International Gymnast Magazine Online

Competition Reports

Written by Amanda Turner Thursday, 02 September 2010 21:19

U.S. Men, Corral Win Pan Am Championships

(3 votes, average 5.00 out of 5)

Mexico's Daniel Corral won the all-around title over Glen Ishino (U.S.) and Jorge Hugo Giraldo (Colombia) as the Pan American Gymnastics Championships began Thursday in Guadalajara, Mexico.

The U.S. men and Mexico's Daniel Corral won gold medals Thursday as the Pan American Gymnastics Championships began in Guadalajara, Mexico.

The competition at the Pan American Gymnastics Complex is serving as the qualifier to the XVI Pan American Games, which will be held at the same arena in October 2011.

Glen Ishino led the United States to an easy victory in the team competition (352.15). More than 8 points back, Brazil and Canada tied for second place (343.95).

Colombia was fourth (342.00), ahead of Puerto Rico (341.70) and host Mexico (338.15). Seventh-place Argentina grabbed the last team berth to the 2011 Pan American Games (336.60).

Cuba, team champions at the 2003 Pan American Games and fifth in 2007, finished ninth and failed to qualify.

The 20-year-old Corral (88.75) won the all-around gold over Ishino (88.15) and Colombian Olympian Jorge Hugo Giraldo (87.45).

Though Mexico finished out of the medals in the team competition, Corral said he was pleased his team qualified for the big event in 2011.

"I am very happy with this performance, but mainly because it was an achievement for the team. We have a place in the Pan American Games and now we can prepare for the world championships," Corral said.

A shoulder injury limited Corral's participation at the Central American Games, held in July in Mayagüez, Puero Rico. Corral has been training since early this year with Spanish coach Alfredo Hueto, who led Gervasio Deferr to back-to-back Olympic vault titles in 2000 and 2004.

"It was a difficult injury that compromised me in Puerto Rico, but I kept training, kept working, and I hope this is the first of many successes with Alfredo as my coach," said Corral, who took his highest score (15.725) on vault for a handspring double front.

Competition continues Friday with the women's team and all-around final.

External Link: Guadalajara 2011

Pan American Gymnastics Championships
Sept. 2, Guadalajara, Mexico

Men's Team Final		FX	PH	SR	VT	PB	HB	Total
1.	United States	59.00	55.35	58.00	62.85	57.60	59.35	352.15
2.	Brazil	57.45	55.75	57.35	61.85	57.05	54.50	343.95
2.	Canada	56.80	55.00	56.65	61.10	58.90	55.50	343.95
4.	Colombia	58.00	55.65	55.40	60.50	56.40	56.05	342.00
5.	Puerto Rico	58.50	52.60	59.20	63.40	53.10	54.90	341.70
6.	Mexico	55.35	54.95	57.50	61.05	56.25	53.05	338.15
7.	Argentina	55.75	53.10	57.50	60.45	56.70	53.10	336.60
8.	Venezuela	52.90	54.30	57.70	59.95	56.80	54.30	335.95
9.	Cuba	55.45	51.80	54.20	58.90	57.00	53.50	330.85
10.	Chile	56.75	48.65	52.75	60.80	53.20	51.90	324.05
11.	Ecuador	51.75	46.20	48.75	54.45	49.45	42.60	293.20
12.	Peru	51.80	41.35	44.75	58.45	49.35	44.95	290.65

Men's All-Around Final (Top 30)		Total
1.	Daniel Corral	88.75
2.	Glen Ishino	88.15
3.	Jorge Hugo Giraldo	87.45
4.	Wesley Haagensen	86.45
4.	Tomas Sepulveda Gonzalez	86.45
6.	Mosiah Rodrigues	86.30
7.	Sergio Sasaki	86.05
8.	Jake Dalton	85.95
9.	Jackson Payne	85.50
10.	Gary Brochero	85.40
11.	Jossimar Calvo	85.20
12.	Luis Rivera	84.90
13.	Federico Molinari	84.85
14.	Jayd Lukenchuk	84.55
15.	Angel Ramos	84.45
16.	Pericles Fouro	84.25
17.	Santiago Lopez	82.35
17.	Jhony Parra	82.35
19.	Luis Vargas	82.30
19.	Mario Gorosito	82.30
21.	Montalvo Silot	81.05
22.	Carlos Kindeland	80.75
23.	Xavier Veloz	80.65
24.	Christian Bruno	80.35
25.	Juan Raffo	79.55
26.	Nicolas Cordoba	78.55
27.	Jesus De Leon	77.40
28.	Oscar Cañas	77.25
29.	William Albert	77.05
30.	Mynor Juarez	76.40

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Written by Stelios Karaoglanidis Tuesday, 31 August 2010 21:47

Romania Tops Greece, Bulgaria in Thessaloniki

(3 votes, average 5.00 out of 5)

The final countdown for the world championships started Saturday for the Greek men's team — and for teams from Romania, Bulgaria and Cyprus — at a four-nation meet held at the "Ioannis Melissanidis" Sports Hall in Thessaloniki.

