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IG Editor Dwight Normile is blogging from the 2009 World Gymnastics Championships at the O2 Arena in London.  Men's Vault Isaac Botella (ESP): High Kasamatsu-1.5 (6.6) with some form issues and big crossover step; handspring-double-twisting front (6.6), stepped to the side and over the boundary line. 15.650 two-vault average. Anton Golotsutskov (RUS): Dragulescu, super high, legs apart, hop back (7.0); Tsukahara-double pike (7.0), fairly clean, slightly short, hop forward. 16.287 average. Thomas Bouhail (FRA): Tsukahara-double pike, off axis, landed and spun around and put a hand down. He's lucky he didn't hurt himself since he landed at such a sideward angle. High Dragulescu, small hop. He looked pleased, despite the first vault fault. 15.775 average. Matthias Fahrig (GER): Sort of trotted at first before gaining full speed for a Dragulescu, which landed low, in a deep squat and a step to the side over the boundary. Clean Kasamatsu-1.5 that landed a little short. 15.850 average. Marian Dragulescu (ROM): High, far Dragulescu. He stood up straight quickly to try to stick, but took a step back. Li Xiaopeng (roundoff, half-on, layout randi, 7.2), landed well with just a step. Huge applause and Dragulesu returne the applause in appreciation. Should be tough to beat. 16.575. Jeffrey Wammes (NED): Yurchenko-2.5 twist (6.6); handspring-double-twisting front, never had enough height and sat down. 15.425 average. Flavius Koczi (ROM): Lopez (Kasamatsu-double twist, 7.0), one step; Handspring-randi (2.5 twists, 7.0), landed short of the twist, but just needed a hop. 16.337. Vault finals require different entry and post-flight, and these two vaults abuse that rule on both sides of the table. Meanwhile, you cannot do a Yurchenko-double pike and Yurchenko-2.5 twist, which are completely different. Sometimes you just have to shake your head at the decisions the Men's Technical Committee makes--or in this case, chooses not to make. Ri Se Gwang (PRK): Piked Dragulescu (7.2), landed on all fours; Tsukahara-double pike stepped to the side. 15.650. 1. Dragulescu; 2. Koczi; 3. Golotsutskov. After Ri finished, Dragulescu and Koczi stood atop the vault table draped in a Romanian flag. Gymnastics' version of an end zone celebration? Balance Beam Yang Yilin (CHN) began well but wobbled after an Onodi and slipped sideways after a Rulfova. No connection between front and side aerials, then her foot missed on a switch-ring leap, and she fell. Clean roundoff, 2.5 twist dismount (13.225). Elisabetta Preziosa (ITA) did an interesting side aerial that landed on one leg while she raised the other leg high in front. Used her flexibility to good effect and ended with a roundoff, double tuck, slightly under (14.20, 5.8). Ana Porgras (ROM) began confidently with excellent form and flexibility, but fell on her first tumbling combination of front aerial, flip-flop, layout, then later had to grab the beam to prevent another fall (13.425, 6.4). Deng Linlin (CHN) was aggressive but slightly off balance on nearly every landing. Trick, trick, trick (15.000, 6.4). Koko Tsurumi (JPN) had a near fall after a layout but she turned halfway and put her hand down on the beam with her leg up in a needle. Stuck a roundoff, 2.5 twist right as the final warning buzzer sounded (14.10, 5.7). Kim Un Hyang (PRK) landed well on her roundoff, layout-full, slip wobble on a front tuck and two leaps, roundoff, double pike dismount (14.450, 6.0). Ivana Hong (USA) looked fairly smooth but had to pause between her Onodi and sheep jump, and she had a few other balance checks. Two flip-flops to double pike, slightly short on rotation (14.550, 6.0). A medal secured, Hong received a hug from coach Valeri Liukin. Lauren Mitchell (AUS) mounted with a chest spin on the end to swing down. Double turn in side lunge, interesting front aerial, standing front tuck, bit step back on her double pike, but overall a solid routine in comparison with the others (14.875, 6.3). 1. Deng; 2. Mitchell; 3. Hong. Parallel Bars Yann Cucherat (FRA) tore a ligament in his middle finger during the pre-meet warm-up in the 02 Arena (there are no one-touch warm-ups in the event finals), and was replaced by Pham Phuoc Hung (VIE). Wang Guanyin (CHN) Excellent set with front uprise-Diamidov, Dmitrienko, piked Morisue, piked Belle, struggled slightly on a swing hand, stuck his double pike. This routine could win, but being first up might hurt him (15.975, 7.0). Yoo Won Chul (KOR) matched Wang, skill for skill, and stuck his double pike too. Pumped his fists in relief. Now that you can only do one type of each release, the top guys are doing piked Morisues and piked Belles and a Dmitrienko (front uprise immediate double back). 15.300, 6.7. Adam Kierzkowski (POL) His low peach-half will hurt him, clean front-1.25 to support, reverse cut to handstand, but later sat down a double pike in his first world final. 4.325, 6.3. Feng Zhe (CHN) took steps on his peach-half and later did a peach full, great, stretched Healym had to jump sideward after his double pike. 15.775, 6.9. Epke Zonderland (NED) did a really cool Diamidov-1.25 with an extra full pirouette to a glid on the side, and he stuck his double pike. He's been paying his dues on high bar in recent years, and now he showed up well in the p-bars final. 