Saturday

Mustafina shines in the first day of French International

Mustafina dominated the qualifications - she could have easily
qualified for all four finals

I didn't watch the qualifications so I only know what happened from Blythe's live blogging, but due to the fact that she is so wonderful and manages to convey everything she sees beautifully, I almost feel like I was there too :)

On vault, the four qualified for the final are Nabieva, Mustafina, Chelaru and Kwhela. - It's probably early in the season but it looks like everybody has problems, low difficulty vaults for everyone and many many issues on landings.

The uneven bars final will be between Mustafina, Qiushuang, Seitz and Nabieva. Ana Porgras didn't qualify for the uneven bars finals - she was only 5th or 6th- but she managed to present the routine without a fall,  which is really more than we could ask from her given that this is a brand new routine for her. I bet in two weeks it's going to be much better and at Euros she will be a serious threat in the uneven bars finals. But it looked like on the uneven bars there was a great battle for those 4 spots. Imagine if He and Tweddle would have been there! 

In tomorrow's beam final, we will see Mustafina, Porgras, Dementyeva and Mitchell. It was and interesting battle here too, but there were quite a few falls and big wobbles. Mustafina seems to have had a great routine, better than the one at American Cup and definitely got rewarded for more connections. Porgras had a few wobbles but with the changed structure of her routine, she seems to be on the right track here as well.   

On floor, the finalists are: Izbasa, Chelaru, Ferarri, Dementyeva
Unfortunately, Mustafina withdrew - she was already qualified for three finals so her coach probably thought that one more would have gotten her tired. But I am delighted with the way Izbasa and Chelaru dominated the floor qualifications.

Here is a video from yestarday's training - I thought it's interesting... the three Romanian girls doing a synronized warm-up, Deng Linlin and Wu Liufang training beam, He Kexin on uneven bars and other goodies:


Or watch it here.



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