Favourite Things of 2014

I might have missed a lot of things but these are the things that quickly came to my mind. This was not a well thought out post.

WAG

VT: Hong Un Jong's EF Nanning

UB: This was kind of hard for me but I will go with Yao Jinnan's Nanning EF. I love how crisp her connected pirouettes are and the stuck DLO. Of course I still like the look of Russians on bars and the unique combos of team Great Britain.

BB: Bai Yawen's Nanning EF. This comes immediately to my mind. I love her lines and clean execution. This will definitely be something I will remember of 2014.

FX: Simone Biles USA Classic floor routine. It's just amazing. Overall this is my favourite routine of 2014 for WAG.

Cool skills: Mustafina's 3/1 Y-Turn, Schaefer's Side-somi 1/2

MAG

FX: Denis Ablyazin & Kenzo Shirai.

PH: Krisztian Berki Nanning EF

SR: Liu Yang Nanning EF

VT: Donnell Whittenburg, Yang Hak Seon & Ri Se Gwang (badass)

PB: Oleg Verniaiev Nanning EF

HB: Kohei Uchimura Nanning EF  

Cool Skills: Bretschneider's 2/1 Kovacs, Shirai's 3/1 DLO

What were your favourite routines, skills or combinations for this year. I would love to know so that I can remember what routines happened this year. Please comment :).

Kenzo Shirai's Triple Twisting Double Layout Gif

My friend frangymnasticsfan made this gif of Shirai doing a 3/1 twisting DLO. Shirai is amazing. It's impressive that its on a real competition floor. Here's to hoping we'll get to see it in the new year of 2015. This is an exciting acrobatic skill. Get it Kenzo.

  (Source: frangymnasticsfan)

Afanasyeva's 2014 Voronin Cup Prelim Floor Routine || Double Layout is Back

Bretschneider's Kovacs 2/1 @ 2014 DTB Pokal

Afanasyeva's 2014 Team QF DTB Pokal FX & More

All video credit link goes to whiptotriple from tumblr. Her youtube page illusionturns.

My thoughts. Well its nice to see Afan back but she still has a lot of work to do if she ever wants to be competitive in elite again. That being said I'm happy to see her in a international competition again. I hope the double layout will come back. It's good she can still do a DTY. Her floor routine music is a no no. I hope its just something random she decided to use for this year. I hope her next music choice will be better. In terms of artistry and style she is not putting her all into it. It's really lifeless but there is still something distinct and unique about the way she moves. Perhaps better floor music will help. I wonder how long she has been training for this competition? This was only qualification too. I feel we put so much pressure on gymnasts, oops. I hope everything works out for her and that her ankle gets stronger and fully recovered.

By the way Ekaterina Kramarenko's is still kicking ass on bars. It's nice to see.

Viktoria Komova's UB EF @ 2014 Hungary Meet || Layout Jaeger Gets Credit

It's so nice to see Komova back at an international meet again. It's been too long. She's getting the layout jaeger credit as E so that's encouraging. We'll see what other judges do at bigger competitions. To me it's layout enough too :). In my opinion I think she'll be able to get the double double tuck dismount back.

D 6.5 + E 8.650 = 15.150

 

Andreas Bretschneider’s Double Kovacs!

Kenzo Shirai Competes Dbl Salto Tucked with 3/1 Twists @ 2014 Swiss Cup

His D-score should be 7.6 but apparently he got 7.3. Did the judges thought the fwd 5/2 twists was only a fwd 3/2? That's the only conclusion I can think of to get 7.3.

 

Yang Hak Seon 2014 National Sports Festival

Here is a clip about Yang at a recent National competition. He competed Kas 2/1 & FHS 5/2.

Jossimar Calvo AA HB || Nanning 2014

I like this routine. Especially the Tak 1/2 + Liukin combo.

Eythora Thorsdottir 2014 Beam Routine

Lots of nice cool combination ideas. Only flaws in my opinion are there's too many dance elements. Which can cause too much execution and connection deductions. Either then that its an interesting routine.

Erika Fasana FX EF || Nanning 2014

This was quite a good routine. I like how she is powerful and interesting. At first I wasn't sure about the music but now I think it's unique and different. There's a bit of creativity in her routine and music choice. I like how her straddle full jump synced with the music.

EF Medalists Day 2 || Nanning 2014

Alright this day was filled with some disappointments and excitements. I watched the FIG stream. I still wish it was streamed free for all. As I really hate to use proxy apps but I do what I have to for the love of this sport.

Full HB Results

First off Kohei Uchimura. That HB finals! CASSINA + KOLMAN!!! What a nice surprise. He went all out and increased his difficulty to 7.2. Very nice combo and it made me happy that he did that combo. In a way I missed the tak 1/2 + Kolman but that will be his regular combo. Uchimura is amazing. I can't wait to see the tumblr gifs. He scored 15.725. It wasn't enough to beat beast Zonderland's 7.7 difficulty routine! His routine is insane. Filled with sky high releases. Similar release of Uchimura with Cassia + Kovacs a bit less difficult but still amazing. I like the Kolman + Gaylord. Zonderland is still the best on high bar for 16.225! Croatia's Moznik fought for 3rd for a well deserved 15.000. I know some won't consider this a disappointment but Zhang. Zhang's hand guard broke. It was not meant to be. He would have medalled somewhere on the podium. And Calvo from Columbia fell and that was sad to see. I like his routine.

