Monthly Archives: October 2018

World Championships

Just the Good Stuff: Men’s Qualification Day 1

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What you need to know, in quick, easily digestible bullet points.

  • 2017’s 4th-place finisher David Belyavskiy will miss the all-around final (save some last minute Galiyevaing) after falling on floor and finishing 3rd among the Russians.
  • Nikita Nagornyy leads the all-around after day 1 with 87.098.
  • Russia is good.
  • Carlos Yulo of the Philippines is 18 years old, destroyed the all-around with 81.230 to sit 5th (4th after 2-per), is a perfect little hummingbird, and should make vault and floor finals
  • The NETHERLANDS IS IN SECOND!
  • Epke Zonderland leads high bar with 14.400
  • Casimir Schmidt and Bart Deurloo each hit all five of their events like princes, with counting scores on each one, to lead the team
  • Switzerland struggled in a few places but still sit in 3rd with a solid shot to make the team final
  • Oliver Hegi fell on his Def and will miss the high bar final
  • Oleg is kind of. He leads PBars with 15.458 and will make that final, but he struggled on horse and high bar for 80.522 in the all-around.
  • Igor Radivilov missed his hand on his Dragulescu, did only a double front, and sat it, opting not to do a second vault because LIFE.
  • Igor needed 15.050 on that vault for Ukraine to pass Switzerland for 3rd place. Alas, Ukraine sits on the bubble in 4th.
  • With China, Japan, the US, and GB still to compete tomorrow, no one currently below 4th will advance to the team final.
  • Kazakhstan is in 7th. Go ahead on, Kazakhstan. Nariman Kurbanov leads pommel horse, so that’s probably a name we should learn.
  • We will likely have no Croatians in the pommel horse final. WHAT?
  • Shatilov will not make the floor final.
  • Marian Dragulescu did not attempt 2 vaults and will make no finals
  • European bronze medalists France counted a 10 on pommel horse and will not make the team final
  • Ri Se Gwang chucked his body into the ether randomly and it worked out, so he’s in 1st place on vault. His body shape on those vaults remains unclear.
  • Manrique Larduet will not compete the all-around tomorrow
  • Akash Modi is no longer in the all-around lineup for the US and will not compete floor tomorrow. Sam Mikulak and Yul Moldauer will do AA.

 

Live Blog, World Championships

Worlds 2018 – Men’s Qualification Day 1 (Russia)

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It’s starrrrtttttting.

SUBDIVISION 1

The first subdivision of men’s competition is a strong one, featuring Russia, France, and Romania.

Russia will qualify to the team final comfortably, so we won’t know a ton about what these scores mean until tomorrow when we get the results for all the other top teams and can do some comparing.

Coming off its bronze medal performance at Europeans, France is hoping to sneak into the team final here and will give us a solid baseline standard that other nations will try to beat in the later groups.

On events, vault is the big one in this subdivision because in addition to the Russians (hoping to put two people in the final), Loris Frasca and Marian Dragulescu are also among the compelling contenders for that final.

Russia begins on vault, with Romania on PBars, and France on HB.

Continue reading Worlds 2018 – Men’s Qualification Day 1 (Russia) →

World Championships

Women’s Podium Training Update

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OK, this is mostly just going to be about Aliya, and you’re going to deal with it.

The big news from the second day of women’s podium training was the authoring of a new installment in the Legend of Aliya and the Acro Series. Aliya did an acro series, you guys! A real one! With rebounding flight in a single direction!

BLESS MY UNHOLY STARS.

Thankfully, she also did hop right off on an Onodi to ensure she was still adhering to the traditional customs of Russian podium training. Similarly in accordance with orthodox Russian teachings, we were specifically told before the competition that Aliya would be performing only bars and beam, which meant also floor. And with only one mummified leg!

Mustafina may be called upon to do floor in qualification because of health concerns regarding Angelina Simakova, who is dealing with an ankle. Time will tell. It’s Aliya at worlds. She’ll find a way to hoist herself through a floor routine somehow.

There’s some concern about Russia struggling with the vaults, an emerging theme from women’s podium training and a critical factor in Russia’s dreams of silver. Angelina Melnikova effectively answered the question “How many coaches does it take to PLEASE DON’T DO A CHENG.”

Melnikova did, however, go through her whole beam routine without hopping off randomly, so she might have to give back her citizenship. Akhaimova granted us the honor of adding a lovely entry to the wolf turn fall collection.

WHEEEEEEE!

Someone should submit that as a dismount.

If you want to watch some of Ellie Downie on floor, you can see it in the background of Akhaimova’s beam. But I warn you, she falls on a double front. So I’m still worried about GB’s floor.

In China news, and worry news, vault and floor.

Floor was interesting (the order in this video is Luo, Zhang, Chen, Liu JR, then Du) in that we’re seeing Zhang try to squeeze out as many tenths of difficulty as possible in that first pass where she attempts to gain 0.3 in CV. Otherwise, China has a couple routines barely getting into the 5s that will need to count in a team final. Chen must get credit for her quad spin to break 5 in D score, and while Liu has bigger tumbling ability, the dance elements aren’t there, so she’s going to be stuck around 5 as well.

It doesn’t put China insurmountably behind Russia, but it’s not great. China’s beam should be amazing, of course, but how much can that carry the team?

Bars also requires a bit of change of perspective in that, even though this should be an excellent score still, the lineup is full of a number of 6.0 routines. Those aren’t the highest difficulties in the world, which means the Chinese gymnasts can hit these routines and still not be locks for the event final given the quality of the international field. The last time China missed a world/Olympic bars final was 2006.

In the race for who is the alternate, I think Luo (up 4th) looks stronger than Du (up 3rd) even though Luo missed during her set. Du is not showing the full upgraded difficulty that she performed at the Chinese individual championships, and if she doesn’t have a D edge… Continue reading Women’s Podium Training Update →