Rio 2016 Olympic MAG/WAG Event Finals & Final Thoughts PART 2

Uneven Bars Results
1. Aliya Mustafina 15.900
2. Madison Kocian 15.833
3. Sophie Scheder 15.566

Aliya Mustafina is the Queen of uneven bars. She is the 2x Olympic champion on this event. I am really happy she won! Madison Kocian in 2nd and I think this was her best routine. And Sophie Scheder! Wow I forgot that she was in this finals. I have always knew about her and even blogged about how much I liked her routines. I wasn't expecting her to medal at the Olympics. This is a great win for her.

MAG Vault Results
1. Ri Se Gwang AVG 15.691
2. Denis Abliazin AVG 15.516
3. Kenzo Shirai AVG 15.449

Man this finals was exciting to watch. Two new crazy vaults were performed. Igor Radivilov was 2nd to perform and he attempted a 3/1 front tuck! This guy is crazy gutsy. He was awarded the full 7.0 difficulty but I read he will not get it named after him since he fell. Then there was Kenzo Shirai. After his disappointing floor finals he came back with a crazy 7/2 (3.5) Yurchenko! I am happy Kenzo was able to medal individually. He also had the highest execution in this finals. Ri Se Gwang is another fearless competitor. He is truly the champion because he did two vaults that is named after himself. His vaults may not look pretty but they are crazy difficult. I'm happy he won. Then there's Abliazin who maybe could have won if he stuck his Ri vault. I think he could of but who knows. In this case it's still nice to see him medal for team Russia.

Balance Beam Results
1. Sanne Wevers 15.466
2. Laurie Hernandez 15.333
3. Simone Biles 14.733

As always this was a nerve wrecking event to watch. Simone could have won this event but she grasped the beam and almost fell from front tuck. I was so nervous. In the end she was able to win 3rd. Laurie had a chance to win after Wevers but her execution and difficulty was not quite enough and she had to settle for 2nd. Then there is Sanne Wevers! I absolutely love her beam routine. Very unique and beautiful with all the difficult turns. The judges took quite a long time for her score and when it came out I clapped in happiness. I think it was the suspense that made it all exciting. Sometimes Wevers is inconsistent but this was her year. So happy for her. In a lot of ways this was probably my favourite win of this Olympic gymnastics.

Parallel Bars Results  
1. Oleg Verniaiev 16.041
2. Danell Leyva 15.900
3. David Belyavskiy 15.783

Again I was disappointed with the Chinese guys Deng Shudi and You Hao. Deng was shaky and lost lots in execution. You Hao was doing really well up until his difficult double front 1/2 out. So close he was but it was not meant to be. It's also clear to see which style the judges like. Danell performed very well and stuck his landing. I'm happy he won after from being an alternate. Belyavskiy won 3rd. His routine is nice and its awesome how he got 3rd in such a difficult finals. Never giving up and fighting is the name of this sport. Then there's Verniaiev. He had an error issue with handstand but his routine has good difficulty and execution through out to make him win. It also didn't hurt that he was a major favourite to win this event. I'm happy he can leave with a gold medal from these games.

WAG Floor Exercise Results 
1. Simone Biles 15.966!
2. Aly Raisman 15.500
3. Amy Tinkler 14.933

This was another good finals. I really enjoyed watching Wang Yan on floor. I think she was low balled on this event. She deserved a better score. Through out this competition I have been impressed with Wang. She hit all her routines through out the games. Very impressive. Amy Tinkler was a nice surprised. How nice that Great Britain won an individual medal on the WAG side. If it wasn't Claudia Fragapane to qualify and medal it was a nice surprise to see Tinkler do it. Aly Raisman was simply amazing. I really like her on this event. This is her forte. This is her event. Her third pass sticking a DLO gah. She was not able to defend her 2012 title because Simone Biles was also amazing. Biles difficulty is out of this world! Such difficult tumbling and very energetic routine. Simone Biles won her 4th gold on this event in Rio. Wow.