 Full MAG VT Results 

This finals was disappointing for my friend. She was sad for Yang Hak Seon. But we both agreed that the podium finish was well deserved and good. I felt for Yang. I believe he will get the vault named after him? He did get a score for it. He is still amazing and gutsy for going for it. We already know he can do it. As he already did it at Korean Cup and it was nicely done. It wasn't Yang's day today. His second vault was not much hope too. He landed but fell. He's really courageous for doing these difficult twisting vault. Who would have imagine we'll see these kind of vaults in this day and age? Yang came in 7th. The winner was Ri Se Gwang. It really pains me to see him after the Ri vault but I guess it's worth it when he wins. It's his vault and of course he'll want to compete his own skill. It's an insane vault! He really deserved that title. Really difficult vaults. Radivilov 2nd and Dalton 3rd. They both did good vaults to finish on the podium. Just one quick comment, haha it's quite amusing that Radivilov's Dragulescu travels far.

Full PB Results

This was a nice podium finish. OLEG VERNIAIEV! He finallys leaves this championships happy :). I felt really happy when he won. When his score flashed 16.125 I knew it would take something special for the other guys to overtake him. His routine was beautifully executed. When Leyva competed I knew it wasn't enough but Leyva did a well deserved 2nd 15.933 routine. And then there is Kato :). It's nice to see him in 3rd even if for a bit he was pissy when Leyva went ahead of him :P. That made me laugh. Deng Shudi had the highest difficulty but he lost lots of execution. I was nervous when he competed the Bhavsar but nice that he stuck his dismount. He seemed happy enough that he did all he could do and even later smiled at the camera when he knew it wasn't going to be enough to medal.

Full BB Results 


This finals was a disappointment. Well I'm glad Biles took the title because it was well deserved. I'm crowning her the Queen of this championships. 4 GOLD medal wins. What an incredible athlete. My favourite part of her routine is the the dismount. Really difficult 2 ff into full in tuck. I really enjoyed watching fan favourite Bai Yawen's routine. She was on today. Very lovely dance elements, loved the slow mo replays. I hope tumblr people gif those.

Okay so now for the interesting bits. Mustafina's routine. Everything was going well. She missed her connections from switch leap and majorly failed to connect the acrobatic requirement. She lost 5 tenths for that mistake. Not arguing anything there. Yet still managed to medal. I'm not happy about that. Teramoto really deserved that bronze medal. The judges rejected her inquiry. The judges were really cruel to not give credit for the 3/1 twists dismount.

This is what Teramoto's beam got:

2/1 Turn (D)
Onodi (D)
Leap series
2 ff + LOSO 0.1SB
Front Aerial (D)
Side Somi (D)
Johnson Leap (C)
Switch Leap (C)
Aerial Cartwheel (D)
5/2 Dismount (D)

3.0 + 0.1SB = 3.1 + 2.5CR = 5.6 D-score.

I agree with everything except the dismount. Her feet was all the way around IMO. Judges needs to be consistent when crediting twists. If she had been credited with 3/1 twists she would have been given 5.8 to lead for 3rd. They rejected her inquiry quickly. Well when I thought about it, it might of been harsh to discredit Mustafina's acrobatic series too. So in many ways everything worked out. Seeing the replay made me more calm. The results seems legit enough. I just felt the judges are harsh on WAG twists and in the past they always gave credit to undeserving gymnasts incomplete twisting. Teramoto should have been credited. I just felt this final was lackluster. Thanks to Bai Yawen beam or else this finals would have been boring for me.



Full WAG FX 

What can I say? Biles was ahead of everyone. Her difficulty is amazing. And she really deserved that medal without any doubts 15.333. She is a very strong and athletic gymnast. Nice to see Iorchace get 2nd 14.800. Good for her :). The moment for 3rd was Mustafina's routine 14.733. Nice to see her make her floor more exciting with the 2 whips. Generally she is an artistic gymnast. But I didn't like her overall routine, in terms of music and choreography. It lacked something that she used to have in her past floor routines. This one was kind of boring and those socks! Those socks are not really elegant :P. But I'm happy that Mustafina fans can celebrate and be happy for her 3rd place finish.

Overall I felt this world Championships was nice. It's nice to see full teams competing. If anything Kohei Uchimura winning his 5th AA tittle really made the difference for me. I'm glad I was able to watch this whole competition. It was all worth it to wake up at insane times. It's all over and now I can relive it all in replay. Well I hope all the replay become available without the proxy restrictions. Thanks to my gym fan for skyping with me during worlds. You know who you are and it was fun :) Now it's time to celebrate Canadian thanksgiving gobble gobble.
  

EF Medalists Day 1 || Nanning 2014

I watched this live on FIG feed. I managed to stay alive during all the event finals. By the time it was over I was struggling to blog about it on here. I even had to save this post as a draft. Perhaps last night I should have not been blogging on tumblr :P. This is pretty much a half ass post. I'm gonna try to remember everything from early last night.

