Gymnastics - No Ceiling

Best Of Romanian Gymnastics in 2011

2012-01-03T23:48:00.002+01:00

by Cris (GymFever)

Mihai from Fangymnastics had the brilliant idea to gather five great minds that think about Romanian gymnastics all the time (roughly about 75% of the time they are awake probably) and ask them who were the best Romanian gymnasts of 2011. The result, The Romanian Gymnastics Gala, although virtual at this point in time, is our tribute to all the gymnasts that work hard all year long and who are rarely celebrated thoroughly, especially in years like this. You know what I mean.

So, the judges:
Mihai (Fangymnastics)
Cris (Gymfever)
Alina (Tare!)
Carmen (Romanian Gymnastics Fans)
and moi.

We tried to combine personal taste with objectivism and the result was quite great if I come to think about it...

So, long story short, here are our results:

For Women's Artistic Gymnastics

Best All Around Gymnast: 1-Larisa Iordache (2-Ana Porgras, 3-Amelia Racea)
Best Gymnast on Vault: 1-Sandra Izbasa (2-Larisa Iordache, 3-Catalina Ponor)
Best Gymnast on Uneven Bars:1-Larisa Iordache (2-Ana Porgras, 3-Amelia Racea)
Best Gymnast on Beam: 1- Larisa Iordache (2-Ana Porgras, 3-Catalina Ponor)
Best Gymnast on Floor: 1-Sandra Izbasa, (2 - Diana Bulimar, 3-Diana Chelaru)
Most consistent gymnast of 2011: 1-Larisa Iordache (2 -Diana Chelaru, 3 -Amelia Racea)
Most surprising gymnast in 2011: 1 - Catalina Ponor (2-Diana Bulimar, 3-Laura Jurca)
Best Routine of the Year: 1-Sandra Izbasa - Europeans, VT EF (2 -Larisa Iordache -EYOF, Beam TF,
3-Catalina Ponor - Worlds, FX Team Finals)
Best Coach of the Year: 1-Adela Popa (2-Octavian Bellu, 3-Cristian Moldovan)
Best Young Gymnast of the Year: 1-Laura Jurca (2-Madalina Blendea, 3-Adela Florea)
Best International Gymnast of the Year: 1-Viktoria Komova, (2-Yao Jinnan, 3-McKayla Maroney)
Fair-play gymnast: 1-Diana Chelaru (2-Diana Bulimar, 3-Ana Porgras)
My favorite gymnast (all time): Daniela Silivas

Men's Artistic Gymnastics

Best All Around: 1-Flavius Koczi (2-Marian Dragulescu)

next, I will add only the winner for Men's:

Best Gymnast - Floor: Flavius Koczi

Best Gymnast - Pommel Horse: Flavius Koczi

Best Gymnast - Rings: Cristian Bataga

Best Gymnast - Vault: Marian Dragulescu

Best Gymnast - Parallel Bars: Marius Berbecar

Best Gymnast - High Bar: Vlad Cotuna

Surprise of the year: Marius Berbecar

Routine of the year: Flavius Koczi - Europeans, Floor Event Finals

Best Coach of the Year: Marius Urzica

Best Junior Gymnast in the National Team: Daniel Radeanu

Best "Hope" (gymnasts that are not in the "junior" category yet): The entire Lugoj Club Team

Fair-play award: Marian Dragulescu

Best International Gymnast of the Year: Kohei Uchimura

My favorite gymnast (all time): Marius Urzica

Other Categories and other "Gymnastics"

Best Aerobic Gymnast of the Year: 1- Corina Constantin, (2-Valentin Mavrodineanu, 3-Maria Luisa Pavel)

Best Rhythmic Gymnast of the Year: Alexandra Piscupescu

Best Commentary Team: Alina Alexoi and Ramona Micu

Best TV Show about Romanian Gymnastics: The Medal Factory

Best Gymnastics Event (held in Romania): Aerobics European Championships

Best Live Coverage: Brigid, Blythe & Anne (Worlds)

Best Articles of the Year:

Interview with the little gymnasts from Deva

The sad story of the joyful gymnast

The story of the team that won Romania's first Olympic medal

The Story of Larisa Iordache

GymNoCeiling award: Ana Porgras - for the way she handled the pressure during the team and all around finals at Worlds. (HERE)

May this become a great tradition, and sooner rather than later to start giving the awards in person!

Romania in the News: December 5th to 11th

2011-12-12T10:24:00.001+01:00

The most important event of the week for Romanians was the Italian Grand Prix held in Catania where Larisa Iordache and Catalina Ponor competed. There were various articles with results but nothing fancy: GSP, Prosport, Romgym .
What concerns me is that they are mentioning Larisa Iordache had a small injury that kept her from competing for several months. Prosport goes as far as five months of break after a foot "intervention" for Larisa and small leg injury for Catalina. How come we didn't we know that?

GSP: Nadia was awarded the key of the city of Acapulco at Mexican Open Gymnastics Championship. (article HERE)

Libertatea: Saint Nicholas filled the shoes of the gymnasts that train at Izvorani with gifts, "especially sweets", as Mariana Bitang mentioned. (HERE)

Larisa Iordache returns to competition

2011-12-11T12:53:00.001+01:00

As she placed second on UB (after Komova) in a Grand Prix meet in Catania, Italy.
Aside from a few legs separations, She looked strong, better even than last summer:

Also, Catalina Ponor placed second on BB. The combo of pirouettes is a nice addition to her routine:

More routines from the competition on javiercollados's youtube channel.

Romania in the News: November 28th to December 4th of December

2011-12-06T08:44:00.000+01:00

Prosport: Anca Grigoras about the reasons why Romanian gymnasts did not compete at Ostrava (HERE) ("they are in a different stage in their preparation", "It was something they applied for months ago", " "It's better so sign up for it in advance and then withdraw then not to do it and regret", you know, the good stuff)

Adevarul: Interview with Catalina Ponor (HERE) "Worlds were disappointing... no.. extremely disappointing" yes, she's said that many times but I guess people just don't have other questions for her, although this interviewer does try to find out a little bit more about Catalina, we must at least give her that.

... and the video version (HERE)

Messagerul Hunedorean: about Alpen Adrian Cup and Top Gym (HERE)

The Couch Gymnast: interview with Nicolae Forminte and Liliana Cosma (HERE)

Cris asks a good question: "Why is everybody leaving?" of the junior team that represented Romania at 2010 Europeans only Diana Bulimar and Larisa Iordache are still training. My question is, is Stoica asking himself these questions?

TVR: a renown Turkish physician has examined the gymnasts at Izvorani (HERE) - includes some training footage.

Libertatea: interview with Marian Dragulescu (HERE) - although libertatea is not AS ridiculous as other times, the interview is still extremely silly: "are you rich?", "what do you think about Marius Berbecar's 0 at worlds?"* and in the chapter "superstitions" we have warming up before competing.

*I am not sure if you are aware but, Marius Berbecar, who is a Romanian gymnast, and a pretty good one too, got a 0 for a vault at worlds. He could not perform the vault so he chose to land safely on his back - the result - a well deserved but far from unheard of - 0 mark. But the Romanian press is so moronic that the episode was presented as THE news from Worlds (maybe "Returning home without medals" was a bit bigger, not sure). I remember even reading something like "From Nadia's 10 to Berbecar's 0, 30 years of Romanian gymnastics". Yes. This is the press we have in Romania.

Romanians at Top Gym

2011-11-29T13:04:00.001+01:00

Paula Tudorache - BB:

Paula Tudorache UB:

Paula Tudorache FX:

Paula Tudorache VT:

Stefania Stanila UB:

Stefania Stanila FX:

Stefania Stanila BB:

Stefania Stanila 1st VT:

Stefania Stanila 2nd VT:

Thank you, Dutchfan33 for uploading these!

Missing Sandra Izbasa

2011-11-29T11:46:00.001+01:00

because she is not boring without ever being over the top:
"I want to thank the people that are following us in competitions. Gymnastics is a sport for intelligent people. You have to understand how the code of points works and why the judges give 14's, 15s or 13s. Because when they don't get it, people don't watch". She is glad when she sees fans shaking banners . She salutes them in the gym because she doesn't have a Facebook account or a personal site. (full article HERE)

I cannot stop wondering where the team would have been in Tokyo with a healthy Sandra Izbasa throwing vaults like these:

Romania in the News: November 21st to 27th

2011-11-28T11:39:00.001+01:00

The Couch Gymnast: Italian Juniors dominated the meet against Romania, Germany and Finland held in the weekend 19th-20th of November (HERE)

Prosport: Nadia and Bart visited Disneyland for Thanksgiving (HERE)

Adevarul: Catalina Ponor opens up about 2011Worlds and being a gymnast in Romania (HERE) ! Bonus: A very good translation by Fangymnastics (HERE)

Gazeta Sporturilor: Bela Karoly's reaction to an article published in the Romanian press saying that it was in fact another coach, Marcel Duncan, that discovered Nadia (HERE)

Fangymnastics: Paula Tudorache and Stefania Stanila place 14th and 18th respectively at Top Gym (HERE)

Jurnalul National: Complete list of sportsmen and women that medaled at Olympics, Worlds and Euros and benefit of the financial reward that was re-re-debated two weeks ago- includes the monthly pay in Romanian Lei (HERE)

Fangymnastics: A translation of an older interview with Catalina Ponor (HERE)

Evenimentul zilei: The gymnasts want to be the "golden girls" again - article featuring Catalina Ponor and Sandra Izbasa (HERE)

A poll for Romanian Gymnastics

2011-11-21T11:32:00.001+01:00

Fangymnastics is starting a project to support Romanian Gymnastics. The preliminary phase consists of gathering some essential info from other gymnastics enthusiasts. If you want to help this initiative, please follow one of the links:

English version here!

Romanian version here!

Team Romania - (Worlds) Qualification Videos - Vault and Bars

2011-10-26T23:01:00.001+02:00

Vault

Ana Porgras (13.90/5.0)

Diana Chelaru (14.633/5.8)

Amelia Racea (14.4/5.8)

Raluca Haidu (14.366/5.8)

Catalina Ponor (14.766/5.8)

Uneven Bars
Diana Bulimar (12.433/5.4)

Raluca Haidu (13.833/6.0)

Amelia Racea (13.666)

Ana Porgras (12.666/6.0)

Diana Chelaru (13.533/5.5)

Over-scored... nothing really
Underscored: plenty... absolutely all the vaults. One question: what was wrong with Ana Porgras's vault?
The highlights: Diana Blimar's UB dismount, Pitic nailing all combinations,
My gymnast of the second half: Raluca Haidu.

What did you think of the scores?

Team Romania - (Worlds) Qualifications videos - Beam and Floor

2011-10-26T22:35:00.001+02:00

The qualifications videos have finally arrived (thanks to piibuna on youtube). I was extremely curious how harsh were Romania really judged. After seeing the videos, I can say that they were sometimes underscored, rarely over scored and most of the times very fairly scored.

Balance Beam
Amelia Racea (14.733/ 6.1 D)

Diana Bulimar (14.066/6.3)

Catalina Ponor (15.00/6.3)

Ana Porgras (14.4/6.5)

Raluca Haidu (14.533/6.2)

Floor Exercise

Raluca Haidu (13.733/5.5)

Diana Chelaru (14.233/ 5.8)

Ana Porgras (13.866/5.6)

Diana Bulimar (14.4/5.8)

Catalina Ponor (14.2/5.8)

- The most over-scored in this batch was Raluca Haidu's BB;
- The most under-scored was Diana Bulimar's floor;
- The highlights were Raluca's and Amelia's opening passes on BB as well as Diana Bulimar's BB routine (except for the fall);
- My favorite gymnast so far - Diana Bulimar.

Romania return home without medals

2011-10-17T23:08:00.001+02:00

Bellu: "Some drastic measures must be taken... Because this counter performance, for which I take full responsibility, must be left behind. Probably we made a wrong assessment and we were mistaken thinking some of the girls are able to do more and want more. For me the problem that remains is how these girls are doing so well in training and are unable to keep the rhythm during the competition and cannot regroup in order to overcome the mistakes they make.

