A Bit More on the Antonina Koshel Cup

A few days ago we posted a story about the Antonina Koshel Cup in Minsk, Belarus, where the Belorussian athletes appeared to do very well, taking nearly all the medals. Well, the Belorussian federation just posted the detailed results (in Russian), and they confirmed our suspicion that the Koshel Cup was in fact a huge Belorussian intrasquad meet with a handful of foreign athletes on hand to make it seem like an international event. Ukraine only sent two athletes, Anastasia Lunkan (3rd AA) and Natalia Gavrilovich (6th AA), both born in 1994. Israel sent four male gymnasts, three of whom contributed one routine each (one of them was Alexander Shatilov, whose floor exercise is a welcome addition to any meet). That appears to have been the extent of the foreign input in Minsk. No wonder the Belorussians seemed so superior...


Anastasia Marachkovskaya, a contender for the vault gold in Milan
(Photo: Bernhard Schwall/Gymfan)

A look at the scores also confirmed that the women's meet was Anastasia Marachkovskaya's to win or lose. She had the highest start values on three events (5.2 FX, 5.4 BB, 5.8 V - guess she threw the double-twisting Yurchenko then), and scored quite well on all three events, only to lose the gold on bars, where some disaster must have befallen her (2.9 difficulty value, 10.15 total score). Halina Ivanets, who impressed some people at last year's Junior Europeans with her clean lines, also performed fairly difficult routines in Minsk (5.5 UB, 5.4 BB, 5.0 FX), but an 11.20 on floor prevented her from medaling. By contrast, the winner, Viktoria Makshtareva, performed far less difficult routines (three of her difficulty values were in the mid-4s), but stayed mostly error-free, proving that it is still possible in modern gymnastics to win with low-difficulty routines, provided your rivals stuff up.

Generally, the routines performed in Minsk looked quite easy on paper. Seven gymnasts performed bar routines with 5+ difficulty values; on the other events only three or four gymnasts exceeded 5 points.

Sadly, it appears that all the girls on Belarus's promising Junior Europeans squad were born in 1994, which means they're age-ineligible for senior competitions until next year. However, it's safe to say that the future doesn't look too dreary for Belorussian women's gymnastics.

Vanessa Ferrari Competes on Three Events in Italian Club Championships

The first Serie A (Italian club championships) competition took place in Pavia last weekend, and the most exciting thing about it would have to be Vanessa Ferrari's return to the scene. The 2006 world champion competed not on one or two events, as expected, but on three (all but floor), and did a pretty solid job for someone who has been out of action for a long time, scoring 14.15 on vault (Yurchenko-full), 13.45 on bars, and 14.50 on beam (the highest score of the competition). In so doing, she led her team, Brixia, to an easy victory in the first competition of the season (main rival Lissone finished second, 5.25 behind Brixia). We'll be interested to see when Ferrari will start competing floor again, and whether she will in fact make the team which will defend Italy's honor at the European Championships in Milan. She certainly outscored a few of her rivals for a spot on the team on Sunday.


Vanessa Ferrari has some reason to smile again
Photo: Sing Lo/Comaneci Salto)

While Ferrari's return to competition was good news for the Italian women's team, there was some bad news as well. European Championships hopeful Andrea La Spada (representing the home team, Pavia) reportedly broke the thumb of her right hand while doing a round-off double twist in training. She will have to wear a cast for 25 days, although she hopes to have it removed before the 25 days are up. La Spada hopes to compete at the Europeans, even if she's not 100% ready. In yesterday's club competition she was replaced by Belgium's Aagje Vanwalleghem, who, interestingly, was not chosen to compete on what is arguably her best event, vault, competing bars and beam only. Even more interestingly, the other foreigner in the women's Serie A (in this case, the A2, i.e. the second league), Romanian Raluca Haidu, only competed on what is generally perceived to be a weak event for Romanian juniors, bars. Huh?

Other noteworthy news from Pavia would have to include the fact that veteran Monica Bergamelli did not compete, thus reinforcing those retirement rumors (Brixia was represented by Ferrari, Galante, Fasana, and Carnessali instead), and that vault specialist Carlotta Giovannini earned the highest B score of the day, 9.25, on her strongest event, albeit for an easy vault: a layout Yurchenko (difficulty 4.4). Is the European silver medalist returning from injury as well?


Carlotta Giovannini vaulted a layout Yurchenko... (photo: AFP/Getty Images)

In the men's competition, Meda (the powerhouse team represented by Igor Cassina, Andrea Coppolino, Matteo Morandi, and Matteo Angioletti) scored an easy victory over Livorno. Highlights included Cassina's somewhat watered-down 15.55 horizontal bar routine (Kovacs instead of Cassina) and two more 15+ scores on rings by Angioletti and Morandi. Other noteworthy scores of the day included Enrico Pozzi's 15.25 on floor and Jordan Jovchev's 15.25 on rings (obviously).

Complete results of Weekend 1 of the Serie A can be found here. Hopefully some YouTube videos will soon surface as well.

WOGA Classic: Video Highlights

Gymnastike has uploaded most of the elite routines shown at the WOGA Classic, and we've had some fun watching them, despite the fact that Anne Philips badly needs a better assistant. Having watched all the top gymnasts' routines, we think it's pretty obvious that Ukraine's Yana Demyanchuk would have won the senior competition if it hadn't been for a few falls. Demyanchuk is a solid all-arounder with excellent presentation on floor, and we look forward to seeing more of her on the senior circuit.

Most beautiful gymnast in the field? Without a shadow of a doubt, junior winner Laura Svilpaite, who looks gorgeous no matter what she does. Watch out for this one - she's going to put Lithuania on the gymnastics map!

The Russian girls, Kristina Kruglikova and Anastasia Karpova, were rather underwhelming, proving that not all current Russian juniors are brilliant.

The WOGA girls generally did a good job. We'll be interested to see how they develop over the next few years.