Vlasios Maras (Greece)

This one-day competition was the first one for the gymnasts after a summer break and it was a good chance for everybody to test their routines and their level of consistency, seven weeks before the world championships start in Rotterdam.

Romania looked significantly better as a team than it had done last April in the European Championships, and topped the competition with 353.650 points. Ovidiu Buidoso was the top all-arounder (87.300).

Romania lined up Marian Dragulescu, who had missed the Europeans in April due to an injured right foot. He has resumed training and is eager to retain his floor and vault world titles. Dragulescu showed some of his unique skills, although he didn't really push himself on floor exercise. In fact, he was rather overshadowed by teammate Flavius Koczi, who was stunning both on floor (15.850) and vault (16.550).

The Greek team members had reasons to be happy, too. The host team showed a great deal of consistency and had only one fall, finishing second with 350.000 points.

"This performance was even better than expected," Greek head coach Dimitris Raftis said. "We only had one fall and we stayed close to Romania in points, as we wanted to do. We have six weeks of hard work ahead of us, in order to improve."

Vlasios Maras executed very well his high bar routine (15.700), the same one that had got him the Europeans gold medal in Birmingham. He just made a small step while landing this time.

"I'm very pleased with my performance on high bar," said Maras, the five-time European champion on high bar. "Although I'm not in the best shape yet, I believe that I executed my routine in a way that would get me qualified to the final of any competition. In the remaining time, I will take care of the details, of the quality elements, so that my routine should be perfect in time for the world championships."

Vasilios Tsolakidis got a high note, too, on the fact that he premiered his brand-new parallel bars routine (14.900/6.5 Difficulty), which contains both skills internationally registered under his name: "Tsolakidis 1" (E Difficulty level) is a german mount with Makuts from below and "Tsolakidis 2" (F Difficulty level) consist of 1.5 Diomidov after a german mount.

"It was the first competition ever in which my parallel bars routine contained both 'Tsolakidis 1' and 'Tsolakidis 2' exercises," he said. "I started working on this just a few days ago, and the fact that I was able to execute it so soon in a competition is definitely a very good sign. My aim is to add another element, too, in order to raise the difficulty up to 6.7."

Eleftherios Kosmidis, on the other hand, couldn't hit his 6.8 routine in floor exercise, as he stumbled in the first diagonal, when trying a new element. Nevertheless, he stayed focused and hit the rest of his routine for 15.250.

"I couldn't execute well that new element in the beginning of my floor routine, but the rest of it was really good," he said. "In the upcoming meets before the world championships, I will aim to hit the entire routine in a flawless way."

Bulgaria finished in third place of the team competition with a 321.600 total, which wasn't really satisfactory. Junior Velislav Valchev, 17, was the top all-arounder in seventh place. However, they should become a different team altogether, once Jordan Jovtchev and Eddie Penev join them in Rotterdam.

2004 Olympic vault finalist Filip Yanev skipped the leg events after several surgeries, but earned the second-best score on high bar behind Maras.

"I'm not in the best shape, but I'm not too bad either," Yanev said. "I will not be doing floor and vault in Rotterdam. Maybe next year, if I am fit enough. This was the first competition for us, after quite a few months, because of the summer break. We made some silly mistakes and that cost us today. However, that's what these meets are for. We will try to learn from these mistakes and make things right in the world championships. Jordan will be there, too".

Cyprus, which really is focusing on the upcoming Commonwealth Games, performed just 22 routines in total and didn't rank officially in the team competition. Cyprus will only send Herodotos Georgallas to Rotterdam to compete on rings (14.550 on Saturday), since the island nation doesn't have team qualification aspirations.

Moreover, another six-member Greek team participated in the meet, too. Greece's "B" squad didn't complete the four routines-per-apparatus minimum either, so it didn't get a team ranking.

