Don’t worry. I won’t try to do pommel horse quick hits. Or I will, but I’ll just make up the names of the skills.

It’s men’s qualification day! In just a few extremely long hours, we will know who has qualified to all the finals and who doesn’t have knees anymore after vault.

Also, IT’S THE OLYMPICS EVERYONE.

As is only traditional, we start with subdivision 1.

SUBDIVISION 1

Notables
Team Japan (beginning on pommel horse)
Team Brazil (beginning on rings)
Team South Korea (beginning on vault)
Team Netherlands (beginning on high bar)
Manrique Larduet (beginning on floor)
Eleftherios Petrounias (rings in rotation 3)
Jossimar Calvo (high bar in rotation 2)
Alex Shatilov (floor in rotation 3)
Tomas Gonzalez (floor in rotation 3)

In the very first rotation, focus will be on Japan’s journey through pommel horse and a couple EF-critical routines with Arthur Zanetti on rings and Epke Zonderland on high bar. #candlesforEpke

Please note that Zonderland is competing only high bar and Van Gelder is competing only rings, meaning the Netherlands is going three-up, three-count on the remaining events. It was nice knowing you, Netherlands.

Brazil also looks like it’s putting up just three on Pbars and HBar.

What is wrong with the pommel horse? Why does it need that much support? Is it drunk?

It’s probably drunk.

The question of all questions, do I trust the main feed to do its job, or focus on apparatus feeds.

Men’s Mixed Group 6 wishes it were women’s Mixed Group 6.

Gymnasts are out. Touch warmup is beginning.

The apparatuses all look a little build-Timmy’s-first-gymnastics-equipment, don’t they?

Negative. Try to be better.

BAHAHAHAHAHA.

No.

Pretty sure one NED gymnast just dismounted HBar into a spaceship during the warmup. Great.

Arthur Nory is starting for Brazil on rings because Arthur Nory. He’s being all Arthur Nory. Stumbled backward on a double twisting double dismount, multiple large paces.

Kato hits pommel horse. 14.800.

15.100 for Shin on vault. Casual stick.

Scott Morgan is just doing vault and floor. 14.966 on floor.

Tanaka up next on horse. Scissors up comfortably, legs together, good rhythm, almost like watching a gymnast who knows how to pommel horse – until that. Loses his hand, sits on the horse and he’s off.

Kim Hansol began his vault as a handspring layout, it quickly turned entirely tucked, and then it quickly turned butt.

13.366 for Tanaka.

Kaz double is better, but a large pace back from Hansol.

MANRIQUE. AND EPKE. HOW DO WE DO THIS.

Larduet – FX – sticks front double pike – piked double arabian with medium hop front 2/1 to layout is clean – 2.5 to tuckf ront full, also stuck – hops back on slightly ragged 2/1, why was that his weakest skill? – sticks double arabian – no trouble there.

I heard Epke announced! Why would you not show up epke you monsters?

Oh, Kohei. He hit. Obviously. 14.966.

Epke hits Kolman with medium Epke legs – which is all I saw of that. 15.366. Extreme Epke legs on some other pirouettes – hop forward on double twisting double lay.

Japan goes 44.299 on floor. Last year’s TF score was 45.166. Netherlands currently leads because high bar.

15.533 for Zanetti on rings.

Ferhat Arican on Pbars, attempting a new dismount – clattered onto the pbars like a maid dropping the fine china before he could even start. He’ll go again. Didn’t do it. Double front tuck half out. He was going to attempt the pike to get it named after himself. No luck. He’s clearly disappointed.

Rotation 2 will give us Japan on rings, Brazil on vault, Jossimar Calvo (not a woman, NBC) on HBar, Manrique on pommel horse.

Missed Calvo on PBars in the last, but he got a 15.400.

A bodybuilder from a Mickey Mouse cartoon named Arthur Zanetti leads rings.

Arthur Nory’s dainty running posture is another of my favorite things about him.

We’ll start with Diego on vault – crowd chanting Diego – Kas 1.5 – small hop. Good.

Someone sneezed during Likhovitskiy’s high bar routine. QUICK HITS. Sticks a DLO 1/1 dismount.

Barrettto – a little crazy legs in the air – crossover pace backward –

13.966 for Kato on rings. He can do better. China would eat that score for dinner.

