourite Canadian gymnast. She has loads of personality and energy. She's definitely a lock for the Canadian Olympic team. She can really sell a floor routine. Her beam is full of difficult skills and she does two flairs as her mount! I'm not crazy about her movements (a bit spastic) but it works for her. She will be a Canadian star at the Olympics. I know she has to go through all the competition process to become an Olympian but I'm confident she will make the Canadian team. I'm so proud to be a Canadian and my bias heart will be cheering for the Canadian team at the Olympics.
Yippee Ki Yay the Canadian WAG team has qualified a full team to this year's Olympic games. I'm still disappointed by the men's team though. The women qualified in 2nd place at the test event. This is exciting news for me and probably most Canadians. Well done girls.
Meanwhile Anastasia Grishina and Yulia Inshina didn't do so hot in the qualification/AA.
Grishina's bars is truly beautiful to watch though. She has been working really hard on bars and her kips are improving. The only area that really bothers me is the leg separation in the pak. There is also a tap swing in her routine but it does not bother me much. I still have faith in Grishina. She still has 7-6 months left. I hope she dances more on FX too. It's kind of depressing to watch her floor routine, even sometimes when Afanasyeva does less choreo she still has something special, like a spark, Grishina not so much.