It is a catastrophic result, let's not revolve around small words. I am waiting for the federation to draw some conclusions, I take responsibility for the failure although it is very difficult considering the amount of work we have put in this. We have a recipe that worked before Sydney and Athens but maybe the girls are made of a different dough. We will return to the gym and we will give up the label that the girls are unable to cope with a harsh training schedule. The ones that can cope with it will remain, the ones who cannot cope will not."

Ana Porgras: "I am glad I managed to focus and have a good (AA) final. I am thinking about London but I know that we must wake up after these Worlds and work hard in the gym. The elegance prize is nice, I feel honored but a medal in the event finals would have been better."

Source: Prosport

Nelson Savage Interview (Gymnastike.org)

2011-10-07T09:28:00.002+02:00

Watch more video of World Gymnastics Championships Tokyo 2011 on gymnastike.org

"...there are a lot of great professionals out there, they know the girls that have passed through, they know the ones that have done quality gymnastics... I expect they will keep the scores the way they started until the and and that is all we can hope for"

Bad day for Romania at Worlds

2011-10-07T08:51:00.000+02:00

My heart breaks for these girls...

Photo by Brigid McCarthy

So far so good...

2011-10-04T11:18:00.001+02:00

Anna Li
photo credit: Brigid McCarthy

Anna Li is injured and although she is trying to think positive and she says she may compete and keeps pushing, I don't see this happening.

But who's up for USA on bars? Vote here------------------------------>

Aly:

Watch more video of World Gymnastics Championships Tokyo 2011 on gymnastike.org

McKayla:

Watch more video of World Gymnastics Championships Tokyo 2011 on gymnastike.org

Sabrina:

Watch more video of World Gymnastics Championships Tokyo 2011 on gymnastike.org

I am positive Marta will put in TF the top three scores from qualifications, so of course that stage will be decisive. But's let's play this little game :)

Defining success in the pre-Olympic year

2011-09-28T11:42:00.000+02:00

For Romania,a successful pre-Olympic World Championship does not necessarily equals winningthe most medals. This is a story of building a strong team. Tokyo is not the finish line but merely apart of the process.

I do not expect anythingbut with my (limited) understanding of this process here are a few of thethings I want Romaniato achieve in this stage (in no particular order):

The team to go likeclockwork in qualifications… Bellu is a master in preparing his teams tocompete their best when the big one comes. Simulations of the qualifyingcompetition have been the focus ever since Nationals so they are ready; what’sleft is just for the gymnasts to rise to the occasion and make Bellu a happycoach;

Amelia Racea tomanage two all around competitions without major errors and to achieve herfull potential D score. When 2012 comes, Ama might get the chance to play thesteady all arounder for Romania.This is her chance to prove she is mentally strong;

Porgras to shine on floor… Some say this routine looks a lot like her old one, I think she is able to perform it so well that it becomes a separate story;

Two gymnasts inthe beam and floor event finals respectively;

Pitic to hit bars… and break the 14.0 barrier every time she competes her bars set;

Ponor to be glued to that beam… not as much as a hair has to move;

A surprise vault... and I will not say more :).

For some, this may seem little after more than ayear under B&B. People may be disappointed if they don’t win a team medaland by the looks of it they will have it. I do think there will be theoccasional surprises, good and bad. But no achievement will be greater than leaving Tokyo with 7 healthygymnasts hungry for medals and enthusiastic to make it to London.

What are your hopes for the Romanian team in Tokio? I am really interested to find out how you feel!

Romania in the News - Week August 30th - September 4th

2011-09-05T16:23:00.001+02:00

Ana Porgras - Prosport

Short interview with Ana Porgras after Romanian Nationals - in Prosport (read it HERE)

Marian Dragulescu is back and wants to win the gold medal at the Olympics - an interview by GSP (read it HERE)

Fangymnastics published the second part of Beatrice's journal (read it HERE)
Brigid at The Couch Gymnast wrote a great piece about Catalina Ponor's career (HERE)

An interesting article about former Romanian gymnasts Simona and Camelia Renciu (from the same generation as Ecaterina Szabo) who are currently living and coaching in Luxemburg (HERE)

And Andra000lumi uploaded many videos from Romanian Nationals - from WAG, MAG and juniors- on her youtube channel.

Gent Challenger Cup - Finals - Photos of the Podiums

2011-09-04T22:55:00.000+02:00

Uneven Bars: Jiang Yuyuan, Vika Komova and Wu Liufan

Maria Livchikova, Wu, S Bismpikou, Luisa Galiulina

UB and BB podiums

Floor: Wu, Livchikova, Dos Santos

Vault: Maksiuta, Barbosa, Nunez Gomez

FX and VT podiums

the rise of Maria Stepanova

2011-09-04T22:20:00.000+02:00

Gent was fun. One of the reasons was watching Maria Stepanova.

Photos by Luisa B.

I am also uploading Maria's floor routine on my youtube account but it's taking ages.

Wu Liufang - Balance Beam

2011-09-03T18:06:00.000+02:00

or watch it here

Gent Challenger Cup - Qualifications - Pictures (3)

2011-09-03T18:05:00.000+02:00

Victoria Komova - Beam - Qualifications

2011-09-03T17:42:00.000+02:00

or Here

Gent Challenger Cup - Qualifications- Live blogging - Part 3

2011-09-03T15:21:00.020+02:00

Maria Stepanova - FX: 13.150 (5.3)
Roni Rabinovitz (BB): wobble on her aerial walkover, many pauses in her routine 12.5 (4.9)

Komova (BB) - fell on the standing arabian in warm-up; she has fantastic form and good amplitude.

Kristina Vaculik: 13.25 (55)

Jiang Yuyuan: front tuck, flic- layout on two feet, almost fell on the back tuck(?) and then again on the sheep jump, nice switch ring, flick - flick- 2 1/2 twist on the dismount. 13.125 (5.7)

I think Jessica Lopez will not compete on floor anymore.
Dos Santos FX 13.7

Elizaorova FX: 13.475

Bismpikou (BB) 14.150 (6.0)
Maksiuta on BB 14.025 (5.6)

Demyanchuk (BB) - starts with a fall... but after that, I think she managed everything.; a very characteristic routine for her 13,575

Viktoria Komova (BB): only a few wobbles. very small, the most notable on a double spin. Stuck dismount.
15.175 (6.1)
Maria Paseka (FX) 13.325 (5.4)

WU Liufang: successful BB for her; she had a few wobbles, almost fell on a sheep jump. Looks good! 14.850

Milousi: hands down on dismount - 13.9 (6.1)
Jade Barbosa - BB 13.500

Wu Liufang - Uneven bars

2011-09-03T15:13:00.002+02:00

Or watch here

Gent Challenger Cup - Qualifications - Pictures (2)

2011-09-03T15:10:00.001+02:00

Jiang Yuyuan 0 Uneven Bars

2011-09-03T14:55:00.002+02:00

or here

Gent Challenger Cup - Qualifications- Live blogging - Part 2

2011-09-03T13:09:00.015+02:00

Paseka – UB – 12.375 (5.5) - with a fall

Alina Fomenko - VT - 1 1/2Y - 13..8? ... she got around 13 for the second vault for a total of 13.432

Jiang Yuyuan - warm-up - she looks very good (even though she fell twice) - nice double lay-out dismount
Very nice routine for her - other than a few slight leg separations, no major deductions.14.95 (6.3).

Jade Barbosa - UB: she didn't quite hit those handstands and was a bit slow, but a successful routine for her. 13.625... she didn't even wait for her score - immediately moved to VT to help out Adrian Nunes Gomes who was up next.

Adrian Nunes Gomes: first vault 14.075 (5.3) Didn't see the second vault. Her final score is 13.9..

Homolova on UB - 12.975 (5.1)
Paseka VT - 14.775 (DTY) and 13.35 for her second vault (half on front straight) average: 14.062- 3rd
Livchikova UB 13.65 (5.4)
Vasiliki Miloussi: 14.325 (5.9) a bit high if you ask me :)

Wu Liufang (UB): beautiful routine. I thought she had lost it before the piked Tkachev but she recovered very well and stuck the landing! 15.35 (6.8)

S Bismpikou (UB) - 14.125 (6.1)

Diane Dos Santos(UB) - 13.6 (5.6)
Jessica Lopez is on 8th at the moment with Elizarova, Demyanchuk and Galiulina still to go.

Luisa Galiulina (UB) - falls on the high bar to low bar transition; a big step on the dismount. Pretty good other than that. 12.65 (5.6)

Results thus far:

2011-09-03T13:03:00.000+02:00

Vault:
1 - Jade Barbosa: 14.45
2 - Alexa Citlali Moreno Medina: 14.212
3 - Austin Lee Sheppard: 13.687
4 - Hiu Ying Angel: 13.525
5 - Valeria Maksiuta: 13.512

Uneven Bars:
1 - Victoria Komova: 15.3 (6.7)
2 - Ida Gustafsson: 14.125
3 - Jonna Adlerteg: 14.100
4 - Jessica Lopez: 13.825
5 - Kristina Vaculik: 13.725

Jessica Lopez - UB

2011-09-03T13:00:00.001+02:00

aaaand here it is Victoria Komova on UB

2011-09-03T12:17:00.002+02:00

or watch here

Pics from Gent - Qualifications

2011-09-03T12:13:00.000+02:00

Gent Challenger Cup - Qualifications- Live blogging

2011-09-03T11:05:00.010+02:00

Jessica Lopez just finished her UB routine. It was fantastic! except for the dismount (double front) - which she sat. Other than that, great form and 4 releases, including a laid-out jaeger.

L. Lo on UB: 13.825 (6.1 D)

Komova warming-up her UB - good form - hands down on dismount.

Results so far: Jade Barbosa leadung VT with 14.550.

UB - on first is Ida Gustavson from SWE: 14.125

Komova just finished her UB routine. It went... well ok. She just seems a little slow and had a few form breaks.
Still waiting for Komova's score... UPDATE 15.3 (6.7)

Brittani Rogers of Canada on UB: 13.45 (5.6)

Kristina Vaculik - on UB 13.725 (5.6)

Romania in the news - week 22 - 28 August

2011-08-29T10:51:00.000+02:00

Catalina Ponor (Photo source HERE)

National Championships:

Complete results on the Romanian Federation's website (WAG HERE, MAG HERE);
The Queen is Back - short interview with Catalina Ponor for ProSport (HERE);
Marian Dragulescu - competing AA again to help the team qualify for London Olympics - from GSP (HERE);
GSP also noticed how Ponor and Porgras dominated the Podium at nationals (HERE);
Results and brief analyses in Gymnastics - No Ceiling - All Around, vault and bars, beam and floor;
Pictures from Sportlocal (HERE)

Videos - from serenenz - most of the EF and second half of AA
dracsor - AA complete, vault and UB, some BB
Mihaitza48 - started to upload junior's BB

Unrelated to the National Championships:

Andreea Raducan Interview - which I missed in my previous post (read it HERE)

An opinion piece about Bellu and Bitang's absence from the competition floor I wrote for TCG (read it HERE)

Romanian Nationals 2011 - Part three

2011-08-29T09:37:00.000+02:00

Balance beam

1 Ana Porgras and Catalina Ponor (tie)
3 Amelia Racea

I think the judges first gave it to Porgras then to Ponor only to make it a tie in the end. Ana had more wobbles but Catalina messed her double spin. Ana had better form but was a bit rushed while Catalina had better rhythm and seemed more confident. I wouldn't have wanted to disappoint any of them so I was glad both of them were happy.

Amelia Racea continues to deliver on beam though she wobbled on her tucked full.

Gabriela Dragoi also had a good routine. If she adds back her spin combo and a more difficult dismount she can be an option for the team.

Diana Bulimar and Raluca Haidu both fell on artistic elements.

Floor

1 Ana Porgras
2 Catalina Ponor
3 Diana Bulimar

Porgras' DLO brought her the floor National title, even with the slightly bent knees on landing she seems to handle that pass very well. I wonder if they will put her full in back in the routine somewhere. At this point, I doubt anyone knows for sure. Probably are still looking for the most comfortable combo of acrobatic elemets.
Ponor was fantastic, even better than in the first day, though she still has form issues on the triple twist. She gets closer and closer to sticking those landings.
Didi Bulimar did not have the same fantastic routine she managed to do in qualifications (OOB on the first pass, a double layout). She looked tired after three days of competitions.
I like how Racea's new floor is choreographed, I think it will do wonders for her. (HERE)

More videos on serenenz's channel on youtube.