Manrique up next on horse – his white pants and blue socks are my everything – brap. 13.866.
Arthur Nory on vault – clean Shewfelt with a smallish hop forward –

Sasaki – pulls around a Drag, hop back, non-horrific –

Kohei to rings – always impressed by how well he does at looking not cranial hemorrhage on rings. two small steps on dismount. Can’t afford professional haircut after phone bill.

Sasaki second vault – also gets Tsuk double pike around – hop back. Did his job.

14.700 on rings for Kohei. Japan needs a real score from Yamamuro to keep their rings work on pace. 14.700 as well. Nearly sticks a DLO 1/1 but lifts his foot.

Japan’s rings score is 44.133. Better than last year’s TF score when they had to use Kato as one of the three.

Park’s 15.033 on Pbars leads for KOR, second overall on the event.

Current team after 2:
Brazil – 89.048
Japan – 88.432
S Korea – 87.573
Netherlands – 86.931

Rotation 3 will give us some critical individual routines, including Shatilov on floor and Petrounias on rings.

Wammes replay! Hop forward on arabian double pike – 2.5 to layout, hop – 1.5 to front 1.5.

Rotation 3 is now.

PA Announcer telling car crash story to introduce us to the NED pommel horse rotation…?

Bart Deurloo’s arm tattoo was actually a construction project of Nebuchadnezzar. Some leg times but a hit. 14.200.

Kato goes for the Kas double, legs all over the place, somewhat crunched, step back.

Yamamuro lands his attempt at the same vault in a terrible sideways position and falls. He seems fine with it. 13.200.

If I were engaging in a covert arms deal, I would want Barretto on my team. A couple hops back on double pike. He seems shouty about it. 14.900.

Gonzalez goes 15.066 on floor.

Kohei vault – ro half on 2.5, offensively clean and medium hop. 15.533. Kohei things.

With this and Kenzo, that’s why Yamamuro was so fine with falling. he was like, it literally makes no difference. Have you seen China’s vault?

Kenzo doesn’t do the 3.5. BOOOOOO. Just a TTY like a loser. It’s fine I guess.

Manrique on rings – apparently he was barfy in PT, but I’m not seeing much evidence of that today.

Kenzo’s second vault – nearly sticks a kas 1.5, probably should have stuck, step. Vault average is 15.283. Comfortably ahead of Sasaki and into first.

Brazil showed only 3 on PB, but it was fine. All hit for 14.9s.

Netherlands does have to count an 11 from Wammes on PH to fall well back of the other teams.

After 3:
Japan 134.364
Brazil 133.814
S Korea 131.039
Netherlands 127.030

Shatilov on floor! He got rid of the beard! Really strong choice – Nearly sits a front double full out of a 1.5 – Steps back on full in. I love that he’s only 6 foot but gymnastics makes him look like he’s tall. sticks the 2.5 to tuck full – full in small step. He knows what nearly sitting his second pass means.

Petrounias is up on rings, looking like if Drakar Noir were a person. Very smooth (form and body hair), such clean holds. Step forward on dismount. 15.833. You know.

13.500 for Shatilov. Well crapit.

Did this floor rotation wait to start until the other events had finished?

Rotation 4 will give us Japan on PBars and Brazil on HBar.

Does anyone else think Ryan Patterson looks like Haley Richardson, the girl who plays the gymnast in The Bronze? Just me? OK.

Barretto starting on HBar – layout taktchev to mixed is good – tkatchevs combination, getting his Shayla on – late on a pirouette here and there – DLO 1/1 stuck – more screaming.

Calvo is on horse – knows how to spread his legs like a proper gentleman – struggles a bit getting up to handstand on his dismount but it’s a hit.

Manrqiue vaulting – sits for 11.766, then rolls sideways Ponor style. Oh, so that’s what they were talking about.

Sasaki – HB – Kolman caught – Cassina caught – one seriously wonky piro in there but works out of it – larger hop back on layout double double dismount. 14.833.

I love that Japan starts PBars with a 15.500 from Kato – Tanaka being all handstand – ALMOST totally arches a handstand to one rail but pulls it back, a bit short on double pike with a hop forward. That started well but some larger issues at the end. Apparently I also missed a fall?

Nory – HB – layout tkatchev to tkatchev to mixed is well done – had a pirouette handstand that was basically horizontal – small step on double double layout dismount. 14.766.

KOHEI TUMBLES ON THE PBARS LIKE HE’S ON THE FLOOR. (sorry)

Also, Arthur Nory is getting undressed on the HBar feed. Extended closeup.

