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