Part 5: Favourite Gymnastics of 2013 ~ Honourable Mentions/Miscellaneous

Alright so this is the last part of my series. Even though this is a honourable mentions/miscellaneous post these are still some of my favourite moments. Some of these choices came from anon comments in my comment sections. Without those comments I would have forgotten about these gymnasts or would have never knew about those routines.

In no particular order:

Yusuke Tanaka's Kolman + Rybalko (F+D) 0.1CV.

Jossimar Calvo Moreno PB dismount & HB routine. He was also submitting the dbl dbl  dismount off the end of pbars. I actually didn't notice that until someone mentioned it in the comment section.

Kristian Thomas VT, Nguyen Ha Thanh VT, Fabian Hambuchen HB, Kohei Kameyama PH I liked his reaction when he found out he was first, Lin Chaopan PB really good routine, Zhang Hongtao PH, Matvei Petrov PH, Aleksandr Balandin SR, Liu Yang SR, Pham Phuoc Hung PB, Scott Morgan FX,  

Sam Mikulak seems like a cool guy. He was one of those guys that could challenge Uchimura. Unfortunately he messed up HB AA. He was so close to finishing 2nd.

Ryohei Kato wining 2nd AA. He was my pick to win after Uchimura. I'm really glad he came in 2nd.

 
WAG FX - Mai Murakami, Giulia Steingruber, Larisa Iordache, Jessica Lopez, Sandra Izbasa.

Anna Rodionova was a gymnast that I liked this year. I'm glad Russia decided to send her to Antwerp. I think that was a wise move because she really showcased what Russia is all about, elegance. Some may say her long lines helps illustrates the illusion that she is elegant but it's also her hard work at the ballet barre that makes her elegance aesthetically pleasing to watch. It looks natural unlike some gymnasts who are mimicking. Some gymnasts may have the long lines but they are stiff and they are not fooling me into thinking they are elegant/artistic.

Aliya Mustafina world's BB gold. She finally wins a gold medal at worlds.

Andreea Munteanu BB, she has some of the best leaps in the world. 

UB - Kyla Ross, Rebecca Downie, Shang Chunsong I bet she will improve, Tan Jiaxin I don't like this video angle though. Aliya Mustafina I can't wait to see her full upgraded routine. I feel this is not her fully upgraded routine. Should be interesting to see what she comes up with this quad.

Well this concludes my favourite gymnastics of 2013. These were some of the things that I could remember liking. What were your favourites of the year?

Part 4: Favourite Gymnastics of 2013 ~ WAG

I don't care what anyone thinks but I think Afanasyeva's Universiade floor exercise AA and Amanar vault was my favourite thing of the year. I could criticize her faults but what's the point? As you can see this blog is kind of an Afan appreciation blog so she would be tops as my favourite :P. I like her AA FX because she almost hits everything.
Afan doing the Amanar was another big deal because who would of thought a female gymnast at her age would be able to do it for the first time? Clearly she worked her ass off to be all kinds of amazing at the Universiade Games. She even upgraded her 2nd vault. I also enjoyed that her tumbles has gotten better. Her DLO and dbl pike have improved immensely. Her European floor gold routine is another favourite of mine. IMO Afan did make the year exciting with her rumoured Amanar. It's often dubbed the Afanar :D.

Another girl that made the year exciting would be Simone Biles. I grew to like her. She ruled this year and she also had some of the best training clips. Seriously if she ever competes the stuff that she showed in training the gymternet would explode. I hope she can at least compete something from her training clips in real competition. I forgot to mention her 2 ff + full in (B+B+G) 0.1SB in my favourite combo section. That is a difficult combo to do. Definitely a favourite combo.

(Source: gymnasticsgifs)

Huang Huidan's UB world's gold. Her bar routine was a long time favourite of mine. She was actually a nice surprise win. She wasn't on most people's radar. She's badass for not wearing grips or even the gauge tapes.

Yao Jinnan's UB routines. Even without the Mo salto (G) I still enjoy her routine here. The Mo salto was also one of those rumoured upgrades that not many believed, including me. But she did it and it was exciting to see.

Sophie Scheder's UB. It's not a flashy bar routine but it's a really beautiful and elegant routine.

Anna Dementyeva's Universiade beam. Dementyeva is a great beam worker. So sad she retired. I wanted her to win beam gold at Universiade. Her team/prelim beam was good. So much difficult work. I liked her onodi + front aerial + Sheep (D+D+D) 0.3CV. It's one of my fav connections. I should have included it into my fav combos but I feel I liker her whole routine so she deserves to be here. She also dismounted to a new dbl pike which was a better choice than her usual sketchy 3/1 twists. McKayla Maroney for defending her vault title. I liked her floor routine too. I wish she could have made floor finals but she was penalized for being overtime. I like her new DLO (F). I like how she and Afan round ups into their 5/2 twists instead of doing bhs.

Larisa Iordache's beam. She does two full in's! She was my pick for beam gold in Antwerp but too bad she couldn't pull it off.

Victoria Moor's FX from American Cup. Even without the Moors II (2/1 DLO) her floor routine is still good. I think she has one of the best Silivas (H) in the world. What were some of your favourite routines from this year?

Part 3: Favourite Gymnastics of 2013 ~ MAG

My favourite would be king Kohei Uchimura reigning as world AA champ for the 5th time in a row (one being Olympic AA). It never gets boring watching him win. He is truly an amazing gymnast. What makes it more exciting is to see if any other guys can beat him. Uchimura has the execution that most gymnasts do not have. Even when he is not perfect he is still ahead of his competitors. Not many gymnasts can execute skills like him. He also has some insane difficulty that he doesn't even compete because he is working the code to his advantage. He doesn't need to do some difficulty because he doesn't need them or he sacrifices them for safety and execution. Hopefully one day we will get to see his full out difficulty in competition. He always comes out with some of the best training clips. Like Kovacs + Kolman + Kolman or Cassina + Kolman + Kovacs.

My favourite HB routine. Check out the 3/1 DLO Fedorchenko dismount (F).