Romanian Nationals 2011 - The videos

2011-08-28T00:36:00.000+02:00

Ana Porgras - AA FX, BB, EF VT UB
Catalina Ponor - AA BB FX, EF VT
Amelia Racea- AA FX, BB, EF VT, UB
Raluca Haidu - AA FX, EF VT UB
Diana Bulimar - AA FX, EF VT UB
Diana Trenca - EF UB
Dana Andrei - EF UB, VT
Gabriela Dragoi - EF VT UB
Maria Balea - AA FX,

Special thanks to Serena and Alina for uploading these!

Romanian Nationals 2011 - Part two

2011-08-27T16:52:00.003+02:00

Racea and Haidu win two medals each

Vault

1 Ponor - with a great 1 1/2TY.

2 Racea - with an average DTY

3 Haidu - DTY - a bit lacking in power

In Izbasa's absence, vault final was uninteresting before it started. The gymnasts were required to do only one vault. Unsurprisingly, the difficulty level was underwhelming: only three vaults of over 5.3. Also not surprising was that most of the gymnasts did Yurchenko vaults, except for Bulimar (half on, front pike) and Balea (Tsukahata tucked).

Uneven Bars

1 Amelia Racea - with a successful routine, better than yesterday I thought (14.595)

2 Raluca Haidu - good routine for her too 14. 325

3 Diana Trenca - 14.00 a surprise here, she had many small deductions but showed good rhythm and attack

Uneven bars final was more interesting to watch. The overall level was not as bad as expected. Maria Balea was the only one who fell, on the same skill as yesterday - is always too far to catch the bar and then she had another fall on the dismount. Gabi Dragoi and Dana Andrei had mistakes on their pirouettes and had to do extra giants to finish their routines so they were heavily deducted. Porgras had a bit of a disappointing routine - she must have incurred one point in deductions on her dismount only (two large steps and bent knees and legs apart).

Romanian Nationals - Part one: All around and Qualifications

2011-08-27T15:03:00.001+02:00

It's been a good one...

Ana Porgras won, with a fall on the UB dismount. Her beam routine is not as artistic as it used to be, the choreo is almost all gone but it looks rock solid. The floor on La Boheme is great. There are a few elements of her old choreography in it but as she will compete it, this new routine will have its own "personality" . On vault - only did a FTY, she will probably never be a gymnast to throw DTYs in all competitions but I don't think she will hesitate to show it in a Worlds AA final. On UB - she is back to her old routine and she had improved execution compared to this spring.

Amelia Racea was second. I think her beam routine is my favorite of the Romanians at the moment because it's not as watered down on choreography and her leaps and jumps are perfection. On floor, they seem to be trying everything to make her dance more. She looks as bored as ever. It's heartbreaking really because she is such an elegant gymnast - to me that this is only a mental thing. On vault - she still has that bent knee on the second flight phase. On uneven bars she looks good, better than last spring. I hope she can add one tow tenths in difficulty on time for worlds.

Raluca Haidu hasn't improved much really. But she had a good AA competition: her beam was good (though watered down), on floor she has the same music - the artistic elements are as good or better than last year but her acro series are not as well executed. Vault was good, comforting that she still has the DTY. her uneven bars set is increased in difficulty which is good but the execution is still not there - gosh she has such nice lines it could be brilliant.

Diana Bulimar came back to competition after more than a year. She was not allowed to step with her injured foot for about four months as we shockingly found out from Cristian Moldovan (who was the commentator along with Alina Alexoi). Diana was up first on beam and though she looked very good, she fell on a front salto. She had the most fantastic floor (5.8 D score) which I didn't manage to see but Moldovan, who was also the coach that accompanied her at last year's YOF, said her artistic leaps and jumps were much improved and that she had worked a lot to solve these issues because she had understood that last year she lost to Tan Sixin because of the artistic part. They did not manage to correct her piked position on handstands on uneven bars but her transitions and dismount are nice. Unfortunately Moldovan said that the incorrect position was something that they also struggled for 3 yeas to correct while she was in the junior team.

Dana Andrei is still beautiful - but not yet the gymnast that can make it to a World championship.

Gabi Dragoi - is still far from what she could become. Uneven bars can still place her in the National team should the circumstances allow it. It's good that she still has four events.

I didn't see much of Diana Trenca - but she doesn't seem changed compared to last year.

Maria Balea fell on uneven bars again, other than that she looked good but tired.

Catalina Ponor showed some exciting gymnastics: beam was very good, better than in 2007 really; her floor routine although with some execution errors, looked solid. And her Yurchenko 1 1/2 was fantastic. The TVR commentator Alina Alexoi said that she landed a DTY on podium training the previous day.

As a conclusion, Romanians had a good day overall, but the two "problem" events are still lacking. Beam was fantastic with three routines scoring above 15, on floor the coaches and choreographer are trying to find routines that are pleasant to the audience and suit the gymnasts' personalities -way better than in the Puia's era; Vault was not so good - only two DTYs and a one and a half TY. Uneven bars have improved slightly compared to last year as there are now four routines with around 6.0 D score, but the same execution errors are still there.

about Bellu and Bitang's absence from the competition floor...

2011-08-26T11:03:00.000+02:00

Photo credit Luisa B

Read my article in The Couch Gymnast and let me know what you think. Will they finally be there in Tokyo?

Their appearance at Worlds would be a sign for the rest of the world, especially judges, that they are 100% behind the team. And for this Romanian squad to be a winning one, their presence on the competition area will be vital. Because Romania, without Bellu and Bitang on the podium, is like a masterpiece without an autograph and a golden frame: still brilliant, but not as bankable.

Izbasa, Chelaru, Iordache to miss Nationals

2011-08-25T11:09:00.000+02:00

According to TVR, Iordache is out due to a muscle lesion, Izbasa felt pain in her tendon (but not the one that was injured in 2009) and now has a special training regimen, while Chelaru is still recovering her routines after an older injury kept her off the apparatus for a while.

Prosport goes further and reveals that Diana underwent surgery on her abdominal muscles in order to remove a hematoma that appeared after a fall off beam at 2009 Euros.

I am sad. This should have been the third Romanian Nationals of Larisa Iordache. Izbasa's vaults and floor routines would have been among the top gymnastics moments of the weekend. Diana Chelaru could have consolidated her position as an all arounder.

So yes, I am saddened by the news but I am not worried. Romanian Nationals are not a high stake competition.

If anything, it is good that the gymnasts are not rushed back.

Russia still has Heart and Hope

2011-08-24T11:54:00.001+02:00

By which I mean Demy and Komova respectively.

The Russians had a successful national meet last week which has resulted in nominating the national team.

Ksenia Afanasieva qualified first (complete results) but as it often happens she did not have a great competition afterwards and the AA was won by a consistent Anna Dementyeva followed by Vika Komova (AA results). The individual titles went to Anna Pavlova (vault), Vika Komova (uneven bars and beam) and Ksenia Afanasieva (floor) (event final results).

As a result, the squad for Tokyo is composed of: Anna Dementyeva, Victoria Komova, Iulia Belokobylskaya, Ksenia Afanasieva, Tatiana Nabieva, Maria Paseka - the alternates being Alyona Polyan and Iulia Inshina.

On the whole, this seems to be the only alternative for a team and very few gymnasts that could potentially contribute have been left out: Ksenia Semenova and Anna Pavlova being the more notable examples. I understand that Semenova was not in shape - she seems to be getting there but it is already late and she is lacking in difficulty while the few extra pounds have a damaging effect on her E scores. But Anna Pavlova is an odd case. Alexandrov seems to be discouraging her to continue on purpose.

However, this will be a strong team:

Vika Komova will be a fantastic asset on beam and uneven bars especially because she has proved to be quite the competitor in the team finals and all around. With her D scores in the high mid 6's on uneven bars and breathtaking execution she will be approaching that 16 barrier on the apparatus and will also be one of the favorites for the event finals. On beam, although her D score is somewhere around 6.3 at the moment - her good execution and beautiful lines will help her score above 15.

European AA champion will also be in the spotlight as she is becoming quite the star gymnast - from the cute newcomer she was in 2010. Demy will be one of the favorites for the AA, as she now has a DTY (although not yet brilliant), her UB D score above 6 now, with a beam out of 6.7 and a floor of around 6 D score, all topped with polished presentation and a charming presence on the podium.

Let's not forget Iulia B - she's fantastic on floor (was third at Euros in the EF) and although did not manage to make a name for herself as an UB or BB worker, I can assure you she can surprise one or two people with her difficult routines (both of over 6.0 D).

Afanasyeva has a new floor routine. Much like her last year's routine, I love it because through her dance and choreo she manages to interpret the music, to "translate" it. On beam and uneven bars she is as inconsistent as ever and her DTY is not looking brilliant.

Photo credit: Brigid McCarthy

When I think about Nabieva, and I know it's such a clichee, I imagine this little stubborn face and Alexandrov telling her - "if you give me just one Amanar and one decent uneven bars number you are free to do whatever you want to do". I am sure she wants it too, but I am not sure she will be able to return to where she was last year, much less to top that. But stranger things have happened.

Paseka will be a mistery to me until Ghent CC. I will tell you more about her after that.

The alternates are quite strong too: Alyona Polyan - we saw she was good enough for a world team - at least as an alternate - at the Summer Universiade. Long story short, she was third in the AA and won floor. She is capable of 14+ scores on both FX and BB ( and this happened in an international competition!), has a weak uneven bars set.

Iulia Inshina was fifth AA, on BB and UB and second on floor at Russian Cup last week, Here is her uneven bars set:

So provided everybody does their job at Worlds, Russia will be more than just covered in all the right places. It's early so say if they have a shot at gold this year but they sure will be an extremely beautiful and balanced team.

US Nationals - highs and lows

2011-08-23T10:23:00.003+02:00

First and foremost, I wish Rebecca Bross speedy recovery and I hope she will be back in shape and competition ready in spring 2012.

Here is my take on the best and worst from US nationals, leaving Becca out of the discussion:

Vault

Best three were as expected: McKayla Maroney’s Amanar - I don’t believe there is any point in having debates on who has the best Amanar ever but this is as good as it gets, especially the one from Day 2 was up there with her most successful ones; Jordyn Wieber’s Amanar: although not as good at Maroney’s, this vault is very reliable too; Alicia Sacramone’s Rudy (Day 1)- power, amplitude, execution, just the step on the landing which will always be there so we have gotten used to it by now.

Gray area: Gabby Douglas’s DTY (the vault she did at Jeloso), Macko’s DTY – you never know when they can go wrong.

Disappointments: provided that Aly Raisman sticks to the DTY (which looks nice) there are no routines that are thought of as contenders for a TF or a Qualifications scenario and are not decent.

Uneven Bars

Best three were - Wieber - I hate the beginning of that routine. I am far from being an UB “specialist”, so don't mind me, but those kips look labored and she looks as if she is managing all elements with force rather than swing. But it gets the job done.

Macko (day 2)– Yes, 6.0 SV is not good for an event specialist. Except that Macko is past the event specialist status so as long as she gets the 9.0s and 8.7s for execution (granted in a home competition) she is guaranteed a high mid 14’s mark at worlds too!

Shawn Johnson - her routine from night one was where she wants to be at this point. She will add more difficulty in the next weeks especially now that she gained so much confidence.

Gray area: Gabby Douglas – I love Gabby Douglas’s bars but on this event too she always seem to have 50/50 chances of success (day 2).

Memmel: I think Chellsie looks good on UB and I thought she could add 3-4 tenths and make it a nice one. But the shoulder incident in night two indicated the chances of improving are actually slim. (day 1)

Disappointments : Anna Li – It would have been nice but she was doubting herself too much (day 1, day 2).

Bridgey – she seemed Anna Li’s little sister (in terms of nerves and fear of competing) rather than Macko’s :) (day 1, day 2).

