Women’s EF Qualifiers

Vault: Tatum (USA), Wong (USA), Heron (PAN) Cortes (COL), St Pierre (CAN), Da Silva (BRA), Paterson (CAN), Fernandez (ARG)

Bars: Bowers (USA), Allaire-Bourgie (CAN), Wong (USA), Araujo (ARG), Paterson (CAN), Vargas (MEX), Magistrati (ARG), Bezerra (BRA)

Beam: Wong (USA), Bowers (USA), Allaire-Bourgie (CAN), Spence (CAN), Dos Santos (BRA), Lopez (MEX), Magistrati (ARG), Da Silva (BRA)

Floor: Bowers (USA), Allaire-Bourgie (CAN), Tatum (USA), Vargas (MEX), Fernandez (ARG), St Pierre (CAN), Briceño (MEX), Carrara (ARG)

Men’s floor has just completed, with the title going to JR Chou from the US, who nailed pretty much all his passes, so we’re moving on to women’s vault now, which will run simultaneously to pommel horse.

Update: Everyone is still dying of frostbite, and most of the competitors are just blanket monsters.

The PA announcer told everyone that the warmup is over, and everyone was like, “BYE TRASH THREE MORE TOUCHES.”

Heron – PAN – VT 1 – Y 1.5, quite a bit of knees and a lunge to the side and slightly off the mat. A hit 1.5 will be a somewhat competitive score in this final, though.

Heron – PAN – VT 2 – stream went offline for her second vault, a full, and I’m super happy about that. This is so right and good.

On pommel horse, Rodriguez, also of Panama has fallen twice, and almost Deurloo-ed on the second fall.

Da Silva – BRA – VT 1 – nice full – only a small hop back, solid direction, just a little leg shape

I think they forgot the women have two vaults, as we’re just seeing poor Siminiuc waiting to go on horse now and I say poor because no one told him he has some goop on his forehead.

Cortes – COL – VT 1 – Y1.5 with a step to the side and off the mat, basically the mirror of Heron’s vault, but Heron had a bit stronger body position, quite a bit of mushy legs from Cortes.

Cortes – COL – VT 2 – Looked like a tucked Yurchenko for her second vault, with a hop back.

JR Chou is nailing event finals so far. Just won floor and hit a very clean pommel horse to follow.

St Pierre – CAN – VT 1 – Yfull – alllllmost stuck it, just took a small step back she probably didn’t have to take – good form, has time to open out of the vault a little

St Pierre – CAN – VT 2 – handspring front pike with a lunge forward. Props to her for having an actual second vault rather than just downgrading her normal vault, which you can do for junior events like these. The two vaults don’t have to be different families.

Warmup period for the second half of the finalists now.

Fernandez – ARG – VT 1 – Yfull – a little hoppy on landing, leaning over to try to hold the landing without more hops, which she did, pretty good in the air

Fernandez – ARG – VT 2 – just a layout for the second vault,bounce back

Wong – USA – VT 1 – Expected the DTY, but it was so high and clean for a second I thought it was just a full. You can see why she is training an Amanar. Very nice vault.

Wong – USA – VT 2 – Just a Ylayout.

Tatum – USA – VT 1 – Strong DTY, lunge back though, some minor leg crossing throughout.

Tatum – USA – VT 2 – Y1.5 second vault with a bounce forward. Two proficient vaults, and that difficulty as well as the comfortable execution should push her up to gold in this final without problem.

Paterson – CAN – VT 1 – Y1.5 – pretty good, small hop forward, a little knee-bending throughout, but nice hit. She had missed one in the warmup, so that’s good to see.

Paterson – CAN – VT 2 – hit full, a bit too much bounce back on landing, but good.

Brandon Briones falls on PH. Drag.

DO WE KNOW THE STANDINGS? OF COURSE NOT.

Anyway Tatum clearly won vault.

On to bars and rings!

And by bars and rings, I mean bars. Rings is rings.

Magistrati – ARG – UB – giant full to 1/2 turn to tkatchev, hit – bail -arches a little in catch but saves it – toe on to toe shoot – blind change to giant forward 1/2 to DLO, nice efficient DLO with a little hop in place.

Araujo – ARG – UB – toe 1/2 to jaeger, nice – a very short handsstand pre- Pak – but a lovely Pak to Shap to bail to toe shoot, some nice combinations here – pulls out a giant full with a little hesitation – double tuck with small hop. Real potential there.

Bowers – USA – UB – Toe full + toe shap + Pak + toe Shap 1/2, very clean – blind change to piked jaeger, hit, maybe a little close but not bad – regular jaeger, very nice – FTDT with a pretend stick to step salute. Very strong routine. A step above.

Wong – USA – UB – Toe on + Stalder Shap + Pak + Stalder, good – Toe Shap 1/2, hit – toe full to stalder 1/2, late to jaeger, lovely – she’s missing about three verticals at the end of this routine, but her style is so nice – pretty DLO and stuck.