Denis Ablyazin FX from Universiade is one of my favourite routine of this year. He does a lot of hard difficult salto skills. Love the fwd 2/1 twists + dbl front tuck (D+D) 0.2CV and the 2/1 DLO (F). Also someone in the comment section from part 1 mentioned his dbl front twists + dbl front pike (D+E) 0.2CV. I can't believe I forgot that. That's a nice combo. It's a shame he didn't qualify to world's floor finals.
  Jake Dalton FX from worlds EF. He won 2nd on this event. I like the Tamayo (F) and the stuck 3/1 Twists (D).  

Kenzo Shirai FX from worlds EF. I can't leave him out. I like his gold medal performance. That quad twists (F)! I also like the side-somie with a 1/1 twist (C).

Yang Hak Seon being a badass on vault. His 3/1 front handspring (6.4) still impresses me. I hope he will get the Kas 5/2 by 2014 Nanning. Ri Se Gwang is another badass vaulter. Too bad he didn't qualify to worlds vault finals because his vaults are insane. Check out his vaults from this year's Doha's Cup. They are easily some of my favourite vaults from this year.

Epke Zonderland's HB from worlds EF. I get that he's not the cleanest guy on bars but his routine is still insane and worth fanning over. His high D-score advantage helps him a lot.

Bobby Baker's full twist double front. I wasn't sure if I should post this in the new skill section since technically we knew he was doing it in 2012 but this is still MAG and it's a favourite skill that I like, heck this whole routine is good.
What were your favourite MAG routines of the year?

Part 2: Favourite Gymnastics of 2013 ~ New Skills

Kenzo Shirai

The Shirai/Kim By Kezno Shirai & Kim Hee Hoon aka the triple twisting Yurchenko: Worth 6.0 in the MAG code. All I can say is that this vault is super duper hard. I honestly thought we would never see it this year but here it is done by Korea's Kim Hee Hoon.

The Shirai I & II: Bwd 4/1 Twists (F) & Fwd 3/1 Twists (F). Kenzo the twisting machine!

Yang Hak Seon doing the 5/2 Kas vault. Doing  a 2/1 Kas is already insane but Yang is badass and is trying to get the 5/2 name after him. I hope next year he will be more successful. Really, he is amazing.

Simone Biles

The Shang by Shang Chunsong: Cleap hip Piked Tkatchev (F). This is a cool skill. I can't believe this skill hasn't been named after someone from before. I don't know if Shang was the first to ever do this skill in WAG but she definitely deserved this skill name. I'm happy she got it named after her.

The Biles by Simone Biles: DLO with 1/2 turn (G). This skill is nice because at times the 1/2 turn catches me by surprise and it's super difficult to spot the landing. She's brave for doing it.

The Moors II by Victoria Moors: She broke the code! It's worth "I", "I"! This skill is even hard for guys to do. I can't snub out Skinner who actually does it well. She was the first one who got everyone talking about the 2/1 DLO.

What were your favourite new skills from this year?

Part 1: Favourite Gymnastics of 2013 ~ Combos

Alright so it's that time of year again when bloggers review their favourite gymnastics moments of the year. Here is part 1 of my favourite things, starting with combos. I have to admit that I didn't put a lot of thought into my favoutite list because I wasn't sure if I was going to make one. I haven't seen all the gymnastics routines from this year so it will be hard to not be bias. I mostly focus on seniors so there will rarely be any mentions of juniors. I'm kind of winging these post series. If you guys have any favourite combinations of the year please make a comment. I would love to see what you guys like as it's hard to notice everything. Some combos are old and were performed by other gymnasts of past years but I'm focusing on this year and it's nice to see new gymnasts performing these combos. I hope you all enjoy my favourite gymnastics of 2013 series.

Aliya Mustafina BB: Switch 1/2 Leap + Onodi + Dbl turn (D+D+D) 0.4CV! I really love this combo. It's really unique and innovated.

Aliya Mustafina UB & FX: Stalder 1/1 + Seitz mixed grip + Pak + Stalder Shap 1/2 (D+E+D+E) 0.5CV & 2 Whips indirect to dbl Arabian + stag (A+A+E+A) 0.3CV.

Kohei Uchimura HB: Tak 1/2 + Kolman (D+F) 0.1CV. It's just insane and hard to do that combo. I don't know how he can do it. He's got to be really strong to get that swing into the Kolman. Just incredible.

(Source: supermura)

Sanne Wevers BB: L-turn + 1/1 turn + dbl turn (C+A+D) 0.2CV. She's a master at beam turns. She even has a skill named after her, the dbl L-turn!

Gabriella Douglas (CAN) FX: Quad turn + dbl turn (E+B) 0.1CV. Just amazing and cool.

Ruby Harrold UB: Maloney + Bhardwaj (D+E) 0.2CV & VLW + Zuchold + Toe 1/1 (E+D+D) 0.3CV. Those are some tough and innovated combinations.

Ksenia Afanasyeva FX: Semenova + dbl turn (D+B) 0.1CV. Afan's double attitude spins are too die for. Very ballerina like and it's exclusively unique to her style because we don't see many dbl attitude spins. I love the spin combo it's elegant and a tricky skill to complete.

 (Source: hope-strongerthanfear)

Fabian Hambuchen HB: Straight Tkatchev + Rybalko elgrip + Winkler (D+D+E) 0.2CV. This combo still impresses me. It also doesn't hurt that it's a beautiful combo.

Kenzo Shirai FX: Front 1/1 twist + Front 3/1 twists (C+F) 0.1CV. Kenzo is a twisting combo ninja! That combo amazes me and the front 3/1 is named after him.

Anna Rodionova BB: FF+ Arabian (B+F) 0.2CV. BAMF!!

Zeng Siqi BB: Switch Ring + Sheep Jump (E+D) 0.2CV. It's rare to see two dance elements get 0.2CV. I love the combo.

Danusia Francis BB: Aerial Cartwheel in cross position + 1/1 twist dismount! I'm not sure what the NCAA code gives this combination but this is a banging combo. IMO it's not a pretty combo but it's still unique and daring.

(Source: gymnasticsgifs)

Well those are some of the combos that I can think of. I'm sure there are lots of other combos that I'm forgetting about. What are your favourite combos from this year?

