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| the medallists from left to right: Mai Yamagishi, Xiao Kangjun, Alena Polyan |
The favorites of this AA final seemed to be Yana Demyanchuk (European Beam champion in 2009, multiple finalist at worlds and europeans), Xiao Kangjun (because she was the Chinese:P), Alena Polyan of Russia, Jo Hyunjoo of North Koreea (finalist on various events at Worlds) and the two Japanese Mai Yamagishi and Yu Minobe (because they had contributed to Japan's victory in team finals).
It was an interesting competition to watch.
Xiao Kangjun was the leader after the first rotation an maintained her position throughout the competition, with brilliant bars (15.00) and solid beam (14.20).
Alena Poyan looked very happy with her performances. She seemed fit and competition ready from the beginning; her only weakness were bars where she struggled with the transitions and with hitting handstands. Other than that she was very confident and poised. This may be a long shot but it looks she would be able to help that depleted Russian team at Worlds in Tokyo.
Mai Yamagishi and Yu Minobe had similar performances with one notable exception that was the difference between second place and fourth place: Yu's fall on the UB dismount (lovely routine otherwise). They presented low but acceptable FTY's, good uneven bars routines, showed confidence and grace in their beam work.
Yana Demyanchuk did not look like herself yesterday. From the beginning, from her laid out Yurchenko, she was a bit off (12.75), then she fell on UB. I did not see her beam routine but by the score - 13.95 compared to 15.2 in the first day of competition- it incurred a big deduction, probably for another fall.
The surprise of the competition was Kristina Palesova who had one of the highest marks of the day on UB 14.05 and successful, though easy, beam routine (13.65). Low difficulty on floor and VT dropped her on 5th.
Jo Hyunjoo started well with a 14.05 on vault but she withdrew after a nasty fall on uneven bars.
The complete All Around results are HERE
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