MAG FX Full Results 

This final was okay. I think the floor routine I liked the most was Hypolito. Very unique combinations. He came in 3rd for 15.700. Ablyazin came in 1st 15.750. He did a good job. Not his best in terms of landings but his routine had all the nice tricks. I really enjoy a nice DDLO. Disappointed for Kenzo Shirai but even he knew he didn't do enough to win. He went out of bounds again and he wasn't as crisp on his landings this time. What's interesting is that he almost won if it weren't for that out of bounds or perhaps the small little hops on landings. Shirai came in 2nd 15.733. Other guys, Jake Dalton and Korea's Kim Hansol were clean guys. Very nice to see that. Dalton's 3/1 full dismount is always nice and clean. What else? There was Zapata from Spain who rebounded out of something and flew high. I missed what that was. Later I'm gonna go replay it. Perhaps we'll see a gif of it :)

WAG VT Full Results

Hong Un Jong of N. Korea took the gold. Her Amanar has improved a lot. Her Cheng vault was good enough for 1st. At first I wasn't sure if she'll be able to win because Biles had two cleanly executed vaults. The tension was building after Biles finished her second vault. The judges just didn't give her a high enough execution to win. This time I felt Biles had a superior Amanar to Hong's. She had a small hop forward like always but the height and aggression on it was amazing. She really put her energy into it. Skinner came in 3rd. Her Cheng was cleanly done except for the one handed technique. It still bothers me a lot but it obviously doesn't for the judges. The guy commentator said it was beautiful vault. While I do agree to some level I just can't say it since she doesn't block with both hands. Still yeah it's clean enough.

PH Full Results

This event started off with Keatings. He had the highest difficulty but had too many issues. Too bad for him. I really liked the elegant and long lines of Tommasone. He came in 3rd 15.600. I didn't catch much of Ude but it seems he was good enough for 2nd, good for him 15.783. Berki came in 1st 16.033. He is still a world class pommels worker. Very nice routine. I'm still trying to get the hang of the pommel codes :).




UB Full Results

Mustafina kicked off this event. Her difficulty was just too low. And the judges weren't forgiving to her form breaks. She's a great gymnast and I know there are many disappointed fans that wanted to see her medal but everything was not in her favour. She is a big girl and can accept the results. We all know she can do a harder routine. Perhaps this world championships was not to rush difficulty but to mainly focus on team finals. We'll never know. In any case Spiridonova got 3rd 15.283. How good for her? Her routine is based out of 6.4 and she had slightly better escore. How dare she beat Mustafina :P Nah just joking her routine was better. I hope this gives Spiridonova more confidence going into the next world championships and perhaps the Olympics. Please stay healthy! Downie had an exciting release filled routine but her execution really hurt her. The Chinese were in a league of their own. Yao 6.9 and Huang 6.8 Dscores! Just too much advantage for them. Chinese will always find ways to be on top of bars difficulty. It's gonna be hard for other nations to get close to those Dscores but it can happen. I'm happy Yao finally got a gold medal 15.633 and what about Huang 15.566. Badass for not wearing grips. Not even those small dinky tape ones. Badass. Very old school gymnast.



SR Full Results

It was a battle between Liu and Zanetti. Last year Liu qualified first and disappointingly finished 4th. This year he was out for blood and came on top. Very strong and cleanly executed routine 15.933. Zanetti was not quite on today but managed 2nd 15.733. There will be a battle in Rio. You Hao put in an inquiry and so his Dscore raised to 7.0, the highest in the competition. Ablyazin was on fire today. He tied with You Hao for 3rd 15.700. Let's see what Ablyazin can do in VT finals.

Overall day one event finals was nice. I can't wait for day two. Hwaaaaaah I'm tired. Next quad wolds needs to be in N. America. At least the Olympics will be in Rio so the times will be sane for us North American people. Well for us east coasters that is :P.     

Simone Biles Golden In WAG AA || Nanning 2014

Full Results

This was another nice competition. I'm happy for all the medalists. I'm most happy for Iordache. She improved a lot. I watched the FIG stream. I never saw Iordache on bars but knowing how she performed on bars in the past I'm not surprised at the good bar score she got. Sometimes she's on sometimes she's off but she was on today. Her beam is good as always. Her difficulty dropped a bit because not everything was credited. Her vault was good as usual. Her floor was a bit nerve wrecking but she kept herself composed and even upgraded her last pass to full in pike. There were no doubt that she would medal. I think she will be the story of WAG this championships. Well I found myself feeling happy for her.

Biles took gold. She did a great job today. It must feel great to win 2 consecutive AA titles in a row. Teammate Kyla Ross came in 3rd. It's not that I am surprised she got 3rd it's that in gymnastics you never know what can happen. It was sad to see Mustafina fall on her dbl Arabian mount but it is what it is. She is capable of more difficulty so hopefully next year we can see more improvements from her. It's not over yet. Mustafina can still get gold on beam or medal on the events she qualified for. Anything can happen. Good luck and congratulations to everyone.   