Merry Christmas & Have a Happy Holiday/New Year

To all my followers that celebrates Christmas or not, I want to say have a happy day today. May your day be filled with positivity. I hope the new year will bring you all happiness and prosperity. Stay safe and take care :).

Uchimura's Cassina + Kolman + Kovacs

Another MAG video that's gone viral on the gymternet is Uchimura's 3 release moves on HB. He does G + F + D skills worth 0.4CV. Uchimura is amazing and I would love if he could do these skills in competition but at the same time I still love his Tak 1/2 + Kolman combination (ooh and I just remembered he also did Tak 1/2 + Liukin). Honestly it's hard for me to decide what I like most. It seems everyone loves the exciting back to back release skills but I still enjoy on bar + flight combos.

Maras's Endo 1/1 elgrip + Gaylord

Seeing Batinkov's Pegan in combo reminded me how much I like forward release moves. I instantly remembered a combo Maras did in 2012. Endo 1/1 elgrip + Gaylord (D+D) now worth 0.1CV. I think that combo is beautiful. Oh and he does a Pegan later in his routine. Someone should make a gif of Maras's combo :).

 

Batinkov's Pegan + Kolman

I feel my blog needed this post even though it's been posted everywhere on the gymternet.

That's E+F 0.2CV, crazy combo!

Just Because...Mustafina @ Some Kind of 2013 Belgium Gym Gala

Just Because...Ashish Kumar's bwd 5/2 Twists + dbl Front Tuck

From 2010 Commonwealth Games

      (Source: frangymnasticsfan)

Top Beam E-Scores From London 2012 Team Finals

These are some of my favourite beam routines from London. These beam routines all had execution scores over 9.0. I enjoyed the commentary for Afan's beam routine. I especially like the slow motion replays of her skills. She is precise on her leaps and I like how aggressive she does the split leap 1/1. Hopefully Afan can get back to this level of consistency on beam. Her E-score 9.033:
Catalina Ponor got the highest E-score of 9.116. Last year I said this was one of my favourite beam routine of the 09-12 quad. I like how she is aggressive and she truly connects everything. Her dbl pike dismount is really nice. We rarely see well performed dbl pikes like that:

Then there is Kyla Ross. Many people consider her boring and I can see why but I really enjoy her routines. She is so clean and precise. I mean how can a switch ring + back tuck be boring? Too bad she doesn't do it anymore, plus the bonus is only one tenth. She is also very consistent which is always a good thing. I wished she had made EF on beam over Raisman. Too bad that Ross got pushed out of EF because of the 2 per country rule. Her E-score 9.033:

Just Because...Komova's BB @ Russian Cup 2011

One of my favourite beam routine from Komova.

 

CoP - Tip of The Month

In section 7.2.1 of the WAG code of point "Arabian elements are considered forward elements". Skills such as:

Patterson (Dbl Arabian Tuck dismount on BB)
Dbl Arabian's on FX
Standing Arabian on beam etc.
Onodi's are also considered fwd elements. This skill confuses me at times. Is it bwd or fwd? Apparently it's a fwd element.

 (Source: gymnasticsgifs)

Failure to do a bwd and fwd or Swd element is 0.5 deduction from the compositional requirement. Technically a gymnast doesn't have to do a fwd element as long as she has a swd element or vice versa. Bwd elements must always be included in a routine. Beam dismounts do not count for bwd and fwd/swd CR.  

Sophie Scheder 2013 UB D-Score

It seems everyone is raving about Scheder's routine and I love it too. It's so beautiful. In fact I like her routine more than Kyla Ross's. I remember seeing her in Antwerp EF finals and thinking wow this girl has nice lines and does nice inbar stalder work. I just realized that she was in European bars finals. I don't know why I didn't notice that. Her routine is not flashy and filled with release skills but I like her bar routine. I appreciate all types of bar routines and this routine is definitely a winner.

Inbar 1/1 + Komova II + Bail + Toe 1/1 (E+E+D+D) 0.4CV
Inbar stalder shoot to HB
Inbar + Inbar 1/2 + Jaeger (D+D+D) 0.1CV
Tsuk (D)

3.4 + 0.5CV + 2.5CR = 6.4 D-Score

 

December 2013 Update on Ksenia Afanasyeva

Afan Quote: "Life goes on. There will be new competition. Should be treated and prepared."

Key Notes:

• Initially Afan was suppose to be ready to compete by December but her treatments got delayed.
• Afan wants to try for Rio 2016
• It's not necessary for her to rush and get fast recovery as it's better to be treated thoroughly so that she'll be competitive for future competitions.

Other Interesting Notes:

• Afan has been living at Round Lake since 2001
• Afan's grandmother played a huge role in her gymnastics life.  

Source

Catching Up On Competitions That I've Missed Mexico Open/Stuttgart Cup

So there were two main competitions this weekend. Thanks to all the uploaders on youtube I am finally caught up. Admittedly I haven't seen all the videos and I thought the Stuttgart Cup was next week. I guess I've been too busy to keep track of what is going on and oh technically this cup is the DTB but I'm use to saying Stuttgart. The Mexico Open happened this weekend too.

It seems everyone is fanning over Aliya Mustafina's "new" beam routine? Um there was nothing really that worth getting overly excited about. All she did was two front aerials + split jump. Sometimes I don't understand why people get overly excited for things like this. In prelims she forgot to do a bwd element thank god she did it in the team finals. Losing a bwd element is five tenths CR deduction. I don't know what she scored in prelims but hopefully it wasn't a controversy like how Afan never got deducted for no fwd element on floor at the French Cup.

Elizabeth Price won the AA. The thing that impressed me was her Amanar. Everything else, meh. It was a close competition between Price and Iordache. Iordache fell off bars the gap difference between Price and Iordache was 0.034.

Oleg Verniaiev won the AA and he doesn't have the very exciting HB release skills but his Tak turns are well done. I wish more guys could do them clean like Oleg. Jossimar Calvo won the MAG AA at the Mexico Open. I haven't seen videos of him from this competition but I like his HB routine where he does the Tak 1/2 + Liukin. Someone should make a gif of that.

Roxana Popa won the AA on the WAG side. I like the DLO and especially the two whips indirect to full in tucked.

