As is tradition, we’ll get it started with men’s floor, which may be my favorite final of them all this year.
Qualifiers: Bartolini, Kaya, Yulo, Minami, Karimi, Skinner, Ryu, Soravuo.
The withdrawal parade has rolled back into town for the men’s finals, with Hashimoto and Zhang both pulling out of their finals today (Hashimoto on FX, PH, Zhang on SR), so Kaya goes into floor, Merdinyan goes into horse, and Lodadio goes into rings.
This is the first year with a touch warmup for event finals, so there will be a break after the first four while the next four do their touch. I’m sure you WON’T BE ABLE TO HANDLE IT.
Only Carlos Yulo hit his mark so far on the intros.
Ryu as well, and sort of Soravuo. OK, those are the medalists then.
FLOOR:
Well, I know I sure tuned out during that touch warmup.
Bartolini – punch randi, stuck – double front pike 1/2 out, a little short, scoot – double double, small hop – 1.5 to front 2/1, the smallllest movement – 2/1, stuck – some trouble pressing up to handstand, a hesitation – 2.5 to front 1/1, holds it – 3/1, sticks that one. He’ll want to have stuck a couple more of those passes, but gave away nothing more than a tenth.
14.800. A huge score to start. Things are going to flyyyyy today.
Kaya – double front 1/2 out, stuck, excellent – double front pike, a little short, slide back – front 2/1 to front full, some soft knees, little hop – 2.5 to front 1.5, stuck – 2/1, stuck – 3/1, nearly stuck, small movement. Going to score very well. For me, he didn’t have the same form level as Bartolini (or difficulty), but he stuck more.
14.533 for Kaya. 8.633 E score to Bartolini’s 8.600.
Yulo – double double layout, perfection, stuck – double front pike 1/2, bounce back – 2.5 to front 2.5, small hop – back 3.5 to 1/2 and a huge error, he got very sideways on that 1/2 and then tried to keep himself in bounds with a big leg up wobble but it didn’t take and he hops OOB with both feet – excellent remaining passes of course – 3/1, small slide. The twisting shape is to die for, but that error pass will cost him.
14.566 actually still ahead of Kaya.
Minami – 2.5 twisting double tuck, little hop today – front 3/1, hop – back 3.5 to front full, like you do, hop – 1.5 to randi, another bounce back – giving away some bounces but the tumbling is the most – 2.5 to front 2/1, little hop – 3/1, sidewinder as most are, hops heels together. Extremely strong.
14.766 behind Bartolini! I’m surprised but don’t necessarily disagree. Bartolini’s in-air execution is stronger.
E score for Minami is 8.266, Bartolini 8.600
LOLLLL at Minami’s reaction….going from WTFFFF to PLEASED FOR MY COLLEAGUE in record time.
Look, I went GIF searching for a second, and this touch warmup group is already done.
Karimi – double front 1/2, nice stick – 3.5 to front 1.5, some legs, little slide – front full to randi, hop – double double tuck, chest a bit down but OK, a little movement – struggles on a his second to last pass, doesn’t really get the final twist around and has to hop to the side – 3/1.
14.333 and last place so far.
Skinner – triple double tuck landed entirely OOB, and a step back – front full to randi, a little short, hop forward – struggles on front 3/1 attempt as well, a little under and some awkward steps – 2.5 to front 2/1, small hop – 3/1 is strong, finishes with a stick, but that will be the lowest score.
14.100. 6.5 D score, 7.9 E, and 0.3 OOB
Ryu – double front pike 1/2, medium bounce back – front full to front 3/1, stuck! – 2.5 to front 2/1, little hop – back 1.5 to front 1.5, hop back, not really sticking here but some great passes – 3/1, bounce back – 3.5 final pass, stuck! Well that was a finish.
14.600 and 3rd place. Appropriate ranking for me.
Soravuo – 2.5 to front 2/1, little hop, some legs – front full to double frotn 1/2 out, a little short, hop – double double, stuck – 1.5 to front 1.5, stuck landing – 2/1, stuck – 3/1, stuck again. The end was fabulous, four straight sticks, what a pleasure.
14.700 and 3rd place! Woah, I thought he was going to miss out on the medals because of his D score, but he got 8.700, the highest of the final.
FINAL
Gold: Bartolini – 14.800
Silver: Minami – 14.766
Bronze: Soravuo – 14.700
I love this.
On to women’s vault.
Qualifiers: Nancy Taman, Rebeca Andrade, Ofir Netzer, Csenge Bacskay, Natalia Escalera, Asia D’Amato, Angelina Melnikova, Elisabeth Guerts
Interesting mix here where everyone is either in the “OMG I made a world final” category, or the “THAT MEDAL BETTER BE MINE” category.
VAULT:
Weirdly, they made the time call, but that’s not how things work on vault. For the EF, everyone gets three times over.