15.333 for Van Gelder on rings. Into third, but a number of critical specialists have already gone like Petrounias and Zanetti.

Yamamuro got a 12.733 on PBars. Japan will have to count Tanaka’s 13.866.

After 4:
Japan – 179.196
Brazil – 178.679
S Korea – 173.604
Netherlands – 170.329

To check on Japan’s pace, on these four events in the TF last year, they were 180.395.

In rotation 5, we’ll have Japan on HBar and Brazil on floor.

Manrique is also currently in a dire situation in the AA, but he has his two best events coming up. Weirdly, Kohei is winning.

Kato on high bar to start – catches Cassina – layout tkatchev very clean – Kolman solid – some crazy legs = pauses after a stoop but works through it – step back on double double lay.

15.000 will do. Barretto’s 13.433 on floor will not.

Sasaki – FX – cowboyed double front but stuck – front double pike to lay half is wonderful (#Dowellgoals) – good hit – no major landing errors – 14.900

Nory finishes floor with a full in small hop to gigantic smile because Nory.

Uchimura – HB – giant and gorgeous pike shown in Kovacs – so high- too high – falls – everyone will freak out but this is relatively normal and OK. No HB final, though. That’s the big deal here.

Everything else was perfect obviously. 14.3

Hypolito – FX – 1.5 to front 2.5 small slide – double arabian to front full is excellent – sticks piked double arabian – underrotated a twist in there but stayed in – and he’s crying. I almost had a feeling. 15.500.

Larduet – PB – some raggedy legs early, which is really exacerbated by the contrasting pants and socks, but minor and quickly resolved for some huge amplitude and strong handstands – small hop on doubel front half – that helps. A lot. 15.766.

This moves Manrique to 8th in the current AA standings. Better.

Kohei’s fall means he’s leading by just 0.8 now.

Team after 5:
Brazil 224.279
Japan 223.195
S Korea 215.012
Netherlands 214.287

Remember, Brazil still has to do pommel horse, while Japan gets Kenzo’s floor. So don’t freak.

ROTATION 6 THE MOMENT OF TRUTH OR SOMETHING.

Nory – PH – it’s a get through routine for him, but he got through well, labored swing toward the end and fake dismount, but a hit. 14.433.

Kato on floor – following a Tanaka 15.233 – small bits of hops – one inch of amplitude on a lot of these twisting elements – some low chest moments – dismounts triple full stuck. 15.033

Brazil gets another hit from Barretto 14.533. One horse score away from a phenomenal qualification showing.

14.833 for Sasaki will do just that. They have just three routines here, so that was critical. Brazil finishes 268.078.

Kenzo’s twisting form is offensive. He goes out of bounds on his second pass! This is why Kenzo shouldn’t be forced to do doubel saltos, I tell you! Back trillion to front billion is also short with a lunge forward. He will not like this routine.

15.333. He’s into second.

Kohei – Also suffering a couple hops and short landings, just like Kenzo – not good kohei version – double double tucked is a bit forward, hop to the side – please tell me that crowd gasp was about Kohei doing a roll out skill – 3/1 hop.

15.533 for Uchimura because Uchimura. Kenzo down to third.

Manrique HB – stoop full is actually pretty vertical – pirouettes not as late as most – hop full to triple double layout dismount – 15.166 is into third on the event. BUT, 7th in the AA with 86.990. Qual score last year was well down in the 85s, though.

Team after 1 subdivision:
JAPAN – 269.294
BRAZIL 268.078
NETHERLANDS 257.686
S KOREA 257.645

Not much uncertainty there. Japan and Brazil will be safe for TF. Netherlands and South Korea will be out.

AA:
Uchimura 90.498
Kato 89.232
Sasaki 88.898
Nory 88.465
Calvo 87.506

Brazil being all celebratey.

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SUBDIVISION 2

Notables
Team Great Britain (beginning on floor)
Team USA (beginning on vault)
Team Germany (beginning on high bar)
Team France (beginning on horse)
Oleg Stepko (parallel bars in rotation 1)
Ri Se Gwang (vault in rotation 2)
Harutyun Merdinyan (horse in rotation 4)
Artur Davtyan (vault in rotation 6)
Vid Hidvegi (horse in rotation 6)

There’s a lot happening in the first rotation because in addition to GB on floor and USA on vault, we have Germany on HBar with Bretschneider and Fabian, Stepko on PBars, and Tommasone on horse.

