Here for the first couple subdivisions of the final day of qualification to check in on Japan and the USA and see how they compare to China’s largely “all the finals please” performance from day 1.
Japan is starting on floor in the first rotation.
Kaya starts with nice form on his double front 1/2 out, good legs together, solid landing on doubel front pike, only a little scoot, which is typical of all his passes, very little movement but not stuck, finishes with a 3/1, crossed legs, small slide.
14.566 and he’s ahead of everyone from yesterday already, but still has to withstand his own team.
The PBars stream is dead, but Souza went 14.800 there for the best non-China score so far.
Hashimoto starts with an easy double double, finished early, has the edge on Kaya in twisting form and is sticking a few more of his passes here. Does have a small slide back on his 3/1 final pass but very well done. Should be ahead of Kaya for sure.
14.733 for Hashimoto.
Minami up now, sticks a 2.5 twisting double tuck, stop it – front 3/1, hop forward – 3.5 to front full, casual – a slide back on his back 1.5 to randi – deep breath before press handstand like “ugh why isn’t this tumbling” – back 2.5 to front 2/1, small hop – 3/1, stuck landing. Give the man the medals.
14.966 and into first place. I feel like you misspelled 16.
Taha Serhani finishes off the Swiss HB rotation with a miss – couldn’t get back up to handstand on a piro and has to hop off.
In rotation 1, Japan takes the top 3 spots on floor.
Rotation 2
Souza starts for Brazil on HB, Kolman with some legggs on catch – layout tkatchev with an arm swim in the air – tkatchev 1/2 – tak 1/1, not bad vertical – yamawaki – tak 1/2 a little late struggles on double double layout, short landing and a large lunge forward. 13.200
Kaya goes 14.933 on PH, which puts him in second place, behind only Weng.
Hashimoto just destroyed that pommel horse. I feel like the theme today will be Kaya doing a good one and Hashimoto being like, or….
Nory – HB – tak 1/2 large leg break – layout tkatchev is nice – tkatchev to tkatchev 1/2, lovely toe point – Winkler (layout jaeger full) is perfection – oooof, tak 1/1 is a problem, goes over the wrong way – covers well though into yamawaki – DLO 1/1, lunge forward. Some great moments but a lot to take in a couple places.
15.075 for Hashimoto on ph, so he’s in second place there.
13.466 for Nory, that won’t do it.
Nory inquired his score on HB and it was accepted, but 13.766 still isn’t going to do it.
Rotation 3
Love Souza’s tumbling, really comfortable landings until the 3/1 final pass with a pretty large lunge back
Tikhnonov sits his second vault.
Kaya goes 13.966 on rings, which is still good enough for 4th place right now. There’s a huge gap between the top 3 (Lan, Zhang, Klimentev) and everyone else there right now.
Rings is Hashimoto’s bad one but he gets through with exactly what he needed to do, just not much difficulty and not as secure or flat in his holds, double double dismount, hop. 13.333
Noe Siefert just fell off the windowsill trying to sneak into the apartment during his pommel horse.
There have been a lot of LONNGGG breaks following the rotations before everyone can get a move on.
Delay for Hashimoto rings inquiry. Pull up some popcorn and eat a chair.
RE-JECTED.
Rotation 4
Japan will be all up in the vaulting for this one, trying to get both Asato and Yonekura into the final
VERY strong Kas 2/1 for Hashimoto, stuck landing with a little lean. Excellent. 15.066. OK now.
Welp Souza got 10.233 on horse.
Asato – VT 1 – esssshhhhh, Tsuk full in tuck is a struggle, gets it to his feet but several large lunges backward and out of the area. Still gets 14.300 for it. OK.
Asato – VT 2 – handspring randi is a bit better, but also lands hunched over and lunges to the side a couple times. 14.166. How vault has been going: He’s in 3rd place with a 14.233 average.
Yonekura – VT 1 – Kas 2.5 is hit pretty well, some clear crossed legs throughout and a medium lunge forward, but has the edge on Asato for sure.
14.933.
