Some MAG European Vids

Smith D-6.9 + E-8.855 = 15.755

 

VS

Golden Berki D-6.9 + E-9.058 = 15.958

 

Marcel Nguyen Gold PB 15.766

 

Vlasios Maras Bronze HB- 15.266 - I liked this routine

2012 MAG European EF

Just finished watching live stream of finals. Europeans is nothing like worlds but still worth watching. Here are the final results. I put the results down like this for my own personal reference. Having a blog is good because I can go back and re-read things for references :)

Floor Exercise: CLICK RESULTS
1) 15.766 GRE Eleftherios Kosmidis
2) 15.300 BLR Dzmitry Barkalau
3) 15.166 FRA Gael da Silva
3) 15.166 ISR Alexander Shatilov

Pommel Horse: CLICK RESULTS
1) 15.958 HUN Krisztian Berki
2) 15.755 GBR Louis Smith
3) 15.300 ARM Harutyum Merdinyan
An interesting tidbit: Louis Smith tweeted, "Berki's start score was wrong and I should have won." Oh oh someone is mad. Smith thought he should of won. I'm not an expert on PH. Here is the article source from BBC: bbc.co.uk/sport

Still Rings: CLICK RESULTS
1) 15.666 RUS Aleksandr Balandin
2) 15.466 ITA Matteo Morandi
3) 15.433 RUS Denis Ablyazin

Vault: CLICK RESULTS
1) 16.166 ROM Flavius Koczi
2) 16.066 UKR Igor Radivilov
3) 16.062 RUS Denis Ablyazin

Parallel Bars: CLICK RESULTS
1) 15.766 GER Marcel Nguyen
2) 15.666 UKR Oleg Verniaiev
3) 15.600 SLO Mitja Petkovsek

High Bar: CLICK RESULTS
1) 15.833 RUS Emin Garibov
2) 15.566 CRO Marijo Moznik
3) 15.266 GRE Vlasios Maras

Thoughts on U.S. Classic Gymnastics

Results: CLICK HERE

So many gymnastics stuff to blog about today. I just finished watching U.S Classics online. I'm going to admit I don't know much about classics but it has something to do with qualifying to USA National's. This meet was particularly exciting because Nastia Liukin is back and I also got to see how the Americans are doing. This meet was not so bad considering most of the gymnasts were not peaking and were not giving it 100%. This meet was't suppose to be full of spectacular gymnastics. I think the Americans are being a bit cautious and will take the next meets more serious and will make it more competitive. I still think the Americans are strong as a team and will peak well for the Olympics. The only concern I have about the Americans is ARTISTRY. I know it gets boring talking about their artistry but they really lack it. Their main contenders are the ones who really lacks artistry or are mediocre. The ones that might not make the team are the most artistic.

Nastia Liukin- Considering she hasn't been in the gym for awhile and to comeback and do an ok routine is pretty cool. I thought her score was a bit high though. Her leaps were not pretty and they were wonky. I harshly criticized the Russians on beam and so I will not spare Liukin's beam, she did not deserve 14.9. She really needs to stop dipping her butt down so low, it's not elegant. I do respect Liukin for keeping it real though. When Borden interviewed her she honestly said she would be upset if she didn't make the Olympic team.

Jordyn Wieber- She only did bars and beam. Bars was a bit rough for her. Beam was much better and she was solid. She needs to work on her artistry.

Kyla Ross- She didn't do anything spectacular but she is still a strong contender. Her Amanar is scary though. She has been going out of bounds a lot in recent competitions with her Amanar. She scored very good on bars 15.45. I still like this gymnast but she needs to spend more time at the ballet barre.

Gabrielle Douglas- She was really impressive on bars. USA needs her bars. On beam she was wobbly but if she can hit her routine she can be wonderful. Her FX was ok and she can at least get her 3/1 full around. She really needs to ditch her FX music asap.
McKayla Maroney- She did the Amanar and the Mustafina. She is the best female gymnast in the world on vault. I really hope USA figures out a way to have her on their team.

Alexandra Raisman- She was the AA winner. She is so consistent. I think she will make the USA team. She's not the most aesthetically pleasing gymnast in terms of execution but she stays on and in bounds on the apparatuses. She is so sloppy on bars though and it's not even funny. She really needs to work on her artistry on FX and BB. Her 3/1 full on FX was under-rotated.

Rebecca Bross- Is only going to focus on UB & BB for now on. She forfeited training AA. Her beam was wobbly but still ok except for her under-rotated Patterson dismount. She also desperately needs to work on her beam artistry, ugh.

-I was also annoyed that Tim Daggett said Maroney's Amanar was the #1 most AMAZING piece of skill on a apparatus in Tokyo from both the men's and women's side. I think Yang Hak Seon's 3/1 FHS was the most impressive!

