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

News Roundup - Komova Making a Comeback & Uchimura Training TTY Again

Yesterday I first saw these news on tumblr. I gotta love tumblr yet sometimes I hate it but I like it more than hate. Okay so Komova is training to make a comeback again. She grew a lot and is looking vibrant and strong. She seems really positive. I hope this will be the year for Komova. She is such a beautiful gymnast. Word on the gymternet is that Mustafina will be taking a break from Round Lake. She will still be training at her home gym but not at Round Lake. Maybe she will miss Europeans? Here is the wonderful uploaders tumblr page lakekrugloye.

On the Japanese front Uchimura is training the TTY again which is named after Kenzo Shirai and Kim Hee Hoon. You can also see snippets of Shirai on pommels and rings. Kameyama, the reigning world gold pommel horse winner can also be seen doing a Kolman on high bar. I got this news from gymfanjapan's tumblr.

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?

Worlds 2013 MAG Day 1 Event Finals Results

FX - Full Results

1) Kenzo Shirai JPN (7.4) 16.000

What can I say he is a twisting machine. Very awesome routine. I love his hard twisting combos and the quad. This guy has some major endurance power.

2) Jake Dalton USA (6.7) 15.600

I enjoyed his routine. He does lots of nice double saltos which is a nice change from the twisting fest. He rivals Kohei's 3/1. Dalton stuck a very nice 3/1. I also liked Legendre's routine but he had way too many hops on his landings.

3) Kohei Uchimura JPN (6.4) 15.500 Best execution 9.1

Best execution 9.1. I love how clean Kohei is. He's very precise and beautiful to watch. The 3/1 twists was beautiful and stuck.

PH - Full Results

1) Kohei Kameyama JPN (6.9) 15.833
2) Max Whitlock GBR (7.2) 15.633
2) Daniel Corral MEX (6.8) 15.633

Highlights - What a thrilling event finals to watch. I was not expecting Kameyama to win. He is very good on pommels. He is clean and has nice lines. Zhang Hongtao was my favourite for execution. He is really clean too bad about his difficultly but it's still a hard routine to do.

SR - Full Results

1) Arthur Zanetti BRA (6.8) 15.800
2) Alexander Balandin (6.9) 15.733
3) Brandon Wynn (6.7) 15.633

Everyone was really good here with the exception of the French guy. They are all so strong, my arms hurts just from watching them.