High Bar Results 
1. Fabian Hambuchen 15.766
2. Danell Leyva 15.500
3. Nile Wilson 15.466  

This is always an event to look forward to. I'm disappointed that Kohei fell in qualification but there were great guys in this final. Sadly Zonderland was not able to defend his title. His friendly rival friend Fabian Hambuchen was first up and killed his routine. It was a thrilling and exciting routine. This was his last time to compete as he is retiring. What an amazing way to end his competitive gymnastics career with an Olympic gold medal! He now has all the collected medals of bronze from 2008, silver from 2012 and now Gold. That's cool. Danell Leyva was also amazing to see on bars. It's nice to see him medal again. Some people are calling him the silver prince. Nile Wilson fought and did a great job to place 3rd. Never give up because you never know what can happen. It's great that Great Britain has been winning several individual medals. That is a success for their program.

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. 

Thoughts On 2014 American Cup

I have to admit I haven't seen the full coverage of this meet. So far I saw most of the clips that USA Gymnastics uploaded to their youtube channel. I tried watching the over 3 hrs feed but I just couldn't do it. It's too long.

WAG/MAG Results

I was pleasantly surprised that Shogo Nonomura did well (and I shouldn't be). He's gotten a bit more difficulty since 2011 and his execution is really good. Too bad about the fall from HB. He would have been closer to Mikulak. It's nice seeing that Mikulak won in his home country. The scores were also close between the 2nd to 5th  finishers. All scores in the 88 range. Orozco didn't do the Lou Yun 1/2, I wonder why? Purvis did good for 3rd place. I liked his floor routine even though he went out of bounds. Too bad about Hambuchen falling on floor and only dismounting with dbl pike. Either than that his HB was exciting, oh and stuck Shewfelt vault. Oh and my prediction of Sasaki finishing high didn't happen but he did okay I guess.

On the WAG side Price won. I think her real competition was only from Dowell. I'm just realizing that Dowell's beam difficulty was low, I've never noticed that. But the Americans are just too good that the other competitors could not really surpass IMO. I know that it was close between Dowell and Steingruber but personally I feel Dowell is a bit better overall than the other international field. It's nice too see that Steingruber got third though. Her front 1.5 half vault really helped her. I think overall I really did like Price's bar routine but I also liked Scheder's routine too. Too bad she stalled for a bit on her inbar 1/2 to Jaeger combo.

I think I like Moors floor but I will have to say I like her old routines better and it's cool she did the full in tuck on beam :).

I actually liked Ferrari's floor routine. She had the highest floor score. I'm not the biggest Ferrari fan but she really is a good floor worker.

American Cup 2014 Preview

It's that time of year again when the interesting and perhaps the most watched world cup begins, the American Cup. Sadly this year I will miss this event live but usually this competition gets uploaded quickly. I'm gonna try to avoid spoilers. The nominative list.

The MAG will have a strong field. I would say Mikulak (USA) and Hambuchen (GER) will duke it out for gold but I'm betting Mikulak will win. It will be interesting to see how these two do since they are some of the bests in elite gymnastics. Sergio Sasaki (BRA) could surprise us all and win. It's not that he can't do it but he's not talked a lot about. I'm guessing the podium will be something like Mikulak, Hambuchen, Sasaki or Orozco. I'm looking forward to seeing what rating Orozco will get for the Lou Yun 1/2 (I'm thinking still an E). Japan is sending Shogo Nonomura. I remember him being talked a lot about but not really making a big impact. I'm interested in seeing how he will do. Either than that the MAG competition should be good and competitive.

On the WAG side it looks like American superstars Simone Biles, Kyla Ross and Romania's Larisa Iordache will not attend this meet. We saw some exciting upgrades from Biles.