MAG 2012 European Team Finals

I just finished watching the live stream of the men's European team finals. It wasn't the most exciting competition. A lot of falls and mistakes from the gymnasts. Click for Results

1) Great Britain 266.296
2) Russia 265.535
3) Romania 261.319

I know that comparing scores from different competitions are sort of useless but China's 275.161 team score from Tokyo was not even close to being matched by the Europeans. Japan had 273.093 with falls in Tokyo. This means the Europeans have a lot of improving and consistency to do if they want to rival China and Japan. Great Britain is improving as a gymnastics nation but I do not see them winning team gold in London. This is Great Britain's first team gold at Europeans.

Friday Gymnastic News

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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MAG Europeans is going on in Montpellier, France. Here are all the details from: International Gymnast
The official website: ffgym.com
Tons of videos are being uploaded here: GymPOWER1 YouTube Channel
Official European YouTube Channel: europeangymnastics

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.

Berki D-6.7 +  E-9.2 = 15.9
Smith D-6.9 + E-9.0 = 15.9

Kohei Uchimura FLIES!

Uchimura's face will be featured on one of Japan Airlines domestic plane. COOOOOL! Read FULL article here.

Some Canadian Stuff/News

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.

Yang Hak Seon For 2012 VT Gold

Remember Yang Hak Seon? Well he was the man who did the clean difficult front handspring 3/1 and got it named after him in Tokyo team finals. His vault is so difficult that it is rated at 7.4, the highest VT d-score. He is a twisting machine. His second vault is 3/1 Tsuk, which is also difficult. He is the current reigning world vault champ and he could be golden in London. The "YANG" is incredible. I wonder if we'll ever see someone else perform it as clean as Yang?

The Yang VT TF Tokyo (look at the slow motion)

 

Tokyo VT EF Gold

Uchimura Wants Team Gold at 2012 Olympics

Today The Associated Press did an article on Kohei Uchimura.

"When Kohei Uchimura imagines himself collecting a gold medal at the London Olympics, he thinks about collecting one for the team.
An overwhelming favorite to win the all-around gold, the most prestigious event in gymnastics, Uchimura is heading to the Olympics aiming to put Japan first."

"I’m fed up with being second in the team event and that’s what we have to overcome,” Uchimura said. “The team is a special event and winning it is in many ways more rewarding that the individual event."

Click here to read the full article 

KSENIA AFANASYEVA

Beautiful montage done by AliyaMustafinaFan

Tan Sixin's 2012 Chinese National Gold EF BB

Hardly any choreo but still beautifully performed. Sometimes less is more, I'm talking about you Romania.

Quick Thoughts on 2012 European Event Finals

The Romanians dominated EF. Izbasa, Ponor and Iordache were golden. Izbasa won on VT with a DTY and tucky ro-1/2 on front 1/1 twist or unofficially known as the Mustafina. Iordache took gold on FX, she is a NEW STAR. Komova easily won UB but had a million wobbles on beam and sat down her Patterson dismount. Komova went all out with her dismount! Grishina fell off beam, damn. Grishina at least won 2nd on bars.
Beam finals was a splat-fest yet comical. I laughed during beam finals, not in a rude way but it was comical to watch. I couldn't help but laugh out loud. Three gymnasts fell on their dismounts after Iordache's routine. The expressions on Ponor's, Iordache's and her coach's face said it all. They all couldn't believe the splat-fests and were trying to be respectful by not bursting out in laughter.

 Komova's GOLD UB

For more EF videos go to ArtisticGymnastics1 YouTube Channel

2012 Chinese National Bars

He Kexin's UB is actually looking ok. She does have some minor flaws and can the judges really see her leg sep on some of her skills? He Kexin can definitely medal on this event if she makes it to London. Believe it or not she can even win gold. I can never get tired of her opening release skills.

                     D-7.1 + E-8.55 = 15.650

And here is Zou Kai's HB routine. Not many fans will like this routine but he packs in the difficulty to get the high d-score of 7.9. His execution here is 8.825 for an overall score of 16.725!

2012 European Team Finals

2012 European Team Final: click here for detailed results

1. Romania 176.288
2. Russia 175.536
3. Italy 171.430
4. Great Britain 167.763
5. France 164.295
6. Belgium 163.821
7. Spain 163.522
8. Germany 160.497

Romania won over Russia! I'm not surprised. Romania was exceptionally good tonight except for bars. Romania looked well prepared and ooooooozed confidence. The Russians were headcasey as usual. What does this mean? Not much in my opinion. Even with Russia's issues (which the judges were hammering them) they still managed to finish close behind Romania by -0.752 points. Of course though, Romania's new star Larisa Iordache did fall off beam but Russia wasn't too far behind Romania considering they weren't in 100% full force. Russia has a lot of work to do but I'm not too worried. Komova did not perform on all events and Mustafina is progressing well considering she is coming back from a serious injury. She showed more difficulty on floor. Mustafina's double arabian is fantastic. I especially liked her prelims double arabian + stag, so much power and aggression. Mustafina is slowly regaining back all her difficulty.