And one more thing. Yao Jinnan got a 9.0 execution on bars in Stuttgart prelims. I get that not many people like the shuffling on bars and it bothers me too but damn her pirouettes are nicely done. Believe it or not she can do better. The 9.0 execution is justified.  

Just Because...FF + Arabian/Tuck 1/1 Combo

The ff + Arabian beam connection is one of my favourite connections on beam. I think the first gymnast to do this combo was Lobaznyuk? It's a super difficult connection. Currently Anna Rodionova does that combination. Skinner does it too but it's not done well. I also like the ff + tuck 1/1. The Romanians favours the ff + tuck 1/1. I wish more gymnasts would do these cool combinations. Both combinations are worth B+F 0.2CV.

 (Source: gymnasticsgifs)

 (Source: gymnasticsgifs)

(Source: thehappyonefrombeijing)

Double Arabian Tucked + Double Front Tuck!

This is an insane pass by Rohan Sebastian. Dbl Arabian + Double Front (D+D) 0.2CV

Just Because... Xiao Qin PH 2007

I can never get tired of this routine.

 

Catalina Ponor @ 2013 Mexico Gala Gimnastica Internacional

There was another gala in Mexico. This one was highlighted by Ponor. Here are some fun videos.

2013 Massilia Videos/Quick Thoughts

There are lots of videos at piibunina's channel.

Admittedly I haven't seen all the videos but I think one of my favourite routine is from Claudia Fragapane. It's unique.
  I wasn't really impressed by the Russians but it's great to see Ekaterina Kramarenko still competing and looking not too shabby. IMO it's weird how Russia's veterans are still a bit better than the new Russian seniors. The newer Russian generation lacks execution or difficulty. The newer seniors can still improve but I find it hard that when gymnasts like Semenova, Afanasyeva, Komova, Grishina, Mustafina etc at age 16 had superior style than the current new Russian generation. The newer girls are not as polished. Now I know that there is a new code but even back then they still had about the same or more difficulty with better execution. I guess we'll have to wait and see how the other girls like Kharenkova or Kuzmina does. I do like Anna Rodionova but she lacks difficulty and this is what I'm saying. Even in the old codes 2008-2012 her older teammates still had more difficulty compared to her and they had good execution. I know that Rodionova has the ff + Arabian combo but that's about it. I feel Russia is either lacking in difficulty but has good execution or has good difficulty but lack execution, for example Shelgunova. She has good difficulty but really lacks execution. She's already 16 and when most of her veteran teammates were at the same age as Shelgunova they were better than her. I'm not hating on Shelgunova but I just want to point out that she needs a lot of work in her execution.

In this beam routine she is going for 6.7. Good difficulty but bad execution. Hopefully she'll improve or take out some skills/connections.

Ro + Layout (E) 0.1CV
Switch leap + Switch leap 1/2 (D) 0.1
Aerial cartwheel + loso (D) 0.2
Front Aerial + Sheep jump (D+D) 0.2
Front tuck + wolf jump (D) 0.1
Full turn
Switch Ring (E)
Dbl Pike (E)

3.5 + 0.7CV = 4.2 + 2.5CR = 6.7 D-Score

Just Because...Uchimura's Tak 1/2 + Kolman Combination

Tak 1/2 + Kolman (D+F) 0.1CV

 

    (Source: supermura)

Just Because...Ksenia Afanasyeva Training 1/1 DLO

She trained this for the first time in early of 2013. I hope she can get it and hopefully compete it when she returns to full competitive competition. It needs to be straighter but this was her first time training it in the layout position. This skill is worth H!

(Source: frangymnasticsfan)

CoP - Tip of The Month

In WAG floor exercise a gymnast must include a minimum 360 turn on one foot. 360 is a full turn. Also gymnasts who shows insufficient use of the entire floor area will be deducted 2 tenths. The deductions for insufficient use of the entire floor area are:

• Insufficient use of straight lines, curves and changes of directions. 0.1 deduction.
• Missing movement touching the floor (including truck/thigh or head). 0.1 deduction. This requirement is usually referred to as low floor choreography. Most gymnasts would do this requirement since getting deducted for 1 tenth is not worth it. Every tenths counts.

The deduction for not having a full turn is 3 tenths. I often get mixed up with these requirements because they are not part of the D-score's 2.5 CR (compositional requirements). The execution panel will take out these deductions not the D panel.

New 2013 MAG Elements

FIG has posted up the new MAG elements that were performed in Antwerp. Kenzo Shirai had three new elements named after him! What a guy. His skills were bwd stretched 4/1 twists (F), fwd stretched 3/1 twists (F) and Yuchenko stretched 3/1 twists (6.0). He shares the Yurchenko stretched 3/1 twists with South Korea's Kim Hee Hoon.

Full List of the 12 new elements.

Gymnastics Horror Story Montage

This montage is based on a popular TV series called American Horror Story. I think it's a pretty cool montage. Perfect for Halloween time. Made by SuperGymmie

Ksenia Afanasyeva's I Will Survive Balance Beam - 2013 Gala de Estrellas

2013 Mexico Gala de Estrellas de las Gimnasias

There was a recent Gala in Mexico with Ksenia Afanasyeva, Sandra Izbasa and others. Sandra Izbasa was the big star of this promotion so I had no idea that Afan was in Mexico. I think many fans didn't know about this recent gala. I only knew about it this week. I'm growing to like Izbasa's floor routine. Here are some videos recorded by NanSz21

 

New 2013 WAG Elements

The FIG has posted up the new WAG elements that were performed in Antwerp worlds championships. There were 7 new elements but only 4 gymnasts were given skills named after them because the difficulty was D or higher. Victoria Moors broke the code by adding a new letter to the code. The new letter difficulty is "I"!

Full List of New Skills

Names Given:

(UB) Shang Chunsong CHN - Clear hip circle to counter piked on HB (F)

(BB) Silvia Colussi Pelaez ESP - Aerial cartwheel in cross position (E)

(FX) Simone Biles USA - DLO with 1/2 turn (G)

(FX) Victoria Moors CAN - DLO 2/1 twists (I)

Not Given Name (because 4 gymnasts performed it)

(FX) Switch Ring Leap with 1/2 turn (D)

Nice Tuck Stand Turn Gifs Into Low Beam Choreography Ideas

I'm not a fan of the tuck stand turn on one leg but these gifs shows how nice they can look when a gymnast have creative choreo ideas. These turns can be called wolf turns as well. There are gymnasts that have these turns named after them.