Yonekura – VT 2 – handspring randi is also a bit better than Asato’s, kind of a jarring landing and a lunge back, but just backward and stays in the area. 14.633
Average 14.783, which does just put him second to Chepurnyi, but easily into the final.
Rotation 5
Japan to PBars now. It’s looking very close between Zhang and Hashimoto right now. Hashimoto will have the HB edge.
PBars stream is dead in the media center, but Kaya goes 14.833 for his. Japan will really want Asato to stick around for the vault final because otherwise it will be like…why didn’t you let Kaya get an all-around bronze?
Deep landing on a double front on vault from Mboyo but he does pull it to his feet without a fall.
Souza just 14.033 on rings, 4th for now but…..
Hashimoto’s 15.200 on PBars puts him in 3rd place for that event final.
He’s currently at 73.407. Zhang went 87.897, so Hashimoto needs 14.490 to match him. A big score but very doable for Hashimoto.
Rotation 6
It’s Kohei o’clock.
In the touch, Kohei misses his Bretschneider.
Kaya – HB – Kolman is close but caught – tak 1/1 very nice position – tak 1/2, same – layout tkatchev – tkatchev – tkatchev 1/2 – a little sluggish getting out of the german giants but fine – double double layout dismount, hop back. A good one.
13.966 and into 7th place there. Good thing it looks like he has the PH final, because otherwise it would have sucked to have him do 5 events and miss everything.
Hashimoto – HB – tak 1/2, good – Cassina, solid catch – Kolman, comfortable – layou t tkatchev to tkatchev 1/2 – tak 1/1 pretty crazy – yamawaki – stalder – DLO 2/1 is flung out some, has to pike it with a hop forward. But a strong one. Will be another big score.
14.633 for hashimoto. Which is first place on HB and first place in the AA.
14.083 vault average for Souza.
Kohei – HB – Bretschneider this time caught but close – Cassina is clean – Kolman high and easy – tak 1/1 OK to yamawaki – tak 1/2 a little late – giant full – DLO 2/1, small hop forward. A hit! Some things, especially the close catch on the Bretschenider, but good things happen when you take out Stalder Rybalkos.
14.300 for Kohei and into 3rd place. That should make it back. But be very worried about actual Bretschneider, who is now 6th on HB.
So: Japan puts Hashimoto into 1st in the AA. Minami and Hashimoto are 1-2 on floor. Hashimoto and Kaya are 2-3 on horse. Kaya is 5th on rings. Yonekura and Asato are 2nd and 4th on vault. Hashimoto and Kaya are 4th and 6th on PBars. Hashimoto and Kohei are 1st and 3rd on high bar.
Baumann gets himself into 5th on PBars. Souza is 4th on rings.
SUBDIVISION 4
In this one…some people! Featuring the US men. Casimir Schmidt will not be competing due to injury.
US starts on PBars, where Moldauer will be the lone competitor.
Moldauer – PB – front toss, good – tuck 1/2 to arms, solid – diam, peach a little hesitation peach 1/2, fine – Makuts, clean – healy, showing good hs positions – layout 1/2, nice, that’s new yes? – double front 1/2 out, stuck landing. REALLY good one for him.
14.866 puts him in 5th place, 4th when accounting for 2-per. Really strong start.
Tseng of Taiwan goes for two 5.6 vaults but misses both. Sits a Tsuk double pike attempt.
US to high bar in rotation 2, where Moldauer and Malone will go.
Rotation 2
Moldauer – HB – zou li min – tak 1/1 with some knees – yam, lowish but fine – tkatchev – giant full – 1.5, pretty late but normal – tak 1/2, bent knees and late – DLO 1/1, stuck landing. You know, it’s Yul and high bar, but he got through it without major error.
13.233, and breaking 13 on high bar at worlds is a win for him.
Malone – HB – Cassina, good, very high – Kolman, some legs but comfortably caught – alyout tkatchev to tkatchev 1/2, solid – layout tkatchev 1/2 – tak 1/1 late – tak 1/2 same, neither egregious – DLO 2/1, step back. Another strong showing.
Missed whether Sharamkou went for the triple back, but saw his final pass, 3/1 with a pretty significant stumble.