“We’re going with Jon, not Jonathan.” This commentary is off to an awesome start.

It actually is because Jim is here to show Trautwig how it’s supposed to be.

Really happy with the GB and US looks. Weird.

I miss the thing that used to be Marcel Nguyen’s arm.

Rotation 1:

I love how Horton just starts laughing when asked to analyze horse. He’s like, “Yeah, it sucks. I do hate it, Jim. Thank you.”

Brooks – VT – doubel front, lands in squat with a large lunge to the side.

Naddour – VT – tsuk double pike, much better landing than podium, a tad short, small hop forward. 15.100 – tucked his pike a bit as well.

14.233 for Brinn Bevan

Mikulak – VT – Kas double, hop back, a little leg raggedys, will score well

Nguyen on HBar with some typical crazy legs on his cassina, missed his hands on a piro, crazy legs and goes the other way. Pressure on Bretschneuder and Fabian to hit their insanities. Will be low E score.

Dalton – VT – very good amplitude on kas double, good direction, medium lunge back.

Whitlock 3.5 to half and the flairs are quite strong – stick on the landing and not too crazy in the legs – a bit of hopping but .1 hops –

Dalton VT 2 – CRAPPIT – hands down on layout handspring 2.5.

Bretchschneider – HB – HERE WE GO – Cassina is solid – goes for a Bretschneider, misses his hand – BOOOO – this high bar final is getting rough already – didn’t do the layout double Kovacs.

I lvoe watching Kristian Thomas – wonderful piked double arabian – russians and japanese handstands look good – small hop on double arabian.

Fabian – catches Cassina – catches Kolamn – layout taktchev is good – good finish on squat full – almost sticks layout double double, hop forward. YES YOU DID.

15.533 for Fabian. Into first on HB.

Stepko 15.300 on PB. Into 5th already.

Team:
Great Britain 45.799
USA 45.333
France 44.383
Germany 43.799

Stepko routine now – pauses on single rail, slaos had a leg nasty early – just not quite sure in most of the skills – minor breaks – step back on dismount – he’ll be pissed with that.

Rotation 2 will see the US on PBars, GB on Horse, and Ri Se Gwang on vault.

In 2015, GB went 45.766 on floor, right on pace. THe US went 44.634 on vault. Much better this time. Having Dalton and Naddour-no-suck helps.

Rotation 2:

Ri Se Gwang – handspring double pike half out somehow landed, and doesn’t even look like he’s dying.

Bevan – PH – piked shape throughout his cricles – good use of straddles – solid rhyrhm – falls sideways on his dismount but fine, gets it done but just barely.

Ri second vault – full twisting tsuk double, landed really well! Chest up, step back!

“I feel like he should have been SMILE” Kupets got 150x more southern when she said that –

Dalton – PB – following a 15.375 from Milulkak – double back is excellent – toe poinnnnnnttt – sticks double pike, nearly – strong, clean, less difficult but solid and VERY usable. 15.166.

Louis – PH – “It won’t be the last time we see him” – but it should be because…other events… – lovely and smooth on the pommels – one leg break in there – strong hit – will get back to finals

Brooks – PB – just hangs onto that stick, swims for it, Chris Brookses the celebration though. 15.300. Three very useful scores so far. A Leyva number could make it special.

Whitlock – PH – drops his leg a little early in his straddle falirs, but I think that’s probably fine – like Wilson and Bevan, he has a little bit of pike in his circle shape. Strong dismount. Hit. Will also make the final.

Leyva solid double front dismount, hop forward – did not repeat the Diamidov trouble from podium training.

15.800 for Whitlock. One tenth ahead of 15.700.

15.600 for Leyva.

Leyva into second on PBars. Mikulak just ahead of Brooks into 6.

Fabian did not die on floor this time! YAY!

The floor score for Toba is a 1.633? Did anyone see it?

US 46.275 on PBars. Another good one. Still waiting on Fabian’s score. Because judging.

We’re seeing what happened to Toba. Knee entirely gave way – knee completely buckles inward. That’s his 1.633. He was slated to do the AA. They’ll either have to use three or force Fabian to do pommel horse.

Team after 2:
GB 92.032
USA 91.608
France 89.682
Germany 87.140

Ait Said’s 15.5 is third on rings. Tommasone is also into thirs on horse.

Coming up in rotyation three, we’ll have the US on high bar, GB on rings, Germany on horse.