Taman 1 – opens with a hit DTY, good control on landing, small hop in place. Lots of deductions for piking and leg crossing though. 14.133
Taman 2 – handspring pike 1/2, bounce back – good direction, some feet, will get deduction for lack of distance. 13.333
Avg: 13.733
Andrade 1 – starts with the Cheng – and it’s humongous obviously – only a little hop. Great, chest down more than her best versions with some piking at the end. 15.133
Andrade 2 – LOLLLL her DTY, so good. Huge, great twisting form, little step. 14.800
Avg: 14.966
Netzer 1 – Tsuk 1/1, bounce back, some pike throughout, feet – having to go after Andrade… 13.633
Netzer 2 – handspring front tuck full, nicely done. Little hop to the side. Can we talk about how that should be worth more than her Tsuk 1/1 but they’re the same D? 13.600. Also it got a lower E score than her first vault, which…
Avg: 13.616.
Bacskay 1 – nearly finds the stick on her Y1.5 – pauses and then hops forward – the big of leg crossing, but good. 13.866
Bacskay 2 – Tsuk 1/1, solid dynamics, but does have a little piking and her bounce back was large-ish. 13.600
Avg: 13.733, that’s the same average as Taman but she goes into 3rd place and Taman is 2nd on account of Taman having the single highest scoring vault.
Group 2 is ready.
Escalera 1 – Y1.5, ooooh nearly sits it down, lands short, large lunge back to save it. 13.366
Escalera 2 – Tsuk 1/1 – pretty solid, two steps back, a little bit of piking but not too much. 13.600
Avg: 13.483, 5th place
The final three are the ones expected to challenge for the silver and bronze positions.
D’Amato 1 – struggles to control the landing on her DTY with a large lunge back and an additional step to meet it, but nice dynamics. 14.133 with an 8.733 execution.
Every vault except Andrade’s and Escalera’s near-fall has been an 8.7 or 8.8 in E.
D’Amato 2 – ro 1/2 on layout 1/2, solid work, minimizes the hop back pretty well, some pike, not enough for a downgrade – a little off line but hops her way back to the center. 14.033, another E score in the 8.8s
Avg: 14.083, 2nd place.
Melnikova 1 – DTY, pretty much her usual, a larger bounce back than she would want and leg crossing. She gets out of the 8.8s though with a 9.033 execution, 14.433
Melnikova 2 – Goes for the Lopez (ro 1/2 on layout 1/2), she did not get layout credit in Q and may not again – pretty large bounce back, piking, some crazy legs on the block, not bad, but I’d call it piked.
And they do downgrade to pike. 13.500
13.966 average, and she’s behind D’Amato! That means a medal for D’Amato.
D credit made the difference there, and I think it’s appropriate.
Geurts 1 – a large bounce back on her DTY and an additional hop – the amplitude and form will carry her some of the way, but she’d have wanted more control there. 14.366. It carried her a lot of the way. Little leg break on block but she keeps her legs together in the air much better.
Geurts 2 – noooooo, handspring front 1/1 attempt but sits it down. Well that’s that. I hated it.
FINAL
Gold: Andrade – 14.966
Silver: D’Amato 14.083
Bronze: Melnikova 13.966
Geurts had a good shot at silver there if she had hit her second vault. Otherwise the placement of the top 3 was predictable.
Long wait for Geurts’s score, she’s like, can I get out of here and go cry myself to sleep please?
ALERT: They still haven’t started the medal ceremonies for floor and vault.
OMG they’re finally starting again. We’re currently 40 MINUTES behind schedule. And now I have to pretend to live blog pommel horse.
Kurbanov – One of my very favorites, keeps his legs together tightly throughout – really nice extension, through the hips, oh but kind of has to plop himself over on his dismount with a large back arch, not the dismount he intended.
Still goes 14.766 with a 6.2 D score.
Ude – really strong Russian work between the pommel and oh now he’s gone. Lost it moving out of the Russians.
13.833 with a 6.1 D score.
Yoder – good solid scissor up to handstand positions, gets a little pike on one pommel but fine – keeping legs together well through his over the pommels travel, though it got a little hairy – thought he might have a moment during his dismount but he pinned around that final full twist. A couple moments but a hit.
14.766. Same as Kurbanova but behind him on the tiebreak, Yoder with a 6.5 D score.
Merdinyan – really high position in his Russian travel and then immediately slips off. 2-2 tie in the epic falls v. hits competition.
13.400 with a 6.2 D score.
Time for the second group.
Weng – the qualification leader – his Russian work on one pommel is sublime, so high over the horse, oh does have a leg break situation but brings it back – keeping his rhythm very well through the magyar and sivado, – dismount gets tricky, a pause and a form break and just does pull it together. Far weaker than qualification.
Still in first. 14.900 and a 6.6 D score.
Nedoroscik – disconcerting lack of goggles – a little slow early but keeps his form and composure – some piked hips in moments, some loose back in moments but avoiding any serious errors – really nicely done. Basically the first FULL hit routine.
15.266! Easily into first place. That will knock Yoder out of the medals.
Kaya – showing a bit more of a piked shape than many of the top workers early in his routine, but his Russian travels and flare travels toward the end are excellent – I’d THOUGHT that form would take him out of contention but…14.900! What do I know about pommel horse.
So he’s exactly tied with Weng now. They both got the same E and D.