Balance beam

Best three: Wieber's - a routine of average D score (at a World scale) but a routine she handles really well. Respect for the way she managed to stay up there on day one! (day 1, day 2)

Sacramone: Despite having a few wobbles on the second day of competition, Alicia’s beam is still a strong event for her. (day 1, day 2)

Shawn Johnson: Dear SJ, thank you for listening to your instincts and keeping the sheep jump out! Your routine is very enjoyable without it! (day 1, day 2)

Gray area: Memmel, because she is a rock on beam BUT she seems to be taking the “trick - paaaause - trick” to a new level. (day 1, day 2)

Disappointments – no obvious ones. You are disappointed when people don't perform at the level that was expected, but I don't feel it was the case. Douglas (with her difficulty - at Jeloso) and Anna Li (with her artistry - day 1) do come to mind in this category but it's more about what I wished it could happen and less about their possibilities.

Floor

Best three: Wieber, again is champion of consistency on floor. And she may not be the most gifted dancer but she does not look embarrassed nor out of place. On the contrary – she manages to show excitement and does not hide the fact that she likes her music; she sells the routine. (day 1, day 2)

Raisman – her major challenge is to stay in bounds on the first pass, which is great and is worth the risk. She too seems comfortable with her music, though not as successful in conveying the feeling of excitement. (day 1, day 2)

Sabrina Vega: I like the music and choreography and she is consistent. (day 2)

Gray area: Sacramone - success is not guaranteed but it does not look like she will not get there in the next 6-8 weeks. I like the music but every time I watch her routine I expect a little more from the choreography. (day 1, day 2)

Maroney: because she is inconsistent. And who does an arabian double front as a last pass anyway? (day 1, day 2)

Chellsie's routine - although she is getting there difficulty wise and has good tumbling, there is not much artistry in it (day 1, day 2).

Disappointments: the overall level on floor was a bit disappointing, as TCG also pointed out, there are simply too many steps taken, OOBs, uncontrolled landings, things that hurt the final score.

Based on this, the US team would be: Wieber, Maroney, Sacramone, Raisman, Macko, Johnson

Alternate: Memmel/Vega

What is your team?

Romania in the news - week 15 - 21 August

2011-08-22T10:16:00.000+02:00

Deva are aiming at winning the Senior National title in Onesti, where Romanian Nationals are starting on Friday. The team will be composed of: Raluca Haidu, Diana Trenca, Amelia Racea, Beatrice Margarit and Maria Balea ( source: Mesagerul Hunedorean, article HERE)

Catalina Ponor's birthday was last week, on the 20th. She told Libertatea she will not have much time for partying and that a 24 year old gymnast sees things differently. (Source The Couch Gymnast - from Libertatea; articles: HERE and HERE).

Ana Porgras interview (by Curaj Romania) - HERE

Last interview of the Curaj series - Sandra Izbasa HERE

A few articles on Romanian Gymnastics Federation website about the Summer Universiade where the Romanian MAG team have won five medals. This year's big goal is qualifying a full team for London Olympics. (www.romgym.ro; articles here and here)

Fangymnastics have started a series called Beatrice's Journal - written by a former Romanian gymnast who retired from gymnastics at a young age (from what I understand). (source: fangymnastics.com; article HERE )

And Catalina Ponor posted what seems it will be her floor music on her facebook page. It needs a bit of editing because the original piece is over five minutes long, but it suits her well:

Ghent Challenger Cup 2011 - complete list of participants

2011-08-17T18:44:00.000+02:00

Summer Universiade - China's Xiao Kangjun wins AA

2011-08-16T12:15:00.001+02:00

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

Romania in the news - week 8 - 14 August

2011-08-14T22:23:00.000+02:00

Your weekly fix of all things Romania!

(It's about time Romania had an article a week with links to all noteworthy articles, clips and other goodies published in the last seven days, right?)

- Ecaterina Szabo spoke to Jurnalul National about her bitter experience as a Hungarian native in Communist Romania. Original article HERE and translation by Fangymnastics HERE.

- Andreea Isarescu recently got married and of course her old team mates were there for her on the joyous occasion. Read the article HERE.

- An interview with Catalina Ponor who looks super-slim and determined by Curaj Romania, watch it HERE.

- Also by Curaj Romania, on Facebook, an album of over 50 photos from Izvorani, check it out HERE.

- World Team prediction Week: Romania - TCG

- The Romanian MAG team won the bronze medal in the team competition at the Summer Universiade. Article HERE.

- From Romanian Gymnastics Federation - the schedule for Romanian nationals - HERE.

- This week's episode of The Medal Factory (one of the best so far!) was about Sabina Cojocar. Read a translation by Fangymnastics HERE.

The Story of Larisa Iordache - Part 4

2011-08-07T19:53:00.001+02:00

Routines and elements

Vault

"Repertoire": over the last 12 months, Larisa has been competing Yurchenko vaults: FTY, Yurchenco 1 1/2, DTY. In 2009 she competed a round-off half on tuck at nationals.

Can she improve? Yes. If her execution of twisting elements in general is a good indication she seems capable of a TTY, let alone an Amanar.

Best scores: Larisa has received very good execution scores for her DTY, most notably at the French nationals (9.6) and at Gym Festival in Trnava (around 9). However, at EYOF, in July 2011 her E scores were around 8.6 for the same vault. Unfortunately I was unable to find footage of any of the routines but the images from previous competitions show that she is a clean vaulter in general.

On the downside: she has only competed easier vaults so far. With the level, on this event, of the best all around gymnasts in the world she needs a 6+ vault.

Memorable routines: her Yurchenko 1 1/2 at Schiltigheim (October 2010) and at Nationals (September 2010)

Uneven Bars

Repertoire: stalder + stalder with counter motion to high bar, Maloney + clear hip circle, giant 1½ + piked Jaeger, sole circle 1/1+ Tkachev+ Pak salto, stalder with counter motion to high bar, full twisting double piked, full twisting double tuck.

What will she add next? Probably in the next period she will focus on re-arranging elements in order to get more bonus points. The targeted dismount probably is a double twisting double back.

Best scores: Larisa's best UB scores were received recently at Gym Festival (June 2011): 14.9 in the AA competition and 14.25 in EF. In the most recent competition, EYOF, her high score on this event was 14.25 (all-around competition).

Weakness:her E scores on this event can fluctuate greatly, between mid 7s and high 8s, the problems being bent arms, bent knees, poor handstands.

Memorable routines: At Gym Festival 2011 in Trabzon (qualifications)

Balance beam

Skills: flic-flac + tucked full, double turn, switch leap ½, aerial walkover+ flic-flac + layout stepout, front picked + back tuck, side somi, split jump + sissone, switch leap+ back tuck, round-off+ flic-flac+ triple twist;

She has experimented with an L turn (in competition) and a layout to two feet (I've only seen that in training);

Can she upgrade? Yes, by adding an artistic element of D or higher value. She could also add the layout to two feet somewhere in existing routine or by inserting a new series (round-off +layout to two feet for instance);

Highest marks: 15.6 in EF at Gym Festival, 15.5 in qualification et EYOF;

Weaknesses: she doesn't really have a weakness on this event. Her D scores have fluctuated between 6.5 and 6.7, since September 2010. Execution-wise she constantly scores above 8.5;

Watch this! her BB at Trnava and at EYOF.

Floor

Range of skills: passes - whip to triple twist, full in tuck, 2 ½ twist+ front tuck + front tuck, double tuck

artistic elements: triple turn, quadruple turn, double L turn, Johnson, split leap 1 ½, switch leap + switch leap with full turn;

what elements to expect in the future: 3 1/2 twist, Silivas;

Highest scores: 14.85 at Gym festival, 14.60 at EYOF;

Problems on floor: sometimes she has problems with the quadruple turn, her leaps are not credited all the time;

Must see: her routine at 2010 Nationals and at Gym Festival 2011 .

Ok friends, it seems that we are done with part four. It's been a long one! And it represented, for me, the nitty gritty I am not always good at. Now more than ever if you have anything to add, corrections etc. please leave a comment - it is appreciated!

You can read the first three parts here:

The Story of Larisa Iordache - Part 1

The Story of Larisa Iordache - Part 2

The Story of Larisa Iordache - Part 3

2011-08-04T10:28:00.001+02:00

Training with the seniors

new team mates (Larisa is second from right to left between Raluca Haidu and
Diana Chelaru)

In September 2010, before Romanian Nationals, it was announced that Larisa Iordache had been transferred to the “Olympic team”. In other words she had started to train with the seniors under Bellu and Bitang. The head coaches, whom had taken over the preparation of the national team in June 2010, had as main goal building a competitive team for London 2012. Bringing Larisa over (at only 14) was among the measures to achieve that.

At the Nationals, in the junior competition, Larisa won gold medals in the all around and on all the event finals. The story becomes “boring” after this:

- October 2010, Larisa was sent, together with seniors Dana Andrei and Diana Trenca and junior Maria Balea to an international competition in Schiltigheim. She again dominated, winning the all around with a total score of 58 points and all apparatus finals (on vault it was a tie with France’s Elodie Perez).

- May 2011: she is sent, along with other team mates in much need of gaining competition experience (Haidu, Andrei, Trenca) at the French Nationals. Wins AA, VT, BB and FX

- June 2011 – Gym Festival (Trnava) wins AA, UB, BB, FX

- a couple of weeks later: Great Britain vs Romania (friendly meet between the junior teams). Larisa wins AA and gets the highest scores across the board

So here we are, in July 2011 at the European Youth Olympic Festival - Trabzon 2011. For the first time I was nervous for her: this was the big meet of the year and this was the first time since april 2010 when she was supposted to be competing against those Russian Juniors, especially Anastasia Grishina and Anastasia Sidorova. Add to that Bellu’s statements that this was the meet which had to put Larisa in the spotlight, to make a reputation for herself. I say reality check time seasoned with a bit of a killer pressure from head coach.

But the Russians had once again managed the impossible and Grishina and Sidorova were left home to mend some new minor injuries aquired out of the gym.

With one challenge out of the way – thing that I bet did NOT make the coaches nor Larisa as happy as some may think - the battle now was with herself: competing three days in a row all around without having a major mistake.

The final result speaks for itself in a way: 3 silver medals (team, VT and UB) and 3 gold medals (AA, BB, FX). By "in a way" I meant that in the all around the margin was of about 2 poins so even with a fall, she couldn’t have lost that title.

On top of those medals, Larisa came back victorious: international press (meaning mainly us bloggers LOL) were raving about her and most importantly, she stayed on the apparatus, "on her feet", until the last routine, for three days in a row. Not bad, I say.

We have seen in parts 2 and 3 of my rants about Larisa Iordache how she beautifully developed, since 2008, on the international scene. Up next, in part 4, I will take a look at her routines and the skills she has competed during these years but also ask the big question: is she capable of more?

The story of Larisa Iordache – Part 1

The story of Larisa Iordache – Part 2

"I wish Mariana many medals

2011-08-03T22:51:00.000+02:00

especially on beam" is Octavian Bellu's wish for Mariana Bitang on the 49th birthday.

"I am like a mother... a mother must also love them and tell them when things are not going well" she said to the press who wanted to also find out what presents she had received. She gracefully replied she was aware only of the flowers and there were also some unopened boxes somewhere.

Mariana Bitang was congratulated by the president's wife who also brought presents for the gymnast. The gymnasts sang her happy birthday and said that they needed to regroup and bring home shiny medals (Ponor), and that they love it when Mariana is happy, the atmosphere in the gym is much nicer - Izbasa (why did we have a feeling it was the case :) )

Also a nice present from Ana Porgras watch it here (at 00:40).

Other clips, most of the times same images but you can discover interesting things if you watch closely - here and here:

The Story of Larisa Iordache - Part 2

2011-08-03T11:38:00.001+02:00

"Junior" years

This part is about the some of highlights of Larisa’s long junior international career whisch started in 2007 and it continues in 2011…

In 2008, when she was "already" 12 years old Larisa and team mate Diana Bulimar participated in the Top Gym competition in Belgium. Larisa finished the competition 4^th all around (behind Jordyn Wieber, Yvette Moshage and Kamerlin Moore) and had the 4^th highest score on vault, second on beam (0.05 behind Wieber) and 1^st on floor (tie with the American). On uneven bars she had the 14^th score in the competition.

A few weeks later Larisa took part in 2008 Challenge international, a junior competition held in Netherlands, together with team mates Patricia Tiron, Mihaela David, Ana Maria Baicu (all of whom are now retired from gymnastics). She finished the competition 4^th all around behind Corrie Lothrop, Olivia Courtney and Amanda Jetter. She had the highest marks on beam and floor, was third on vault and 9^th on uneven bars.