Rotation 3:
France has a fall on a handspring double front. Just say Dalton take a big lunge on his HB dismount. 14.333.

CHRIST. I legit had to turn away when I saw Ait Said’s leg after that vault. If you didn’t see it, you’re lucky. That is one of the most gruesome injuries I have ever seen live.

Mikulak – on HB, I have barely recovered from that vault – tkatchev half is nice – regular tkatchevsticks layout double double, good bars routine. Making the switch to the no-Cassina routine is a big deal. 15.133.

GB getting through rings with these low-mid 14s. As expected.

Brooks – HB – has to muscle up after his tkatchev to mixed but keeps it going – a little late and sloppy for Brooks early – hop on DLO 1/1 dismount but messy enough that he will be well down the standings. 14.766.

Nile Wilson’s rings face. It’s my favorite. He’s SOOOOO British and purple.

Moment of Leyva truth – HB – “Hold on” says Jon, My thoughts exactly – layout kovacsis excellent – fingertups that Kolam – INSANE epke legs on some pirouettes in here – step back on dismount – 15.333. Leyva into third behind Fabian and Epke on HB.

After 3:
USA 136.840
GB 135.906
France 129.414
Germany 128.747

In last year’s TF, the US was 136.822 on these three events. So the same. GB was at 134.431, so GB has improved by a point and a half.

In rotation4, we’ll have the US on floor, GB on vault, Merdinyan on horse.

Naddour opens floor for the US – steps OOB – otherwise strong 14.700.

Meanwhile, Whitlock VT – yucky landing on his TTY, thankfully he’s fine, but he landed underrotated and crunched his ankles there, fall.

Brooks bounds out of his front piking – a couple hops but nothing major here – 2.5 finish, Shawn Johnson Amanar landing.

Big PH hit from Medinyan. Just embrace the bald, and then everything will be great. Until then…15.583.

Mikulak – FX – 2.5 to double front, just gets it around and gets his feet under him – a bit chest down on second pass with a hop – good flares – sticks third pass – easy double full – strong layout in his rollout pass. Sticks 3/1. Very good landings on final passes, got through the first two passes. 15.800. So that happened.

Dalton times – if Sam was a 15.800…layout double arabian is awesome – bit of a slide back on piked – 2.5 to tuck full with a hop – sticks 3/1. Very strong routine.

15.600. We’re going to acknowledge that this scored lower than Mikulak, right? Or no? OK.

Great Britain had a vault mess. Fall from Thomas as well. Yikers.

Stepko to horse – fine – clean and dandy – good rhythm – had a short handstand early – 14.975

After 4:
USA 182.940
GB 178.972
France 173.713
Germany 171.554

In 5, the US does pommel horse. Here we go. GB will try to get it back on PBars.

BUT ALSO THE US IS GOING TO POMMEL HORSE.

Rotation 5:
Jon thinks the US is just as good as any other country on horse. Hmmm?

“We don’t have a silly event like pommel horse.” I love Kupets.

Leyva – PH – form getting floppy on that Russian – but otherwise endures – gets his dismount, hits – 14.533. Fine. Got through. Not a 13.

Whitlock to Pbars with an excellent double back -nearly sticks double pike, small hop forward. 15.066.

Brooks – PH – misses his hand toward the end of the routine, fall. His first missed routine of the summer.

It’s a 12.766 on horse for Brooks. Now it’s big pressure for the other two.

Hambuechen nails a Shewfelt. I’m so glad he’s having such a good day.

Mikulak – lost his legs TOTALLY on a circle toward the end – seemed like he was going to save it rather spectacularly, but couldn’t keep it going – 13.100.

Naddour has to be not bad now – one small leg break in a travel but otherwise one of his good ones – very strong. 15.366. That’s 5th so far on horse.

After 5:
USA 225.939
GB 223.904
France 216.146
Germany 215.953

US loses a chunk of the lead over GB but had enough that it’s still fine.

Rotation 6 will have the US on rings, Gb on high bar, and also Davtyan on vault and Hidvegi on horse.

Brooks starts for the US on rings – does some ringy things – like holding – and looking constipated – looking steady on holds – muscled a swing up – a couple – 1.5 twisting double back and stuck. 14.566.

Chris Brooks AA total is 86.331. Currently 11th. Actually 10th with two-per-country invoked.

Mikulak to rings, Hidvegi to horse – trying to make up for Berki – pushes up that dismount – 15.233. Into 6th, just behind Naddour.