Kohei Uchimura Golden In MAG AA || Nanning 2014

Full Results

1) Kohei Uchimura (JPN) 91.965
2) Max Whitlock (GBR) 90.473
3) Yusuke Tanaka (JPN) 90.449

This was a nice competition. I watched the Chinese feed. There were no doubts that Uchimura would reign again. He's won 5 world AA titles now! But I think it's best to say he won 6 major consecutive AA titles in a row. He has not lost since 2009. Not to be negative but I felt he was lowballed on some scores, just saying. I'm not surprised Whitlock came in 2nd. He did a good job. It was a good idea that they replaced him over Niles. I'm most happy for Yusuke Tanaka. He's somewhat been in the shadows of his more famous teammates but he managed to get third. I was cheering really hard for him to get 2nd. Although I knew he had tough competition from Verniaiev and Whitlock. I felt bad for inconsistent Verniaiev. He was close to making a podium finish. The hands down on rings, nervous floor and the out of bounds really cost him the difference. He could have gotten 2nd or I dare say first? Nah Kohei is the best but it'll be interesting to see how the next world championships be like. Whitlock and Verniaiev are younger but Uchimura will not back down.  

Quick 2014 MAG/WAG AA Wishes & Predictions

MAG Wish

1) Kohei Uchimura (JPN)
2) Yusuke Tanaka (JPN)
3) Oleg Verniaiev (UKR)

Prediction

1) Kohei Uchimura (JPN)
2) Deng Shudi (CHN) {he has the highest Dscores}
3) Nikolai Kuksenkov (RUS)

WAG Wish

1) Simone Biles (USA)
2) Aliya Mustafina (RUS)
3) Yao Jinnan (CHN)

Prediction

1) Aliya Mustafina (RUS)
2) Simone Biles (USA)
3) Larisa Iordache (ROU)

Huang Huidan's 2014 Team Finals World Beam

One of my favourite routine from team finals.

 

USA Wins Team WAG Gold || Nanning 2014

Full Results

1) USA 179.280
2) China 172.587
3) Russia 171.462

I watched live on Chinese feed. It's no surprise the mighty strong USA won. I enjoyed their strong difficult floor routines by Skinner and Biles. Yeah yeah I said Skinner :P. At least she woke me up because she does hard stuff that keeps me watching. I wonder what Ross's beam inquiry was about? Say what you want about Ross but she was the only one from USA that I liked on beam. I honestly do not understand how they scored so close to Chinese beam? My favourite part of team finals was China's beam, especially Huang Huidan's.

Romania qualified 7th but came in 4th. I'm happy for them. They were so close to 3rd with 170.963 for 4th place. I saw Iordache on beam and she was on fire. She scored the highest on beam with 15.5! I'm looking forward to seeing Munteanu's beam. She also scored high with 15.2.

Russia managed to take bronze. I saw Spiridonova and Mustafina on bars and they did good job. I only saw Mustafina on beam and floor she had some mistakes but she handled everything well. They fought to stick their vaults. I only saw Nabieva and Mustafina on vault. They did a really good job. They really needed those scores. They are fighters.

Not everything went well for China, Russia and Romania but they shouldn't be so hard on themselves. They are good teams they just need to hit hit hit their routines and maybe they can put pressure on team USA. They need more difficulty too but it's still mid quad. I think China, Russia and Romania knows what they need to do to improve for Rio. I hope they achieve what they intend to improve on. USA is too strong and of course they know they can't get lazy and expect to think they will always win easily. Congratulations to all the teams.    

China Wins Team MAG Gold || Nanning 2014

Full Results:

1) China 273.369

2) Japan 273.269

3) USA 270.369 

Haters gonna hate :P Okay to be serious, home advantage? Yeah sure but you can argue over and over again about the results. I was sure Japan won too but the judges gave it to China. I'm neutral about this since I love both Chinese and Japanese team. About fair judging I'm not gonna go there. Japanese gymnastics is really beautiful.

Grrrr worlds makes us gymfans go crazy. I love it :P. I did get mad at certain things but I'm calm now. For example I wish gymnastic streams can be free for all. None of this ip blocking crap. I'm tired of proxy changing etc. I was a bit mad that FIG never streamed it live for everyone. FIG should not be restricted. I understand USAgym had to but I'm not understanding why FIG? Okay but yeah I could use other streams which I did. The China stream was really good and no IP block. They showed all the Chinese and Japanese routines and still managed to show some of the other nations. At the last rotation bronze was a battle between Great Britain, USA and Russia. That was exciting to watch. That stream even aired the press interview which was interesting to listen to.

Submitted MAG "H" Skill 2/1 Kovacs

Source

Andreas Bretschneider of Germany will try it in team finals. Can't wait to see if he will successfully compete it. Good luck!

Kōhei Uchimura (内村 航平) | Stars of Gymnastics Documentary

This is a short documentary done by Trans World Sport. It's when they visited him at age 21.

 

Quick Thoughts On WAG Qualifications || Nanning 2014

Full results can be found here.

