Gent Challenger Cup - Finals - Photos of the Podiums

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

aaaand here it is Victoria Komova on UB

or watch here

Russia still has Heart and Hope

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.

Ghent Challenger Cup 2011 - complete list of participants

Favorite moments of 2010 - Uneven Bars

These are some of my favorite uneven bars routines of 2010:


Wu Liufang - Ghent event finals

or here


Amelia Racea Ghent Qualifications



or here 


Becky Downie - Europeans



or here


Anastasia Grishina - Europeans EF



or watch here 


Komova at YOG



or here


There have been many more great moments, leave a comment if you have a favorite one that was not mentioned.

10 of the best performances at the YOG

The gymnastics contest at YOG is now concluded. Some gymnasts have been better than ever offering some nice performances, some unexpected (such as Carlotta Ferlito and Ana Sofia Gomez Porras) and some gymnasts have not been at their best, due to injury or other reasons (Diana Bulimar, Tess Moonen). All in all it has been a nice contest,since we have witnessed with some star making performances and some legendary ones.

I have selected the 10 best routines that no one should miss. Though I was unable to find the exact performance I was referring to, I embeded one from the same event in another day of competition.

10) Ana Sofia Gomez Porras - beam in the EF or here

9) Angela Donald - beam in the EF (this is from qualifications) or here

8) Natsumi Sasada - bars in the AA or here

7) Ferlito - beam from EF (this is from qualifications) or here

6) Tan Sixin - floor (in the EF) (this is from AA) or here

5) Carlota Ferlitto - floor in the AA final or here

4) Voctoria Komova's Amanar from the EF or here

3) Diana Bulimar's floor (from the EF) or here

2) Tan Sixin - beam (from the EF) or here

1) Victoria Komova - uneven bars (from the AA) or here

what a birthday for Diana Bulimar!!

Great day for Diana at the YOG, as she managed to capture her first medal, a silver in the floor finals. Diana, who stuck 3 of 4 landings managed her best routine of the year, the same day she turns 15.

The star of the day was Tan Sixin who captured the gold medals in both finals. Here are the medalists:

Beam final:

1. Tan Sixin - 15.55

2. Carlotta Ferlito - 14.825

3. Angela Donald - 14.450

Floor Final:

1. Tan Sixin - 14.525

2. Diana Bulimar - 14.325

3. Victoria Komova- 14.175

Komova has had a rather dissapoining last day: she fell twice off the beam and almost sat her first tumbling pass on floor.

Youth Olympic Games Qualifications - as predictable as they seemed...

Yep,YOG are predictable to a certain extent... I mean we all knew from months ago Komova will win many medals, the question was 5 golds or just 4? After yesterday's qualifications it seems that it will only depend on Tan Sixin, on how she manages to overcome the fact that she's the Chinese hot favorite on beam (we know very well what had happened to most of them...).
But the nice part is Komova will not allow us to get bored because with those scores, can we complain? I mean 61.000 in a competition outside the US internal scams and nationals? That is huge. Komova IS the best gymnast in the world right now; had she been the right age to compete at the worlds, she would have dominated the same way she dominates the YOG. Not only does she have huge difficulty (6.5+6.5+5.9+5.5) but her execution is almost flawless as well (9.2 for her Amanar, 9.1 on UB, 9.25 on BB and 9.05 on FX).

Our Diana Bulimar had a pretty good qualifying round, but too similar to the the Euros... It seems that her beam execution is not getting any better... She qualified fourth for the AA, 5th for VT, 3rd for UB and 3rd for the FX finals. So good, but not great. I personally am a bit perplexed about the way her beam set is pulling her backwards instead of becoming her strenght, because I know she can be great on beam:

This is at YOG:


And this is at Romanian International:

Junior Event Finals: Beam and Floor

Victoria Komova does it again, this time in the Beam final. With a stellar E score of 9.1 (!!), Komova captures her 4th gold this week.

On the second place it was Larisa Iordache (:D) who competed first in this final and on third Tess Moonen of the Netherlands.

Floor: It's a tie for the gold: Grishina and Iordache both score 14.275. On the third place Sidorova of Russia.

Great achievement for Larisa, being the only non-russian to win a gold at this Junior European Championships!

Junior Event finals: Vault

Russian Victoria Komova, the only women to throw a Yurchenko 2 1/2 at the 2010 Europeans, had won the vault finals. Victoria not only had the highest D scores (6.5 and 5.8) but also the best E scores: her average - 14.95. On the second place, Maria Paseka of Russia and on third Erika Fasana from Italy.

The Romanians finished on fourth (Larisa Iordache- average 13.862) and on sixth place respectively (Diana Rusu - 13,487).

Komova - All Around European Champion (Jr)

Victoria Komova won with a total score of 58.35, followed by her teammate Anastasia Grishina and Larisa Iordache of Romania. Diana Bulimar, who did not have a great UB routine, came 4th.

Larisa Iordache had a slightly better day than in qualifications, with the highest score of the meeting on the BB.

1 721 KOMOVA Victoria RUS VT 14.525 UB15.325 BB14.100 FX14.425 total 58.375

2 723 GRISHINA Anastasia RUS 13.950 15.225 13.400 14.375 /56.950

3 717 IORDACHE L. ROU 13.650 13.150 14.675 14.200/ 55.675

4 716 BULIMAR Diana Laura ROU 13.125 12.575 14.150 14.325/ 54.175

5 686 FASANA Erika ITA 13.925 13.300 12.250 13.450 /52.925

See the complete results here.