External Link: Hellenic Gymnastics Federation

2010 Greece-Bulgaria-Cyprus-Romania Men's Match
Aug. 28, Thessaloniki

Team		FX	PH	SR	VT	PB	HB	Total
1.	Romania	60.350	58.650	55.200	64.600	57.900	56.950	353.650
2.	Greece	60.100	53.800	55.900	62.400	58.200	59.600	350.000
3.	Bulgaria	50.000	51.700	50.650	59.200	53.600	56.450	321.600

Men's All-Around		FX	PH	SR	VT	PB	HB	Total
1.	Ovidiu Buidoso	14.700	14.100	13.750	15.550	14.550	14.650	87.300
2.	Christos Lympanovnos	14.600	13.700	14.200	15.400	14.600	14.550	87.050
3.	Michalis Doulkeridis	15.700	12.200	13.450	15.700	14.500	14.700	86.250
4.	Cristian Bataga	14.050	14.300	14.350	16.000	12.850	13.450	85.000
5.	Dimitrios Markousis	14.550	13.000	13.800	14.800	14.200	14.650	85.000
6.	Charalampos Kailidis	12.700	12.700	13.700	15.000	13.050	14.500	81.650
7.	Velislav Valchev	12.450	13.200	12.200	14.400	13.300	14.400	79.950
8.	Stavros Kekelos	13.650	11.500	13.500	15.600	11.400	13.000	78.650
9.	Flavius Koczi	15.850	14.900	13.150	16.550	13.950		74.400
10.	Andrei Ursache	14.500	15.350	13.950		14.600	13.800	72.200
11.	Cosmin Iancu		13.400	12.350	14.850	14.800	14.050	69.450
12.	Yaroslav Vovk		12.700	12.400	14.300	13.600	14.000	67.000
13.	Emil Hristov	12.850	12.400	12.850	15.400	13.000		66.500
14.	Demetres Krashias		10.300	12.450	14.600	13.000	12.050	62.400
15.	Eleftherios Kosmidis	15.250		14.450	15.600	14.100		59.400
16.	Filip Yanev		13.200	13.200		13.200	14.750	54.350
17.	Emil Stoimenov	13.600		11.700	15.100		13.300	53.700
18.	Eleftherios Petrounias	12.250	12.200	15.100		13.050		52.600
19.	Georgios Georgiou		12.200	13.350		13.800	13.200	52.550
20.	Panagiotis Aristotelous	13.850	11.350		14.500		12.650	52.350
21.	Panagiotis Tougas		13.250	13.100		13.400	12.500	52.250
22.	Hristo Marinov	11.100	12.600			13.500	13.000	50.200
23.	Konstantinos Aristotelous	11.700	10.800			13.450	14.050	50.000
24.	Georgios Spanos	11.850		11.900	14.400	11.200		49.350
25.	Marian Dragulescu	15.300			16.500		14.450	46.250
26.	Vlasios Maras		13.800		15.700		15.700	45.200
27.	Ioannis Tougas	14.600		12.700	15.400			42.700
28.	Vasilios Tsolakidis	14.400	13.300			14.900		42.600
29.	Konstantinos Barbakis	14.300	11.000		15.750			41.050
30.	Herodotos Georgallas			14.550				14.550

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Written by Amanda Turner Monday, 30 August 2010 08:08

Sui Strikes More Gold as Chinese Championships End

(5 votes, average 5.00 out of 5)

All-around champion Sui Lu added balance beam and floor exercise titles as the Chinese Championships concluded Monday in Hunan.

Women's all-around champion Sui Lu added two more titles as the Chinese Gymnastics Championships concluded Monday in Zhuzhou, Hunan.

Sui picked up gold medals in both the balance beam (15.550/6.7 Difficulty) and floor exercise (14.550/5.8 D).

"I think my performance was normal, because these two events (balance beam and floor exercise) have always been my strengths," said Sui, an alternate to China's 2008 Olympic team. "The goal was for these two golds — only the all-around victory was a surprise."

Zhou Qiaohong won the women's vault title with a double-twisting Tsukahara (6.0 D) and layout Rudi (6.3). Zhou thanked her coach for his patience with her during bad practices.

"If he didn't put up with me each day during training, we wouldn't have had tonight's finish," Zhou said.

All-around bronze medalist Huang Qiushuang won uneven bars, hitting her new Endo-immediate Ono combination (15.550/7.1). World and Olympic champion He Kexin, who is recovering from an injury, scratched the apparatus final.

In the men's competition, triple Olympic gold medalist Zou Kai was unable to top 21-year-old Zhang Chenglong on floor exercise and high bar. A bailed skill on floor dropped Zou's planned Difficulty score from 6.7 to 6.3, and he finished third.

