Giulia Steingruber's 2013 European FX EF

When I saw Giulia's floor exercise during 2013 European AA finals I was immediately amazed by her full twisting double layout. She debuted this skill at this competition. What a nice upgrade. I was so amazed by it that I didn't even realized that her second pass was a double layout. I really like how she is a powerful gymnast. Here is her event final routine.

(Source: podkopayevas)

Ksenia Afanasyeva's 2013 European Gold Medal Floor Routine

Sooo happy for this gold medal win. It's been 4 years since she's been to European Championships and she finally gets to win gold in front of her country. What more can anyone ask for? Beautiful leaps, turns and acrobatics.

D-6.3 + 8.866 = 15.166!

Maria Paseka Unexpectedly wins 3rd on Bars

Well I didn't expect her to even qualify. Seeing how sad she was in vault finals I must admit that I'm happy she came back to win 3rd on bars. I've been a long time Paseka hater but she has grown on me. I actually wasn't able to watch bars finals but I heard it was a splat fest so perhaps that helped Paseka to medal.

Aliya Mustafina's 2013 European AA Floor

Here is the All-Around gold medalist's AA floor routine. I'm not sure what her given D-Score was but she scored 14.466. If she got everything credit then this is her D-score:

Dbl Arabian + Stag (E) 0.1
5/2 Twists + 1/1 Twist (D+C) 0.2
3/1 Y-Spin *(E)
Split leap + Switch leap 1/2 (C)
Dbl Tuck (D)
3/1 Turn (C)
3/1 Twists (E)

3.2 + 0.3CV = 3.5 + 2.5CR = 6.0 D-score *I'm assuming the 3/1 Y-Turn will be credit E.

The 2013 European AA MAG/WAG Winners

Max Whitlock 2nd, David Belyavskiy 1st, Oleg Verniaiev 3rd

Larisa Iordache 2nd, Aliya Mustafina 1st, Anastasia Grishina 3rd

Ksenia Afanasyeva's 2013 European QF 6.4 Floor Routine

D-6.4 + E-8.533 = 14.933 -0.3 penalty = 14.633 QF score

DLO (F)
Two whips indirect to 3/1 (E) 0.2
Dbl attitude spin + dbl spin (D) 0.1
Split ring leap + split leap 3/2 (C+D)
5/2 Twists + layout (D) 0.1
Dbl L-turn + Y-turn (D) 0.1
Dbl Pike (D)

3.4 + 0.5CV = 3.9 + 2.5CR = 6.4 D-Score. I really love the spin combos.

I Hate to Say this But...

I really wish Ksenia Afanasyeva would stop trying to be an all arounder. She is past her prime on uneven bars. I give her respect for trying but this is sad:

That happened during European AA qualification on bars. She is amazing on floor exercise and good on beam and vault. She should stick to those events. Russia is pretty much covered on bars. But whatever makes her and the Russian Federation happy, they are the ones planning her program. I just rather she become a very great specialist. If she spends more time on the other events she can become very very dominate in event finals:

Ksenia has upgraded her floor routine to 6.4 D-score! Unfortunately I cannot embed a video yet :(
Here is a breakdown of her 6.4 routine:

DLO (F)
Two whips indirect to 3/1 (E) 0.2
Dbl attitude spin + dbl spin (D) 0.1
Split ring leap + split leap 3/2 (C+D)
5/2 Twists + layout (D) 0.1
Dbl L-turn + Y-turn (D) 0.1
Dbl Pike (D)

3.4 + 0.5CV = 3.9 + 2.5CR = 6.4 D-Score.

It's a very ambitious and risky routine because there are a lot of chances for almost everything to be downgraded and not credited. She must work hard to complete everything. She was credit with everything in qualification and scored 14.633 with 8.533 execution and 0.3 penalty for out of bound. She qualified first to floor finals. I wish her all the best!