Excellent stuck dismount from Mikulak on rings. 14.533. They’ll expect Dalton and Naddour to pick up the scores.

Dalton – Jon Horton reveals that he reads buzzfeed – double double tuck, chest down with a larger hop forward. 14.900.

Whitlock 13.566 on high bar. Because Whitlock.

Mikulak into third AA behind Japan. 89.041.

Nguyen’s full twisting back dismount, 15.466. Into 5th.

Naddour gets 15.000 for his rings, strongest score for the US in the rotation. It’s the one place where the US will be weaker than those 2015 scores, since the 2015 team had Whittenburg and Wynn.

Nile on high bar – Euro champion – catches Kolman – wonky legs and direction on his full – better position on hop full – hop on DLO double twist. That will ensure he gets into the AA with Whitlock over Bevan, as expected.

15.500 for Wilson. Nile into 2nd. Pushes Mikulak to 6th on high bar.

We’re still waiting on some French floor scores to see the final placements now, but the US will be in ahead of Japan. GB into third behind Japan.

France will not be able to move ahead of Germany in that fifth position. China, Russia, and Switzerland should bump, but this might not be too disastrous for Germany after all.

Nile into 2nd AA with that 89.240. Brooks currently 14th now, but 12th after two-per.

Even with a fall, Dalton is 5th on vault because only 10 people have tried…

Two down, one to go!

After 2 Subidivisions:
USA 270.405
Japan 269.294
Great Britain 268.670
Brazil 268.078
Germany 261.518
Netherlands 257.686
S Korea 257.645
France 257.211

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SUBDIVISION 3

Notables
Team China (beginning on vault)
Team Russia (beginning on high bar)
Team Switzerland (beginning on rings)
Team Oleg (beginning on floor)
Marian Dragulescu (floor rotation 3, vault rotation 6)
Rayderley Zapata (floor rotation 2)
Filip Ude (pommel horse rotation 1)

Oh good. After all the troubles on vault so far, what I really want to see is China do it now…

If we don’t get Marian Dragulescu airplane arms at some point, this whole subdivision will have been a waste.

Russian high bar should also be an experience in this first rotation. I’m quite interested to see whether Euros Russia is a thing that will show up multiple times.

Warmups beginning.
Oleg wearing no pants, keeping himself warm with a shirt. You could also put on pants?

Ude on horse to start. He has done a better job of embracing the bald.

Liu almost sits the kas 1.5, deep squat. So…best vault of the day.

Stretovich 14.633. Ude came off horse. Another one bites the dust.

Lin Chaopan VT – Kas double – a little under rotated, but just a step back, messy legs

Muntean 15.466 on PBars.

Nagornyy – HB – never had a chance on a Kolman, not even a fingertip to the bar. Returns with a tkatchev and tkatchev half, has to muscle a little out of the tkatchev half but keeps going – 12.733

Zhang very sloppy TTY, ragged legs, step forward. These scores seem high for the quality of these vaults.

Deng – VT – Handspring 2.5 – same ragged legs, a bit underrotated and a hop forward/to the side, like most of his teammates.

Kuksenkov catches his Kolman, also some sloppy legs in place – tkatchev half is fine – relatively acceptable finishing position in most pirouettes – but well short of handstand there – looks like an extra swing thrown in – DLO 1/1 with a hop

Good hit for Verniaiev on floor is appeared.

China has the second-highest team vault score of the day.

14.100 for Kuksenkov.

Belyavskiy – HB – layout taktvhev is good – catches tkatchev half – getting through well enough – making me think of Ivana – DLO full with small hop. Better. 14.533.

14.833 on floor for Verniaiev.

Team:
China 45.466
Russia 43.266
Switzerland 42.886
Ukraine 42.699

Radivilov with a 13.666 on floor. Won’t improve Ukraine’s standing.

Russia’s high bar score is identical to the one from the Euros-winning performance in May.

Behan on horse to finish the rotation – hit routine – 12.866

The only EF-relevant performance in that subdivision was Muntean on PBars, who is currently into 4th.

Rotation 2 will have Russia go to floor, China go to PBars, and Ukraine go to horse.

Abliazin will be a critical test of whether Kenzo can make it back to floor finals from his 6th position. An Abliasplosion would do him a lot of good.

Kuksenkov up first on floor for Russia – excellent sticks – 2.5 to layout as well, stuck – 3/1 chest down step back. 14.666.