"Actually, I should have had a 6.4 degree of difficulty, but the judges counted it as 6.3," Zou said with a laugh. "But it doesn't matter, even if it was 6.4, I would still have been third."

World pommel horse champion Zhang Hongtao earned the highest score of the finals with a 16.175.

On still rings, Olympic champion Chen Yibing tied world champion Yan Mingyong for the title (15.900).

Chen, untouchable on still rings from 2006 to 2008, said he welcomed the competition from his younger teammates.

"The more the merrier," he said. "I feel more pressure to improve. I like the competition."

On parallel bars, world champion Wang Guanyin tied world silver medalist Feng Zhe for the title.

Floor champion Zhang ended the competition with a second gold on high bar (16.125/7.5 D).

External Link: Chinese Gymnastics Association

2010 Chinese Gymnastics Championships
Aug. 28-29, Zhuzhou, Hunan

Women's Vault
1. Zhou Qiaohong (Fujian) 14.237
2. Huang Qiushuang (Guangdong) 13.925
3. Yang Pei (Shaanxi) 13.900

Uneven Bars
1. Huang Qiushuang (Guangdong) 15.550
2. Wu Liufang (Guangdong) 14.675
3. Huang Huidan (Zhejiang) 14.500

Balance Beam
1. Sui Lu (Shanghai) 15.550
2. Jiang Yuyuan (Zhejiang) 14.450
3. Wu Liufang (Guangdong) 14.325

Women's Floor Exercise
1. Sui Lu (Shanghai) 14.550
2. Huang Qiushuang (Guangdong) 13.825
3. Jiang Yuyuan (Zhejiang) 13.700

Men's Floor Exercise
1. Zhang Chenglong (Shandong) 15.075
2. Du Wei (Guizhou) 15.025
3. Zou Kai (Sichuan) 14.775

Pommel Horse
1. Zhang Hongtao (Shaanxi) 16.175
2. Chen Chen (Jiangsu) 15.575
3. Teng Haibin (Beijing) 15.450

Still Rings
1. Chen Yibing (Tianjin) 15.900
1. Yan Mingyong (Shanghai) 15.900
3. Luo Xuan (Hubei) 15.350
3. Liao Junlin (Guangxi) 15.350

Men's Vault
1. Du Wei (Guizhou) 15.925
2. Zhang Zhongbo (Shanghai) 15.912
3. Lu Bo (Jiangsu) 15.887

Parallel Bars
1. Feng Zhe (Sichuan) 15.500
1. Wang Guanyin (Tianjin) 15.500
3. Dong Zhendong (Shaanxi) 14.850

High Bar
1. Zhang Chenglong (Shandong) 16.125
2. Zou Kai (Sichuan) 15.600
3. Chen Xuezhang (Fujian) 15.550

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Written by Amanda Turner Sunday, 29 August 2010 20:10

Khorokhordin Wins Twice as Russian Cup Concludes

(3 votes, average 5.00 out of 5)

All-around champion Sergei Khorokhordin of Barnaul won two more titles as the 2010 Russian Cup concluded Sunday at "Youth" Sports Hall in Chelyabinsk.

All-around champion Sergei Khorokhordin of Barnaul won two more titles as the 2010 Russian Cup concluded Sunday in Chelyabinsk.

Khorokhordin, a 2008 Olympian, added titles on parallel bars (15.000) and high bar (15.200) to go with his all-around gold from Friday.

Mikhail Kudashov of Chelyabinsk won the vault title for the host city. Olympic bronze medalist Anton Golotsutskov finished out of the medals in fourth.

Members of Russia's junior squad continued their rise in the senior ranks. Floor champion David Belyavsky (Yekaterinburg) won silver on men's vault ahead of Denis Ablyazin, another 18 year old. All-around silver medalist Igor Pakhomenko, 18, of Leninsk-Kuznetsky, picked up another silver on high bar.

Women's all-around and uneven bars champion Aliya Mustafina (Moscow) claimed her third gold on floor exercise. The all-around medalists repeated their rankings on floor, with runner-up Ksenia Afanasyeva taking silver and Ksenia Semyonova (both of Tula) winning bronze.

First-year senior Anna Dementyeva (Samara) won the balance beam title. Junior Yulia Belokobylskaya of Rostov-on-Don, 14, took the silver ahead of Mustafina.

After analysing the results of the competition, Russia's coaches are expected to announce soon their training squads for October's world championships in Rotterdam.