In 2009 her most notable competitions were:
the National championships which was the first time she competed on the same “scene” as the Romanian senior gymnasts. Granted 2009 was not a particularly good year for the Romanian national team, Larisa stole the show. Here is her BB routine, when Alina Alexoi, the Romanian National Television commentator is in awe of the discovery.

(For the ones of you that don't speak Romanian her's a summary: she (the commentator) first says that Larisa seems sure footed, then is amazed by the tucked full, then she says she doesn't want to make her fall so will refrain from praising her, then she starts again by applauding her leaps, jumps and acro skills only to be shocked by the pirouette and the triple twist Larisa throws in the end.)

in November 2009, Larisa returned to Charleroi for the Top gym competition. It was time for redemption: she won the all round and the beam final. She also competed in the UB final, finishing 7^th.

In 2010, prior to the Euros, Larisa and the other members of the Junior team were allowed to participate in the Romanian International competition (outside the contest). In the first day she had some mistakes in the AA competition, finishing 6^th but the event finals she stole the show from the seniors (once again): she had the second highest total on vault, was 3^rd on UB, 1^st BB (better than first place – Ana Porgras) and 1^st FX (higher score than Diana Chelaru who won the final).

At the Junior Europeans, a few weeks later, in a competition dominated by the Russians, Larisa was among the few gymnasts who were able to challenge them. She contributed to the team’s silver medal and then took bronze AA (behind Komova and Grishina), was second on BB (with an watered down routine) and shared the first place on floor with Anastasia Grishina.

Up Next – Larisa’s development in the last year, since she became a member on the Romanian Olympic team. Don’t miss tomorrow’s “newspaper”!

Read the first part here:

Larisa Iordache – The beginning

The Story of Larisa Iordache - Part 1

2011-08-02T12:42:00.001+02:00

The beginning

Larisa Performing one of her signature moves - Top Gym 2009
Photo source http://www.gymnasticsunited.com

Born on June 19^th 1996 in Bucharest, Larisa is the “child” of CSS7 Dinamo. You know who else was from Dinamo? I am sure you have heard of this name before: Aurelia Dobre. Larisa’s first coaches at Dinamo were Mariana Silişteanu Câmpeanu, Raluca Suciu Popescu and Vladimir Potop

She comes from a family of athletes: her mother was a handball player who had to give up the sport when her family was unable to financially support her anymore and her father was a football player. Larisa’s brother, who is five years older than her, is also a professional footballer. Unsurprisingly, when she was little Laris also wanted to take up a sport: ballet.

But, as it happens, one day she was spotted by a gymnastics coach while rollerblading in the park. Mariana Silisteanu, the gymnastics coach, seeing the kid’s fearless and poised attitude asked her mother if she wanted to send her do gymnastics. The answer: no.

Nonetheless she allowed Larisa’s grandmother to take her and check out the gym. It was not love at first sight for the five year old. Still, once she overcame her shyness and tried to do some gymnastics elements, the was won.

In fact, after the “play” hour had ended, she did not want to leave the gym anymore.

As time passed, she wanted to work more and never seemed to be bored of the training. He coaches started teaching her harder and harder elements eventualy starting the training appropriate for a future elite athlete.

By the time she was eight years old she had won her first gold medals at the “Little gymnast” national contest. And she loved it. Whenever she was second or third, that meant her ambition increased, it was only a sign that she had to keep working in order to maintain her status of best gymnast in the team.

At 11 she became a member of the junior national team and moved to Onesti.

Larisa's floor routine - 2007 (same choreo!)

Beam, same competition in 2007

Don't miss the next 4 parts about, among others, her results as a junior and how she ended up in the Romanian olympic team at 14 - I will post them in the following days.

Covergirl Classic - videos

2011-07-24T19:13:00.001+02:00

More photos HERE

Aly Raisman VT UB BB FX

Chellsie Memmel VT UB BB FX

Sabrina Vega VT UB
Sophia Lee BB

Bridgette Caquatto VT UB BB
Casey Magee VT FX

Alicia Sacramone VT1 and VT2 BB FX

Jordyn Wieber UB BB

Mackenzie Caquatto UB BB

Shawn Johnson UB BB

Gabrielle Douglas UB

Anna Li UB

Kyla Ross VT UB FX
Katelyn Ohashi UB BB

EDIT: Complete results for the Junior competition - HERE and for the Senior's competition - HERE.
Interviews from Gymnastike.org : Chellsie Memmel, Shawn Johnson, Sabrina Vega, Aly Raisman, Mckenzie Wofford, Alicia Sacramone, Katelyn Ohashi, Kyla Ross, Lexie Priessman, Nica Hults.

Do not miss the pictures from Gymnastics Examiner!

Also, check out the Universal sports website for highligts of Shawn Johnson Alicia Sacramone, Chellsie Memmel, Jordyn Wieber, Aly Raisman routines and an analysis by Tim Daggett and Amanda Borden (It does not work for all the countries, I think).

Now, I am going to watch everythig again so I can share my thoughts. Until then, what was the nicest surprise for you? Any disappointments?

Australian nationals - Event finals

2011-07-19T00:03:00.001+02:00

Lauren during the AA medal ceremony

Lauren Mitchell had a rough day on Sunday: she missed her opening pirouette on UB, fell on the first tumbling pass on BB and almost sat the first pass on floor. But she still won 3 gold medals (vault, beam and floor). And, except for BB maaaybe, deservedly so.

Ashleigh Brennan took two silver medals - beam (14.525/ 5.9D) and floor (13.350/ 5.3 D score).

Honestly, I would have been extremely happy for Brennan to take beam gold, because see, they don't have that many people in Australia that are good on beam. So, at least when Lauren falls, they should give it to the girl who stays on the beam (even if she isn't exactly wobblefree either).

Chloe Sims took uneven bars title with 14,275 (5.8 D) - whereas Mez Monkton finished second (13.875/ 5.8 D). On third place - Larissa Miller, with the highest difficulty of the competition, on bars (6.1) but only 7.05 on execution (counting a fall).

Aside from second place on bars, Mez also won bronze on beam (14.05/ 5.8 D score) and second on floor (13.350/ 5.3 D score)- tie with Brennan.

Thank you Gemeani for all the wonderful videos!

More pictures from the AA meet on Gymnastics Australia website.

Australian nationals - All Around

2011-07-16T12:13:00.000+02:00

photo source here

Lauren Mitchell is Australian AA National Champion. Georgia-Rose Brown won silver and Mary Anne Monckton - bronze.

The gymnasts competed twice on all events and the totals of the two days added up for the final results.

In Day one, Mitchell was followed by Georgia-Rose Brown and Chloe Sims. Both Georgia and Chloe have ok FTYs and consistent uneven bars routines and both seem not to be very fond of beam. On floor, Georgia is pretty fantastic, she has long lines and good flexibility - I would love to see her at worlds this year (watch here her routine from Vic championships).

Next day, Mary Anne Monckton did a liiiittle better on floor and beam placing second for the day and moving on third in the final AA rankings. Nevertheless, Mez seems to have established herself as no. 1 bar worker in Australia (challenged by Chloe Sims maybe).

Lauren did better in day two than in day one on floor and beam. But if on these two events she is currently struggling to re-gain the shape, on vault and uneven bars she is definitely doing better than in the previous years. Her DTY is turning out ok-ish and as long as she will be able to almost stick it, she will surely score in the mid-14s with it in international competitions.

or here

her bars works is also improving slowly but steadily

or here

Floor seems to have been much better than in Japan (I am referring to day one because I haven't seen a video from day 2 yet) at least for the first minute, until she fell on that third pass, it was nice.

or here

Beam is a lot of work. But this has always been the case for her and undoubtedly she will figure everything out by October, even the turn in tuck stand - by connecting the full turn out of it. Deep down, I always hoped she will drop it, but it seems we will have to live with it.

or here

AA results day one:

AA results day two:

Complete results HERE

will there be life (or World team finals) after Beth?

2011-07-13T01:09:00.000+02:00

Photo source HERE

Ever wondered what the Brits will do after 2012? Will they manage to find another gymnast as great as Beth? Will they ever be able to win other Team medals at Euros or qualify for team finals at Worlds?
The latest British Nationals have demonstrated that we have no reasons to worry about them. It is becoming increasingly obvious that a successful team will be built around three fantastic gymnasts:

1) My favorite is Gabrielle Jupp, who placed second in the junior all around competition at the latest Nationals. She is only 13 and her favorite event is the balance beam (1st place on the EF). Her beam D score was 5.6 (she presented a 5.8 D score at a friendly meet against Romania a few weeks ago) and she also had good results on floor (second, with 5.4 D score) and vault (silver medal - 5.0 and 4.6 D scores for her vaults).

Here is her beam routine from this spring Gymnix International, where she placed 1st on the event final.

or watch it on youtube.

Besides the fact that she works with great confidence and that she masters a wide range of skills, I love her flexibility and the amplitude of her leaps and jumps.

2) Rebecca Tunney - the new British Junior AA National Champion: She was born in 1996 and she is from Manchester but competes for City of Liverpool Gym Club. In her presentation on her club's website she says that Shawn Johnson is her favorite gymnast and the triple twist - a favorite skill. At the latest British Nationals Rebecca had good D scores across the board: 5.8 on UB, 5.2 on BB, 5.3 on FX. She also won two EF gold medals: on floor and uneven bars, which is also her favorite apparatus. I love her attack and her rhythm on this event.

or here.

3) On third place in the AA competition at the latest Junior nationals, we had Abi Caig, another gymnast from City of Liverpool. Abi is only 14 (she was born on the 1st of October 1997) and on the club's website we can find out that her favorite gymnast is Beth Tweddle, she likes to spend time in front of the computer and her favorite meal is a "roast dinner". Lovely!
I only found her footage of her UB routine from Nationals, which is her weaker event:

or watch here.

If you are not convinced yet, here is a nice montage by smallsoph. You will see why Abi is one to watch for 2013:

or here.

Other gymnasts to watch: Loriah James, Raer Theaker and Angel Romaeo.

As a conclusion, the Brits have a fantastic junior team. I think that, even though Rebecca Tunney becomes a senior next year, they stand a good chance of winning the Junior TF at 2012 Euros.

Lauren's much anticipated floor routine

2011-07-04T22:02:00.000+02:00

Lauren Mitchell's highly anticipated floor routine has managed to bring me out of the cave I've been trying to hide in for the past few weeks. It was THAT big an event. I love it when this happens and I wish people would market routines like that and launch them en fanfare more often. Ok, ok, maybe it was not Lauren herself who announced it this way...maybe us, crazy fans hungry for some news-scrap related to gymnastics did that. What i meant was that I wish gymnast would give us the opportunity to become animated like that more often.

Now, about the routine: the first time I watched it, I thought it was awkward. Then it became increasingly obvious that it needs some more work. Now after watching it numerous times I think that, with time, as the choreography will be more and more rehearsed, Lauren will be able to discover and accentuate certain nuances of the music. She will learn to use to her advantage the vocal parts that are the element that if speculated correctly can bring the originality factor to the routine. Plus, what we have seen this weekend was a very "choppy" version - the landings were so messy that it was difficult to maintain a unity of the choreography and also interpret the music.

What did you think about Lauren's routine? Which is your favorite "new" routine of 2011?

Dilemmas

2011-06-03T00:17:00.005+02:00

As per FRG, via Fangymnastics, the Romanian gymnasts Maria Balea, Georgiana Gheorghe and Larisa Iordache will compete on the 4th and 5th of June in Trnava, Slovakia.

I must confess that I am becoming quite anxious because of this drought of videos on youtube. It's starting to get to me, slowly. Three meetings have taken place in the last 2 weeks. At least 28 routines: 16 at French nationals, 8 in Lugano, 4 in Brno. There are only 4 routines on youtube, all from French nationals, none of which are close to interesting. If you are reading these lines and you are one of the people that actually recorded something and also bothered to upload on youtube. I thank you. You are the reason why I have not lost it completely.

But, back off-topic and out of line. I wish I could fly to Slovakia on Saturday morning. I would take a sandwich and my green purse. And my camera. I think my memory card is a bit old. I would have enough space for 10 maybe 12 minutes of recording. I would have to spend it wisely.