Here are a few more competition highlights to go with the UB highlights we posted earlier:


WOGA's Sophia Lee does a Teza jump on beam!
(Photo: Stefan Wurzer/Gymnasticsunited)

Beam

Laura Svilpaite, BB: Not quite enough difficulty yet, but tons of style. We just love the way Svilpaite moves.

Natalia Kononenko, BB: She falls on the dismount, but the rest of the routine is very easy on the eye. Nice arms.

Lily Hardin, BB: Some huge problems here, but Hardin's good form and grace make this worth watching. We think she should ditch the sheep jump though. A big boo to her coaches for letting her do a jump like that. Ugh.

Sophia Lee, BB: Lee has got guts, attempting a Teza (sideways Yang Bo jump) here. She falls, but major kudos for trying.

Christa Tanella, BB: Solid routine. Good leaps, nice Onodi-sheep jump combo (albeit not entirely connected).

Sarah Persinger, BB: A bit unpolished around the edges, but promising enough. Interesting combination of full turn with one leg at horizontal and gainer layout, sadly not fully connected.

Sydney Sawa, BB: Sawa is solid as usual on beam. Nice double turn.

Floor

Yana Demyanchuk, FX: Look, it's an actual attempt at choreography, with good interpretation of the music, a lovely smile and some pretty good tumbling too! We like this girl.

Laura Svilpaite, FX: Svilpaite has some trouble on the landings, but she's obviously had excellent, Soviet-style ballet training. With harder tumbles, a bit more expression and slightly more daring choreography, she'll be gorgeous to watch on floor.

Christa Tanella, FX: Good performance. Her choreography is so-so, but she makes the most of it; she expresses her music quite well. Very decent tumbling too.

Natalia Kononenko, FX: Kononenko has excellent forward tumbling, but her dance needs some work.

Briley Casanova, FX: Mature tumbling and nice presentation, but the choreography could do with some improvement.

Vault

Briley Casanova, V: Nice Yurchenko-1.5.

Enjoy!

Tanella and Svilpaite Win WOGA Classic

The first American women's elite competition of the year, the WOGA Classic in Frisco, Texas, is over and done with, and 17-year-old Christa Tanella of the home club successfully defended her title, scoring 54.400 to beat Southeastern's Sarah Persinger (53.500) and Ukraine's Yana Demyanchuk (53.050).


AA winner Christa Tanella (photo: Heather Maynez)

Lithuania's 15-year-old Laura Svilpaite, a beautiful and elegant gymnast who we think has a great future ahead of her, won the junior portion of the meet, posting the same all-around score as Tanella and edging out WOGA's Grace McLaughlin and Russia's Kristina Kruglikova for the gold. WOGA promise Briley Casanova only ranked sixth, mainly because of a meltdown on bars (crash on Jaeger and huge trouble on two kips). Russia's young Anastasia Karpova had similar problems on bars, coming off twice (toe-on-full on the low bar, kip) and having great trouble on another kip.

International Gymnast has results.


Upcoming WOGA star Briley Casanova (photo: Stefan Wurzer/Gymnasticsunited)

Gymnastike is doing a good job covering the meet. So far, the site has only posted videos of the elite gymnasts' UB routines, but we trust the other events will follow soon. To get to the videos, go here and scroll down to the bottom left-hand side of the page. We've picked out a few highlights for you:

Natalia Kononenko, UB: Yes, she falls, but that Tkatchev-half-Jaeger combo is wonderful, and the rest of the routine (Hindorff, Pak and Ray, all with great form) isn't too shabby either. Seems Ukraine has produced yet another great bar worker.

Laura Svilpaite, UB: She slightly arches her back on her handstands, but even so she's amazing to watch. Great form, great extension, great lines, and good skills (inner Stalder-full-Tkatchev, Pak, double layout dismount). It's easy to see why this routine got the highest score of the day (14.750). We can't wait to see more of Svilpaite.

Yana Demyanchuk, UB: Good skills (toe-on Tkatchev, hop-full to Tkatchev, Pak, full-out dismount) combined with good form. Yep, here's another very solid Ukrainian bar worker.

Christa Tanella, UB: Not in the same league as Kononenko, Demyanchuk and Svilpaite, but still, solid stuff from the AA winner.

Sarah Persinger, UB: Ray, straddled Jaeger, full-in dismount. Some form breaks, but nice enough lines.

Anysia Unick, UB: Canada's Unick doesn't have the best form, but her mount (jump to handstand to closed-leg hecht to high bar) is interesting and difficult.

Last but not least, here is a post-meet interview with senior AA winner Christa Tanella, who says she was inspired by Rocky Balboa. Nice!

Keep an eye on Gymnastike for more WOGA Classic videos...

News from the English-Speaking Part of the World

USA
We still can't get over the fact that Shawn Johnson is going to appear on Dancing with the Stars, but for Shawn herself, it's all too real. She has begun rehearsing with partner Mark Ballas, who won the show two years ago with then-partner Kristi Yamaguchi. ABC Medianet has posted some pics of Shawn and Mark practicing (see below). Meanwhile, Shawn reportedly told Inside Gymnastics that she intends to return to gymnastics after Dancing with the Stars. "Definitely," she said of her return to the gym. "After the show, I'll get back in the gym, start with gymnastics again and see where it takes me." The eighth season of the show will premiere on March 9 with a live, two-hour special.




Shawn Johnson and Mark Ballas (photos: ABC Medianet)

Great Britain
Last year, Becky Downie was crowned British champion and finished 12th in the Olympic all-around final in her first year as a senior gymnast. Now she will start her competition year earlier than ever in a bid to make 2009 equally successful, competing at the American Cup on February 21. This is what Downie told British Gymnastics about her upcoming assignment: "We’ve been working towards the American Cup since New Year, getting solid routines ready for competition. I think Britain was keen to send somebody to this competition, and Claire (my coach) felt it would be a good competition to get me going and focus my training towards. It will be the first time I’ve competed in America and the first time I’ve competed so early in the year, so it has definitely helped me to get into good shape, ready for the European Championships at the start of April.”


