AYOF All-Around Competitions: Cui and Watson Superior

The men's and women's all-around competitions were held in Sydney today, and China's Cui Jie and Britain's Ashley Watson came away with the top prizes.

Women's competition

The women's all-around competition was open to all girls who competed on four events in the team competition. Six Aussies took on four Japanese girls, three British girls and two Chinese girls, one of whom, Tan Sixin, sadly only got to compete on two events (alas, no beam and floor). Reportedly she hurt her hand on a Pak on bars and was in too much pain to continue. We hope she isn't injured too badly, as we were rather looking forward to seeing her beam routine in the event final...

As expected, China's Cui Jie claimed the gold, thanks in no small part to a massive 16.100 on beam. We guess she stuck her new roundoff-whip combination this time around! Cui also got the highest score on floor (14.675) and the second-highest scores on vault and bars, so she really was the class of the field. Japan's Natsumi Sasada (who had outscored Cui in the team competition) was a distant second this time, due to a lowish 13.95 on beam. Perhaps she messed up her insane mount this time around? Sasada did obtain the top scores on vault and bars, so it wasn't a bad competition for her by any means. A second Japanese competitor, Yoshino Taniguchi, came third, 0.6 ahead of the first Australian, Emily Little, who tied Sasada for the top score on vault (14.650). Britons Nicole Hibbert and Danusia Francis rounded out the top-6.


British promise Danusia Francis

Natalia Joura had another meltdown on bars, scoring 9.700 this time. Reportedly she fell on her Gienger, had troublesome transitions (again) and messed up her dismount (again). Oops. The other Aussie girls also had problems on bars, receiving scores similar to the ones they had obtained in the team competition. Australia definitely has some catching up to do on bars.

Anyhow, the top-8:
1. Cui Jie CHN 59.175
2. Natsumi Sasada JPN 57.050
3. Yoshino Taniguchi JPN 55.675
4. Emily Little AUS 55.075
5. Nicole Hibbert GBR 54.775
6. Danusia Francis GBR 54.300
7. Britt Greeley AUS 53.850
8. Yukimi Ueda JPN 52.700

Detailed results can be viewed here.

Be sure to have a look at flippingymkid's competition videos here!


Men's competition

Like the women's competition, the men's individual all-around final was open to all competitors who had competed on all six events in the team competition, meaning that all eight Aussie team members got to compete. It wasn't their turn to shine though. Instead, it was the British boys who wowed the judges. Proving that their victory in the team competition was no fluke, the three British competitors claimed all the medals in the all-around competition. The gold was awarded to Ashley Watson, whose top scores came on vault (15.167) and parallel bars (14.663). Reiss Beckford, who received the highest score of the day (a 15.267 on vault), placed second, Max Whitlock third.


AA winner Ashley Watson

China's Liu Zhanteng did pretty well on five events, but suffered an 11.500 on pommel horse. However, even with a hit pommel horse routine he would have finished outside the medals. The other Chinese competitor, Zhu Xiaodong, didn't compete on vault and finished 14th, ahead of a Malaysian competitor who did compete on all six events.


AA silver medalist Reiss Beckford

1. Ashley Watson GBR 82.800
2. Reiss Beckford GBR 82.033
3. Max Whitlock GBR 82.000
4. Ben Astley AUS 79.467
5. Luke Wadsworth AUS 78.100
6. Liu Zhanteng CHN 77.966
7. Jayden Bull AUS 77.166
8. Sean O'Hara AUS 76.833

Detailed results can be found here.

All photos of the British competitors courtesy of the British AYOF site.