Wise I am not. But I do like to spend.

Larisa Iordache on beam! 1 minute and 30 seconds well spent. her Vault! vault is short right? but it is also tricky because the gymnast can wait for a while before the green light comes out. I would either waste the space with the wait or choose to risk by pressing the recording button the moment she starts running. Then I would remember that I did try this trick once, in Waalvijk. Missed 6 vaults out of 7. And the one I caught was Nabieva falling. So I would not risk anything, because I MUST own (on tape) the 9.6 DTY or even, possibly a 9+ Amanar (ah, the though of that makes me jump with joy).

So here I am, with two minutes of Larisa Iordache waiting for the green light. And then the pretty sight of my fingers. There are still 6 minutes left. 8 at most

- Georgiana Gheorghe on beam. yeah, you must know by now that I have a thing for beam. And for the cutest gymnast after Pitic.

Then Maria Balea's bars of course.... and the beam! I definitely want all three beam routines.

So by now I have used roughly 7 minutes and 30 seconds. I want Larisa Iordache on Bars and floor - 9 minutes and 30 seconds. Then and Georgiana Gheorghe on floor and I would probably still have enough space of half of Maria Balea's floor. Now I have (almost) all Maria Balea but no more space for Georgiana Gheorghe's bars.

Care to see what I missed?

In fact, Georgiana has a release move in her routine now. At this rate I will not live to see it.

Raluca Haidu and Cristian Bataga win Brno Sokol Grand Prix

2011-05-29T01:57:00.001+02:00

In the qualifications, the Romanian Raluca Haidu competed on UB - 13.4 (5.7 D) and floor, on which she scored 14.05 (5.3 D score).

In the semi-final Raluca chose balance beam scoring 13,65 ( 5.8 D score); on the same apparatus she scored 14,5 in the final round (5.9 D score).

The couple from Romania competed in the final against Jana Sikulova/Mark Ramseier, Kristina Palesova Martin Konecny and Giulia Steingruber/ Slavomir Michnak

Final Results:

Official results HERE

Alicia Sacramone - better than ever

2011-05-25T13:30:00.000+02:00

via IG Forum

or watch it here.

Favorite Routines from Moscow

2011-05-17T00:29:00.001+02:00

Vasiliki Millousi - BB - qualifications- one of my favorite beam routines of this year:

Jessica Lopez's Uneven Bars in the EF (1st place)- J Lo amazes me yet again, by competing some new skills. She is constantly upgrading, getting better and better each time we see her.

Yana Demyanchuk's Beam from the qualifications - in which she stays ON the beam! And what a layout!

Jana Sikulova - qualifications - UB - Jana is 23 and still competing. She is also a great uneven bars worker.

Ksenia Afanasyeva's beam routine - from event finals (2nd place) - Ksenia has shown this weekend that she still has some nice skills. I like her style on this event. She may be somewhat businesslike but is also very graceful.

Anna Dementyeva's UB - qualifications

I have high hopes for Anna this year. But I am not referring to shiny(er) medals. I think that the results she had this spring will give her strength to work harder and harder and the courage to challenge herself and to push herself into becoming one of the greats.

Memorable Quotes from TMF (The Medal Factory)

2011-05-15T22:09:00.001+02:00

Episode 1

Catalina Ponor: I was retired for three years and a half, in which I never thought I would ever return. But I was encouraged when I watched the (2010) Worlds, when I saw the skills and in the next moment after the Worlds finished I called and I told I was coming. It was not something planned, it was a decision I took on the spot.

Sandra Izbasa: (about 2011 Worlds) I want what I didn’t achieve so far: to take a gold medal at the World Championships. The event is not important, it can be either on Vault or on Floor.

Ana Porgras: (regarding 2011 Worlds) It's tough to invent a new element... I will have to rely on execution but i will also increase the difficulty a little bit (...) I hope I will get to compete all around and that I will have the strength to be on the podium.

Amelia Racea: (in order to become a champion, an athlete) must be a bit talented, to work hard in the gym and a little bit lucky.

Caralina Ponor: The competition is very different now compared to older generations. In 2004 at the Olympics we were figthing for every tenth, we were fighting not to move, not even a hair.

Catalina Ponor: (practising gymnastics) takes tenacity, ambition, perseverance. Even if it’s just training you have to think as you do at competitions. Each training must be a competition, not only with yourself, but also with your team mates.

Larisa Iordache: I do think about the Olympics but by then I must come to the gym… it’s not a must… I want to do it, no one makes me to. By this, I want to improve, to get to the level of those that were champions before. This is what I want to achieve too, to be up there on the podium.

Diana Chelaru: (about gymnastics in general) Yes, it's not easy, there is a lot of work behind but I can honestly say that it was worth it, because there are some satisfactions that you could not achieve otherwise: to be on the podium and hear the anthem is very beautiful... this is a very weak description... it's extraordinary.

Octavian Bellu: At the Worlds in October, I hope that I will get the chance to clarify for myself extremely well what is the potential of each gymnast. Of course, the calculations now will be for a team without Larisa Iorgache whilst in 2012 we will have to consider her as well.

Mariana Bitang: This is a tough period, of accumultation (…) some girls are on schedule in terms of progress, for some it’s more difficult but the important is that all of them are working and are healthy. We hope to add on difficulty for the worlds, to get there in a beter shape and the team that will compete there to be the core of the team for the Olympics.

Octavian Bellu: It’s a heterogeneous team but we hope to consitute an unitary team until the Olympics, a team that will be able to challenge the other teams for the medals in the team competition and all around and event finals.

The Medal Factory is a show by Digi Sport, episode 1 aired on Saturday, May 14th at 2:30 PM EET on DigiSport Plus.

You can watch the first episode HERE (part one and part two), uploaded by Mickeyy from Fangymnastics.

A face in the crowd

2011-05-05T15:05:00.001+02:00

This is a guest post by Luisa, a dear friend of mine and fellow gymnastics enthusiast, who relates the story of her encounter with “the hero of her teenage years”.

I had to look twice. Yes, it was true. Simona Amanar was sitting just 5 seats away from me among the crowd that came to see the all around final at the World Championships in Rotterdam. Probably the fact that I was staring at her with the camera in my hands attracted her attention. She gave me an encouraging smile and I dared to take a photo of her. After some hesitation I asked her whether she will take a photo with me. She seemed happy to be recognized and agreed for a picture. Coming back to my seat, all flushed with emotions I heard the talk of the people around me. “Who is she? Is she a famous gymnast?”

Well, she did become a famous gymnast. But before that she was the hero of my teenage years. Probably my fascination with her and with the other girls from the team was related to the fact that she managed to achieve something at an age that I still believed that I had to perform well in school to make my parents happy. Maybe I admired her because my childhood was still running through my veins and I would still climb trees and run on the school’s corridors attempting somersaults and gymnastics moves.

To me, each world championship in the 90’s was similar to a Sailor Moon episode in which a team of teenage girls dressed in Sailor Senshi uniforms would always win the battle with their enemy. Just like the Japanese anime characters our girls always managed to summon their special powers that made them fly over the uneven bars and perform supernatural moves on floor and beam. And they always returned home with the medals. Little by little they brought back the gold, silver, and bronze treasury which made Romanians so happy, so satisfied, and so proud. The team would be received at the airport by officials eager to shake hands and take pictures with the medaled gymnasts, associating themselves with the conquest of the treasury and breathing their golden success. As if those conquests were an immense sun appeared to cast away the shadows of the post-communist insecurity. A short while after each battle, the girls’ smiles would shine from the cover of the magazines or from large side-of-the-road advertising billboard and then quietly fade away at Deva. Here, the girls would shut themselves off from the commoners’ world to prepare for a new adventure.

In the last episode of the Sailor Moon series, Usagi Tsukino (Sailor Moon) managed to defeat her nemesis (Sailor Galaxia) and lead her team to supreme victory restoring light, peace, and justice all over the universe. Just before the last curtain fall Usagi Tsukino is pictured in her commoner clothes aspiring to a normal teenage life, tired of battles, in love with the world and with her boyfriend. Right now she is probably taking a stroll on the crowded streets in Tokyo making people wonder where and when they saw that face before?

Article by: Luisa B

TARE!

2011-05-04T00:53:00.000+02:00

The second issue of the magazine dedicated to Romanian Gymnastics is out. It seems to be as interesting as the first one, if not even better. It contains:
- An absolutely delightful interview with the gymnasts from Deva (Madalina Blendea & co);
- An interview with Ana Tamarjan and another one with Cristinel Micu;
- Articles about the competitions where the Romanian boys and girls were seen in the last months;
and many more very insightful articles.

Read it HERE.

Moscow World Cup start list

2011-05-02T23:35:00.001+02:00

interesting...

Madalina Blendea - a special chapter in Romanian Gymnastics History

2011-04-28T23:34:00.000+02:00

Notice the patience with which she approaches the dance elements, the pointed toes, the arms movement and the way she fights to stay on that beam.
(These clips are from a national meet that took place two weeks ago.)

EuroPhotos

2011-04-19T17:18:00.000+02:00

... from a friend

And the AA final begins

Octavian Bellu being harassed by the Germans (my idea of a joke, sorry)- but they didn't allow me to stay in that spot
either

Diana, congratulating Ama

Octavian Bellu and Ana Porgras

AA Podium

Carlotta Ferlito - Beam Finals

Ariella Kaeslin - Beam Finals

Vasiliki Miloussi - Beam Finals

Julie Croquet - Beam Finals

Elisabetta Preziosa - Beam Finals

Elisabetta Preziosa

Amelia Racea - signing autographs

Ana Porgras' blonde highlights

Yulia Belokobylskaya - during Floor Finals

Ama and Ana cheering for Sandra and Diana during Floor Finals

Floor Podium

Sandra Izbasa - already thinking of the long training hours ahead

FX podium

High Bar podium

Germans preparing for a riot after high bar finals :)

day three, Demy takes beam and Izbasa stays in bounds

2011-04-13T23:59:00.000+02:00

It was a naturally slow start for a Sunday morning but it got interesting very fast, with a boat trip on the Spree river. Beautiful!

Then I rushed to get to the Max Schmeling Halle I had four more finals to see (three and a half actually because the last train to Dutchland leaves at 4:50pm from Central Station. Boo!). So, I was saying, I left the boat in a rush to get there in time for the MAG vault final. After the people at the entrance checked all the corners of my backpack, and I was finally inside, as I was trying to put back in all my stuff, I saw Bellu and Lucian Sandu quietly walking towards the stands. Hm... I was holding my camera. Should I take a picture? I decided to ask them first if it was ok. It seemed silly to just jump in front of them and take pictures. So I asked. "Yes, sure" Bellu answered, but then he decided it was even better if I were in the pictures too. It seemed the logical thing to do :)

So now I have a picture with The Man.

I enjoyed so much the MAG vault final that I forgot to take pictures.

Then there was the women's beam. Given the fact that there were no Romanians in the final and Aliya was out (which sounds like the end of the world...$*%$$ !!) I couldn't have asked for a better podium.

Anna Dementieva managed to pull off her best routine in ages.

Carlotta Ferlito was fabulous. Love her mount!

Preziosa was simply beautiful (a not very nice man didn't allow me to take pics anymore when she competed sigh). Maybe my only wish that did not come true was for Vasiliki to medal too. She did a great job!

In the end the Italian family was delighted.

Then there was the Floor final. I could only watch the first five competitors (and I pushed my luck because I literally had to run to catch the train). Looking back, I can say that Izbasa has done better routines this spring. I think Diana Chelaru should have had a slightly better E score. It's hard to say who was better that day, but Diana Chelaru said it better. "I am happy when the Romanian anthem plays even if I'm on the second or third spot."

So, after three days, I left the Fabulous City much in the same condition I was when I first arrived there: hungry and exhausted. Those were among the best days of my life!

Day two, in which Koczi wins

2011-04-12T23:57:00.001+02:00

And the story continues...

The next day I wanted revenge. Because by that time I had found out the whole MAG AA story. I was furious! Koczi has been, for the last 5 years maybe, the best Romanian gymnast that could do six events. He always had the goods yet he was never quite there. And now, that he managed to keep it together he did not win just because the competition was held in Germany!! Furious.