 First gif is Madeline Gardiner and 2nd gif is Chelsea Tang

(source: allyoursecrets)

(source: gymnasticsgifs)

1/1 Tuck Stand Turn (B)

1-1/2 Tuck Stand Turn (C)

2/1 Tuck Stand Turn (D)

Humphrey- 2 -1/2 Tuck Stand Turn (E)

Mitchell - 3/1 Tuck Stand Turn (E)

Kyla Ross || World without End Montage

Kohei Uchimura - All 2013 Worlds AA Routines

It's Monday, dark, cold and raining. So to make things better I'm watching all of Uchimura's AA performances from worlds.

Jessica Lopez 2013 Worlds Prelim Floor

One of my favourite floor routines from worlds.

Just Because...Yang Hak Seon

Yang (FHS 3/1) D-6.4

Kas 2/1 D-6.0

(Photo Source: actionphoto24)

Tan Jiaxin 2013 East Asian Games UB Gold Routine

I think this routine is interesting and exciting. The new rule change is forcing China to do the bigger exciting release skills. I think no matter how much the FIG changes the uneven bars code the Chinese will always find a way to be the top competitors. Personally, I always enjoy Chinese bar routines no matter the style.

Hindorff + Pak (E+D) 0.2CV
Maloney + Gienger (D+D) 0.2CV
Giant 1/2 (B)
Healy + Jaeger (E+D) 0.1CV
DLO (D)

3.2 + 0.5CV = 3.7 + 2.5CR = 6.2

Tan scored 6.2 + 8.550 = 14.750. She can actually do a harder routine like this one at 2013 Doha Cup.

CoP - Tip of The Month

On uneven bars D+D both flight elements on the same bar can receive 0.2 connection value.

I was checking the CoP and it seems I can't find the D+D both flight element for 0.2. I know the code states D+D or more is 0.1 but those are for skills such as Stalder 1/1 + Tkatchev, inbar 1/2 + Jaeger etc.

The D+E both flight elements is in the code. Usually you'll see those skills be used as Piked Tkatchev + Pak or most recently Mustafina's Seitz + Pak.

D+D 0.2CV examples: Markelov + Gienger (e.g Tweddle) or Tkatchev + Gienger (e.g Shang)

Worlds 2013 WAG Floor Results

Full Results

1) Simone Biles USA (6.5) 15.000

I like her routine for the difficulty. Her DLO 1/2 out is impressive, now named the Biles :) Her opening pass dbl dbl tuck had huge bounce back and ending dismount had hop back. This was not her best floor routine but considering how much she performed this week I would say it's still an impressive routine. 6.5 very high difficulty.

2) Vanessa Ferrari ITA (6.2) 14.633

She had hop fwd on her dbl dbl tuck but everything else looked good enough. She finally gets a medal on floor. She is really good at sticking her tumbles.

3) Larisa Iordache ROU (6.1) 14.600

I never thought I would say this but I enjoyed this routine the most. She has improved on her artistry. I think the music was awesome for her. My favourite part of her choreography was when she dances and then goes low to the floor for choreo. Also her ending pose reminds me of Afan's Kill Bill ending pose :) very similar.

Other highlights - Mai Murakami did good I like her stuck DLO. I was hoping Sandra Izbasa could hit her routine and maybe beat Biles, which was possible. Sadly she had a very wonky stag jump after her 3/1 twists and she went all out by adding 1/1 twist to her dismount combo but fell :( I'm still not sure what the status is with Izbasa. Will she retire or not? I hope not but if she does she has achieved a lot in this sport and she can leave with happy memories. She always looks positive after her mistakes, she still smiled and I like seeing that.

This final had 4 girls doing the dbl dbl tuck! Steingruber did 1/1 DLO. The difficulty of this final was high.

Worlds 2013 WAG Beam Results & Inquiries

BB - Full Results

1) Aliya Mustafina (6.0) 14.900

Woohoo :D She finally wins a gold medal. An interesting tidbit is that she has now got medals in every single event at a world level. Beam was the only medal that she was missing and how nice that it's a gold medal. This was a well deserved gold medal. It was cute watching her calculate her d-score when she was not happy about the difficulty that the judges gave her. IMHO I see nothing wrong with her routine. She connects everything (well not what she intended) here is my breakdown

Wolf + Sissone + Side-somi (D) 0.1CV
Onodi + Switch 1/2 (D+D) 0.2CV
2/1 Spin (D)
FWD Aerial + FF (D)
Switch Ring (E)
Aerial cartwheel (D)
Dbl Tuck (D)

3.3 + 0.3CV= 3.6 + 2.5CR = 6.1 D-score. She lost 0.1 somewhere. I personally think her connections were connected so I don't think it's there. I'm betting its her switch ring that was downgraded. Sometimes her free leg doesn't hit 45 degrees so downgrade one DV or maybe it's the back ring leg? I'm not sure though and these judges know what they are doing. If anyone knows why she lost 0.1 please leave a comment.

2) Kyla Ross  (6.0) 14.833

She had a good routine although she is all stop think then do skill, it's very distracting. Her hands are very distracting in a bad way too. Gymnastics wise she is very precise and that is what I like about her. She also filed an inquiry. Let me see what happened.

Switch Ring (E)
FF + loso
Full turn
Leap series
Front Aerial + Sheep (D+D) 0.2CV
Side-somi (D)
Switch leap + tuck (C) 0.1CV
Aerial cartwheel (D)
Front tuck + wolf (D) 0.1CV
Dbl tuck (D)

3.2 + 0.4 = 3.6 + 2.5 = 6.1 Difficulty. She was initially credit with 5.9, so she lost 2 tenths somewhere. Her inquiry was accepted and she got only 6.0. What I don't get is what the judges did. I can see that if she originally got 5.9 then she lost 0.2 for the front aerial + Sheep. It was slow IMO. But her other connections were spot on. So mathematically 6.0 makes no sense. Unless she was given front aerial + sheep but not another connection. I'm stuck on this one.

