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. 

55th NHK Results & Videos

Uchimura easily won this competition. He scored here 93.35! The first score is from 70th All Japan combined with NHK. Tanaka did beat Kato here but with the combined total Kato won in 2nd. Uchimura and Kato are officially locks for the Olympics. The full team will be announced at the 70th event final competition in June.

Full results here

1) Kohei Uchimura - 91.3 + 93.35 = 184.65
2) Ryohei Kato - 89.4 + 90.7 = 180.1
3) Yusuke Tanaka - 89.050 + 90.95 = 180.0

Here are some videos that most likely won't be deleted (click here).

And here is the youtube upload by labflapper  of Uchimura and Kato:

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.

Just Because...All Kohei Uchimura 2014 World Championship Routines

Plus you get to see Yusuke Tanaka's floor routine :P.

I think the only person that can cause an upset to Uchimura is Verniaiev and possibly Whitlock. We haven't seen much of Whitlock but he'll start to compete more in the next coming months. Then there are his own teammates like Kato and Tanaka. Kato recently had a mishap at a college meet but hopefully it's nothing serious and he can resume normal training. Either than that I don't think guys like Mikulak can even make top 3. Well anything can happen but he'll have to over come other guys before even getting close to 1st.

   

Ryohei Kato Interviews @ 69th Japanese Championships

I'm not sure these clips will stay up for long but here is some news about Kato.  

69th Japanese Championships MAG Results

Original results & Google translated results

Day 1 & 2 scores are combined. In the results you can see the scores of each apparatus. 

1. Kohei Uchimura 92.150 + 90.550 = 182.700

2. Yusuke Tanaka 90.100 + 90.450 = 180.550

3. Ryohei Kato 90.050 + 89.950 = 180.000

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

 

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.
  

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

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?

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

My Quick Picks for MAG AA Worlds 2013

1) Kohei Uchimura JPN (Obviously)
2) Ryohei Kato JPN
3) Sam Mikulak USA

Anything can happen and all I really want is Uchimura to win.

Powerhouse Japan - 2013 Artistic Worlds