I arrived at Max-Schmeling pretty early. So I had some time to notice that Steliana Nistor was there (she looks very good), and at one point was chatting with Vanessa Ferrari.

When the MAG floor final begun and I saw the huge marks the first competitors were getting I thought Flavius Koczi will not get his compensation in that final. 15.3... 15.2.... 15.4 And then Koczi wowed the audience! 15.5 - first place. He was overwhelmed by emotions when the final was over. I almost shed a tear as well.

Next up, the WAG vault final. This final had its bright moments (Izbasa, Chusho, Kaeslin's first vault) and the not so happy: Giulia Steingruber's missed vault first comes to mind. I think she may have been overwhelmed by the fact that she was one of the favorites. Then Amelia Racea who focused too much on controlling the flight phase and gave away the landing on her DTY. Oh she is capable of such a good DTY, too bad we did not see it live! Kaeslin was very disappointed after her second vault, she obviously felt that she could have done much better than that. When they were waiting for Ariella's score, I think I read on Sandra's lips "I couldn't have done more than that".

Sandra had indeed two impressive vaults. The judges were much more severe than at Worlds and she still got a 9+ E score for the second vault.

On the uneven bars almost everything went as expected. I mean the people that fought for the medals were Bui, Nabieva, Seitz, Tweddle. Seitz had a few hesitations and a low landing and lost. I loved Bui's routine. I thought she should have been above Navieva (but what do I know about uneven bars code?) so it was a bit of a relief when Tweddle finished first.

I ran again out of the Max Schmeling, to meet friends. This time we had sushi and a Berliner beer at a place near the venue. It was very good and cheap (7 euros the sushi plate and 1.2 for the beer, not bad huh)?

Then we headed for Potsdamer Platz in time for the medal ceremonies. But not quick enough for good spots to take nice pictures.

Sony Center's Ceiling

There, I saw Flavius Koczi (very happy and very teary again) being smooched by a few girls and older ladies.

Floor Men

I clapped and I cheered as loudly as I could when Ama and Demy were introduced... There was no need to do the same for Seitz.

AA WAG podium

Sandra was happy but not overly excited (there's still a lot of work until London)

VT WAG podium

Then she told Alina Alexoi that she expected to do well on vault because she worked very hard and it would have been a disappointment not to win a medal after all the work.

Sandra Izbasa interviewed by TVR

Then, we headed for Brandemburg gate where we took silly pictures of ourselves jumping around. The night ended in a place on Friedrichstrasse where I had a dessert that looked like a Kaiserschmarren and which I wished it had more pancake and less fruit :)

And a poll-------------------------->

2011-04-11T23:08:00.002+02:00

In my previous post about Berlin, I mixed travel details with gymnastics thoughts. Do you feel I should go on for the next two posts about my days in Berlin, or stick to gymnastics?

Please Vote!

Later Edit: the poll is now closed- 6 people want me to continue writing only about gymnastics, 12 said that it's interesting when I give away random travel details and other 5 do not care. Good thing no one was wondering how they got here :)

So, we change the day but we continue the same!

Berlin, Moskwa, gymnastics, wind, Zaitz - Day 1

2011-04-11T22:54:00.000+02:00

I left Rotterdam with very low expectations about the following days. Maybe it was the fact that I was deprived of sleep most of the previous week, maybe Tuesday's qualifications had embittered me... So I was not very optimistic about the outcome of the following days. But, I was blown away.

I traveled to Berlin by train on the worst possible route (or so I've heard), via Utrecht and Duisburg. On the bright side, the ICE had very comfortable seats, and I had to change trains enough times to fill up on caffeine. We arrived in Berlin Central at 2 pm; two hours later, after I left the bags in the apartment located in Prentzlauer Berg, I was drinking my Moskwa beer and eating a nice Odessa salad in a place called Parsnip (somewhere between the place we stayed in and the Max-Schmeling Halle). Like this:

But, this is a gymnastics blog...

Then the story becomes foggy. Went to the Max Schameling... saw Aliya Mustafina knocked out of the competition... learned how to pronounce Seitz... And then there was Demy's weird little smile attacking the last floor pass. But yes, I was shocked. So was everybody else in the arena. And, of course her coaches... They stayed there, next to her, for 10-15 minutes trying to recover from the shock and then they realised it was impossible but the only thing to do was to focus on Demy. And she did not let them down, she had a great copmpetition, with solid uneven bars, she stayed on the beam, she was great on floor (I think that that was the time the public realized that Seitz was not going to win LOL)...And a FTY. So far the Russians were accused that they were winning a tad too many points with crooked Amanars. It was as if Alexandrov tried to prove they can win in any way.

Then there was Amelia's vault. I was preparing to leave (I had people to meet, stuff to do, I was in Berlin, no time for the Russian anthem :D). On my way out, as it happens, I stopped next to Bellu when Amelia was waiting for the green light. If you imagine that coaches that have decades of years of experience are very relaxed when their gymnasts compete, think again :). Bellu is a good example. He knows what Ama is capable of in terms of vaulting. She is good. But right then and there she needed a mark of around 14.6 (by my onsite calculations) for silver. A score accessible for her. But see, Bellu knows Amelia Racea. So he was anxious.

"Ama, dreapta la ronda!" ("Ama, stay straight on the round-off!") he shouts. Amelia nods. And just as the green light appears, Bellu vanishes. Amelia doesn't do her best vault. She settles for bronze. But now, I could not leave, I was curious where Bellu was. But I couldn't find him... I decided to give up, and as I was walking by the same spot I where had lost him, I saw Bellu walking out of the restroom.

He had filled his water bottle.

a lot of gymnastics and some berlin

2011-04-10T02:58:00.000+02:00

I was extremely lazy... I took very few pics and all of them are bad :)

And some Berlin...

What's eating Amelia Racea

2011-04-07T14:05:00.001+02:00

Beam:

This is the only video I could find (via IG forum)- and it's incomplete the first acrobatic series is cut. But There is one missed connection that was vital for her score (she should have connected two leaps) but there's an obvious pause there (0:53)... Other than that, were were plenty of wobbles. So the score, although it could have been maybe 0.1- 0.2 higher is pretty fair to me. I wonder why didn't she add another leap... or try the series again, if she was running out of time, a 0.1 deduction would have been better than the 0.5.

now, her floor

She missed a requirement on floor as well... why, oh, why didn't she add an aerial walkover, after she landed on her b*** if she would have a tiny bit more inspiration, there was enough time for an aerial at 1:22 ...

Two errors she will never repeat... one costed her the beam finals and the other nearly took her off the AA finals.

Disclaimer: Don't get me wrong, I am by no means implying that there is something wrong with her or criticizing her... I am trying to give an answer to the people who asked if I thought she was scored fairly, that's all.

some qualification videos

2011-04-07T02:05:00.000+02:00

Sandra Izbasa - floor

Sandra Izbasa - Vault 1

and vault 2

Diana Chelaru - UB

Porgras BB

2011 Europeans Qualifications

2011-04-07T00:09:00.000+02:00

Ama Racea (photo source here)

It was an awkward day for the Romanians. It started in a disastrous way with Ama Racea falling on the uneven bars dismount (oh that double front, I hate that skill, I don't understand why people use it!) and it ended with the same Amelia qualifying for the Vault Finals.

So here are top five strangest things that happened today:

5: Ana Porgras got a 13.575 on UB for a routine with a D score of 6 while Diana Chelaru got a 13.65 for a routine out of 5.7

4: Diana Chelaru - turned out to be the top AA qualifier for Romania (3rd)

3: Amelia Racea qualified for the Vault finals (instead of Diana Chelaru)

2: No Romanian in the Beam finals (!!)

1: Sandra Izbasa -top qualifier for the Vault finals

the second strangest fact could have easily been the number one but I wanted to keep things on a positive note ;)

So if I ever see Bellu or Lucian Sandu in Berlin, I want to ask them what exactly does Ana Porgras' new UB routine lead to... Then, how come no one qualified for the beam finals, once the best event by far for the Romanians ... and how come now we have two weak events instead of one (that happen to also be the highest scoring ones).

I am sure there are answers for this half failure... Europeans are just a stage in the B&B big plan. They have never really made a purpose out of this meet. Historically, some of the worst meets Romania had were at Euros (3rd place with the team in 2000 behind Ukraine, the "scratched" one from 2002 when they only sent Petrovschi are a few examples that come to mind) but it wouldn't have been that terrible if Ana had stayed on that beam or if Ama wouldn't have had such a floor routine.

As others have pointed out, maybe this also happened because it was an individual event, the qualifications format is weird and also because these two competed in the first subdivision. a few hours later Ama's beam E score would have been considerably higher, the same for Ana's bars.

I hope it was just a bad day. Amelia at least can still prove herself...

But qualifications are over. Many competition days are ahead of us:

Friday's All Around finals with Chelaru and Amelia Racea

Saturday - Vault with Izbasa and Racea

Sunday - Floor with Izbasa and Chelaru

PS: Look at Sandra's vault WOW!

Thanks eamyy !

Fortune favors the brave...

2011-04-05T08:52:00.000+02:00

Bellu and Bitang seem to have learnt that maybe there exists a good kind of exposure, the kind that doesn’t make you less of a gymnast and more of a celebrity. I have noticed that in these pieces about the national team every gymnast has her moment; in turns. Each gets the spotlight, has to speak up, has to explain why and how is she going to become a champion. Every gymnasts will hear herself saying that she is confident and she wants to win. Sometimes you need to let others know your dreams in order to keep them alive

Read my article in The Couch Gymnast.

LIVE from Izvorani!

2011-03-31T16:24:00.000+02:00

Bellu and his team amaze me!
The constant updates from Izvorani were among the highlights of the winter for us gymnastics fans. But what happened today is even better: they let the journalists in the gym for an entire training session. GSP was there and aired it live on their website.
eamyy managed to catch the last part and upload it on youtube:

ot watch it HERE and HERE

There are more photos in Prosport

Chelaru "I have a slightly upgraded routine on uneven bars and I tried to clean-up my vaults but I did not succeeded to, as much as I wanted, but by 2011 Worlds, I hope everything will be alright. I am saving the best for Worlds.. I have almost the same routine as in Rotterdam."

Porgras: "I will have the same routines as I had at Worlds, without risking anything. Until 2011 Worlds there is still plenty of time to perfect certain elements.
And many interviews and articles in Gazeta Sporturilor.

About Bercy 2011, about Romania, about always wanting more

2011-03-21T21:30:00.003+01:00

French International Conclusions

Did you like the French Internationals? Getting the chance to see gymnastics on TV/youtube and read some news on the blogs was nice, but I can’t say I enjoyed the meet itself. First of all, the competition format is bad: when you have four gymnasts in a final, the risk of ending up on the podium with more than one gymnast that fell is very high. This is bad and it says enough.

Secondly, I didn’t like it because I personally was unable to watch it on TV, but that’s a different problem.

But the most important reason for which I didn’t like it was the fact that we were not given the oportunity of seing many surprises. There were some fantastic gymnasts invited, there’s no doubt. But, aside from Mustafina - who had the right to compete on all four events or on whatever events she chose - the others kind of showed same old, didn’t they? I don’t understand the point of inviting only the gymnasts that are in the top and get them compete exclusively in the events that they excel at.

So, besides Mustafina who is good at basically anything (I bet she is able even to pee faster and more efficiently than any of us if she sets her mind to), we saw a group of gymnasts that had spent most of their winter improving not on their best events but on their weaker, right? But, too bad, they competed on the events they didn’t need much improvement on.

That being said, were you among the people that less than impressed with the Romanian girls? Don’t feel bad, I was a bit underwhelmed as well.

But I am not depressed (yet).

Recap

To be honest, I am not dissatisfied with what I saw. There were many signs and hints of evolution:

Sandra Izbasa

Izbasa: new floor routine, rearranged passes, more dramatic and appealing choreo, no more OOB issues, lovely triple twist. Conclusion: pleased. But for wow, I want to see more.

