World Cup Final: Day 2

So the World Cup Final is over, and if IG's quick hits are anything to go by (we didn't bother checking out any live feeds as we were too busy doing other things), it wasn't the best competition. We counted 13 falls on the 2nd day of the competition, in addition to the 17 we counted yesterday. That's 30 falls over a weekend of supposedly world-class gymnastics. And on top of all the falls, Sanne Wevers, who had potentially one of the most interesting routines of the competition, scratched from the beam final because of an elbow injury; veteran Aljaz Pegan withdrew from the high bar final (reportedly due to a back injury); Hiroyuki Tomita botched his last ever dismount in an international competition; Suzanne Harmes got injured on floor (on a simple front handspring of all things); and Daria Zgoba was forced to dismount beam with a simple layout because the knee on which she was operated at the beginning of October wouldn't allow a proper dismount. Does that sound like a good competition to you, FIG? Because it doesn't to us. We respectfully suggest you do not schedule any more major competitions in mid-December, least of all after a long and exhausting Olympic season. Please.


Suzanne Harmes couldn't finish her floor exercise because of an injury (photo: Delly Carr)

Anyhow, a quick roundup of the results for you:

Women's beam:
1. Lauren Mitchell 15.250
2. Yulia Lozhechko 15.200
3. Li Shanshan 15.150

Women's floor:
1. Cheng Fei 15.375
2. Jiang Yuyuan 15.225
3. Sandra Izbasa 15.000


BB winner Lauren Mitchell (photo: Stefan Wurzer/Gymnasticsunited)

Men's vault:
1. Thomas Bouhail 16.225
2. Jeffrey Wammes 16.150
3. Isaac Botella, Anton Golotsutskov 16.075

Men's parallel bars:
1. Yann Cucherat, Feng Zhe 15.775
3. Valeri Goncharov 15.675

Men's high bar:
1. Epke Zonderland 16.175
2. Philippe Rizzo 15.825
3. Hiroyuki Tomita 15.325

Detailed results and descriptions of the routines and the deductions they carried can be found here on IG's site. For the FIG's take on the day, click here.

A few highlights as far we're concerned:

--- Australia! A day after Prashanth Sellathurai took the bronze on pommels, Lauren Mitchell claimed the gold on beam and Philippe Rizzo won the silver on high bar. Good on ya, Oz. We're particularly glad to see Lauren Mitchell do so well (she's having a stellar post-Olympic season), as she has one of the most interesting beam sets around. It's a shame she missed the Olympic final; she would have been a great asset to it.

--- The Netherlands! Like Australia, Holland collected a gold (Epke Zonderland on high bar), a silver (Jeffrey Wammes on vault), and a bronze (Yuri van Gelder on rings). The Dutch women had a lousy time of it, but the men came through with 3 medals.


HB winner Epke Zonderland

--- Thomas Bouhail's vaults. The Frenchman put a hand down on his Tsukahara piked double back, but nailed his Dragulescu, and that's all you need to do to win our admiration. Respect, M. Bouhail.

That's it for now. We'll be back with more news later, but first we need to do some other things!