Braegger sits a kas 1.5. Yusof follows with a very strong Tsuk double pike, good chest position, medium step back. How that’s getting the same E scores as China…….

Nagornyy – FX – solid double double – 3.5 to tuck full also stuck – punch front double to front tuck – bounds, nearly OOB – piked double arabian side pass and sits. Nagornyy no no. 0 for 2. 3/1 finish hop back.

Verniaiev – PH – gets trhough his straddle elements and his russians – good rhythm on one pommel – travels comfortably – up to handstand, very good dismount – 2 for 2 for Oleg.

Still 14.066 for Nagornyy. 15.566 for Verniaiev. Into 5th.

Abliazien – huge lay double double but steps OOB – connection into double front with a step – keeps his roll out in bounds – staggers and reels on most of his landings as usual, but only one OOB!

14.700 for Abliazin. That won’t do it.

Lin Chaopan’s 15.700 on PBars puts him into second. And he’s second up.

You? Hao! – PB – being all precise and what not – very strong form in saltos, and difficult – one wonky handstand – but double back and double pike were nice – oooooh – really struggles on a healy in there after his tipeelt – front half out, deep squat with lunge. Still 15.733.

Belyavskiy 14.600 on floor. Russia’s highest score today through two events is a 14.700. No me gusta.

I love that Yuo Hao can kind of miss his routine and still be in second on PBars.

Deng Shudi – double back – general preposterous saltos – completed to handstand – bhavsar and tippelt – opens well out of double pike, step back. 15.800. So…you guys…China is good at PBars.

Team after 2:
China 92.699
Russia 87.232
Switzerland 86.866
Ukraine 86.564

Russia having a rough one so far and now having to go to horse. We;ll also get Dragulescu and Zapata on floor in this rotation, along with China on HBar.

You Hao will begin for us on high bar – a piked tkatchev – a nap – my life draining away – deep DLO double full with a lunge back. 14.066

Stretovich hits again. He’s the one who came to play.

Of course Nagornyy’s first hit would be on horse.

Russia still looking for something over 14.700 though.

Kuksenkov – PH – now we’re getting to the good ones – I enjoy watching his pommel work – another who goes on walkabout during his dismount but leans to hold onto it. The streak is over! 15.383.

China stuck in the 14 on HB. Let’s see what they get from Zhang.

Zhang – catches cassina – off on Kolman – that Cassina was close, the Kolman way too big. Another misses the HB final. China also could have used that score.

Mikulak hanging on for HB final. Still in 6th.

Zapata 15.083 on floor. Kenzo survives another.

Belyavskiy finishes up horse with some very speedy work. Another great hit. So Russia is sucking everywhere but pommel horse.

Belyavskiy has a little Komova face about his horse score. Into 8th in the race for the final for now, jsut behind Naddour in 7th.

Team after 3:
China 135.997
Russia 132.481
Switzerland 130.965
Ukraine 130.772

Marian on floor! We almost missed some! whip to pike double arabian, small hop – variable hair color, troubling – SITS. Another one’s out. and then hands double on a double double dismount. Marian having a nightmare so far, but he still has vault.

On these three events at 2015 Worlds TF, China was 137.830. Today, 135.997. Russia was 132.031. Today, 132.481. Switzerland was 131.297. Today, 130.965.

Rotation 4 will have China on floor, but most importantly, we’ll see if Igor attempts that vault.

Liu Yang sits his opening pass. Comes back with 2.5 to front 1.5, low but stuck – quite bouncy on some landings later – finishes 3/1 with a stumble. Weak. 12.933.

Eddy Yusof has fallen off HBar before starting. No trouble after that but 13.166.

Lin Chaopan up next. Trying to, you know, not get a 12.

Oleg on vault – almost a great Drag, just got his foot stuck under him a little and had to take a step back, will still be a strong score –

Lin lands sideways on his opening pass and sits it as well – so China is counting a floor fall.

Oleg’s second vault – Kas double full and STUCK. Wonderful. Just a touch of leg sloppies and a wide-legged landing. Should get a huge execution score to separate it from this ragged vaults, but of course it won’t be separated enough. 9.300 E.

13.666 for Lin. Improvement!

It’s Igor time.

What is he posting…besides staring at us like a serial killer – not going for the triple. Thank you. Dragulescu and it’s excellent. Stuck.