Russia still has time to get their gymnasts to be at their ultimate peak. Europeans is not the place to peak and dominate. Plus they still have other strong contenders sitting at home, while a team like Romania lacks less depth. Octavian Bellu, "Russia is Russia. We know what they are able to do when they are in big form." I'm also pretty sure that Romania will have some surprises up their sleeves come London time. Romania winning over Russia makes the Olympics even more exciting. Throw in the Americans and the Chinese and there will be a showdown. I've always heard the term never count out the Romanians and it's so true. I would also like to point out that China should never be written off too.

Aliya Mustafina on UB. Beast.

Team Russia Gymnastics Interview

There is a new Russian interview that features the potential gymnasts that will represent Russia at the Olympics. It features Aliya Mustafina, Viktoria Komova, Anastasia Grishina, Ksenia Afanasyeva and Anastasia Sidorova. I am loving this team choice. Here are the articles/pics: article 1 article 2 

Grishina, Mustafina, Komova, Afanasyeva, Sidorova

My WAG Favourites For Olympic Gold Medals

Here is my final list of the favourite female gymnasts I want to see win gold at the Olympics. I don't have a 2nd or 3rd place list. My list will change depending on who will actually be at the games. Actually, I might not even care about making changes. I just want the best gymnasts to win, even if they are not my favourite. If any of my favourites ends up just medaling 2nd or 3rd I will still be happy. This is not a prediction list just a favourite dream list. These gymnasts actually have realistic chances of winning gold medals.

I did some long and short write ups about these gymnasts. Please keep in mind that some of the posts are not recent and my opinion then may not be the same as today. Regardless, I am - still favouring them to win gold.

Team: I 'm undecided. I really respect all the teams. My intuition tells me not to be bias because I can see all the good and flaws from each team. May the best team win that night.

All-Around: Viktoria Komova (RUS) click for post link

Vault: Mckayla Maroney (USA) click for post link

Uneven Bars: Beth Tweddle (GBR) click for post

Balance Beam: Sui Lu (CHN) click for post link

Floor Exercise: Ksenia Afanasyeva (RUS) click for post link

*I didn't include any Romanians. I actually hope they do well at the Olympics and surprise the living daylights out of me.

Ksenia Afanasyeva For 2012 FX GOLD

Yup I said it. I am incredibly bias for my favourite gymnast. I want Afanasyeva to win the floor exercise in event finals at the Olympics. I have been recently watching a lot of floor exercises and no one has the style of the lioness Afanasyeva. She is elegant yet has difficult tumbles. It's hard to combine grace and power, which Afanasyeva does really well. I'll admit that she is not the only "pretty" graceful moving gymnast out there but no other gymnasts seems to do it for me. Afanasyeva has a different style that I have not seen from any other gymnasts, no one has matched up to her yet. There is Grishina but Afanasyeva still has something more superior than Grishina. Afanasyeva was born to move. There are many different styles of gymnastics but I like the Afanasyeva style. I grumble at some of her competitors floor exercises, they just don't do it for me. Afanasyeva's biggest flaws are getting around her spins and hitting her full routine. She's not perfect but when she's on she is perfect. Sometimes I lose hope in Afanasyeva but I remind myself to be positive and supportive. It may be annoying to some gym fans that I talk a lot about Afan but she clearly has a chance at a Olympic medal.

In honesty I hope she can make the Russian team and just be in London. She doesn't have to qualify to anything, I just want to see her in London. Her current status is unknown; minor injury and was/is sick? I hope she gets well soon. I can't wait for her to unveil her new choreographed routine. Each one she had debuted did not disappoint me. Hopefully her new floor routine will be great and golden in London.

One of my favourite Afanasyeva FX moment. 2009 AA European Championships.

Japan's Olympic Training Team

Japan has announced their men's and women's main gymnastics training squad. The 5 men will be Kohei Uchimura, Kazuhito Tanaka, Yusuke Tanaka, Ryohei Kato and koji Yamamuro. The 5 ladies will be Rie Tanaka, Yu Minobe, Asuka Teramoto, Koko Tsurumi, and Yuko Shintake. Click here for source

Y. Tanaka, Kato, Yamamuro, K. Tanaka, Uchimura

Shintake, Tsurumi, Teramoto, Minobe, Tanaka