3) Simone Biles  (6.1) 14.333

And then there's Simone Biles. Not a fan of her beam routine except for the dismount. She also had an inquiry. She originally got 5.9 difficulty but gained back two tenths from the accepted inquiry. I couldn't find a video of her single routine but this video is interesting.

Worlds 2013 MAG Day 2 Event Final Results

VT - Full Results

1) Yang Hak Seon KOR 15.533 AVG

He upped back his difficulty on his first vault. In prelims he only FHS 5/2. Today he did his Yang, the FHS 3/1. It was a very clean vault with a small step forward, 15.733. On his second vault he only went for Kas 2/1. Big hop back but still a very clean vault with nice leg form, 15.333. He submitted the Kas 5/2 for this championships but never did it. Maybe next year he will be more prepared. So happy he won.

2) Steven Legendre USA 15.249 AVG

First vault was a Dragulescu, very deep landing but still good vault 15.266. Second vault was Tsuk dbl pike. It was done well, 15.233 better execution than his first vault.

3) Kristian Thomas GBR 15.233 AVG

His first vault was really good. He stuck a very nice Yurchenko dbl pike for 15.500. His second vault was less difficult and it was okay. FHS tuck 2/1 and he hopped back, 14.966.

Oh and Kenzo Shirai did his 3/1 Yurchenko! Crazy how he can do it. He pre-twist slightly but still amazing. I think the vault is named the Shirai-Kim since Hee Hoon Kim also successfully did it.

PB - Full Results 

1) Lin Chaopan CHN (6.7) 15.666
1) Kohei Uchimura JPN (6.7) 15.666
3) John Orozco USA (6.8) 15.533

This finals was weird because some guys had major errors. Tsolakidis basically gave up and didn't do a dismount. I liked the Chinese. You Hao was good but had an error. He had the highest difficulty today. It's weird that at this championships gymnasts can tie. I don't understand the rules for ties. Actually I do get it but some years gymnasts don't share ties so it's weird. It needs to be consistent. Kohei upped his difficulty by 3 tenths for this final, I like his execution.

HB - Full Results

1) Epke Zonderland (7.7) 16.000
2) Fabian Hambuchen (7.4) 15.933
3) Kohei Uchumura (6.9) 15.633

I'm cool with these results. Epke may not be the cleanest guy but his routine is exciting. He has a crazy 7.7 difficulty that helps him win over guys who have clean execution. Fabian did well. I wanted him to win but he was down on difficulty and execution. I think maybe if he had stuck his dismount he would have won. Kohei had a very clean and nice routine except for a near big mistake. During one of his pirouette he almost lost strength and maybe had to take an extra swing but he went right into his Yamawaki.  

Worlds 2013 WAG Day 1 Event Finals Results

VT - Full Results

1) McKayla Maroney USA 15.724 AVG
2) Simone Biles USA 15.595 AVG
3) Hong un Jong PKR 15.483 AVG

Highlights-  Giulia Steingruber was so good. She stuck her FHS 1.5. I think maybe that was the best she had ever done. Her DTY was not too shabby. I kind of wished she could of medaled 3rd but Hong had the difficulty. I was not impressed by Hong she is so dirty in her execution, blah. Obviously the big highlight would be the incredible Americans. They are masters at Amanars. Biles ro-1/2 fwd-1/2 twist is beautiful.

UB - Full Results

1) Huang Huidan CHN (6.6) 15.400

I am absolutely happy for Huang Huidan. I have been a fan of her bar routine for a long time. She was off my radar because I wasn't sure about her consistency but she nailed her routine today. I love her beautiful work with the stalder shaposh's. Very elegant on bars. This is one of my favourite moments of the championships :)

2) Kyla Ross USA (6.4) 15.266

What can I say she is beautiful on bars. She had some flexed feet and leg form issues but she is still nice to watch on bars. Love her inbar stalder work. Nice stuck DLO dismount.

3) Aliya Mustafina (6.5) 15.033

It wasn't meant to be Mustafina's day today. She lost valuable tenths (0.2) by not connecting the Pak to Shap 1/2. She only did 6.5 routine. She had some execution errors with leg and tap form. Still, she is very elegant and beautiful on bars. Well deserved bronze medal.

-Other highlights. Downie was very good on bars until she messed up and fell on a toe element trying to go forward. Germany's Scheder had a nice look to her routine. I haven't paid much attention to Scheder this championships but her inbar stalder work were very nice and beautiful. Poor Yao fell on her Mo salto element. I give her props for doing such a difficult skill. It's crazy that she still got a decent score. Yao's difficulty is just amazing for this new quad.

Worlds 2013 MAG Day 1 Event Finals Results

FX - Full Results

1) Kenzo Shirai JPN (7.4) 16.000

What can I say he is a twisting machine. Very awesome routine. I love his hard twisting combos and the quad. This guy has some major endurance power.

2) Jake Dalton USA (6.7) 15.600

I enjoyed his routine. He does lots of nice double saltos which is a nice change from the twisting fest. He rivals Kohei's 3/1. Dalton stuck a very nice 3/1. I also liked Legendre's routine but he had way too many hops on his landings.

3) Kohei Uchimura JPN (6.4) 15.500 Best execution 9.1

Best execution 9.1. I love how clean Kohei is. He's very precise and beautiful to watch. The 3/1 twists was beautiful and stuck.

PH - Full Results

1) Kohei Kameyama JPN (6.9) 15.833
2) Max Whitlock GBR (7.2) 15.633
2) Daniel Corral MEX (6.8) 15.633

Highlights - What a thrilling event finals to watch. I was not expecting Kameyama to win. He is very good on pommels. He is clean and has nice lines. Zhang Hongtao was my favourite for execution. He is really clean too bad about his difficultly but it's still a hard routine to do.

SR - Full Results

1) Arthur Zanetti BRA (6.8) 15.800
2) Alexander Balandin (6.9) 15.733
3) Brandon Wynn (6.7) 15.633

Everyone was really good here with the exception of the French guy. They are all so strong, my arms hurts just from watching them. 