14.366 for Malone, he’s into 3rd place ahead of Kohei. That will make the final.
Rotation 3
Whittenburg will be joining Moldauer on floor for the US, which is interesting. At worlds selection, when Whittenburg did floor before vault on the first day, he botched vault, but when he scratched floor on the second day, his vaults got him on the team.
Moldauer – FX – punch randi, bounce back – dobuel front 1/2 out is short, hop forward – front 2/1 to front full is better, stuck landing – 2.5 to 1/2, stuck – 2/1, small bounce – 3/1, bounce back. Got better as it went but not his usual. He can’t afford landings like that on his double front 1/2 because his D isn’t that high.
Still gets 14.433 for 4th place, which is better than I was expecting.
Whittenbuirg – FX – 1.5 to double front goes crazy but he lands it somehow – front 1/1 to double front pike, hop forward – double double layout, shortish, hop forward – 2.5, hop back – double double tuck, larger bounce back and OOB – double tuck full, hop. Donnell on floor, made some miraculous work to save some landings but the bounces and landings are going to annihilate the E score.
13.866 is not a bad score for that really. 15th place.
Big pommel horse rotation coming up for the US now.
Rotation 4
Moldauer comes off horse on his one-pommel work. He had a good score going through the first three. Annnnnd a second fall after restarting. Gets back up to flare all around the place, but again has trouble getting up to dismount, hips drop. That score is going to be in the basement.
10.633 breaks Yul’s AA score in the face.
Yoder up next and he has no trouble, through his routine with a very solid hit, no major leg breaks or issues.
15.300 puts him into second place, which will definitely make it back. 6.5 D score is an upgrade as well.
Nedoroscik also looks great, a single leg separation on a travel, but another high difficulty, strong hit.
15.366 for his 6.5 D score, goes just ahead of Yoder and into 2nd place. 2 American pommel horse finalists. I don’t know where I am.
The Moldauer horse routine was the one blemish for the US men so far, who are excelling when asked to only do their good ones.
Rotation 5
Moldauer starts the US off on rings – planche – roll to maltese – cross – a hesitation in handstand – tucks and pikes – to cross, drops a little low into that – straddle planche – double double tuck, hop to the side. Some ragged moments but OK. 13.466
Diab follows – nice flat maltese work to start – inverted cross – small hesitation in handstand – front pikes to planche, loser to iron cross, good horizontal – ayyyyyy did he try a triple double dismount or something? wayyyy short and hands down on his double double, which he usually doesn’t come up that short on.
Sharamkou goes 14.566 for his first vault, second vault is Dragulescu, lands it but a couple stumbles back and out of bounds. 14.316 average puts him in 4th place, ahead of Asato, knocking Huang to 7th.
Tvorogal goes 14.600 on PBars, which puts him in 11th there.
Rotation 6 will bring Whittenburg attempting to make the vault final.
Rotation 6
Moldauer up first – pretty solid Kas 1.5, medium hop to the side. 14.433 to go 81.064 for the AA. Which is with that 10 on horse.
Whittenburg – VT 1 – opens with his Ri Se Gwang (Tsuk full in) and lands it – hop to the side, one foot out of the area, but one of the biggest single vault scores we’ve seen. 15.033. He doesn’t need to do more than the double front for his second vault.
Whittenburg – VT 2 – double front is,……kind of crazy? He hands it but has kind of an awkward hop to the side and a shuffle to pretend it didn’t happen.
Just 13.633 for his second vault. But that 14.333 average still puts him in 4th place, going ahead of Sharamkou.
We shall see, pretty good position but still lots of vaulters to go. Yang HS, Yulo, the Brits, Medvedev, Asil, etc.
Tvorogal has some trouble on his HB dismount, DLO 1/1 that he has to pike way down, hop to the side.
Yoder, Nedoroscik, Malone, and Whittenburg will be happy with their specialist days as they all have at least a good shot if not a guaranteed shot to make their finals. Moldauer will make the AA final, though with a low position because of PH. He’s also still right in the hunt for both the floor and PBars finals. The only one who didn’t bring it was Diab, whose dismount fall will keep him out of the final on rings.