Becky Downie, looking forward to going to America
(Photo: Bernhard Schwall/Gymfan)

Australia
Gymnastics Australia reports that 14-year-old Emily Little, who recently won the AYOF vault final, will be Australia's sole representative at the annual Gymnix competition in Montreal, Canada, to be held March 5-8. Little is profiled here. Meanwhile, Little's WAIS club mate Lauren Mitchell will not compete at the Doha World Cup, as previously reported, but at the Salamunov Memorial in Maribor, Slovenia, to be held April 17-19. No news as yet of any upcoming international assignments for Dasha Joura, who hasn't been seen in action since the Olympics.


Emily Little (photo: Mark Nolan/Getty Images)

Upcoming competitions
International Gymnast has a list of participants of the WOGA Classic, which will be held in Frisco, Texas, tomorrow. The host club, which has produced the last two Olympic champions in the women's all-around, will be represented by Christa Tanella, Briley Casanova, Sophia Lee, Lily Hardin, Grace McLaughlin and Taylor Spears. We look forward to seeing which of these young ladies will be WOGA's next star (Rebecca Bross and Ivana Hong are not competing). Foreign competitors in Frisco include Canada's Sydney Sawa (a beam finalist at last year's DTB Cup), young Lithuanian standout Laura Svilpaite, Russians Kristina Kruglikova and Anastasia Karpova, and Ukrainians Yana Demyanchuk, Natalia Kononenko and Yevgenia Cherniy. The same Russian and Ukrainian girls will take part in the Nadia Comaneci Invitational the week after, along with Sandra Izbasa and Dana Druncea of Romania (Andreea Grigore appears to have been taken off the list). Nastia Liukin will reportedly be on hand in Oklahoma to commentate the competition.


Exciting newcomer Laura Svilpaite will also start her competitive year in America
(Photo: Bernhard Schwall/Gymfan)

Belorussians Superior at Antonina Koshel Cup

This week an international competition took place in Minsk, Belarus, where gymnasts from the host nation took on guests from Ukraine, Lithuania and Israel. Belorussian sports site Sportpanorama posted a report of sorts, which we have translated for you.

We don't know exactly who the Ukrainian gymnasts competing in Minsk were (the report doesn't pay much attention to them), but it sounds like they were comprehensively defeated by the Belorussians. Of course, the latter had the home turf advantage, and the Ukrainians likely didn't send their best team, but even so, we think these competition results are further proof that Belarus may be on the way back. We're expecting decent results from them this year.

And for those of you who despair of the lack of two-vault gymnasts in women's gymnastics and believe things are better in men's gymnastics: have a look at what the article says about the men's vault final in Minsk. Ouch. Now that's worrying.

Anyhow, here's the article. Results can be found at the bottom. With a bit of luck, some videos will surface on YouTube as well. We'd like to see some videos of the Belorussian girls' new routines...

A Clean Sheet

Traditionally our gymnasts open the new season with the Antonina Koshel International Gymnastics Tournament. In 2009 the competition, which this time is not only the first of the year but also of the Olympic cycle, is taking place for the fifth time already.

Our strongest gymnasts, along with guests from Israel, Ukraine and Lithuania, entered the podium in the sports complex on Kalinovsky Street in Minsk. There could have have been more foreign athletes, but not everyone is ready for competitive activity in February.

This tournament is the opportunity for the Belorussians to test themselves, to try things out and to demonstrate to the viewers the routines with which they will be participating in the major events of the year, the European and World Championships. The gymnasts received good food for thought and could see the condition they are in, what form they were capable of, what worked, what didn't and what they need to work on more seriously.

This time the competition, which usually takes place over three days, was compressed into two. On Wednesday the gymnasts competed in the all-around. Let us remember that for two years in a row, no one was equal to Dimitry Savitsky. Last year he scored 91 points, over 8 points more than his closest persecutor, Alexander Pristavko. That time our best all-arounder went the distance evenly, without any errors. This time he was unable to repeat his success. But how could it have been otherwise when Dimitry started on only 3 out of 6 apparatus! Under those circumstances, it is understandable that you can't expect anything in the all-around.


Dimitry Savitsky (photo: Getty Images)

Alexander Tsarevich competed on three apparatus; Dimitry Kasperovich, Igor Kozlov, Vladimir Yermakov and Denis Savenkov each competed on two. And then Denis, after falling painfully right at the beginning of the floor exercise, did not continue his routine. All this gave second-tier gymnasts the chance to force their way up. Pavel Bulavsky was best able to prove himself, ahead of Alexander Demchichin and Artem Bykov.

Viktoria Makshtareva was first among the women, beating Anastasia Marachkovskaya by the smallest of margins. Let us note the fourth and fifth places of the 15-year-olds, Halina Ivanets and Alena Hurhach.

The apparatus finals took place yesterday. On floor no one was equal to the famous Israeli gymnast Alexander Shatilov. Pavel Bulavsky was second, while third place went to the youngest male participant of the tournament, 15-year-old Aleksey Kusherik.

Alexander Tsarevich performed the best routine on pommel horse. Dimitry Savitsky and Vladimir Yermakov were also raised up on the pedestal of honor. Dimitry won his only gold medal of the tournament for his ring routine, where he received one of the highest scores of the day: 15.050. (Only Alexander Tsarevich earned a higher score, on bars: 15.100.) Vladimir Yermakov was second on bars, Pavel Bulavsky was third. As far as bars was concerned, Dimitry Kasperovich was the toughest competition for Alexander, but the first place went to the Minsk gymnast. Kyrill Gorovets placed third.