The only subdivision I saw live was China's. I was busy the other day and I couldn't stay up long enough to watch Romania. It was depressing to watch China on floor. Hopefully they can improve on that for team finals. Yao Jinnan was the top qualifier for bars.

China's uneven bars Dscores are huge. That really gives them an advantage. Huang Huidan and Tan Jiaxin tied but Huang had better execution so she's in for finals. I enjoyed that Tan Jiaxin did the layout dbl dbl dismount. Or also known as the Ray. I can't remember who was the last gymnast to do that skill since Tan. If you know let me know. (edit: Shawn Johnson in 2008)

On beam China did good. Shang put in an inquiry but it got rejected. I have no idea what that was about. China did have a few wobbly issues but generally I enjoy their beam style and difficulty. Beam is a hard event and kudos to all the finalists but I haven't feel wowed by the event finalists. I can only see a few routines from FIG youtube. I'm not sure who I want to win for this event.

Simone was top qualifier for AA, VT, BB, & FX. I'm guessing she fell from bars? I haven't seen her bar routine. I hope she wins AA. Would be nice for her to win 2 consecutive AA title. The only event I kind of dislike her on is beam. Yes I'm allowed to criticize about that. My opinion about it is that I just don't like the look of her on beam, no lines or extension. No beauty.

But damn floor is amazing. Iordache and her will duke it out. Mustafina also made floor finals. She got the 3/1 leg split turn but another girl did it so no named floor element for Mustafina. Maybe she can try for quad leg split turn for next year :P?

Vault finals should be interesting. I much prefer Hong's Amanar to Biles. I get that Cheng vault is difficult for WAG but it's not a pretty vault when done by WAG. It's nice to see that they are doing difficult vaults but none of them are doing them nicely.

Despite China's floor rotation they managed to qualify 2nd for team finals. No surprise that USA is in first and that Russia failed on BB to qualify for 3rd. Poor Romania qualified 7th. Oh and now I remember what happened to Andreea Munteanu on beam? I guess it's not surprising Romania didn't do so well. I still wish the best for them. 

Quick Thoughts on MAG Qualifications || Nanning 2014

All major results can be found here.

Thanks to Frangymnasticsfan for live chatting with me during the live subdivisions :) It's great that USA gymnastics shows some live subdivisions. I don't know where to start. I felt I should blog about this now or I would get lazy later on. This post was not well thought out. It's just me rambling. I'll talk about day 2 qualification mixed with day one.

I was hoping for Japan to hit all events but I'm not surprised they had some mishaps. I'm really hoping they can win team finals. I loved their floor routines. Yeah yeah they twists a lot but it's so cool and clean. Shirai scored 16.033 with 0.1 penalty. And he did well enough to make vt finals. Denis was top floor qualifier with 16.066. It's disappointing Kameyama fell off PH and didn't qualify. I'm most happy for Yusuke Tanaka. I hope he gets 2nd for AA finals. I don't know what happened to him in HB. When he dismounted the live feed went all choppy and crazy. Did he fall? Or were the judges really strict? I felt the judges were strict for HB escores but it does seem consistent enough. I'm kind of scared to see how the WAG will judge UB. Uchimura is still the best. It's a bit disappointing that he only made one apparatus finals (HB). But I'm looking forward to him winning his 6th consecutive major AA titile. Good luck Japan!

About USA, Donnell Whittenburgh looked nervous for his vaults. I wish he had made event finals. It would have been interesting with him in the mix. Mikulak did good for AA. I feel he won't make the AA podium but in gymnastics anything is possible. His escores are really hurting him. It's great Leyva qualified for first Pbars but he'll have major competition. All the finalist are great and can improve from qf results. It was disappointing to see him fall off HB. 

I think AA will be interesting. A lot of guys scores are close to each other. It's going to be a battle.

Team results were interesting too. The scores were close. China 362.698, Japan 361.609 & USA 360.393. All teams had issues. Please don't hate me when I say I predict China will win but that's what I think. But I really want Japan to win.

What else. Fabian didn't make HB finals, that's disappointing. I'm looking forward to seeing Belyavskiy qf routines. They were not shown live. Good for him he qf 2nd AA with 90.748. What else? That's all I can quickly think of. 

MAG Day 1 Qualification Results || Nanning 2014

All of Day 1 results are here.

Thanks to USA Gymnastics Youtube I was able to watch China's and Great Britain's subdivisions live. Although I had to use a USA IP. They are already uploading China's and Great Britain's videos to youtube. I can view this one without proxy change.

China did okay in my opinion. Not their best day but I feel they will be ready for team finals. I feel Great Britain can do better too. China still leads after the first day of qualifications. Team results after day 1

AA results were tight and interesting. Everyone is close to each other and they can all do better in AA finals. Most of the guys had some small mishaps. AA finals should be really interesting. I can't wait to see Uchimura! I think I was most surprised that Cheng Ran got 89.631. I didn't know much about him. Verniaiev is close to the top but I heard he fell on an event (PH)? His subdivision was not live. I hope he stays consistent. AA results after day 1   

I can't comment much on other events since there were no live coverage. Yang Hak Seon only did two 6.0 vaults. He didn't try his Kas 5/2. I guess he is playing safe. He has a bit of a hamstring injury. Vault finals will still be interesting. Results after day 1

I won't be able to blog much about day 2. I'll be busy Saturday but at least I can still watch it live!