Chelaru: she presented two vaults with slightly improved form, more controlled and “taller” landings on the DTY; same floor routine – same music anyway- BUT it was much more artistic, it had a better triple twist, and a very nice jump out of the double back. No Amanar, no new skills; Conclusion: I like this enhanced version of Diana Chelaru but I am not impressed yet;

- Porgras: rearranged uneven bars routine that doesn’t look nearly ready – works hesitantely, doesn’t hit handstands, has added one more release skill; rearranged beam set - but no new skill (she has been doing versions of this routine since 2009) –good potential for further increasing her difficulty; a few hesitations and wobbles and even a fall on one of her steadier skills (word is that even Mariana was surprised she missed that). Conclusion: interesting but not impressive (yet).

Where does the dissatisfaction come from?

So I am underwhelmed. Yes I admit there is progress, the work IS palpable, this is gymnastics. You can learn skills in 2 weeks (sometimes more) BUT to change entire whole routines, it certainly takes time.

This weekend’s results were nice! We saw the best three gymnasts of the team winning at least a medal in finals in which only the top 4 in the world (at this point) were able to qualify.

But we already knew those were not Romania’s issues.

I am dissatisfied with what I haven't seen. (I know, sounds like I am going mad).

I want to see Sandra’s second vault in competition, I want to see Diana Chelaru on beam and uneven bars, I want to see Porgras’ DTY and upgraded floor. And more importantly, I want to see Racea –beam, uneven bars, vault, floor -, Haidu’s rearranged beam set and upgraded uneven bars, Dragoi’s uneven bars etc. Only after that will we be able to form an opinion...

Europeans are a great opportunity of seing four gymnasts competing on all four apparatuses. I hope, (as all selfish gymnastics fans do), that 1) – they will send 4 gymnasts and 2) – that at least three of the gymnasts will compete on all four events (except for Izbasa – for which I will be pleased with two or three events). If this happens then I will be able to form a bit of an opinion about the progress of Bellu’s squad. If no, then we will have to wait until the summer or worse – Tokyo.

Until then, I will enjoy the ride, and stay positive,

or at least wish that the gymnasts will do so :)

TVR goodies

2011-03-21T21:30:00.000+01:00

Romanian gymnasts are back from Paris, some more confident, others eager for a rematch:

Bellu:
About Sandra: "it's good she made an impression, she can be one of the favorites for the title at the Europeans"

about Ana "A wake-up call for the ones that were still under the influence of what happened at Worlds- was necessary."

Thank you eamyy!!
You can find this video and many other interesting clips on this channel.

Romanians in French International Finals

2011-03-21T10:49:00.002+01:00

Diana Chelaru - Vault

Ana Porgras - Beam
<p>&amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/iframe&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Diana Chelaru - Floor&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;iframe title="YouTube video player" width="640" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/AcXSIcJLyak" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;gt;</p>

Sandra Izbasa - Floor

Dian Chelaru- Floor

French International 2011 - Finals

2011-03-20T17:11:00.000+01:00

Mustafina won VT, UB and BB

Here are the results:

Vault: 1- Mustafina, 2-Nabieva, 3 Chelaru

Uneven Bars: 1-Mustafina, 2- Huang Qiusuang, 3- Seitz

Balance Beam: 1-Mustafina, 2- Porgras, 3- Dementyeva

Floor: 1-Izbasa, 2- Chelaru, 3-Dementyeva

Romanians at French International

2011-03-20T11:31:00.001+01:00

Diana Chelaru - first vault - in which she has a huge leg separation but no other major deductions:

Diana Chelaru second vault - where she barely makes it with her hands on the table

Ana Porgras - uneven bars - you know what I was thinking about when I saw this? I was thinking that she looks like a year ago at Euros in that team final when she had to compete on bars after getting injured on beam. She looks in pain. Of course it's not the same kind of pain... It may be the kind of pain you feel when you grow, when you evolve.

Sandra Izbasa - floor - I must say that even if I had my doubts when I heard she was doing the tango thing too... now I know that it was a good decision. This is a routine that suits her very well and a routine that the all the audiences will love.

Diana Chelaru - Floor - A very well executed routine. But she must change that music once and for all... It's almost as old as Lauren Mitchel's :)

Later edit. You can also watch Ana Porgras' beam set HERE.
Ana looks as lovely as she always has. She had two major breaks in the routine, on elements that she usually masters and she missed a couple of connections. Nevertheless she scored 14.733! That means a potential of 15.533 (given that doesn't wobble the switch ring leap - 0.3 and the layout on two feet -0.3 plus a couple of connections bonuses +2).

Mustafina shines in the first day of French International

2011-03-19T19:48:00.003+01:00

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.

more from Romania

2011-03-13T21:30:00.000+01:00

Not a day without interesting new things from Izvorani, I say!

Watch HERE the video posted by Mihai on youtube.

The footage seems to be from the warm-up, not the verification they were talking about yesterday. However, there are interesting moments:

-Izbasa's lovely new vault - round-off half on front laid-out with half twist;

-Amelia Racea's new beam acrobatic combination (aerial cartwheel to side somi);

- plus the Bellu's word of the day, which is continuous training. It's interesting how all the girls say it "bit by bit the progress starts to show" - Diana Chelaru; "we worked more, without breaks, we worked continuously" - Amelia Racea; "there is a big difference between continuous training and working for five months than taking five months off" - Ana Porgras.

Cottbus World Cup - Floor Final

2011-03-13T18:58:00.000+01:00

A few words about the floor final: I did not get to see Elisabeth Seitz so, excluding her routine, my two favorites were Tan Sixin and Nadine Yarosh. Unfortunately, Tan had a low start value (5.3) so even if she had good execution (aside of some low landings) and exquisite dance and interpretation, she could not score higher than that (14.00).

Yarosh is a fabulous little dancer too... she almost sat her 2.5 twist and her landings were not as confident maybe, but she definitely has a looot of potential.

When I saw Yao on floor, I thought she was Sui Lu, without the socks. To me, the resemblance is astonishing: the way she stops after tumbling passes to make sure of the landing, her body positions, arm placing etc.. So, if you like Sui Lu's floor routines, you will definitely love hers. Plus, compared to her older compatriot, Jinnan seems to be holding it together on "foreign" ground. I'm not that into Sui Lu...

here are the results:

1. Yao (CHN) 14.250 (5.6)
2. Elisabeth Seitz (GER) 14,000 (5.6)
2. Tan (CHN) 14,000 (5.3)
4. Van Gerner (NED) 13.950 (5.5)
5. Nadine Jarosch (GER) 13.700 (5.4)
6. Serseri (FRA) 13.375 (5.1)
7. Brennan (AUS) 13.025 (5.3)
8. Hunt (GBR) 12.500 (5.1)

or watch it here.

Cottbus World Cup Beam Final

2011-03-13T16:19:00.000+01:00

Vasiliki Millousi

It was an interesting beam final, with new faces showing exciting beam skills and other not so new faces redeeming themselves ;)

First up was Jinnan Yao - how should I put this... she did her job, there were no major wobbles but the whole routine didn't exactly flow. She looks too much like Sui Lu on beam (which, compared to her lovely uneven bars flow and lightness -although there are two different things- it's disheartening !)... 6.1 D score and 14.75 total.

The French Sophia Serseri, who was up next, had a fall on the mount and a second one at the acrobatic pass, which threw her out of the medal contention. I loved her style though, she has beautiful skills and is lovely to watch!

I tell you one thing about Natsumi Sasada: her mount is a killer, breathtaking. She had the same difficulty as the Chinese, but her routine looks more like a whole, seems more connected at this stage...I didn't understand the low execution score though (I am sure there is a reason for it, I will need to watch it again to understand what hapended)(14.425/6.1)

The next competitor was Aagje Wanwallegem, i think (this is how I remember at least :P)- good routine for her- 5.5 D score, fairly good executed: no major wobbles, overall confident. Not very exciting though.

Valeria Maksiuta - her routine that started on a high note and ended up not so great... she seemed to be owning the beam in the beginning but lost her confidence; bit by bit, little wobbles started to add up deductions, then as she probably realized it was not her best day, the gravity of the wobbles started to climb too...

Celine Van Gerner - had a great routine, very well executed, few small wobbles, lovely round-off to layout on two feet.. nice, steady double pike on dismount.

Vasiliki Millousi was my favorite. I mean I knew she may not have the same difficulty as others but her choreo and presentation were marvelou; her routine flows, she shows artistry. Today she managed to convey confidence and seemed to enjoy the whole thing. I am pretty sure she was not smiling during the routine but she looked so serene that she may as well have. (14.45/6.0)

Last up Christina Kruglikova. The Russian looked, well, not ready for a beam final. I mean, she IS elegant and she has the skills, but her routine was maybe not rehearsed enough... she fell on a standing Arabian, in the second half of the routine. I am sure we will see much more of her in the future, she is just not ready yet.

1. Yao (CHN) 14.750

2. Van Gerner (NED) 14.625

3. Millousi (GRE) 14.450

4. Sasada (JNP) 14.425

5. Van Walleghem (BEL) 13.475

6. Maksiuta (ISR) 13.325

7. Kruglikova (RUS 12.250

8. Serseri (FRA) 11.275

New floor routine for Izbasa and other great news from Romania

2011-03-12T21:52:00.001+01:00

Thank you, Eamyy!

Even if they didn't get to show their routines in an official meet this week-end, Romanian gymnasts had a surprise test, replicating the normal competition conditions: different gym, new apparatuses and little time to adapt to the novelty.

You can see by the seriousness in Bellu's eyes that he is working hard on the psychological side... The message is clear... Work had, don't take anything for granted... he declared "We are not going to the European Championships to try to see if maybe things turn out ok and leave things to chance"
The gymnasts seem much more businesslike, ready for competitions. Porgras has matured a bit "I am very glad that there is a sort of a competition between us, to see who will make the team"

Diana C.:"I want to win medals but most of all I wish to remain healthy and to get the chance of competing, and do my routines the way I do them at home"

Amelia Racea looks a bit healthier and much cleaner as well "I feel I am more prepared than before and I feel more confident"

As per Sandra's new routine... I am a bit disappointed by the music, I mean everybody has done the tango thing over the past 1-2 years. At the same time I am confident it will be a beautiful one and a "work off art" as Bellu said.

Cottbus World Cup - Uneven Bars

2011-03-12T17:26:00.000+01:00

Elisabeth Seitz - silver on uneven bars

First up was Kim Bui - she looked very confident, showed nice form but had a few questionable handstands, maybe some bent arms... A good routine overall, she has good chances of breaking the 14.0 barrier at Euros, she only needs a few more repetitions. (13.975/6.1)

Next up was Elisabeth Seitz who presented an upgraded routine, her form was good overall, aside from the Def who brings her many deductions. She was extremely pleased with her performance. (14.70/6.6)

Natsumi Sasada was the only competitor who fell- which was a real shame, given her nice technique and pretty lines. Sikulova and Palesova were well, complementary - the first had the difficulty, the other had the execution...

The next to go was Jinnan Yao - she looks very nice, very stretched, hits her handstands and her pirouettes... she had the specific problems with the transfer from low to high bar and a small step on landing. The title was decided between her and Seitz - they gave it to Yao in the end... She was my favorite too, she simply has a lightness of movement. (14.775/6.4)

I only saw the same type of lightness of execution at the next competitor, Belokobylskaya of Russia. So the potential is there but she was a hot mess today. Imagine the same long lines and stretched body Komova has, combined with the hesitations of say Kurbatova. She almost sat the landing too. (13.775/6.3)

The last competitor was Celine van Gerner. Her execution was fairly good but her routine was way too easy for a medal- only 5.5 D score, which put her on 5th.

1.Jinnan Yao (CHN) 14,775 (6,4)
2. Elisabeth Seitz (GER) 14,700 (6,6)
3. Kim Bui (GER) 13,975 (6,1)
4. Sikulova (CZE) 13,925 (5,9)
5. Palesowa (CZE) 13,875 (5,5)
5. Van Gerner (NED) 13,875 (5,5)
7. Belokobylskaya (RUS) 13,775 (6,3)
8. Natsumi Sasada (JPN) 13,100 (6,1)

Cottbus World Cup Vault Final Results

2011-03-12T16:13:00.000+01:00

1. Oksana Chusovitina (GER) 14,312
2. Steingruber (SUI) 14,250
3. Nadine Jarosch (GER) 13,587
4. Khwela (RSA) 13,575
5. Wagner (SWE) 13,562
6. Pinto Adasme (CHI) 13,500
7. Kurbatova (RUS) 13,450
8. Toth (HUN) 13,100