Dimitry Kasperovich (photo: Getty Images)

Lastly on high bar,one of the most spectacular apparatus, once more no one was equal to Alexander Tsarevitch. Here Dimitry Savitsky dropped out of the ranks of contenders after two falls in a row during flight elements. As a result, the silver went to Artem Bykov.

There were no medals awarded for vault because on the first day only two gymnasts in all performed the two vaults necessary to reach the final.

In the women's competition Anastasia Marachkovskaya won two of the highest kinds of medals. The Minsk gymnast left all fellow competitors behind in the vault and beam competitions. Second on vault was Anastasia Zaitseva, a gymnast from the 1994 age group. Third was the experienced Nadezhda Visotskaya. Halina Ivanets and the very young 12-year-old Anastasia Ozarshinskaya won places on the pedestal for beam. No one equaled Halina Ivanets on uneven bars, but her toughest competitors were Viktoria Makshtareva and Lilia Hoang. Finally Alina Sotnikova won on floor. Also distinguishing themselves: Nadezhda Visotskaya and Veronika Zhdanovich.

"I liked the second day of the competition better than the first", Antonina Koshel told the SP Correspondent. "The athletes performed in a much more together way. They showed their potential, so that it was impossible not to be happy. Anyway, as this tournament is the first of the year, the gymnasts' execution cannot be ideal. But now the coaches could see all the shortcomings which they need to work on eliminating. There is still time – the closest important event is the European Championships in April."


Vault and beam winner Anastasia Marachkovskaya
(Photo: Bernhard Schwall/Gymfan)

Men

All-Around
1. P. Bulavsky (Minsk) 81.700
2. A. Demchichin (Gomel) 79.000
3. A. Bykov (Vitebsk) 78.700

Apparatus Finals

Floor Exercise
1. A. Shatilov (Israel) 14.700
2. P. Bulavsky 14.200
3. A. Kushnerik (Brest) 13.850

Pommel Horse
1. A. Tsarevich (Minsk) 14.800
2. D. Savitsky (Gomel) 14.100
3. V. Yermakov (Gomel) 13.500

Still Rings
1. D. Savitsky 15.050
2. V. Yermakov 14.800
3. P. Bulavsky 14.300

Parallel Bars
1. A. Tsarevich 15.100
2. D. Kasperovich (Minsk Region) 14.950
3. K. Gorovets (Minsk) 13.600

High Bar
1. A. Tsarevich 14.200
2. A. Bykov 13.800
3. Y. Izmaidenov (Lithuania) 13.300

Women

All-Around
1. V. Makshtareva (Vitebsk) 51.800
2. A. Marachkovskaya (Minsk) 51.300
3. A. Lunkan (Ukraine) 50.850

Apparatus Finals
Vault
1. A. Marachkovskaya 14.365
2. A. Zaitseva (Vitebsk) 13.488
3. N. Visotskaya (Grodno) 13.400

Uneven Bars
1. H. Ivanets (Baranovichi) 13.475
2. V. Makshtareva 12.575
3. L. Hoang (Pinsk) 12.525

Balance Beam
1. A. Marachkovskaya 13.800
2. H. Ivanets 13.425
3. A. Ozarshinskaya (Baranovichi) 12.875

Floor
1. A. Sotnikova (Vitebsk) 13.525
2. N. Visotskaya 13.300
3. V. Zdanovich (Vitebsk) 12.625

Wyomi Masela Wins Sidijk Tournament

Eight Dutch gymnasts and two up-and-coming French stars competed in the top division of the Sidijk Tournament in Heerenveen, the Netherlands, which was being judged under the new code despite the fact that many Dutch judges aren't too familiar with the code yet. New senior Wyomi Masela, who recently won vault at both Massilia and Arques, continued to impress in Heerenveen, holding off the French favorite, double European junior champ Youna Dufournet, by .365: 53-965-53.600.


New senior Wyomi Masela got off to a good start to the new year
(Photo: Iris van den Broek/Gymnasticsphotography)

Dufournet easily had the most difficult routines in the competition, but big mistakes on 3 out of 4 events cost her the title. The French trickster, who seriously needs to start working on her form, was especially disappointing on floor, where she landed her double Arabian on her derrière and took several big steps backward on her double pike dismount, going well out of bounds. Her teammate Chloé Stanic (like Dufournet a member of France's silver-medal-winning team at the 2008 Junior Europeans) had problems with the same two elements, sitting down a double Arabian and putting her hands down on her double pike (view her floor routine here). By contrast, Wyomi Masela avoided great mistakes, hitting her energetic routines for what they were worth (check out her floor routine here). Masela is a very solid gymnast; with slightly more difficulty than she showed in Heerenveen she'll be a great asset to the Dutch team.


France's Youna Dufournet came second in Heerenveen (photo: Gymcat)

Making a comeback after a lengthy absence, Mayra Kroonen placed third in the competition. Kroonen is a very expressive gymnast whose floor exercise to Andes music is well worth watching. Veteran Fieke Willems (well-presented floor exercise), new star Lieke Wevers (great lines on uneven bars), and Chloé Stanic rounded out the top-6. Suzanne Harmes, Sanne Wevers, Lichelle Wong, and Tahnee Masela did not compete.

Detailed results of the competition can be found here. (Note that the scores listed under the heading "B score" denote deductions rather than actual scores. In other words, deduct the number listed from 10.000 and that's your B score. Or E score. Whatever it's called these days.)

YouTube user Dutchfan33 is uploading videos of both the junior and senior divisions of the competition. More videos will undoubtedly follow later.


Holland's Lieke Wevers has great lines (photo: Gymcat)

Over the next few weeks, 13 Dutch gymnasts will vie for the country's four berths at the European Championships at two qualifying meets in Amsterdam, to be held on February 22 and March 8. The Dutch Gymnastics Federation intends to send three all-arounders and one specialist to Milan.