Quick 2014 Worlds MAG/WAG Team Wishes & Predictions

MAG

Wish

1. Japan

2. China

3. Great Britain

Prediction

1. China

2. Japan

3. Great Britain

WAG

Wish
1. China
2. USA
3. Russia

Prediction
1. USA
2. Russia
3. China

New MAG Elements Submitted For Nanning 2014

Find all the details here.

Here's to hoping Yang Hak Seon will get the Kas 5/2 named after him. Valued at 6.4.

MAG Podium Training Snippets || Nanning 2014

Via Japan Gymnastics Association Youtube

Daria Spiridonova's 2014 Worlds FX Podium Training

She has a pretty low floor choreography. Too bad about the low difficulty.

(Source: Aly126)

 
Video via Piibunina

Chinese MAG Team || Ambassadors for Longines Watches

Liu Rongbing, Deng Shudi, Lin Chaopan, Zou Kai, Zhang Chenglong, Cheng Ran, You Hao, Liu Yang

Source 1, 2

Shek Wai Hung Wins 2014 Asian Games Vault Finals

In an interesting turn of event Yang and Ri were not the winners. Proving that gymnastics is an unpredictable sport. It's nice to see Shek win gold. Results here.

Yang Hak Seon's 2014 Asian Games QF/TF Vaults

VT1 // 6.0D + 9.6E = 15.600
VT2 // 6.0D + 9.4E = 15.400
Total Average = 15.500
Via: Frangymnasticsfan
   

Zou Kai's 2014 Asian Games QF/TF Floor

Looking good. Still has the 2/1 dbl layout and 2/1 dbl tuck dismount. He is only an alternate on China's 2014 worlds team but I bet he will officially make it on to the final team. Thanks to frangymnasticsfan for sharing this on to tumblr. Uploaded by youtube Skylar Emerald.

 

Ri Se Gwang 2014 Asian Games QF/TF Vaults

Reached 100,000+ Views

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Happy 23rd Birthday Ksenia Afanasyeva || A Master List of Gymnastic Skills She Competed

Vault

• 2/1 Yurchenko || 5.8
• Amanar || 6.3
• RO- ff -1/2 on layout 1/2 || 5.6

Uneven Bars

• Van Leeuwen (E) {first Russian to compete this skill}
• Jaeger (D)
• Tkatchev (D)
• Pak Salto (D)
• Toe 1/1 (D)
• Tsuk Tuck Dismount (D)
• Maloney (D)
• Bail to handstand (D)

Notable Connections

• Tkatchev + Pak Salto 
• Toe 1/1 + Tsuk Dismount
• Toe1/1 + Van Leeuwen
• Maloney + Pak Salto
• Maloney + Bail to hstd + Stalder shoot to HB

Just Because

Aliya Mustafina's 3/1 Y-Spin + 2/1 turn. Lovely difficult combo. I hope she gets the 3/1-Y named after her in Nanning.

(Source: i-don't-understand-gymnastics)

2014 Japanese MAG Team Photo Shoots

The Team: Kohei Uchimura, Ryohei Kato, Kenzo Shirai, Yusuke Tanaka, Kohei Kameyama & Shogo Nonomura.

Kohei Uchimura

Ryohei Kato

Kenzo Shirai

Yusuke Tanaka

Kohei Kameyama

Shogo Nonomura

Andreea Munteanu 2014 Romanian Nationals || BB EF

I think this routine might be my favourite to win at worlds in Nanning.

Chinese MAG 2014 Worlds Team

I haven't been updating here lately so here is something. The Chinese MAG team for worlds are Zhang Chenglong, Deng Shudi, Lin Chaopan, Cheng Ran, You Hao and Liu Yang.

Alternates are Liu Rongbing and Zou Kai.

Source 

Hot Summer Floor Routines

I'm shortly back to blog about Simone Biles and Claudia Fragapane's floor routines. I couldn't pass this opportunity to not blog about them. I think they are amazing floor routines. Their artistry is different from what I prefer but their strong athleticism are amazing.

A friend asked, "so which floor routine did you think was better?" I easily said Biles but I also liked Fragapane's. But I prefer Biles more because her execution is much cleaner and her dance movements were not as spazzy compared to Fragapane's (edit: maybe it's the music that made it seemed like Fragapane was spazzy). Yeah, yeah I know artistry is defined differently for everyone but I'm not into certain types of movements. Yes they are a bit similar but I just prefer Biles a bit more. Tumbling I think I like Biles more because she does H, G, F & E tumbles vs Fragapane's H, F, E & D. I liked that they both had two double saltos in the stretched position. Biles's dance elements are executed a little bit better than Fragapane's. For music I found it a bit hard to decide. I will say it's a tie since I'm not too fond of both music choices. Overall I think these two floor routines were great but I do prefer Biles new floor routine a bit more.

  What do you guys think?    

Just Because...

