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 :).

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.     

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)

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. 

Part 4: Favourite Gymnastics of 2013 ~ WAG

I don't care what anyone thinks but I think Afanasyeva's Universiade floor exercise AA and Amanar vault was my favourite thing of the year. I could criticize her faults but what's the point? As you can see this blog is kind of an Afan appreciation blog so she would be tops as my favourite :P. I like her AA FX because she almost hits everything.
Afan doing the Amanar was another big deal because who would of thought a female gymnast at her age would be able to do it for the first time? Clearly she worked her ass off to be all kinds of amazing at the Universiade Games. She even upgraded her 2nd vault. I also enjoyed that her tumbles has gotten better. Her DLO and dbl pike have improved immensely. Her European floor gold routine is another favourite of mine. IMO Afan did make the year exciting with her rumoured Amanar. It's often dubbed the Afanar :D.

Another girl that made the year exciting would be Simone Biles. I grew to like her. She ruled this year and she also had some of the best training clips. Seriously if she ever competes the stuff that she showed in training the gymternet would explode. I hope she can at least compete something from her training clips in real competition. I forgot to mention her 2 ff + full in (B+B+G) 0.1SB in my favourite combo section. That is a difficult combo to do. Definitely a favourite combo.

(Source: gymnasticsgifs)

Huang Huidan's UB world's gold. Her bar routine was a long time favourite of mine. She was actually a nice surprise win. She wasn't on most people's radar. She's badass for not wearing grips or even the gauge tapes.

Yao Jinnan's UB routines. Even without the Mo salto (G) I still enjoy her routine here. The Mo salto was also one of those rumoured upgrades that not many believed, including me. But she did it and it was exciting to see.

Sophie Scheder's UB. It's not a flashy bar routine but it's a really beautiful and elegant routine.

Anna Dementyeva's Universiade beam. Dementyeva is a great beam worker. So sad she retired. I wanted her to win beam gold at Universiade. Her team/prelim beam was good. So much difficult work. I liked her onodi + front aerial + Sheep (D+D+D) 0.3CV. It's one of my fav connections. I should have included it into my fav combos but I feel I liker her whole routine so she deserves to be here. She also dismounted to a new dbl pike which was a better choice than her usual sketchy 3/1 twists. McKayla Maroney for defending her vault title. I liked her floor routine too. I wish she could have made floor finals but she was penalized for being overtime. I like her new DLO (F). I like how she and Afan round ups into their 5/2 twists instead of doing bhs.

Larisa Iordache's beam. She does two full in's! She was my pick for beam gold in Antwerp but too bad she couldn't pull it off.

Victoria Moor's FX from American Cup. Even without the Moors II (2/1 DLO) her floor routine is still good. I think she has one of the best Silivas (H) in the world. What were some of your favourite routines from this year?

Catching Up On Competitions That I've Missed Mexico Open/Stuttgart Cup

So there were two main competitions this weekend. Thanks to all the uploaders on youtube I am finally caught up. Admittedly I haven't seen all the videos and I thought the Stuttgart Cup was next week. I guess I've been too busy to keep track of what is going on and oh technically this cup is the DTB but I'm use to saying Stuttgart. The Mexico Open happened this weekend too.

It seems everyone is fanning over Aliya Mustafina's "new" beam routine? Um there was nothing really that worth getting overly excited about. All she did was two front aerials + split jump. Sometimes I don't understand why people get overly excited for things like this. In prelims she forgot to do a bwd element thank god she did it in the team finals. Losing a bwd element is five tenths CR deduction. I don't know what she scored in prelims but hopefully it wasn't a controversy like how Afan never got deducted for no fwd element on floor at the French Cup.

Elizabeth Price won the AA. The thing that impressed me was her Amanar. Everything else, meh. It was a close competition between Price and Iordache. Iordache fell off bars the gap difference between Price and Iordache was 0.034.

Oleg Verniaiev won the AA and he doesn't have the very exciting HB release skills but his Tak turns are well done. I wish more guys could do them clean like Oleg. Jossimar Calvo won the MAG AA at the Mexico Open. I haven't seen videos of him from this competition but I like his HB routine where he does the Tak 1/2 + Liukin. Someone should make a gif of that.

Roxana Popa won the AA on the WAG side. I like the DLO and especially the two whips indirect to full in tucked.

And one more thing. Yao Jinnan got a 9.0 execution on bars in Stuttgart prelims. I get that not many people like the shuffling on bars and it bothers me too but damn her pirouettes are nicely done. Believe it or not she can do better. The 9.0 execution is justified.  

My Quick Picks For EF Day 1

FX: Shirai

PH: Hongtao

SR: Liu or Zanetti

VT: Maroney

UB: Mustafina or Yao

I don't really have a top three podium but I hope some of these gymnasts medal.

WAG 2013 Worlds AA Results - Simone Biles USA Wins

AA Award Ceremony

  FULL RESULTS 

1. Simone Biles USA 60.216

Highlight for me would be her vault and floor. Her beam could be better. She got through bars and had the second highest E- score 8.600. Overall she did a very good job, well done.

2. Kyla Ross USA 59.332

She was my favourite today. Low difficulty but very good execution. It's proof that this strategy can work. It's sad because I could see Anastasia Grishina having this kind of strategy, come on Russia are you paying attention? It's sad the Russians insists Grishina do higher difficulty. Ross had the highest E-scores of the competition with the exception of FX (Biles was higher) VT9.566  UB8.700  BB8.633  FX8.633. She won the Longines elegance prize too :) Oh and Kohei won it again. Would have been better if someone else won it besides Kohei, maybe his teammate Kato should have won it.