Igor’s second vault is a tsuk double pike, not as good as the dragulescu with a bound back, but will be easily good enough for vault finals. Sensible choices.

Chian did get a 15.033 from Deng on floor. Also not going to bump out Kenzo.

Zhang Chenlong finishes floor for China – back 1.5 to front 2.5 – low and a step – 2.5 to half – crazy legs in 3.5 but stuck – more crazy twisting legs but will be rewarded for landing – front 2/1 to front 1/1 – bounce back on 3/1. So just…all the twists?

14.9 for Zhang.

After 4:
China 179.596
Russia 177.547
Ukraine 175.671
Switzerland 173.131

Switzerland having a very bad day. In danger of losing that TF spot that they really should be getting.

Rotation 5 gives us China on horse and Russia on vault.

Dalton ios currently 7th on vault. Ablyazin and Nagornyy here (and Dragulescu in the 6th) will determine if he gets to vault final even with a fall.

You starts for China on horse well hit, clean, solid 14.966.

Nagornyy’s first vault gets him 15.266. good dragulescu, lands up, hop back. His second vault is a kas double, nearly stuck, small slide. He goes into 4th overall on vault.

Gischard finishes floor with a nearly stuck triple, for 15.066.

Belyavskiy – well he landed it! Barely. With like a million steps back. But he landed it.

Deng goes 14.866 on horse.

Ab;iazin – VT – Tsuk double back with a full and lands it pretty well – what is this? Just a little short, ankle-crunchy. Non-death, hop forward. Second vault is ro half on 2.5 also well landed. Into second on vault.

Oleg – PB extremely precise with floaty flight elements – toe point and handstands maintained trhough out – step back on dismount 16.166. Into 1st.

Sienichkin sits double pike dismount fron PBars.

After 5:
China 224.461
Russia 223.113
Ukraine 219.637
Switzerland 217.130

China will need a 45.945 on rings to pass the US. Attainable but never easy.

Unfortunately for Switzerland, it will be quite the scoring task to pass Germany, and they’re going to horse.

Wait, we already started the sixth rotation? TOO MUCH.

Kieran Behan looking all pained and limpy off to the side. Well great.

Deng Shudi shows good rings constipation face. 9.533 for that. Excellent virtuosity. 14.300, though, which will not put him ahead of Kohei. China will rely on the last two routines to be large scores. Which they will be.

Switzerland basically needs best routine of life status from Hegi in the last spot on horse.

Liu Yang just a casual 15.900. China can pass the US if You gets a You score.

Dragulescu’s opening dragulescu is good, step back.

Switzerland is out of the team final. ROUGH.

Oleg high bar – just needs a normal hit to move into first in the AA. tkatchev half – squat full is strong – layout tkatchev – double twisting dlouble lay and stuck. 15.133 and Oleg will qualify in first.

Drag’s second vault is good enough to get him into 5th and qualify to the vault final, knocking out Sergio Sasaki.

Germany will qualify over Switzerland.

TEAM:
1. China 270.461
2. USA 270.405
3. Russia 269.612
4. Japan 269.294
5. Great Britain 268.670
6. Brazil 268.078
7. Ukraine 263.002
8. Germany 261.518
9. Switzerland 260.262
10. Netherlands 257.686
11. S Korea 257.645
12. France 257.211

AA – Verniaiev qualifies in first. Kohei second. Mikulak in 7th, just into the horse group, Brooks qualifies in 17th. Last qualifier is Georgiou of Cyprus, just ahead of Park Minsoo.

Floor qualifiers – Mikulak, Dalton, Uchimura, Hypolito, Whitlock, Shirai, Thomas, Nory
Horse qualifiers – Whitlock, Smith, Tommasone, Merdinyan, Verniaiev, Kuksenkov, Naddour, Belyavskiy
Rings qualifiers – Liu, Petrounias, You, Abliazin, Zanetti, Goossens, Van Gelder, Radivilov (Radivilov 9th, will go in for Ait Said)
Vault qualifiers – Ri, Abliazin, Shirai, Radivilov, Dragulescu, Nagornyy, Varniaiev, Gonzalez
PBars qualifiers – Verniaiev, Belyavskiy, Deng, Larduet, You, Leyva, Kato, Muntean (Kohei loses the execution tiebreak)
HBar qualifiers – Hambuechen, Wilson, Zonderland, Leyva, Barretto, Mikulak, Verniaiev, Larduet

Until the women tomorrow!