I wasn't expecting to take a longer break from this blog but I am. Hopefully I will be back around September. Until then enjoy your summer.

Here's Afanasyeva's 2013 Universiade AA FX.

Just Because...

I'm going take a break from this blog so here is a video of Grishina's beam from 2009.

 

CoP - Tip of The Month

In WAG the top 8 difficult skills will be counted into the D-score. It is possible to do more difficulty but only 8 skills will count. On vault there are no maximum or minimum requirement. A difficulty has already been determined for one element. Example, Yurchenko 2/1 (5.8) or Amanar (6.3). It is fairly easy to determine the difficulty of vaults.

On bars it is pretty easy too. Basically the top 8 highest difficult elements will be counted. Bars doesn't have dance or acro (max/min) but they do have set of compositional requirements that has to be meant. Counting the top 8 skills on bars is fairly easy. Dismount element is always counted into the top 8 skill.

On BB and FX it can get more difficult to count the top 8 skills. There is a maximum of 5 aco skills that a gymnast can count and 3 minumum dance skill a gymnast can count. Dismount elements will always be counted into the top 8 difficulty. It is possible to count 4 acro and 4 dance skills or 3 acro and 5 dance skills. The rule does not always have to be 5 acro 3 dance. Often that is why there are possibilities for 3 pass routines on FX. Some jam their routines with difficult dance elements vs acrobatic elements.

Example Victoria Moors 2013 American Cup counts 4 acro & 4 dance.

 

Just Because...

Anastasia Sidorova's 2012 Russian Cup floor routine. I quite like this routine. She was originally one of the most likely gymnast to make the Russian London 2012 team. She was rumoured to have an Amanar. Unfortunately she got injured.

 

Andreea Munteanu BB @ Match Avoine 2014

This beam routine is currently popular around the gymternet and I really like it. Munteanu is a very solid performer. I hope she will be successful on beam this year at worlds. Lovely leaps, difficult ff + tuck 1/1 and nice 3/1 twists dismount in connection.

 

Just Because

Gifs of Afanasyeva's new 2014 choreographed routine by graceandbeautywins.

(source: graceandbeautywins)

Afanasyeva's Full Russian Championship 2014 FX Choreography

Alyssia Spaan has uploaded Afan's full fx routine to youtube.  The original uploader was from VK.

I really like it! The more I watch it the more it grows on me. It has potential to be amazing. If not, I still like it and it's not because I'm bias. I haven't really seen a floor routine that I liked from this year (choreo wise) as much as I like this one. Afan does need to inject more sass :P or energy into her choreo but I feel that will come when she really needs to perform it. It's new so it should get better. The tumbling was obviously downgraded due to her just getting back into training from injury. She wasn't even suppose to compete but she decided to. I hope it was the right decision. I'm looking forward to her working hard to make the 2014 worlds team. Also, just in case if you missed it her DTY. Nice that she went for it.

I especially liked the whole choreo sequence from 0:33-0:51

 

Yang Hak Seon Kas 5/2 VT & Korea Cup 2014

I saw this Via TheAllaround Facebook. He landed it! I hear it's worth 6.4. The vault starts at 3:42 mark.

 

Just Because...Uchimura's 2011 EF FX

Ellie Black BB D-Score || Pacific Rim 2014

Here is Ellie Black's beam from the team/AA competition. She scored 6.6D + 8.4E = 15.000. Strong score.

2/1 turn + 1/1 turn (D) 0.1
Pike Front (E)
ff + layout (E) 0.1
ff + tuck 1/1 (F) 0.2
Switch leap + Switch leap 1/2 (C+D) 0.1
Tuck Front + Wolf (D) 0.1 
5/2 Twists (D)

3.5 + 0.6CV + 2.5CR = 6.6 D-score

 

Ross VS Key DTY || Pacific Rim 2014

I don't get how Ross can score the same execution score as Key's DTY. It probably has to do with the different codes? Key is a junior so the rules are different but I feel 9.5 for Ross is high. I do like Ross and when comparing her gymnastics to other gymnasts routines I can see the clean execution but not this time on the vault. What do you guys think?

 

Uchimura @ Tokyo Cup 2014

He is still the man. It's incredible how amazing he is. I watched this competition with a fellow gym fan and we were both fanning over his twisting on his FHS 5/2 vault. It's a thing of beauty.
 

Of course and his high bar is another highlight. That 3/1 DLO dismount! When I saw him do it I shouted fuck yeah!
 

Komova BB D-Score || Russian Championship 2014

This was an exhibition routine as she didn't make event finals. I am so happy to see Komova back in action. She does an exciting ff + Arabian + leap combo. It might not have been connected enough with the leaps but that is what she was intending to do. She only has one acro series so she will have to hit that connection all the time. All in all she still has time to perfect her routine and I'm excited to she her at her full potential again.

L-turn + Front Aerial + Sheep + Back Tuck (C+D+D) 0.4
FF + Arabian + leap series (F) 0.3
Dbl Turn (D)
Front Tuck (D)
Side-somi (D)
2 FF + Dbl Tuck (D) 0.1

3.3 + 0.8CV + 2.5CR = 6.6 D-Score! Pretty impressive.