3. Aliya Mustafina RUS 58.856

The Americans were too strong for Mustafina to challenge them but she put up a good fight. Her DTY is good but could be better. She brought back her full 6.7 bar routine. On floor she did good. She did two whips indirect to Arabian + stag, cool. I'm happy she got to medal.

Other highlights-

The Chinese failed on beam. Yao and Shang both fell off beam. Yao did the Mo Salto though!

Larisa Iordache started off good but then on her best event she fell off beam. She is my pick for BB EF gold. She came back on floor with a nice routine.

Yao Jinnan UB Podium Training 2013 Worlds

Yao Jinnan D-Scores 2012

Here I go again with the d-score calculations. These d-scores are for my own references when the Olympics begins. I just want to familiarize myself with these gymnasts routine and know where their d-scores will roughly be at. 13 more days until the Olympic Games!

Yao Jinnan is currently China's best all-arounder. She could medal in AA finals or even be the first ever Chinese female gymnast to win the Olympic AA title, this is not a delusional statement. If she had not fallen off beam at the 2011 world championships she would have been the first ever Chinese female gymnast to win an world champion AA title.

She doesn't have an Amanar but IMHO the Amanar from the other AA competitors are over-rated. Anything can happen when the actual competition begins and having an Amanar is very helpful to have but it's only going to help a gymnast if they can nail it with exceptional execution. If a gymnast fall or doesn't fully rotate that 1/2 twist, this will mean DISASTER. Most of the AA contenders with Amanars have shady ones. 

Yao is still competitive enough on the other apparatuses. She has been rumoured to have a vault that was over 6.0, not sure what kind of vault. She recently had a minor injury at the Chinese Nationals and didn't compete. I believe her only major 2012 competition was the Zibo World Cup in China. I will use the most recent videos I can find. Her vault and floor routine will be from Tokyo world's. I'm pretty sure she will compete the double layout on floor again.

Vault: Yurchenko 2/1 = 5.8

UB:
Stalder Shap + Pak (D+D) 0.1CV
Stalder + Stalder Shap 1/2  (E)
Healy + Ling + Ling 1/2 + Tkatchev (E+E+E+D) 0.6
DLO (D)

3.6 + 0.7CV = 4.3 + 2.5 = 6.8 D-Score

BB: 
Standing Tuck 1/1 + Korbut (F+B) 0.2
FF + BHS + Layout (B+B+E) 0.2
Wolf Jump + Split Jump
Front Aerial + Sheep jump (D+D) 0.1
Front Tuck (D)
Leg Split Turn (C)
Switch Ring (E)
RO + DBL Pike (E)

3.6 + 0.5CV = 4.1 + 2.5 = 6.6 D-Score if everything gets credit

FX:
DLO (F)
3/1 Twists + Stag (E+A) 0.1CV
Memmel Spin (D)
Switch 1/2 Leap (C)
3/2 Twists + 5/2 Twists + Split Jump (C+D+A) 0.2
Front Aerial
Switch Ring + Split 1/1 (C/C)
Double Pike (D)

3.2 + 0.3CV = 3.5 + 2.5 = 6.0 D-Score if everything gets credit

AA D-Scores = 5.8 + 6.8 + 6.6 + 6.0 = 25.2

I will be rooting for Yao in London. I'm predicting her best chance will be bronze (Even though gold possibly can happen). If she doesn't medal and manages to hit all her routines then that will still be impressive and a winner in my book. I just want her to have the best experience in London.

Chinese Team Announced

The WAG Chinese team will comprise of He Kexin (2008 bars gold medalist, now a two-time Olympian), Deng Linlin (2008 team gold medalist, now a two-time Olympian), Yao Jinnan (2011 world's AA bronze medalists, China's best hope for an Olympic AA medal), Sui Lu (2011 world's beam gold medalist) and Huang Qiushuang (rumoured to have landed an Amanar but no video evidence).

One of my favourite 2008 Olympian, Jiang Yuyuan made it as alternate. 2010 Youth Olympic silver AA medalist Tan Sixin will be the other alternate.

I think this was China's best possible team. I don't really understand what all the fuss is about He Kexin being named as the last member. So what if she's a specialist? Almost all the top team will have a specialist. For example, Russia's Maria Paseka will be taken for her Amanar vault. She is useless on the other events. McKayla Maroney is basically a one event specialist on vault. It can be argued that she can do floor but let's face it she won't make floor finals and USA might not use her floor in team finals because she is inconsistent. Maroney will not even be used on UB or BB as she's weak on those apparatuses.

He Kexin can bring in a high score for China on UB. She can score in the 15.000 -15.500 range. Any scores in the 15's is great for any team. He Kexin could also make it to bars event finals and possibly medal. It will be hard for China to contend for gold or possibly even silver. They have the potential to medal bronze.

China is one of my favourite sentimental team. I don't even give a shit about the Chinese underage scandal. I do think some of them were underage. If they are found to be underage, they should give their gold to the obnoxious Americans (not all Americans are obnoxious). China does give back their medals when found to be guilty but all other federations who were found to be underage kept their cheating medals. Gymnastic age is really controversial and I have my suspicions of other federation cheating ages (past & present). It happens and I can guarantee that the majority of some gymnasts are not the ages they really claim to be. IMO the only clean countries with no age questions are USA, Canada, UK, Australia, France, Germany, you get the idea. China, Japan, Russia, Romania etc, are not clean of this IMO, I have my suspicions. Let's all face it, not everyone will play by the rules. Gymnastic is not the only sport that has cheating scandals.

This is my China team line-up. Parentheses is for prelims and the lowest score to be scratched for the team prelim total.

VT: (He or Sui) Deng, Huang, Yao
UB: (Deng) Huang, Yao, He
BB: (Huang or Deng) Huang or Deng, Yao, Sui
FX: (Deng or Huang) Deng or Huang, Yao, Sui