Competition Report

Sidijk Tournament
Several (though by no means all) top-ranked Dutch gymnasts will compete in the Sidijk tournament in Heerenveen, the Netherlands, this weekend. Although the lineup is overwhelmingly Dutch, three promising French gymnasts will be on hand to give the competition some foreign flavor: double European junior champion Youna Dufournet, fellow European junior team member Chloé Stanic, and youthful promise Océane Grigny. We'll keep you posted on the results.


Youna Dufournet, slated to compete in Holland this weekend
(Photo: Stefan Wurzer/Gymnasticsunited)

Winter Cup Challenge
Meanwhile, the American men are competing for spots on the national team at the Winter Cup Challenge in Las Vegas, USA. After Day 1 of the two-day competition, Olympian Joseph Hagerty leads the all-around standings. His total score of 88.150 points included four 15+ scores. Sho Nakamori and Danell Leyva are in second and third after Day 1, with scores of 87.400 and 87.300, respectively. National champion David Sender is currently ranked 12th, despite an excellent 16.10 vault. Olympic high bar medalist Jonathan Horton only competed on two events, parallel bars and high bar, but failed to impress, scoring a mere 14.10 on his signature event.

The second half of the competition will be contested today. Detailed Day 1 results can be found here, courtesy of USAG.


African champion Sherine El Zeiny (photo: Jasmin Schneebeli-Wochner/Gymbox)

African Games
Finally, the gymnastics component of the African Games was held in Cairo, Egypt, last week. Thanks to Gymworld poster Sri Ea, who attended the competition and was kind enough to share her impressions on the message board, we know that Egypt's Sherine El Zeiny, who lives and trains in the Netherlands but represents Egypt in international competitions (she was Africa's sole representative at the Beijing Olympics), won the women's all-around competition despite a bad outing on floor (even with a significantly watered-down routine, she suffered a nasty fall). South Africa's powerful Jennifer Khwela, who has an impressive beam set, placed second, and Egypt's Salma Mahmoud Said third. Egypt's Israa Afifi, a tiny and promising gymnast who used to have a Ukrainian coach and now has a Chinese one, won the junior competition with a nice beam set that featured an interesting front aerial to scale straight into a full turn with the
leg up. Now there's a combination we wouldn't mind seeing a bit more often...


Junior winner Israa Afifi (photo: Sri Ea)

The women's team competition was also won by Egypt, despite the fact that one of the team's stars, Farida Shoukry, broke her leg just days before the competition. South Africa placed second, Namibia third.

Results of the various all-around competitions (men's as well as women's) can be found here. Competition videos, courtesy of Sri Ea, can be viewed here (click on the apparatus initials to see the routines).

Romanian News

This week's big news from Romania would have to be Nicolae Forminte's indignation at the news that marathon runner Constantina Diţă-Tomescu rather than Sandra Izbaşa was named Romanian Sportswoman of the Year 2008 at the Romanian Sports Gala on January 31. "If we had known Sandra wasn't going to win, we wouldn't have come," an angry Forminte reportedly told Gazeta Sporturilor, adding that he felt the award should have gone to the athlete who had won most medals in 2008. On top of her Olympic title, Izbaşa won two European golds (team and floor) in 2008, whereas Diţă-Tomescu "only" won an Olympic gold medal. Izbaşa herself has not publicly commented on the row.


Sandra Izbaşa in Beijing (photo: Reuters)

Meanwhile, ProSport posted a videotaped interview with Forminte in which the head coach said he hoped Sandra Izbaşa, Anamaria Tămîrjan and Gabriela Drăgoi would be healthy enough to represent Romania at the European Championships, to be held in Milan, April 2-5. He also identified newcomer Diana Chelaru as a possible fourth representative at the Europeans.


Newcomer Diana Chelaru, slated to compete at the Europeans
(Photo taken from the website of the Blanc-Mesnil tournament)

Forminte also said in the ProSport interview that rising star Ana Porgras was recovering well from the knee surgery she recently underwent in Italy; she will miss the Europeans but is expected to recover in time for the World Championships. However, Forminte is concerned about the slow recoveries of Cerasela Pătraşcu, Andreea Acatrinei and Gabriela Drăgoi, saying that some of the gymnasts struggling with injuries are contemplating retirement.

In men's news, Gazeta Sporturilor reports that Romania will probably be represented in Milan by Flavius Koczi, Răzvan Şelariu and Marius Berbecar.

Meanwhile, judging from this ProSport interview with head coach Nicuşor Pascu, Adrian Bucur (not Flavius Koczi, as reported earlier) will represent Romania at the American Cup.

Finally, former star Steliana Nistor and new men's coach Nicuşor Pascu have recently given interviews which we hope to translate for you soon.

European Championships Draw

Hello, everyone... Sorry for the recent hiccup in our updates. We had some technical issues and needed some time to do other things, as well. We hope to catch up on the week's news soon. Expect a lot of updates over the next couple of days!

One first news item concerns the upcoming European Championships in Milan. According to the European Gymnastics Federation, this is the draw for the first day of the women's competition (qualification), while this is the draw for the first day of the men's competition. The draws for the AA and apparatus finals can be found here (top right-hand corner of the screen, where it says "Downloads"). As you can see, the gymnasts will not compete as teams. For instance, host Italy has two girls in the first subdivision and another two in the third subdivision, starting on vault and bars, respectively. Romania has two girls in Subdivision 2 (start on bars) and two in Subdivision 4 (start on vault), while Russia has two girls in Subdivision 2 and another two in Subdivision 3, all starting on vault. The men's competition has three subdivisions. There, too, gymnasts from one country will compete in two different subdivisions.


Andrea La Spada, named as a likely competitor in Milan
(Photo: Stefan Wurzer/Gymnasticsunited)

On its website, the Italian Gymnastics Federation says it is satisfied with the outcome of the draw, although it would have preferred to see the Italian gymnasts avoid the morning subdivisions, which they didn't. The site names two of the likely Italian competitors in the women's competition, new seniors Andrea La Spada and Elisabetta Preziosa, saying it is a good thing the girls won't have to start on beam, as it is such a risky start to a competition.