External Link: Russian Gymnastics Federation

2010 Russian Cup
Aug. 29, Chelyabinsk

Balance Beam Final			Score
1.	Anna Dementyeva	Khimki/Samara	15.375
2.	Yulia Belokobylskaya	Rostov-on-Don	14.900
3.	Aliya Mustafina	Moscow	14.850
4.	Daria Yelizarova	Tula	14.450
5.	Ksenia Semyonova	Khimki/Tula	14.450
6.	Anna Pavlova	Orekhevo-Zuevo/Khimki	14.175
7.	Tatiana Nabiyeva	St. Petersburg	13.000
8.	Anna Myzdrikova	Moscow	11.450

Women's Floor Exercise Final			Score
1.	Aliya Mustafina	Moscow	15.300
2.	Ksenia Afanasyeva	Khimki/Tula	15.025
3.	Ksenia Semyonova	Khimki/Tula	14.850
4.	Anna Dementyeva	Khimki/Samara	14.575
5.	Anna Myzdrikova	Moscow	14.500
6.	Daria Yelizarova	Tula	14.375
7.	Yulia Belokobylskaya	Rostov-on-Don	14.200
8.	Tatiana Nabiyeva	St. Petersburg	13.850

Men's Vault Final			Score
1.	Mikhail Kudashov	Chelyabinsk	15.675
2.	David Belyavsky	Yekaterinburg	15.425
3.	Denis Ablyazin	Penza/Moscow	15.400
4.	Anton Golotsutskov	Seversk	15.175
5.	Mikhail Bodnar	Moscow/Vladimir	14.725
6.	Anton Lobachyov	Yekaterinburg	13.550

Parallel Bars Final			Score
1.	Sergei Khorokhordin	Khimki/Barnaul	15.000
2.	Maxim Devyatovsky	Leninsk-Kuznetsky	14.700
3.	Dmitry Barkalov	Vladimir	14.600
4.	Pavel Russinyak	Syzran/Penza	14.550
5.	David Belyavsky	Yekaterinburg	14.400
6.	Andrei Cherkasov	Leninsk-Kuznetsky	14.150
7.	Konstantin Pluzhnikov	Seversk	13.400
8.	Igor Pakhomenko	Leninsk-Kuznetsky	12.800

High Bar Final			Score
1.	Sergei Khorokhordin	Khimki/Barnaul	15.200
2.	Igor Pakhomenko	Leninsk-Kuznetsky	14.550
3.	Mikhail Bodnar	Moscow/Vladimir	14.350
4.	Alexander Dyomin	Chelyabinsk	14.150
5.	David Belyavsky	Yekaterinburg	14.100
6.	Maxim Devyatovsky	Leninsk-Kuznetsky	13.600
7.	Dmitry Barkalov	Vladimir	13.100
8.	Pavel Russinyak	Syzran/Penza	11.700

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Written by Amanda Turner Sunday, 29 August 2010 18:45

Shatilov Wins Israeli Open Championships

(5 votes, average 5.00 out of 5)

Four months after knee surgery, world medalist Alexander Shatilov won the Israeli Open Championships Saturday night in Tel Aviv.

World championships bronze medalist Alexander Shatilov defended his national title, winning the Israeli Open Championships Saturday night at the Hadar Yosef arena in Tel Aviv.

Shatilov scored 87.500 to defeat guest competitors — and Olympic medalists — Anton Fokin of Uzbekistan (86.150) and Filip Ude of Croatia (83.500). At the 2008 Olympics, Fokin won the bronze medal on parallel bars and Ude won the silver on pommel horse.

The 23-year-old Shatilov injured his knee at the Paris World Cup in April, and immediately underwent surgery to repair the meniscus. He began training with Russian acrobatics coach Valentina Potapenko, an specialist in by the Israeli Gymnastics Association to help Shatilov return to top form on tumbling.

Shatilov's personal coach, Sergei Vaysburg, told the Israeli media that Shatilov hopes to be 100 percent for October's world championships in Rotterdam. But their main goal, Vaysburg said, is to be ready to win the floor title at the 2011 World Championships in Tokyo in order to be assured of qualifying for the 2012 Olympic Games.

A native of Uzbekistan, Shatilov is Israel's most successful gymnast in history and Israel's Athlete of the Year in 2009. He was a finalist on floor exercise at the 2008 Olympic Games, and won the bronze medal at the 2009 World Championships in London. He has won multiple World Cup medals on floor, including the gold at the 2008 Glasgow Grand Prix.

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