 

A Sneak Peak at Afanasyeva's FX || 2014 Russian Championships

Here's a very short clip of what Afan's new choreo/music floor might look like when she gets back her full difficulty. I heard she scored 13.000 and didn't make event finals but she might perform one more time in team finals. This routine was super downgraded as the front 1/1 dismount proves it. Here's to hoping we get to see the whole routine.

 

And Aliya Mustafina's new routine too

 

Komova QF UB - 2014 Russian Championships

She's BACK! Haha sorry about the lame excitement, it's for humour effect. Hopefully it was funny but actually it's really nice to see Komova back in action. She is looking really good. She still has a nice look to her gymnastics. Seeing her bar routine I think she will still be able to bring back the big skills like the piked tkatchev and even the dbl dbl tuck dismount. I mean Tweddle was able to do it at age 27 so there should be no doubt that Komova could regain it back again. I hear she has a new skill on bars. Can't wait to see what it is. It looks like she finally took out the giant 1/2 before the dismount. The cast 1/2 was a bit iffy but it seems she really is not good at that change and honestly I have gotten used to the giant 1/2 that it's not even an issue for me. If it works for her it works for her but if she's intending to do the cast 1/2 hopefully she will improve on it. I heard she scored 15.000 for this routine. Seems reasonable.

Most of the video quality are not the best because of the live stream. I'm grateful for the Russian fans who recorded the live feed as this competition is too early for me to watch. I haven't check the results but based on pictures Mustafina won AA. For results you guys can check the official website. And for the full coverage you guys can check out luchinho84 youtube.  

Komova II + Pak Salto (E+D) 0.2
Komova (E)
Inbar 1/2 + Layout Jaeger (D+E) 0.1
Inbar 1/1 + Tkatchev (E+D) 0.1
Tsuk (D)

3.6 + 0.4CV + 2.5CR = 6.5 D-score

CoP - Tip of The Month

One of the CR (compositional requirements) on floor exercise is to show a dance passage worth 0.5. It must be composed of two different leaps or hops from the CoP. According to the code, "the objective is to create a large flowing and traveling movement pattern." This can be done directly or indirectly. Most of the times gymnasts will do it indirectly and take some extra runs into their second leap/hop. This can get boring and redundant.

Here are some examples of indirect dance passages done with some flair.

Deng Linlin 
Mai Murakami 
Marta Pihan-Kulezsa

What not to do Alicia Sacramone. She practically stopped and broke her indirect leap passage.

Example of direct dance passage by Yulia Belokobylskaya. I really like how she doesn't have to run into her second leap.

2014 WAG Russian Championships April 2-6

Usually this meet is used to determine the European team. According to most of the Russian media all of the 2012 Olympian members should be competing.

Recently on tumblr I did a post about when was the last time we saw the 5 Olympians. So I thought I would share it here on this blog. It's hard to let go of the 2012 team and move forward with the new seniors but this is just to show how I'm excited to see the return of some of the Olympians. Hopefully they will all show up.

Russia still has new hope in Kharenkova, Rodionova, Shelgunova, Sosnitskaya, Fedorova etc. Russia will still be one of the top contenders for Europeans.

I won't have high expectations for the gymnasts at this meet. They shouldn't be so perfect early in the season. I'm wishing everyone good health and for them to do the best that they can do.

I'm most intrigue in seeing how Komova has been progressing. I won't have high expectations but it would be nice to just see her back in competition. It's been too long. I'm not sure if I can follow this competition as I might be busy but I'm sure there will be lots of Russian fans posting up to date information. The official website for results is sportgymrus.ru.

If all of the 2012 Olympian shows up it will be the first time since we saw (compete):

Komova in 1 year and 8 months at the 2012 Olympic Games! Favourite routine was 2012 AA FX.

Grishina in 10 months at the 2013 Anadia Cup where she won uneven bars gold.

Afanasyeva in 9 months at 2013 Universiade Games. Favourite routine was AA FX.

Paseka in 8 months at 2013 Russian Cup where her best result was on uneven bars 2nd.

Mustafina in 4 months at the 2013 Stuttgart World Cup on beam in team finals.

MAG Element Names Granted Retroactively

Video by: tantara13

Epke Zonderland 2014 Doha Cup HB & PB

He was a double gold medalists today. He tied with Marcel Nguyen on pbars and won on high bars. Full results.
 

Peng Wang Doha 2014 FX - Quad Twists

Say what? Let me work out his difficulty. Excuse me if I get anything wrong since I'm rusty with the MAG code.

Bwd 7/2 + Fwd 1/1 (E+C) 0.1CV
Bwd 4/1 (F)
Bwd 5/2 + Fwd 3/2 (D+C) 0.1CV
Fwd 5/2 (E)
Thomas Salto (D)
Fedorchenko (C)
Japanese Hstd (C)
Bwd 3/1 (D)

4.0 + 0.2CV + 2.5EGR = 6.7 D-score || His completions of some twists were iffy but it seems the judges gave him credit for everything.

Here he got 6.7D + 8.4E = 15.1

And here is Paul Ruggeri's routine because he does double saltos.