It looks like we’re missing  Bezerra’s routine on UB while we watch Espindola get ready for rings. A little dot in the background looks like she hit.

Allaire-Bourgie – CAN – UB – loooooong wait for this routine. Toe Shap to Pak, close on the Pak but saves it to cast out well – Shap 1/2 – clear hip to giant full to giant 1/2 to piked jaeger, nice, a somewhat short vertical or two – giant 1/2 – FTDT with step. Doesn’t quite have the composition in terms of combinations yet, but her legs are glued together throughout.

Vargas – MEX – UB – annnnd she has already fallen. She couldn’t cast out of her jump to the high bar and had to hop off. Not quite a Shayla moment, but close. Close catch on piked jaeger – bail to toe full on low bar – toe shoot – double pike with lunge back.

Paterson – CAN – UB – blind change to a high piked jaeger – Pak, nice – toe on to Toe shap 1/2, strong – a quite short hs in htere – giant full to double tuck dismount, pretty low on the double tuck but got it around with a step back.

So that does it for the first session of event finals. Check back in about 3.5 hours for the others.

We don’t have standings yet (OBVIOUSLY) but Bowers and Wong will be 1-2 on bars.

So vault was Tatum, Wong, Paterson. Bars is Bowers, Wong, Allaire-Bourgie.

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“Brians Briones” has been introduced for the vault final.

“Emma Spins” is going to nail the beam final.

Nice stuck DTY from Soares (BRA) on vault.

Allaire-Bourgie – BB – CAN – They really cannot get the thing with switching cameras down. Anyway, joining midway through, side aerial is nice – comfortable on the double spin today – hit side somi – split 1/2 from side, good – switch to switch 1/2 to bhs, very confident – 2.5 with a large lunge forward and some legs but that was really the only even medium deduction in what we saw from this one.

Dos Santos – BB – BRA – switch to split leap to split jump, struggling with those positions – bhs loso series, hit – side aerial, good – camera people have decided to go for the wedgie shot for this entire beam routine – layout 1/1 dismount with hop back. Very low difficulty but a hit routine.

Strong Kas 1.5 from Briones on vault, just a little hop forward. Good direction, comfortably around.

Second vault is just a handspring front pike. Simple but well done. Stuck landing.

“Emma Spins” – BB – CAN – wolf turn 1.5, Emma does indeed Spin – cat leap to switch 1/2, small check, not bad position on switch 1/2 – aerial, good – bhs to 2-foot layout, very well done to hold on with a crazy save, bouncing all around and leaning but stayed on, major deductions on that – side somi, hit with a lean – 2/1 dismount with legs.

Actually digging seeing the junior guys do these really simple second vaults because they have the power to complete them comfortably and stick. Very satisfying.

Bowers – BB – USA – first wolf triple was excellent but struggled on the wolf double, had to grab the beam to steady herself – bhs loso loso series with small check – annnnnd the stream is offline now. OH JOY FUN. We’re back now, just for the double pike dismount.

So I guess just whatever?

Second warmup group now.

“WARMUP. OVER.”

Magistrati – BB – ARG – hits her mount well, small adjustment – smae, small adjustment, on bhs loso series – switch with a check, nice split though – full turn – aerial – some small checks on most of the skills but only the smallest possible checks, getting through well –  – side somi, good – switch side, small check – 2/1 dismount, a little deep with a lunge back

Chou struggles a little on his Kas 1/1, somewhat ragged in the air and a lunge back.

Offline again. Well, you tried Argentina.

I mean that seriously. Most small federations wouldn’t have tried.

Da Silva – BB – BRA – full turn, hit – side aerial, little arm wave – finishes with a pretty solid double pike. Chest down, but just a small step back.

Wong – BB – USA – switch to straddle, lovely position on straddle – bhs loso loso, right on – L turn, maybe dropped a little early but not bad – goes for a popa, we’ll see if she gets credit for all the way around, maybe not – side aerial and side somi are well hit – aerial with a check – 3/1 dismount with a bounce back.

A couple things but a good hit from Wong. Best complete routine we’ve seen.

We have a potential injury to Cesar Lopez on vault. Not sure what happened as the vault landing looked OK, but he’s staggering off and sitting down by the vault now.

Lopez – BB – MEX – nice height on a switch split – bhs loso series with a check, but also impressed by the amplitude on that – aerial, solid – split jump to wolf jump – barani – (but the one that’s side aerial to two feet technique) – split ring jump and falls, real shame as she has some excellent qualities on beam and could have scored well for this one – side somi, hit – 1/1 dismount, hop back

So, that does it for beam. We didn’t see the complete routines from a few people, but Wong and Allaire-Bourgie were the two strongest sets we saw. Bowers also got through with a solid score despite the mistake on the wolf turn, so a likely podium for her as well.