Meanwhile, a third Italian team member, Francesca Benolli (third on vault at last year's Europeans), is reportedly in a cast at the moment. Although the Federation's site does not mention it, Benolli apparently reported on her Facebook last week that she had injured her foot in training (a small fracture, it seems) and would be in a cast for three weeks. We don't know whether the injury will affect her chances of taking part in the Milan Europeans. We'll keep you posted.


Francesca Benolli, said to be nursing a foot injury at the moment
(Photo: Sing Lo/Comaneci Salto)

AYOF: Event Finals, Day 1

Day 1 of the event finals finally saw the host nation win some individual medals, with Emily Little and Britt Greeley going 1-2 in the women's vault final and the Australian men picking up three medals on floor and rings. The Chinese men also got a few medals, including the gold on rings, but it was the Brits who were the most successful nation, picking up two golds, one silver, and one bronze to add to their tally. We'd dearly love to see some videos of their performances now...


Vault winner Emily Little (photo: Stefan Wurzer/Gymnasticsunited)

WOMEN'S FINALS

Chachakid has videos of the women's event finals. Have a look for yourself and see what you think!

Vault
The girls had one vault each, and aside from Fu Bo, who did a handspring-piked front, they all chose Yurchenko-entry vaults. Pre-meet favorite Natsumi Sasada threw the only double-twisting Yurchenko in the final, but fell, only to finish fifth. She shared that position with Cui Jie, who sat down on her 1.5-twisting Yurchenko. Cui has a strange twisting technique; she twists very late and very fast. We're not sure whether that is good or bad. Emily Little and Britt Greeley nailed their Yurchenko-1.5s for the gold and silver, respectively. Little is a pretty powerful vaulter; she should be able to upgrade in the future. Japan's Yoshino Taniguchi took the bronze with a clean Yurchenko-full.

1. Emily Little AUS 14.700
2. Britt Greeley AUS 14.450
3. Yoshino Taniguchi JPN 14.150
4. Fu Bo CHN 13.775
5. Cui Jie CHN 13.700
5. Natsumi Sasada JPN 13.700
7. Nicole Hibbert GBR 13.525
8. Lani Hohepa NZL 13.200

Uneven bars
Wu Liufang was easily the most stylish bar worker in the final, with handstands and turns that bear all the hallmarks of the great Chinese school. Unfortunately, her A score was low and she had a problem on her Pak, needing an extra swing to be able to cast to handstand. She ended up finishing fifth. In the end, the gold went to Natsumi Sasada (Tkatchev, jam, full-in dismount), who gave the judges plenty of room for small deductions but not for big ones. Cui Jie finished second with a decent routine that included a Jaeger, Tkatchev and Pak (surprising choice of elements, we know). Nicole Hibbert took the bronze with a routine that was powerful rather than elegant (Tkatchev-Pak combo, big Ray). Hibbert has plenty of difficulty, but will need to work hard on her form.


Apparently this is Natsumi Sasada. Can we have some normal photos now, Mark Nolan of Getty Images?

1. Natsumi Sasada JPN 14.350
2. Cui Jie CHN 13.925
3. Nicole Hibbert GBR 13.775
4. Yoshino Taniguchi JPN 13.675
5. Wu Liufang CHN 13.225
6. Danusia Francis GBR 13.160
7. Emma Collister AUS 12.276
8. Britt Greeley AUS 12.150

MEN'S FINALS

As far as we know, no videos of the men's finals have been uploaded yet, so we can only give you the results.

Floor exercise
1. Reiss Beckford GBR 14.000
2. Sean O'Hara AUS 13.850
3. Luke Wadsworth AUS 13.675
4. Wang Yongchao CHN 13.175
5. Ashley Watson GBR 13.150
6. Hairi Zaid Ahmad Saruji MAS 13.050
7. Liu Zhanteng CHN 12.625
8. Chao Wei San MAS 11.700


Gold medalists Reiss Beckford and Max Whitlock with coach Sergey Sizhanov
(photo: British AYOF site)

Pommel horse
1. Max Whitlock GBR 14.325
2. Sam Oldham GBR 14.050
3. Liu Zhanteng CHN 13.400
4. Luke Wadsworth AUS 13.025
5. Michael Mercieca AUS 12.325
6. Hairi Zaid Admad Saruji 10.900

Still rings
1. Liu Zhanteng CHN 14.200
2. Jayden Bull AUS 13.875
3. Zhu Xiaodong CHN 13.700
4. Sam Oldham GBR 13.650
5. Sean O'Hara AUS 13.025
6. Ashley Watson GBR 12.650

The AYOF gymnastics competition will conclude tomorrow with the remaining event finals.

AYOF: One More Video, Plus the British Response

We were hoping to be able to give you a Chinese response to the Sydney action by now (or, failing that, some nice pictures of Cui Jie, Tan Sixin, and Wu Liufang), but the Chinese media aren't being very obliging - yet. We hope there will be more news and/or photos once the AYOF is over.

The only picture of a Chinese AYOF gymnast we've been able to find so far. Come on, Mark Nolan of Getty Images, we know you can do better than that!

For their part, the Australians aren't providing us with any interesting news or quotes either, but then we guess they don't have an awful lot to be excited about. Yet.

We did, however, find this: a video with quick glimpses of the women's team competition, courtesy of the AYOF site. It features footage of Cui Jie's new Yurchenko-1.5 as well as snippets of an interview with Australia's Britt Greeley. Here's hoping the AYOF site will post some more videos like this at some point...

The AYOF site also has a weirdish little radio interview with an Australian gymnast. They say it's Mary-Anne Monckton, but then they go on about her competition, and Monckton didn't actually compete, so we're not sure who's doing the talking here.