15.125, 6.1, received loud boos and whistles. Pham Phuoc Hung (VIE) struggled on a peach and broke form in a few places. Very short routine. 14.475, 5.9. Vasileios Tsolakidis (GRE) has great front-uprise skills (Diamidov, Makuts) and a super high front piked-1.75 to upper arms. He stuck his double pike. I think he should have medaled on p-bars at the 2006 worlds. We'll see if he does here. 15.35, 6.3. Kazuhito Tanaka (JPN) mounted with peach-half, peach-full, muscled one swing handstand and stuck his double pike perhaps the best of all the finals. 15.50, 6.4. 1.Wang; 2. Feng; 3. Tanaka. Women's Floor Exercise Beth Tweddle (GBR) drew a huge reception as first up and it got really loud when she landed her opening pass (from just a hurdle, roundoff, flip-flop, 1.5 twist through to Arabian double front), again on her second, piked Arabian double front, the whole crowd began clapping in rhythm during the middle of the routine. Tweddle uses only three tumbling passes and she stuck the final pass (2.5 twist, front-full) and sent the crowd into a frenzy. As she walked off she applauded the home crowd. 14.65, 6.1. Jessica Gil (COL): In a matter of seconds, the crowd went from its loudest to its quietest when Gil landed on her head on her second pass, handspring-double front. She was obviously disoriented, sitting in a slouch, hand on head. Trainers came up right away and, after several minutes, positioned her on a stretcher and carried off. A stunning turn of events. Only low whispers could be heard in the massive arena. She was moving her arms while they were tending to her on the stretcher. The crowd applauded as they wheeled her out of the arena. Gil was taken to the hospital and the initial prognosis is that it is not too serious, according the meet announcer. Rebecca Bross (USA) stuck her opening handspring, front layout, double front as well as her 1.5 twist to double-twisting front. (The women are no longer allowed to take a step backward after a tumbling landing.) She made the dismount that backfired during all-around (2.5 twist to barani). 14.125, 5.7. Sui Lu (CHN) wore white socks and mounted with a whip-triple twist but had some slight hops on three of her tumbling pass landings, but she stuck her double pike dismount. 14.30, 5.7. Ana Porgras (ROM) hopped on her tucked full-in, which had form issues, and appeared to step out on her second pass, but no flag went up. Her dance and expression are exemplary at a time when that phase of the sport has suffered. She ended with a double tuck, but none of her passes were stuck. Long pause before the score: provisional score of 14.325 lowered to 14.125, 5.5. Anna Myzdrikova (RUS) stuck her whip-Arabian double front, then did a triple twist, punch back tuck, small step, then stumbled forward on 2.5 twist, punch barani. Ended with a clean double pike. A pity originality doesn't get you anything in this Code of Points. 14.275, 5.9. Lauren Mitchell (AUS) mounted with an Arabian double tuck to stag jump, then hopped slightly forward after a piked full-in. Third pass of 2.5 twist, front layout, and a double pike finish with small hop. 14.55, 5.8. Deng Linlin (CHN) stuck her Arabian double front but landed low on her tucked full-in. Completely stopped dancing to step back into the corner for her third pass. Slightly low on her double pike. 13.875, 5.4. The crowd gave Tweddle a standing ovation. 1. Tweddle; 2. Mitchell; 3. Sui. Horizontal Bar Igor Cassina (ITA) barely caught his Cassina and Kolman. Poor foot form in this routine but very dynamic style. Ended with a full-twisting double layout with a hop forward. 15.625, 6.7. Alexander Tsarevich (BLR) showed great form and beautiful Kolman with knees together, pointed toes and an opening. He went the wrong way on one element and landed his triple flyaway with a slight stagger. 14.375, 6.0. Danell Leyva (USA) was really aggressive and caught his layout Kovacs, tucked Kovacs and had to bend his arms a bit on his jam, dislocate hop to undergrips. When he stuck his layout double-double, his coach really put on show. The crowd loved it. 15.60, 7.0. Zou Kai (CHN) did a hop-full to Winkler, lots of pirouettes, half Takemoto to layout Tkatchev. A marathon routine from the Olympic champion. He took a hop on his layout double-double. 16.150, 7.5. Kohei Uchimura (JPN) did his usual gorgeous Kovacs saltos and a clean Kolman, but his difficult might keep him out of the medals. 15.175, 6.4 (brought boos and whistles). Epke Zonderland (NED) mounted with a Cassina and then did a Kolman, half Takemoto to Gaylord 2. Wild routine with several form breaks. We'll see how the judges handle this. 15.825, 7.3. Jonathan Horton (USA) mounted with a Takemoto-full to Yamawaki, caught a Cassina, a layout Kovacs, but missed the Kolman. He went for his triple-twisting double but landing well short. He got up and waved to the crowd. 13.25, 6.7. Aljaz Pegan (SLO) did his Pegan and connected to a Rybalko and and did a Tkatchev to cross grip catch. Bounced forward after his triple flyaway. 15.50, 7.0. 1. Zou; 2. Zonderland; 3. Cassina. Comments (7)
Alison Clements