She is also working on a new choreographed routine. Many were excited to finally get to see it this weekend but it was not to be. I heard she's resting her arms/shoulders? I guess it's good to take a break since it's early in the season. USA will still field two strong AA'ers. Elizabeth Price and Brenna Dowell. I'm most excited to see Victoria Moors (CAN). Hopefully she will do the new full in tuck dismount off beam and the exciting 2/1 DLO. Ah and there is Sophie Scheder (GER) and her bar routine, I'm looking forward to that. I think she will be the class act on that event. There will be Giulia Steingruber (SUI) and Roxanna Popa (ESP). They could surprise us with finishing high on the podium. Then there are the Italians, Vanessa Ferrari and Carlotta Ferlito. Ferrari will be the interesting one to watch. She really is a veteran in this sport and she's been able to keep most of her hard tricks for so long. She's one that could surprise and medal on the podium. Last I saw she got back her Comaneci (E) on bars.

        

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 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?

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.  

FIG's 2013 MAG AA Worlds Montage

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

Gymnastics Olympic Event Finals Day 3

I'm really excited about this finals. The gentlemen will compete on parallel bars and high bar. The ladies will be on beam and floor exercise. The event finals will begin live at 9:00 AM EDT. Good luck to all the ladies and gentlemen. Start list: CLICK HERE  

The competition will start in about 6min I'm watching it live here: BBC

EDIT 1:

FULL RESULTS
1) Feng Zhe (CHN) Very high difficulty 7.0. Good clean stuff.
2) Marcel Nguyen (GER) Good difficulty 6.8 and difficult Tsuk dismount.
3) Hamilton Sabot (FRA) Good 6.7 difficulty and very clean routine.

EDIT 2: FULL RESULTS

This was a weird competition. Too many mistakes. Thank you China for being awesome. Afanasyeva showed GOOD SPORTS-MANSHIP. Ponor wining third is a travesty. I was rooting for Raisman to take 3rd. What a shame! Ponor was too wobbly and had many many execution faults. This will be one of the most controversial event finals. Congrats to the daredevil Deng Linlin, you rock. I thought Sui should have won but hey China 1-2, cheer up Sui.

1) Deng Linlin (CHN)
2) Sui Lu (CHN)
3) Catalina Ponor (ROM)
3) Aly Raisman (USA)

Edit 3: Raisman in 3rd Catalina in 4th. WTF this final was crazy. What is wrong with the judges! Get it right the first time!

EDIT 4: Oh god Sui Lu is such a DIVA!

EDIT 5: What an AMAZING high bar final! One of the best in history. Zonderland finally gets a well deserved gold medal. Hambuechen really stepped it up I'm happy for his silver. Zou in 3rd.

1) Epke Zonderland 2) Fabian Hambuechen 3) Zou Kai FINAL RESULTS

EDIT 6:

1)ALY RAISMAN. She is so powerful and such a phenomenal tumbler. Powerful gymnastics is just as beautiful as artistic and elegant gymnastics. Raisman may not be elegant but her attitude and determination is beautiful. She is a class act. She has such a difficult routine it's crazy. She finally gets a well deserved GOLD! It's really easy to like Raisman as a person. She seems like such a nice girl. Congratulation Aly Raisman :)

2) Ponor did a wonderful job. She had two stuck landing on DLO and dbl Pike. She really fought out there for a medal. I may not like her routine but she deserved this silver. She's freaking 24! Cool.

3) ALIYA MUSTAFINA! I somehow knew she could do it. She is a born champion. She just knows how to compete. I'm happy she got this. We at least got to see grace and elegance on medal. Mustafina is boss and I'm looking forward to seeing more of her in the next quad.

6) Afanasyeva. Once a headcase, always a headcase. I knew it was coming. She majorly went out of bounds on her third pass. She stuck her triple full from connections though :D. It wasn't meant to be Afan. She's still a wonderful gymnast.

8) Izbasa - I was rooting for her to take gold if Afan couldn't do it. She failed on her last pass. Everything else was going good though. It was really unexpected. Hey she has a vault gold LOL and she still has her 2008 floor gold.

FULL RESULTS