Also, the British team is getting plenty of media coverage. The British AYOF site is doing a terrific job of keeping its readers updated on Team GB's successes. This is what the Brits had to say after yesterday's all-around competitions...

Team GB’s male artistic gymnasts continued exactly where they left off yesterday by winning all three medals in the individual all-around competition and creating much excitement for the British contingent in the Sydney Olympic Park crowd.

Ashley Watson (Leeds) took top honours with a score of 82.800. His achievement was all the more remarkable given the fact that he fell during his pommel horse routine and was trailing in fifth place after half of the six apparatus competition had been completed.

Britain's three all-around medalists. From left to right: Reiss Beckford, Ashley Watson, and Max Whitlock (photo: British AYOF site)

Compatriots Reiss Beckford (Enfield) and Max Whitlock (Hemel Hempstead) took the silver and bronze medals with scores of 82.033 and 82.000 respectively. Team-mate Sam Oldham (Nottingham), who was forced to watch from the stands as he rested an injury, was impressed with what he saw, “I’m proud and pleased for them. They did really well today, especially beating the Chinese.” Oldham confirmed he will compete in the pommel horse and rings individual apparatus competitions tomorrow.

Russian Head Coach Andrei Popov was understandably chuffed, “I’m over the moon. Yesterday was a surprise for us but today we just carried on. I’m particularly pleased with the parallel bars and high bar performances, especially Ashley. He showed he can now compete with the best gymnasts in the world on the parallel bars.”

Watson was overjoyed with the victory, “I’m happy, especially after falling off the pommel, as it meant I had to keep fighting hard all the way to the end.” Commenting on the spirit within the group he said, “We’re a good team, we all work well together, helping each other when we’re feeling down.” Looking ahead he added, “Hopefully I’m going to excel on the parallel bars and high bar in the individual apparatus competitions.”

Beckford was also happy, “It was really good, apart from a little mishap on high bar when I missed a move. I was pleased with floor, vault and parallel bars. It feels really great to be competing in a multi-sport event and having a medal with the Olympic rings on it around my neck. Ashley and I are really good friends, we’re team-mates and rivals at the same time. Well done to him.”

Whitlock enjoyed the atmosphere in the arena, “It was a really good day and I was especially pleased with my pommel horse result. The crowd was amazing; they were really cheering for us.”

The British girls' team. From left to right: Danusia Francis, Nicole Watson, Jennifer Pinches, and Nicole Hibbert (photo: British AYOF site)

In the women’s event 14-year-old Nicole Hibbert was the top-placed Briton in fifth position with 54.775 points. Danusia Francis was close behind in sixth with 54.300 points and Nicole Watson came 11^th with 51.425 points. Jennifer Pinches was forced to sit out the competition through injury.

Anyone know what Jennifer Pinches's injury is?

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.

More AYOF News

Thanks to a poster at GGMB, we have a bit more information about the women's team competition at the Australian Youth Olympic Festival in Sydney, which was won by China, just ahead of Japan.

It sounds like Japan's Natsumi Sasada, who posted the highest all-around score in the team competition, is quite the gymnast to look out for. She reportedly mounts beam with a layout Garrison (i.e. a roundoff layout-full). We can't wait to see a video of that surface on YouTube! Sasada is also said to have a double-twisting Yurchenko and mature tumbling on floor, as well as nice Y-scale turns and customary Japanese good form on beam and floor. Sounds like Koko Tsurumi may get a bit of a rival on her own team, doesn't it? We'll be interested to see if Sasada can repeat her four-for-four performance in the all-around final.


Japan's Natsumi Sasada (photo: Mark Nolan/Getty Images)

China's performances on beam must have been quite something, considering that they got the highest scores on the event despite counting two falls. Reportedly Cie Jie fell on an acrobatic pass, while Wu Liufang came off on a switch Yang Bo leap. Tan Sixin, who scored a meet-high 15.85, apparently hit a ff-ff-whip-Korbut combination. Nice!

Australia's Natalia Joura reportedly had a complete meltdown on bars, coming off on a hip circle, counting many dead hangs and empty swings, and falling on her double tuck dismount. Ouch.

An anonymous commenter on our previous post said Australia's Mary-Anne Monckton had to scratch from the meet due to an ankle injury. Here's hoping Monckton will make a speedy recovery...

Men's competition

By now we also have the results of the men's competition, in which only five teams competed, including two from the home country, Australia. The young British men surprisingly beat China by over ten points, 247.201-236.400. Apparently China was in the lead after four events, only to disintegrate on the last two apparatus and see the Brits, who had a strong finish on high bar, snatch the victory from them. China only had two gymnasts who competed on all six events, Liu Zhanteng and Zhu Xiaodong. Wang Yongchao competed on five events, Fang Lixiang on three. For Britain, Sam Oldham, who is recovering from an injury, only competed on four events, but his teammates Ashley Watson, Reiss Beckford, and Max Whitlock all did a great job on six events, finishing first, second, and third, respectively.


The victorious British men's team (photo: British AYOF site)

We guess these results confirm two things:
1. The British men's team really will be a force to be reckoned with come London 2012 (the juniors have had some excellent results lately, and the seniors aren't too shabby either).
2. Huang Yubin wasn't exaggerating when he said that China's juniors leave a bit to be desired.

Australia's A team finished third, following a nightmare on high bar. The team did, however, post the highest score on floor, where both Sean O'Hara and Luke Wadsworth received 14.20s.

As always, vault was the highest-scoring event in the men's competition. Both Reiss Beckford and Liu Zhanteng posted 15+ scores on the event, and six more gymnasts scored in the 14s. The highest score on the other apparatus was Ashley Watson's 14.667 on parallel bars.

Jayden Bull, who represented Australia's B team, was his country's top-ranked all-arounder, finishing fifth. He suffered a meltdown on pommel horse but redeemed himself with a 14.80 on vault.

