There were two 15+ scores in Woluwe-Saint-Lambert, both for Romanian super talent Larisa Iordache. Her very lively floor exercise, featuring an amazing 2.5 twist-punch front-punch front combo and a super fast triple turn, garnered a 15.10. She also received a 15.05 for her fast and difficult beam set, which came with a 6.3 A score but was subject to many small deductions. Iordache is still somewhat imprecise in her movements, but once she gets stable (she will - she's Romanian), she'll be hard to beat on both floor and beam. She also has a decent bars routine - when she hits, which she didn't in Belgium. However, her vault (currently a layout Yurchenko) needs some work.
Corrie Lothrop, the best vaulter at the Challenge International competition (photo: Al Bello/Getty Images)
The top score on vault, 14.75, was awarded to AA winner Corrie Lothrop, who showed a solid 1.5-twisting Yurchenko with a small hop on the landing (click here to see it). Lothrop's teammate, AA silver medalist Olivia Courtney, scored the highest mark on bars, 14.85, for a powerful set featuring a toe-on Shaposhnikova, toe-on-full to Gienger, Jaeger and full-in dismount (shown here).
Six gymnasts received B scores of 9.00 or higher, all on vault or floor: Corrie Lothrop (9.25 on vault); Amanda Jetter (9.15 on floor and 9.00 on vault); Larisa Iordache (9.20 on floor and 9.15 on vault); Lieke Wevers (9.10 on vault and 9.00 on floor); Jocelyn Kraan (9.00 on floor); and Marieke Herteleer (9.15 on vault). Olivia Courtney's execution scores never exceeded 8.95, but high start values helped her clinch the silver medal.
Romanian gymnasts Patricia Tiron and Mihaela David had a very rough time on bars, scoring 9.25 and 8.60, respectively (A and B scores combined). Tiron had many form breaks, no releases, and a bad fall on her dismount. David came off twice on handstand skills, had bent knees throughout her routine, didn't do any releases, and had bad handstands even by Romanian standards. She'll need an awful lot of work ever to become remotely competitive on bars. The third Romanian, Ana Maria Baicu, had much better form, but lacked interesting elements and fell on her double pike dismount. The only Romanian to show a decent bars routine in Belgium was Larisa Iordache, who fell on her Tkatchev-Pak combo but showed good form, decent handstands and two releases.
Over on beam, Lieke Wevers proved that her sister Sanne isn't the only one in the family who has a knack for turns. Lieke's elegant beam routine features three (!) different turns, including a double one. She'll probably have to ditch a couple of them under the new code, and add more acrobatic difficulty instead, but still, she's beautiful to watch on beam. Click here to check out her routine.
Lieke Wevers (photo: Jasmin Schneebeli-Wochner/Gymbox)
On floor, the three Americans and Iordache were the only competitors to show difficult routines. Olivia Courtney fell on her third pass, a double Arabian, but other than that, her tumbling was excellent and very mature. Amanda Jetter and Corrie Lothrop also showed typically American routines, with solid acrobatic skills but so-so dance. In terms of choreography, the Challenge International tournament proved once again that some of the most interesting floor exercises are being shown by minor gymnastics countries. Holland's Lieke Wevers probably had the best and most expressive choreography of the competition, shown here. If she can upgrade her tumbling passes (she's still recovering from an injury which sidelined her for a while), Wevers will be a great gymnast to watch on floor. For her part, Belgium's Monica Dejardin needs more flexibility and amplitude, but she showed some expressive and unusual dance. Her teammate Kim Van Limbergen performed an elegant routine to ballet-like music (seen here).
YouTube users Dutchfan33 and gymcat67 have by now uploaded pretty much the entire competition between them. Check it out!
Great post. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteThank you Rick. Keep up the great work yourself!
ReplyDeleteI really like Wever's bb. The mount is great (yay for stuck mounts that are not just "jump on the beam")!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad Lorthrop is doing well. She trains at Hills, which is the closest thing Washington DC has to a hometown gym, and I am always glad to see Hill's gymnasts doing well!
I liked a lot Baicu's beam even if she fell. Her double spin was awesome !
ReplyDeleteVanessa, isn't Wevers's beam great? We actually think Lieke is potentially better on beam than Sanne. Sure, she needs a wider variety of skills and more difficulty, but she's got a lot of style and seems very sure-footed. We think she'll do well on the event in the future.
ReplyDeleteLothrop seems to be doing very well for herself technically. We think she still lacks a little personality, but we look forward to seeing what she'll do when she gains more experience and maturity!
Anonymous, while we were impressed with Ana Maria Baicu's double turn, we don't really like her posture. She slouches badly and seems to have a very careless way of working. However, if she cleans up her form and learns to stand straight, she'll be an interesting gymnast to watch. We'll keep an eye out for her!
Really great work..!!! I liked a lot Baicu's beam even if she fell. Her double spin was awesome !!
ReplyDeleteGreat post. Thanks.