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Ana Porgras Loved this new Romanian talent and, according to the British commentary, only her third big competition. I'm really looking forward to seeing more of her. |
ShannonS
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Hand-me-down leos Has the current recession affected U.S.A. Gymnastics? Just wondering why they couldn't shell out a few bucks to buy the girls new leos. Instead, they just gave them hand-me-downs from Beijing. |
Vicki
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Bringing back some ROV into the code It seems many gymnasts who do well with the current code do so through redundancy. I know everyone was rooting for Tweddle to win a gold in something but two arabians, a bouncy path for a dismount and average dancing seems a strange composition for the winning routine. It's not her fault -- it's just a good way to milk the Code. First and foremost, the code needs to reduce redundancy: The same element repeated in a different position should not receive credit. Furthermore, some elements are very similar to each other: if you can do a triple twist, obviously, you can do a double as well; a double/double, you don't need to show a full-in as well, etc. Elements could be grouped into families (kovacs, hecht releases, stalders, long-hang pirouettes, twisting saltos on floor etc). Unless done in a combination (like the Li Ya combo), credit would be given for only the best element in that group. This would result in fewer "big skills" but maybe that's what the code needs. Plus, no more than two twisting passes on floor PlEASE. Also, the code has a disproportionate focus on "big skills" (be it eight or ten) and everything else falls by the wayside. Unfortunately, original, creative moves (like the Omelianchik pass or Yurchenko loop) are not always the most difficult. It is even refreshing to see beautiful moves that are not original (such as an arabesque on beam or endo roll instead of the fifth dreadful hop into the corner or an actual move on the low bar -- that pesky thing in the way of the high bar routine). But athletes who take that special effort are not rewarded. The code needs to give credit for all elements, not just the most difficult ones. The worry would be that this would result in even more big skills, but it's unlikely. There would be non-redundancy rules in place plus the athletes will realize that instead of shuttling themselves into the corner to gain another 0.4 for another ro, ff, into a D skill, they can spend the same amount of time (and less energy) doing non-acro skills for 5-6 tens. Some other ideas... having extra points awarded for dance on floor (like a distribution requirement but gradated depending on the quality of dance) -all requirements need to be satisfied by an actual ELEMENT (c'mon, some girls satisfy the torso-to-apparatus req by lying on the floor/beam like senior citizens...no insult intended to senior citizens) -having another difficulty level to separate elements further somewhere around D/E level (skills that are lumped in with much easier skills, understandably, are never done -- piked move on bars when straddled is worth the same; piked and tucked skills on floor for guys) -wasn't there a rule about how many elements can be done on high bar before moving to low? Anyway, I am not opposed to giving credit for difficulty but there are many ways the Code can be fixed to discourage redundancy and re-build a full, flowing routine... |
Vicki
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Code of Points Recipe to Success 1) Learn one high level skill 2) Repeat in various positions 3) Combine with a pinch of twisting to inflate the start value (substitute pirouettes if your event has bars) 4) For the remainder of the routine, be patient and do NOTHING; doing anything else will bring you unnecessary deductions PS If you take the tumbling passes out of the winning floor routine, my grandmother could do the rest of the routine -- not a commentary on the athlete (who was clever enough to figure out the recipe to success) but on the absurdity of the Code |
Ian
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On the ROV I couldn't agree more with Vicky! Three floor routines that perfectly showcase her point are Shawn Johnson's (double-double & full-in, triple & double full), Sandra Izbasa's (piked & tucked full-ins) and of course Beth Tweddle's (piked & tucked double arabians). On floor, I've seen men far more graceful than women and that's something the CoP needs to fix. Not only does it not reward artistry, but originality as well. Although not the most artistic (but definitely more than the winner's) Anna Myzdrikova's unique tumbling passes should have got some kind of credit. Something to think about... |
vision
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THINKS I think deng BB is not perfect,but is the best of ohters people. Sui FX is performance beautiful and art.but the diffcult is not high. |
Kapadokya
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Kapadokya Loved this new Romanian talent and, according to the British commentary, only her third big competition. I'm really looking forward to seeing more of her. |
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