My Quick Picks For EF Day 1

FX: Shirai

PH: Hongtao

SR: Liu or Zanetti

VT: Maroney

UB: Mustafina or Yao

I don't really have a top three podium but I hope some of these gymnasts medal.

FIG's 2013 MAG AA Worlds Montage

WAG 2013 Worlds AA Results - Simone Biles USA Wins

AA Award Ceremony

  FULL RESULTS 

1. Simone Biles USA 60.216

Highlight for me would be her vault and floor. Her beam could be better. She got through bars and had the second highest E- score 8.600. Overall she did a very good job, well done.

2. Kyla Ross USA 59.332

She was my favourite today. Low difficulty but very good execution. It's proof that this strategy can work. It's sad because I could see Anastasia Grishina having this kind of strategy, come on Russia are you paying attention? It's sad the Russians insists Grishina do higher difficulty. Ross had the highest E-scores of the competition with the exception of FX (Biles was higher) VT9.566  UB8.700  BB8.633  FX8.633. She won the Longines elegance prize too :) Oh and Kohei won it again. Would have been better if someone else won it besides Kohei, maybe his teammate Kato should have won it.

3. Aliya Mustafina RUS 58.856

The Americans were too strong for Mustafina to challenge them but she put up a good fight. Her DTY is good but could be better. She brought back her full 6.7 bar routine. On floor she did good. She did two whips indirect to Arabian + stag, cool. I'm happy she got to medal.

Other highlights-

The Chinese failed on beam. Yao and Shang both fell off beam. Yao did the Mo Salto though!

Larisa Iordache started off good but then on her best event she fell off beam. She is my pick for BB EF gold. She came back on floor with a nice routine.

MAG 2013 Worlds AA Results - Kohei Uchimura WINS

Ryohei Kato, Kohei Uchimura, Fabian Hambuchen

Kohei Uchimura wins his 4th world AA title. Including his Olympic AA gold. He has won 5 major AA titles in a row 2009-2013! He is a legend. His teammate Ryohei Kato came in 2nd and Fabian Hambuchen of Germany came in 3rd. Fabian's highlight was highbar. I think he will win HB in event finals. Too bad for Sam Mikulak and the other guys. Most of the guys had major chances of medaling. Well I'm happy with the results.

Full Results

1) Kohei Uchimura JPN 91.990
2) Ryohei Kato JPN 90.032
3) Fabian Hambuchen GER 89.332

My Quick Picks for MAG AA Worlds 2013

1) Kohei Uchimura JPN (Obviously)
2) Ryohei Kato JPN
3) Sam Mikulak USA

Anything can happen and all I really want is Uchimura to win.

Top 3 MAG Qualifiers 2013 Worlds

I'm doing this so I can keep track. Thanks to FIG that there are lots of prelim videos at their youtube channel. *note, if you click some of the names there are videos of their routine

AA

1) Kohei Uchimura JPN 91.924
2) Samuel Mikulak USA 89.532
3) Ryohei Kato JPN 89.474

Full AA QF Results

Full QF Event Finalist

FX

1) Kenzo Shirai JPN 16.233
2) Diego Hypolito BRA 15.600
3) Kohei Uchimura JPN 15.333

PH

1) Alberto Busnari ITA 15.633
2) Daniel Corral MEX 15.600
3) Zhang Hongtao CHN 15.541

SR

1) Liu Yang CHN 15.866
2) Arthur Zanetti BRA 15.766
3) Brandon Wynn USA 15.700

VT

1) Yang Hak Seon KOR 15.299 AVG
2) Oleg Verniaiev UKR 15.041 AVG
3) Sergio Sasaki BRA 14.987 AVG

PB

1) Vasileios Tsolakidis GRE 15.866
2) Anton Fokin UZB 15.800
3) Lin Chaopan CHN 15.733

HB

1) Kohei Uchimura JPN 15.658
2) Fabian Hambuechen GER 15.633
3) Epke Zonderland NED 15.433

Sandra Izbasa FX - 2013 Worlds Prelims 14.733 (D-6.2)

Larisa Iordache BB 2013 Worlds Prelims

Very nice routine 6.4 + 8.866 = 15.266

Anna Rodionova BB - 2013 Prelims Worlds 14.466 (D-5.9)

Liu Yang SR - 2013 Worlds Prelims 15.866 (D-6.8)

Kyla Ross UB 2013 Worlds Prelims 15.133 (D- 6.4)

Love this routine. It's really beautiful.

 

Yang Hak Seon VT Prelims - 2013 Worlds - FHS 5/2

Happy 19th Birthday Aliya Mustafina

Last year I posted this same video wishing her a happy birthday and I'm going to post it again because this is one of my favourite moments from her. She totally owned this bars finals and I can never get tired of it.

Kenzo Shirai 2013 Worlds Prelims VT & FX

Powerhouse Japan - 2013 Artistic Worlds

Aliya Mustafina UB - 2013 Worlds Podium Training

Stalder 1/1 + Seitz + Pak + Stalder Shap 1/2 (D+E+D+E) 0.5CV
*Inabr 1/2 + Jaeger (D+D) 0.1CV
Toe 1/1 + Mustafina (D+E) 0.1CV

3.5 + 0.7CV = 4.2 + 2.5 = 6.7 D-score

*Edit. Mustafina did toe 1/2 which is only C and no connection value so the dscore should be 6.5. This is podium training so she will most likely bring the inbar 1/2 for 0.2 tenths. 

 

Yao Jinnan UB Podium Training 2013 Worlds

Anna Rodionova Worlds BB Training

Love the ff + Arabian combo for 0.2CV

Kenzo Shirai FX 2013 Worlds Podium Training

Mustafina 2013 Worlds Training News

Watch more videos on Gymnastike
This is very exciting news, here is Aliya Mustafina doing a Seitz (Toe on shap 1/1 but with mixed grip) + Pak salto. I'm thinking after the Pak she will connect it to the stalder shap 1/2. She is also doing her Mustafina dismount. Aliya is looking really fierce and fit. Also exciting news is that she is doing two whips indirect to double Arabian, very cool. It's not surprising since the Russians are very good at whipping and at age 19 Afanasyeva was first upgrading to whips so hearing that an 18 year old Mustafina upgrading to whips seems like a very obvious choice. I can't wait to see how Mustafina's full routines will look like. I knew the real Mustafina would emerge. Early in the season she really lacked excitement, except for her beam. The real competition is on and I'm excited to see Mustafina. I'm getting all my info from gymnastike and gymnastics examiner.

