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.

Team Japan MAG Wins Rio 2016 Olympics

Full Results
1) Japan 274.094
2) Russia 271.453
3) China 271.122

It was a thrilling and intense competition. I am very happy Team Japan won since 2004 Athens. They have been wanting this for so long. Of course all teams dream of winning gold and Russia was close to winning. They were amazing yesterday too. They hit all their routines and did the best they have ever did. And after 16 years later they made the podium again with a new team for silver medal. In honesty I never thought Russia would have medal so it was exciting to see. China was able to win bronze. As of late they have not been doing the best but if they have not made some costly errors they could have been close or maybe won. But China has been lacking consistency and difficulty in some apparatus during this quad. It'll be interesting to see how they develop their program for the future. I'm happy China was able to medal. I'm happy about this whole finals.

Japan MAG Rio 2016 Olympic Team

 Kohei Uchimura 

 Ryohei Kato 

 Kenzo Shirai 

 Yusuke Tanaka 

 Koji Yamamuro 

I'm very excited to see this team in Rio. It's the same team as London's 2012 Olympic but Shirai replaces Kazuhito Tanaka. This will be the first Olympics for Kenzo Shirai. I'm wishing this beautiful gymnastic team all the best. 

70th Japanese AA Championship Videos and Results

Click for Full Results

Thanks via from a1tumbling and gymfanjapan.

Here are the videos. Yusuke Saito did 2/1 Kovacs on HB. Link

1. Kohei Uchimura 91.300
2. Kenzo Shirai 89.700
3. Ryohei Kato 89.400

Interesting that Kenzo Shirai is moving up in the AA rankings.

Kenzo Shirai 2016 Baku World Cup FX

Today he only did the triple double tuck salto. Though it's still really hard to do. I'm guessing his namesake skill the triple double layout will be a rare skill for him in competition now. I feel he will play it safe for the Olympics. His difficulty is still high without it.

His score 7.5 + 8.65 = 16.15

Kenzo Shirai's 3/1 Twisting DLO

I haven't been updating here for awhile so here's a new MAG element. It was rated H! Kenzo really deserved this skill. He's amazing.

Kenzo Shirai FX QF || Glasgow 2015

My favourite routine to win at worlds.

2015 Asian Gymnastic Championships || News Link & Videos

Here are some links to great resources of news and videos from 2015 Asian Gymnastics Championships. It's not easy to find English news of Japanese gymnastics. I like these sites ryohei-kato and peggyswonderland. I know its tumblr but these sites helped me be up to date and once you get the hang of tumblr it's fun and easy.  

Here's Wang Yan's winning floor routine. I like the 3/2 indirect to 3/1 + front punch and of course the tuck dbl dbl at the beginning.

Here's Shirai's  winning floor routine. The triple double tuck always gets me. It's amazing to be honest and for whatever reasons I like the endo roll to handstand. He may only have one double salto but his routine is still exciting. Those twisting combinations are no walk in the park. I'm still dreaming the day he puts in the triple dbl layout that he's been seen doing. Now that would be on whole new level of amazing.

     

Kenzo Shirai FX 69th All Japan Apparatus Championships D-Score

7.6D + 8.85E = 16.45

Bwd 7/2 + Fwd 2/1 (E+D) 0.2CV
Ri (G)
Endo roll hstd (C)
Fwd 1/1 + Fwd 3/1 (C+F) 0.1CV
Bwd 5/2 + Fwd 5/2 (D+E) 0.2CV
Somi 1/1 (C)
Bwd Quad (F)

4.6 + 0.5CV = 5.1 + 2.5EG = 7.6 D-Score (video might be deleted/removed soon)

Training News on Uchimura & Shirai @ 69th Japanese Championships

And QF results top 3: Full google translated results

1. Kohei Uchimura 15.75 + 15.1 + 14.95 + 15.0 + 15.45 + 15.9 = 92.150AA 
2. Yusuke Tanaka 15.3 + 13.75 + 14.8 + 14.8 + 15.8 + 15.650 = 90.100AA
3. Ryohei Kato 15.45 + 14.6 + 14.6 + 14.8 + 15.600 + 15.00 = 90.050 AA

 

Kenzo Shirai FX Final || 2015 Cottbus Cup

Not the best quality but it's nice that mkjgt353 is sharing.

7.6 + 8.85 = 16.45 (Gold)

 

Kenzo Shirai & Kohei Uchimura || 2015 First National Training Of The Year

Here you can see Shirai doing the triple double layout and Uchimura doing a double front 1/2 dismount off PB. Via mkjgt353

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)

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.

 

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. 

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

Kenzo Shirai 2014 Doha Cup FX 7.4D + 8.6E = 16.000

New MAG Elements Updated 2014

MTC Newsletter #27

The new MAG newsletter came out on Monday the 17th and there are new elements that were added. It seems Kenzo Shirai was not the first guy to do the quad twists at a world championships. Vietnam's Tuan Dat Nguyen did it too. So now it's called the Shirai-Nguyen.

Kenzo Shirai 9/2 + 1/2 Twists

That's 4.5 + 0.5 in case you're wondering. MAG FIG uses improper fractions which I like. Anyway Shirai is insane.