Some Favourites For WAG European 2013

Okay this will be a post for some of my favourites to win or medal. I just quickly wrote this so it's not a well thought out post. First I'm just going to start talking about Ksenia Afanasyeva, after all my blog is named after her Olympic number. She has made this competition exciting. Let's all admit it we all thought it was crazy when we heard reports of Afanasyeva training the Amanar vault. At her age and knowing her vaulting ability it was just crazy to hear that she could do an Amanar. She does says that she can only do it to pit surface and doesn't know if she will compete it. Later reports on the gymternet reports that during podium training she in fact did do the Amanar, even if some of the attempts weren't successful, it is 100% true that she is training this vault. Reports also says she warmed up 7/2 twists, that's 3-1/2 twists in case you're wondering. Apparently she will do AA. I think she can have a shot at AA but her best shot is floor gold. I'm not sure why she is even trying to do AA or an Amanar but good for her! She is my favourite gymnast so it's exciting to hear all these news.

I love love her spin combination. 

 (Source: starkofwinterfell)

She is taking risks on spins while other gymnasts are taking risks on leaps. Her main competition will be the Romanian gymnasts. I don't particularly like their style but they are very very good on floor. Here is Afanasyeva's winning 2013 French Cup floor. She has posted the highest FIG world Cup score on floor for this year, 14.633.

(Source: starkofwinterfell)

Larisa Iordache VS Aliya Mustafina 2013 European AA

This is a cool edit done by tumblr user mustafinaencounter. It suggests that the all-around final will be a showdown between Romania's Larisa Iordache and Russia's Aliya Mustafina. I won't do an analysis but may the best gymnast win. There are other gymnasts who can threat for gold like Anastasia Grishina. Grishina could surprise.

 

Shang Chunsong 2013 Tokyo Cup Uneven Bars

Alright so I want to talk about Shang Chunsong. I don't know much about her but she debuted a new skill on WAG bars. She debuted a clear hip circle to pike. If she makes it to world's and successfully competes the skill, she will get it named after her. Shang's clear hip circle to pike has been given a well deserved "F" rating. This skill from Tkatchev variation is worth E and is named the Hindorff. Shang needs to work on her execution but I'm sure the Chinese coaches already know that. She catches her Hindorff pike very close to the bar and will get heavily deducted. I'm not sure if I like the composition of her routine but it is an ambitious routine. I see the Chinese are still doing the pirouette combos. Shang doesn't quite make her pirouettes look nice. The "Shang" has a nice ring to the clear hip pike. I hope she can get it named after her but to many gymnastics fan it is already dubbed the "Shang." I'm going to refer it as the Shang unless someone else can get it named after them.

Here is what she is going for:

Shang (F)
Pak (D)
Shaposh
Hindorff (E)
*Tkatchev + Gienger (D+D) 0.2CV
Healy + Ling (E+E) 0.1CV
Tsuk (D)

3.7 + 0.3CV = 4.0 + 2.5CR = 6.5 D-Score

* Shang's d-score was not published but she scored 13.400. I know that she fell and broke her connection but I gave her credit to show what her d-score would be like with the connection. Score Source Results 

Mustafina's 2013 Zakharova Cup Uneven Bars

Aliya Mustafina's bars looks so easy for her. I'm predicting she will have some major upgrades to surprise us. It's intriguing me as to how she will upgrade her routine. Mustafina's Olympic winning routine had a 7.0 difficulty rating. At the recent Zakharova Cup she competed a 6.3 routine and had a massive score of 15.5.

D-6.3 + E-9.2 = 15.5. Her execution is high and highly deserved. What's interesting to note is that she changed her first pirouette to inbar 1/1 and then later she does stalder 1/1 + pak. I guess with the lower connection bonus this quad, it's easier for her to do her composition this way.

Inbar 1/1 + VLW (E+E) 0.1
Inbar + 1/2 + P. Jaeger (D+D) 0.1
Stalder 1/1 + Pak Salto (D+D) 0.1
Toe 1/1 + Tsuk (D+D) 0.1

3.4 + 0.4CV = 3.8 + 2.5CR = 6.3 D-score