Nathan – final competitor – comfortably through his staddle handstand travel – good flare travels as well – really gains some pike after that but working through it – extremely difficult dismount with some form but survived. An exciting routine, shouldn’t win any execution awards, but enjoyable work. 14.733 and 6th place.
FINAL
Gold: Nedoroscik – 15.266
Silver: Kaya – 14.900
Silver: Weng – 14.900
On to bars! Andrade v. Russia v. China
Qualifiers: Wei, Andrade, Iorio, Luo, Urazova, Melnikova, Kovacs, Martins
Wei – inbar full to inbar shap to pak, lovely legs together – van leeuwen, strong – inbar 1/2 to healy to ling , pretty solid finish, REALLY loses her form in the piked jaeger, but catches – DLO 1/1, piking, bounce back. Perfect opening, but the piked jaeger was a thing, and I’m not sure the upgrade to the DLO 1/1 is worth the single tenth. (Actually, I am sure that it is not.)
14.733, which is right with her qualification score. I thought it would be lower.
Andrade – maloney to salder 1/1 to piked tkathchev to pak to toe on – so broken connection into van leeuwen – piked jaeger, solid – lovely 1/2 turn on high – FTDT, hop back. Not her VERY best, she broke a connection and had a pause on stalder before initiating the full turn. End was strong, and individual skill form was there.
Ohhhhh 14.633. Behind Wei. She lost 4 tenths in D. 2 would have been from the broken connection into the piked Jaeger, but what else did she lose? Oh, she left out the toe on before her dismount.
Iorio – Piked Ricna to pak to shaposh to stalder 1/2 to yezhova to van leeuwen, gets her combination, some feet, but through it well – 1/2 turn to front giant to front giant full, not too bad on finish position – double front, little hop. Nice job.
14.400.
Luo – inbar shap to pak, lovely – maloney to giener, low but OK, caught – healy to ling to piked jaeger, great finish position on those pirouettes – that damn 1/2 turn position – FTDT, stuck. That’s my leader, at least.
14.633 and 3rd place. PROTEST. 6.2 D score, 8.433 E. I would have liked to see a higher E score there comparatively.
Urazova – inbar full to inbar shap to pak to van leeuwen, some legs but fine – inbar 1/2 to piked jaeger, catches close, works through it – 1/2 turn – toe full to FTDT, chest down, hop to the side. Good work. It’s not going to hold up in this field today, but a good routine.
I literally wrote Kovacs instead of Urazova, so that’s how my day is going.
14.400 and 5th place.
Melnikova – inbar full to inbar shap to pak, pretty – van leeuwen – inbar 1/2, a bit crooked – gets her piked jaeger, somewhat close – 1/2 turn – toe full to FTDT, little step to the side. This should be interesting.
The 5-medal quest is dead. Melnikova into 4th place with 14.533.
Kovacs – inbar full to stalder shap 1/2 – toe 1/2 to piked jaeger, great height – tkatchev – tkatchev piked to pak, hit – van leeuwen, a leg break – FTDT, small step. Nice job.
14.466 and 5th place. She actually got REALLY close to the medals here.
Martins – Hindorff, good – Martins to yezhova, crazy legs throughout but through it – toe full to maloney to pak, hit – van leeuwen, leg break – DLO, small hop. Hit in the final, though I imagine this will be the lowest E.
14.066
FINAL
Gold: Wei – 14.733
Silver: Andrade – 14.633
Bronze: Luo 14.633
Well at least it’s a medal for Luo.
Rings.
Qualifiers: Tulloch, Maresca, Emard, Lan, Colak, Klimentev, Höck, Lodadio
The FIG media stream died during Tulloch’s routine, so we know how it feels about rings also.
But I did see him fall apart on his dismount, a DLO 1/1 with a huge pike and large stumble forward.
14.200
Maresca with really strong positions throughout, very satifying maltese and planche work in particular – DLO 1/1, stuck landing, lots of pike in his dismount as well, but great work.
14.833
Emard with a great stick on his double double dismount but isn’t quitteee able to match Maresca on execution, a few more hesitant positions, and is a few tenths down on difficulty.
14.533, 2nd place.
Lan is a step above in terms of both difficulty and ease and virtuosity of positions. He arches a handstand before his dismount, DLO 2/1, with a step back. Easy leader.
15.200, 1st place.
Colak does pretty much the very best he can do, perhaps a little high in some crosses? – double front pike dismount, little hop.
14.666 and 3rd place.
Klimentev is extremely smooth in his movements and secure in his strength positions. This should do very well. DLO 1/1, good straight shape, small hop.
14.833 and tied with Maresca.
Hoeck does very well, I would not consider him quite as secure in his first maltese position are some of the others, but these crosses are quite good, one hesitant handstand. DLO 1/1, hop back.
14.733. Almost there. 4th place.
Lodadio finishes out the final, pulls directly up to planche to start, very nice, this is one of the best ones. double double tuck, NEARLY stuck, small step.
14.866 and 2nd place!
Maresca and Klimentev will share bronze.
FINAL
Gold: Lan – 15.200
Silver: Lodadio – 14.866
Bronze: Maresca/Klimentev – 14.833
And Lodadio only got into the final because of a withdrawal.