Hearing 13.800 for Allaire-Bourgie, 13.500 for Wong and 13.250 for Bowers. Works for me. Allaire-Bourgie phenomenal routine from what we saw of it and has more difficulty. Wong had a couple small checks and I wouldn’t have given the popa.

Moving on to women’s floor and men’s PBars.

Bowers – FX – USA – big bound out of her double front, just does keep it in bounds somehow – solid form on the full in – switch ring to Ferrari, a little bouncy today on the Ferrari landing, falls a little out of the triple turn – front 2/1 to front tuck is very precise – gets wolf double around – double pike, solid

Some nice elements for Burkhart on Pbars – clean Bhavsar and front straddle swing through – double pike dismount, holds stick. Good set.

Tatum – FX – USA – gigantic full in, secure landing – 2.5 to front pike, punched a little late for that front pike and had to fling it out horizontally and pull it around, did it but landed with a foot OOB – front 2/1, step forward, some corkscrew legs – switch 1/2 – double tuck, slide back.

Fernandez – FX – ARG – switch 1/2 – double pike, deep with a bound back and OOB – nice lift on a split jump full, just feet – 2/1, comfortable – front 1/1 with legs –

Briones has a moment of crazy legs in his Diam, but otherwise clean routine – double pike dismount with hop.

Briceño – FX – MEX – double Arabian, fine, some cowboy and a lunge forward – stream is now offline again. Resuming, finishes with 2/1.

Allaire-Bourgie – FX – CAN – quad spin, I’d give it – front 2/1 with a step forward, some legs – double pike, step back – switch to switch 1/1 – double tuck, overdoes it and stumbles back, appeared to be OOB – 2/1 with a little bounce. A fine routine, lost it a little on the last couple landings.

St Pierre – FX – CAN – switch 1/1 – full in, small step forward, a little ragged in the leg shape in the air – nice leaps overall, split jump 1/1 was actually perfect – front pike through to double tuck, a little stumble back  – Y spin single – lost the stream right before the end of her set.

Vargas – FX – MEX – Y spin – double pike, multi-lunge stumble back but had enough room to stay in bounds – switch ring and side 1/1 – 2.5, lunge forward – split 1/1 full is solid – 2/1 with a little hop –

Carraro – FX – ARG – split leap 1/1, good position, a little hop – double tuck, stuck – switch ring – switch side – Y spin – 2.5 with a pretty large crossover step – she does a good job to maintain the energy of this music throughout, which is tough – switch 1/2, good – back 1.5 to front tuck. Nice routine. Frantically charming.

So that will do it for the women’s competition. Waiting on final standings for floor.

Very here for those girls who tried to get on camera so hard they fell over.

Sticking around for the men’s HB final because why not?

Being too cool to acknowledge the crowd when introduced is SOOOO junior men’s.

Floor final was 1) Bowers, 2) Tatum, 3) St Pierre. Allaire-Bourgie 4th. Bowers had a few landing issues but got the win pretty comfortably in the end with her 5.3 D.

We have an opening miss from Correa on a layout tkatchev. Gets it upon resuming the routine, but then falls again on a regular Tkatchev. Finishes with a stick on a DLO 1/1.

Burkhart – HB – USA – Markelov layout, good – squat through – Def, hit! Some legs but caught – Big jaeger, because regular jaeger on HB so it better be big – DLO 1/1, two small steps.

Espindola – HB – ARG – piked markelov with some legs – tkatchev, hit – stalder – front stalder – front stalder 1/2, will get hit for lateness – holds onto stick on DLO 1/1

Briones – HB – USA – layout Markelov – layout tkjatchev, hit – tkatchev, good – stalder – hop full – hop 1.5, usual lateness for 1.5 – DLO 1/1, lands out of frame but landing looked good. Positive routine. That routine wouldn’t have competitive difficulty in seniors, but it was the most difficult and best executed of the first four routines here.

Cavalche – HB – layout tkatchev, nice – tkatchev, good – stalder, a little late – stoop through, front stalder – front stalder 1/2, solid – just a tuck full dismount with a lunge forward. Strong start, lost in on some verticals toward the end, and then the dismount landing.

Gomez – HB – ARG – tkatchev, hit but loses leg shape swinging through it – stalder – stoop through – front stalder full, pretty late – FTDT, stuck landing. Simple set, an early body shape problem, but a hit

Dolci – HB – CAN – layout markelov – good – stoop – stalder 1/2 – frotn stalder 1/2 – stalder – DLO 1/1, good stick. Another simple set, like most we’ve seen, but one of the cleanest of the final.

Soares – HB – BRA – Zou Li Min, good – stoop 1/2 – layout tkatchev hit – tkatchev, good – stream off line halfway through the final routine (YAY) but the first half of that thing looked pretty competitive.

Well that was a fitting conclusion.