Thursday

Worlds 2010 Women's team finals

(Romania Libera)
First about the wonderful Romanian team who managed to do exactly what they came for: have a clean competition. This is what I managed to see and what I can remember now after all the madness:

Uneven bars:
Raluca Haidu: ok form, similar to qualifications, but she stopped a couple of times on the high bar, visible split legs on one transition (did she have one bent leg as well?); 13.700 - deserved because she was clearly not as good as in qualifications
Ana Porgras: much better form and lines than Pitic, but she can do better... she looked a little cautious. She got 14.466 - I think the dismount was heavily penalised, she did not seem to have the necessary height in the flight phase and the landing was therefore very low with a large step.
Gabriela Dragoi: very slow work, a few split legs on the saltos; 14.066

Balance Beam:
Sandra Izbasa: the routine looked just like in the qualifications. The mark was.. well, the same 14.333
Ana Porgras: very confident layout and switch ring leap, big wobble on the side somi, dismounts with a low chest - big step - 15.066
Gabi Dragoi: a few wobbles here and there, the most visible at the pirouette with two rotations, big step sideways on the landing, she looks "heavy" but she works pretty well 14.133

Floor: Ana Porgras - much better work thank in qualifications. I did not understand where did the lower D score came from... 14.133 (D score 5.3)
Diana Chelaru: very good routine, nice DLO (with a small step), some stuck landings as well, we did pour best to clap on the music during the routine 14.733
Sandra Izbasa: she had a bit of a problem on the triple twist, I think she didn't get it actually (she must have been awarded only a 2.5), landed outside the floor on the last pass, therefore a 0.3 deduction. Other than that, looks as solid as ever. 14.200 (5.8 D score)

(Prosport)



Vault: Raluca Haidu - very good DTY 9.066 E score: 14.866
Diana Chelaru: her DTY seemed a bit better than other times, though she still had a bit of split legs in the first phase of the flight, but ok landing: 14.700
Sandra Izbasa: One big step on the landing (a bit low maybe?): 14.700

So the Romanians had a quite ok final, there were some mistakes here and there, but that's what happens during contests :). As a friend of mine used to say, with one or two Amanars and one more Ana Porgras in the team - things will be much better. But that just means that there is a lot of work to do. Tokyo 2011 will be a different story. We will not be satisfied with 4th place then.

As for the other teams

I was impressed with Tania Nabieva's determination to finish that uneven bars routine. And it really counted in the end. Alyia Mustafina did very well on all the events; if she manages to pull it off like that one more time, she's AA champion and deservedly so... Ksenia Semenova's birthday was yesterday and after the Russian's beam rotation the MC of the arena announced this, she was already wearing the training pants and jacket so she rushed to take them off because she wanted to go on the podium and salute. She tripped on her pants- that was really funny. Anna Dementieva is a funny little mouse as well: when the medals were given, the Chinese congratulated the other teams before climbing on the podium then the Americans congratulated the Russians. But Anna Didn't realise there was no need to congratulate again when the Russians were announced so she started shaking hands again.

The Chinese had plenty of small wobbles and mistakes as well. Only three routines really impressed me: He Kexin uneven bars (although not error free), Deng Linlin's balance beam routine, Sui Lu's floor.

About US... they had nice high vaults and uneven bars routines, but I am not a big fan of their style on beam and floor so, I thought they got a bit high execution marks. But maybe I couldn't see very well from where I was standing :P.

Anyway, to all those who say that the Russians were over scored: yes they were, exactly as much as the Americans!

Conclusion: I was really happy with the outcome of the TF; the team with the most spectacular gymnastic won.

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