2013 International Junior Sae Miyakawa FX(AA)- DLO dismount

Just Because

Yang Hak Seon Handspring Frontflip 3.5t (attempted)

Ekaterina Kramarenko 1st UB Osijek Cup

It's good to see Kramarenko back and getting international assignments. For those of you who do not know who she is, she was on Russia's 2008 Beijing Olympic team and of course she was the girl with the infamous vault incident in 2007. Kramarenko did a good bar routine here.

D5.8 + E8.625 = 14.425
 

Happy 22nd Birthday Ksenia Afanasyeva

Today Ksenia turns 22. In gymnastics age that is considered old but in reality she is still young. With many older gymnasts still continuing I hope ksenia can still be competitive in the new quad. An interesting fact is that Ksenia was born on Friday the 13th and today is Friday the 13th 2013. Ksenia will miss this year's world championships due to a recent ankle surgery. According to the Russians she should be ready to be back in December.

Ksenia's year started off with her doing a gala called From London to Rio.

She competed at Russian Championships and showed some very interesting new beam connections. She did Onodi + side somi + 1 -1/4 spin and Kochetkova + split leap 1/1! Very cool ideas.  

She then had to compete at a French Cup to prove her place on a Russian European team as her spot was not guaranteed. At the French Cup she was controversially given a forward compositional requirement that she did not do in prelims. She still advanced to floor finals and won gold. Click to watch. It was early in the season and she seemed to have really improved on her tumbles. Her DLO was powerful and her double pike dismount looked better than ever. She became a more improved gymnast. She was more powerful than ever. Unfortunately she had some problems with her new beam routine and eventually had to take out some of her cool ideas.

Ksenia eventually made the Russian European team. This was a special event for Ksenia since it was in front of her home country and it was her first time at an European championships since 4 years ago in 2009. She missed many Europeans due to injuries. For once she was now healthy and ready to win medals. She shocked the gymnastics world when there were rumours she could do the Amanar vault. I have to admit I was skeptical of this Amanar rumour. I couldn't believe it but when there were reports of her doing the amanar during podium training the rumours became true but still there were no videos of her doing the Amanar. During prelims she revealed a 6.4 difficult floor routine that made news. Interesting it wasn't her tumbles that were upgraded but it was her turns. I love her spinning connections. Ksenia only made floor finals where she won gold in front of a home crowd. Her routine had beautiful powerful tumbles mixed with beautiful dance elements. Click here to watch. Her season was beginning to look very good. Ksenia even decided to train early for Universiade. She was so positive and worked really hard for Universiade. She also posted a video of her training the H element 1/1 DLO and she is rumoured to be able to do 7/2 (3.5) twists.

At the Universiade Games in Kazan, Ksenia revealed new music for her floor routine. Her routine had mixed reviews but Ksenia was still elegant and beautiful on floor. She started off okay in AA but then had a very shaky nervous beam routine. She proceeded to have one of the best floor routine of her life clinching herself a silver medal in the AA. I personally liked her AA floor routine. It is one of my favourite routine of the year. She nearly stuck every tumble. It was a magical performance and probably a special night for Ksenia. She unfortunately didn't have the best floor routine in event finals but she was able to win gold with high difficulty. My highlight of the Universiade gymnastics was Ksenia's Amanar vault. She stunned the gymnastics community with her ability to win vault finals with a new Amanar and second vault. At age 21 Ksenia was able to upgrade two of her vaults. She was especially brave and courageous for doing the Amanar vault. All of her early hard work paid off.
She was looking like a lock for Antwerp until she suddenly had ankle surgery. I just want to say that Ksenia brought some excitement to the beginning of the season and it's very disappointing that she will miss worlds. She had a very big shot at floor gold and medaling on vault. I hope she will be back and stronger next year. Happy birthday Ksenia!

Kenzo Shirai's DLO 2/1

I have already knew that Kenzo could do the triple double back but I never knew he could do DLO 2/1. He makes it look so beautiful.

Sandra Izbasa 15.600 ROU '13 National FX Routine

I think the score seems fair enough but I don't think the judges at worlds will give that routine a high 15.6. This was a national competition so of course the scores were adjusted. I hear that Izbasa will retire this year? Well that is what I'm hearing but I'm not sure. It would be nice for her to win a gold medal or just medal on this event at worlds before she retires but I am rooting for Maroney to take the gold. Yes, I said Maroney. I don't have much of an opinion on Izbasa's artistry but I prefer Maroney's FX. I don't particularly like full in acros and 5/2 twists in combination as dismounts. I feel Izbasa could compose her floor routine differently but the way she composes works for her. It's kinda like when I saw Beth Tweddle dismount with 5/2 twists + combo, I just didn't like it. It seems like those kind of passes should be in the middle of a routine. I particularly like Maroney's floor because she is clean. No crossing in twisting acro's, no backhand spring leg separations and she does skills that I prefer. Like double layout and double arabian.

I'm not sure what Izbasa was credit for difficulty but I noticed she took a step on her B+B spinning combo. According to the CoP B+B turn combo does not allow a step. So Izbasa's turning combo should not get 0.1CV.  Either than that I think this routine was well performed and a medal contender for worlds.

Larisa Iordache's Van Leeuwen Upgrade on Bars 2013 ROU Nationals

(Edit: I'm just realizing now that this wasn't the first time she did this upgrade right?) She upgraded to a Van Leeuwen (toe-on shap 1/2). I made this abbreviation up VLW :-D. The skill is worth 5 tenths. It looks nice. Her bar D-score is decent for an AA. If I'm correct this routine is out of 5.9 difficulty.

There are tons of 2013 Romanian National routines at this youtube account mojochrys.

 (Source: thehappyonefrombeijing)