Briannah Tsang FX EF 2013 Anadia Cup

This was a nice routine for the tumbles.

Tomas Gonzalez's 3/1 Yurchenko (kind of)

It's cool that he is trying to go for it but it was not even close. I wouldn't even consider that an attempt. I might sound like a hater but I think it was funny how he did this vault. It's not that it was bad bad but reminds me of that time when Tatiana Nabieva almost did a 3/1 and then there was another time when Afanasyeva mocked it at Tokyo worlds podium training. Good times.

Just Because

Anastasia Grishina doing Memmel spin + Illusion spin. When I read the new CoP was going to reward spinning combinations one of my dream combo was for a gymnasts to do something similar to this:

Here is Grishina's combo. I'm liking the new spin connection rules. Grishina still needs a little work on the combo but it's nice.

 (source: marycrawleyed)

And here's Afanasyeva's double attitude spin + double spin because why not.

(Source: starkofwinterfell)

Grishina, Bulimar and Shang FX QF @ 2013 Anadia Cup

Yay videos are popping up at piibunina's channel. Here are videos from the qualification round. It's nice to see Grishina wearing the Olympic team finals leotard. It's a beautiful leotard in my opinion. I like Grishina's Memmel + Illusion combination. Too bad I will miss this competition tomorrow.

Team Russia's 2013 Universiade Teams Announced

The team members will be Aliya Mustafina, Ksenia Afanasyeva, Tatiana Nabieva, Anna Dementyeva and Maria Paseka. Source 

I read somewhere that the eligible age is 17 so technically some of the competitors don't have to be in University/College. I'm not 100% sure about this though.

It's nice to see Tatiana Nabieva and Anna Dementyeva on the team. Here is another article where Valentina Rodionenko talks about the MAG & WAG team.

This is just my fun speculation of how the team will be used. The format will be like the Olympics 5-4-3 but if I'm not mistaken the qualifying round will also be the team finals. So 4 gymnasts up and 3 scores count for team finals. The first gymnast I name will be the score that they will most likely want to discard.

Here's my line up, just for fun speculation :)

VT: Tatiana Nabieva, Ksenia Afanasyeva, Aliya Mustafina, Maria Paseka
UB: Ksenia Afanasyeva, Maria Paseka, Tatiana Nabieva, Aliya Mustafina
BB: Ksenia Afanasyeva, Anna Dementyeva, Aliya Mustafina (this one was tricky because Paseka and Nabieva are pretty useless on beam and floor so all these three gymnasts scores must count)
FX: Anna Dementyeva, Aliya Mustafina, Ksenia Afanasyeva

It is interesting to note that Valentina did say Nabieva restored AA but doesn't have a second vault so she could contribute on beam and floor in qualification.

Andreea Munteanu - The Leader of Her Generation (in Romania)

A while ago I read a very long and interesting interview on Octavian Bellu. It was a television interview translated by blogger Carmen Manda at Romanian Gymnasts. There are a lot of interesting topics in that interview that are worth reading. I won't go into details of what it's about but while I was messaging a friend from around a week ago she asked me which Romanian juniors have good beam. I immediately thought of Andreea Munteanu because I remembered this interview. In that interview Bellu is asked who will we see in Rio...any new names from the juniors? Not surprisingly he answered Iordache and Bulimar. For the new name he only mentioned Munteanu and said, "Andreea Munteanu, I mention her here because she is the leader of her generation." I didn't know much about Munteanu so I searched for some videos of her and she is a great balance beam worker. Not surprisingly Romanians are very good on beam. Sometimes I don't prefer their style on beam but they have some special work in their routines. They work really aggressive and are very sure about what they do. They don't seem to lack confident. Their routines are rarely filled with wobbles.

I quite like Munteanu on beam. She has very good leaps. And her acro + dance connections looks nicely connected. She's definitely beam gold material. She can do a DTY and her floor is good but as always her bars is Romanian meaning not the best.

Switch leap + Tuck back (C) 0.1CV
Front Aerial + leap series (D) 0.1CV
FF + Tuck 1/1 (F) 0.2CV
Johnson leap (C)
Front tuck + Sissone leap (D) 0.1CV
Switch leap 1/2 (D)
Side-somi (D)
Full turn
FF + BHS + 3/1 twists (F) 0.1SB

3.4 + 0.5CV + 0.1SB = 4.0 + 2.5CR = 6.5 D-score.
I used the senior CoP so it's different from the junior one.

Other good Romanian beamers

Oleg Verniaiev New 7.2 Pbar Routine

Some 2013 NHK WAG Mini Clips

Here is a news piece on some of the Japanese WAG gymnasts. There are also some MAG but mostly WAG. It has clips of Mai Murakami, Asuka Teramoto and Natsumi Sasada. Uploaded by blackbluekilo.

Some 2013 NHK Uchimura Routines

PH, SR & PB view more videos Marcos Aurelio

Just Because...Alexander Alexandrov in Brazil?

So I am hearing some mumbo jumbo news about Alexandrov being in Brazil? There are no official news source so I'll take this whole Alexandrov now working in Brazil with a grain of salt. If this turns out to be officially true then Russia has lost a great coach. In my opinion it was not all his doing that made Russia so successful last quad but he was part of it. Some things that bother me is that some people thinks Alexandrov did everything for Russia. I think this is why there are so many drama in the Russian Federation. Whatever the case, the Russians so far seems to be doing okay for now. The big test will be worlds in Antwerp. I have faith that the Russians will be just as successful as last quad. Regarding Mustafina, she seems to be a strong headed woman. I have faith in her to still be successful without Alexandrov. Yes it's sad that Alexandrov might of left Mustafina but I feel Mustafina has the been there done that mentality. It's not the first time a coach left her. She will be fine.

Edit: Mustafina left Alexandrov! Now there are news source about this whole drama. Basically as we all already knew that Alexandrov's contract as head coach expired on Dec 2012. It was not renewed leaving him out as the head coach. He was still allowed to be Aliya's personal coach but Aliya refused to have him as her personal coach. Alexandrov is now in America with his family.

Source 1 & Source 2

2013 Chinese Nationals MAG Routines

Gah how is it that I have never heard of piibuninaMAG when I have been following his other account? Oh well I'm happy that I am finally able to watch some Chinese MAG national routines thanks to piibunina :).

Zhou Shixiong PB AA - 7.0 + 8.967 = 15.967. I think Shixiong now has the highest pbar d-score of this year.

Russia VS USA Gymnastics: An Epic Battle Montage

Haha if you have 8 minutes and 43 seconds to spare you should watch this montage. Montage made by RieLovesVballlll

Sui Lu's 2013 BB & FX Chinese Nationals

Thanks to piibunina for uploading better home made videos. Sui looks in good shape and form. I hope she can fight for a spot on the Chinese worlds team in Antwerp. I know that she said she will retire but hopefully she will change her mind.