Detailed results can be found here: team and individual.

A British response to their teams' efforts (both men and women) can be found here.

Action pictures of Team GB can be viewed here.

China Wins AYOF Women's Team Final; Australia Disappoints

The first results of the first international competition of 2009, the Australian Youth Olympic Festival in Sydney, are in, and they're as follows...

Women's team competition (juniors only)
1. China 169.825
2. Japan 167.725
3. Great Britain 161.800
4. Australia A 158.400
5. Australia B 150.025
6. Malaysia 142.100
7. New Zealand 141.300

As expected, the Chinese girls (featured in this post) won the team competition, thanks mostly to an excellent performance on beam: 14.90 for Cui Jie, 14.95 for Wu Liufang, and a great 15.85 for Tan Sixin. We hope somebody will post videos of these routines soon!

Not surprisingly, China's top scorer over four events was Cui Jie, who garnered a fine 57.35. On top of her 14.90 on beam, Cui earned a 14.80 on vault. Wu and Tan scored in the 13s on the other events. The final Chinese competitor, Fu Bo, only competed on vault (13.60).

Japan put in a strong performance for the silver. Their top scorer, Natsumi Sasada (who outscored Cui Jie over four events, 57.675-57.350), put in three 14+ scores: 14.85 on vault, 14.50 on bars, and 14.35 on beam. Her teammates Yoshino Taniguchi (14.25 on bars and 14.15 on beam) and Yukimi Ueda (14.05 on vault) also raked in some high scores. As far as we know, none of these gymnasts are on YouTube yet, so we can't tell you anything about them, other than that it seems that Japan's future is in safe hands!

Great Britain pipped two Australian teams for the bronze, thanks mostly to Nicole Hibbert's 14.15 on bars and Danusia Francis's 14.000 on floor. Nicole Hibbert was Britain's overall top scorer (54.65).


Britain's Nicole Hibbert (photo: Jasmin Schneebeli-Wochner/Gymbox)

The two Australian teams placed fourth and fifth, respectively, mainly because of weak performances on bars (their highest score on the event was a dismal 12.85). It's clear that Australia will have to focus on bars if it is to be a contender for medals in the next quad - scores in the 11s and 12s are not going to do much for the team.

Australia's top score was a 14.70 for Emily Little's vault. Little also scored a 14.20 on beam, while Britt Greeley added another 14+ score for the home team with a 14.05 on vault. Over four events, Greeley was Australia's top scorer (53.975). Little was second with a 53.750, which included an abysmal 11.90 on bars.


Australia's Britt Greeley (photo: Stefan Wurzer/Gymnasticsunited)

Natalia Joura's (Dasha's younger sister) international debut didn't go entirely as planned. Joura Junior obtained 13+ scores on three events (some of Australia's higher scores), but had to count a 9.15 on bars, the lowest score in the competition. We're not sure what happened there...

Australian national junior champion Mary-Anne Monckton, who has been compared to Hollie Dykes (we don't know about you, but that comparison certainly has us excited!) scratched from the competition, presumably due to a last-minute injury.

Team results can be found here. Individual results are here.

The AYOF has its own video channel on YouTube here. With a bit of luck there will be some gymnastics footage there soon!

More Voronin Cup Videos

New videos of the Voronin Cup (to go with the incredible Viktoria Komova video we posted earlier) have indeed been uploaded. YouTube user Igorgymn1 has tons of them. We thought we'd post a few to show you just how exciting Russian gymnastics currently is...

This is Viktoria Komova's excellent bar routine. Check out her form and swing - very promising stuff!

And this is Komova's floor routine, still with the amazing 1.5 twist through to Arabian opening pass and strange landings. Somebody please tell us - are Komova's ankles all right? She's not wearing any bandages around them, but we wonder about those landings.


Viktoria Komova (photo: Bernard Garau)
This is Anna Myzdrikova's very hard floor routine, featuring a great triple twist to immediate back tuck (that'll be useful under the new code); whip to immediate double Arabian; 2.5 twist to barani to stag leap; double tuck; double pike. Myzdrikova needs more dance, but she seems graceful enough. It should be a treat watching her floor routine come the next quad.

These are Myzdrikova's vaults, a sloppy but promising double-twisting Yurchenko and an arched but powerful half on, layout front off. Nice!

This is senior AA winner Kristina Goryunova's beam routine, featuring a nice pike front to sheep jump and one of the best front somis to scale we've seen. Now that's how you perform that skill.

And this is Goryunova's floor routine, featuring, among other things, a very nice double layout. Goryunova is an interesting gymnast. She's not naturally elegant (she moves a tad heavily), but she does an excellent job hiding that fact. She's living proof that non-elegant gymnasts can be taught to comport themselves gracefully, given the right coach and/or choreographer.


Kristina Goryunova (photo: Stefan Wurzer/Gymnasticsunited)
This is Alyona Zmeu's beam routine. Zmeu is very elegant and does some of the best leaps this side of China. She has gorgeous legs. Love this girl.

This is Diana Sapronova on beam. Sapronova is nothing special, but she's stable and elegant enough. It must be very reassuring for the Russians to have this kind of gymnast to fall back on when all their great stars are injured.

Also, for those of you who like watching gymnasts in plain clothes, here is a video of Yulia Lozhechko, Elena Zamolodchikova and Anna Pavlova standing around and giggling at the Voronin Cup. Pavlova is shown limping around with a huge brace around her right knee, over her pants. Reportedly she told someone who attended the competition that she expects to be back in 8 months' time. We don't know whether that means back in training or back in competition, but either way, it means she's optimistic about her return to the sport. Excellent news!

Woluwe-Saint-Lambert: Complete Results

The Belgian Gymnastics Federation has finally released the complete results of the Challenge International tournament, which was held in Woluwe-Saint-Lambert last week and on which we reported earlier here. Click here to see the results.

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!

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!