We’re a go for the first day of event finals at the Commonwealth Games starting with men’s floor, where Giarnni Regini-Moran was the top qualifier followed closely by Northern Ireland’s Eamon Montgomery and the new all-around champion Jake Jarman.
We have an unsurprising batch of withdrawals from the rings final already, with Ilias Georgiou (who was hanging on by a thread in the team competition) and Jesse Moore (who was injured in the AA final) both withdrawing. They’re replaced by Daniel Lee of Jersey, who has put up a fantastic competition so far, and Samuel Dick of New Zealand.
But now, floor.
Clay Mason-Stephens has emerged in one of those Australia dangly hats. This is the attitude we’re looking for from the Commonwealth Games.
Men’s Floor
Dolci – CAN – front full to front doubel pike, solid, small movement – double double, good position – front lay to front 2.1, pleasant twisting form – double front tuck, small hop forward – 2.5 to tuck 1/2, solid stick – 3/1, small hop. Nothing large given away in those landings, but small hops on all. 14.166 big number.
Regini-Moran – ENG – double front pike 1/2, stuck – double double, shorter landing, hop forward – 2.5 to front lay to front tuck, a bit over on 2.5, low on front lay only does a front tuck out – double front tuck, small hop – front 2.5, stuck – 3/1, also stuck to finish. 13.966 not bad but not in first. Same E score as Dolci.
Barber – WAL – front 2/1, stuck – double arabian full out, and well done – double double has a step back – 2/1, stuck with a lean forward – 2.5 to front layout, good stick – double arabian final pass, large crossover step. Really good tumbling and enough sticks, don’t expect the E score to match the first two though. 13.800.
Baines – SCO – front 2/1 to pretty layout, hop forward – front full to just a front tuck, but a kick out and stuck landing – 2/1, stuck – double arabian, bounce forward. And he’s done. Not much D there but it was the prettiest. 13.566 but nearly manages a 9 in E.
Cemlyn-Jones – WAL – front 2.5, stuck – doubel front pike is veryvery short, sits it down – 2.5 to front full, hop – 2/1, little hop – short of wide arm handstand position – front 2/1 to 1/2, stuck nicely – 3/1, hop. Our first miss of the final. 11.366
Montgomery – NIR – double double tuck, hop back – front full to double front, nice stick, some cowboy – front 2.5, small hop – 2/1, shuffle back – 2.5 to front layout, clean and stuck – front 2/1 to layout 1/2, also stuck – 3/1 is pretty short with a large hop to the side. That could be medal decisive, the rest was pretty strong. 13.666 and out of the medals with the 7.766 E score.
Jarman – ENG – DLO 2/1 is hit, some piking – triple double tuck, small hop back – back 1.5 to front lay to front 2/1, small hop – 2/1, a bit of movement – front full to front 2.5, hit – 3/1, solid, against just a small rebound as on most of the elements. He’ll have the difficulty. 14.666 is a huge number, easily into first.
Mason-Stephens – AUS – front double pike, small hop forward – front full to double front, stuck – double double tucked, crunched over, a bit of movement – 2.5 to front layout, misses his punch into the layout, has to arch it a bunch and falls – 2/1, stuck – double arabian, short, lunge back. 12.366
Men’s Floor:
Gold – Jarman
Silver – Dolci
Bronze – Regini-Moran
Jarman was a clear step above in tumbling difficulty with the triple double, with the DLO double full, so there was no catching him. Dolci glorious to watch but would have had to stick everything basically.
Part B will see us move on to pommel horse and women’s vault. I see that we’re still doing mid-finals medal ceremonies instead of doing all the sentimental hogwash at the end.
Pommel Horse and Women’s Vault
Tamane of Canada starts the horse final, hits his legs against the horse on his initial Russians between the pommels, and then off completely on a Russian travel. 10.833
Nayak VT 1 – IND – Tsuk 2/1 is the highest D we’ll see, but it’s rather short, chest down, lunge sideward and out of bounds. 13.633
Nayak VT 2 – IND – handspring front tuck full attempt, upgrade from qualification, a couple large lunges forward, looks like knee scraped the mat as well. Should have the most D of the final, but the E probably won’t get her there. 11.766. So they did say that was a knee down fall.
12.699 average.
Marios Georgiou is up second on horse, was going beautifully until his hand slipped on a forward travel right at the end of the routine. But after dislocating-we-think his thumb on horse en route to the team bronze, it seems he retained all phalanges this time. So that’s something. 13.166
0 for 2 on horse.
Denommee – VT 1 – CAN – VERY good Y1.5, stuck landing, good direction, just some knee bending in the air. 13.566
Denommee – VT 2 – CAN – handspring pike 1/2, another great landing. Couldn’t have done better. She’s getting deducted for a bit of knee and foot form, but very good. 12.900
13.233
Fraser up 3rd on horse, he was first in qualification, just a fantastic routine, good body extension, legs together, elevation over the pommels.
14.833 his huge.
Kennedy VT 1 – SCO – opens with a Yfull, pretty large bounce back, some foot flexing – that’s a downgrade from her 1.5 in qualification. I think an in-the-moment adjustment. 12.866
Kennedy VT 2 – SCO – Tsuk back layout, bounce back, some legs on block. Solid. 12.400
12.633 average is 3rd.
McClenaghan up 4th in the final, will need to upgrade closer to his max D to beat Fraser. Didn’t do everything in qualification. He was looking so damn good as usual but then has a massive leg break toward the end and did not get his intended dismount. Not going to do it.
14.133 and into 2nd.
Daries – VT 1 – RSA – good height on yfull – pikes it down to find the landing, bounce back. 12.800
Daries – VT 2 – RSA – handspring front pike, comes up somewhat short with a lunge backward and OOB to save herself. 12.300
12.550 average is 4th.
Spence VT 1 – CAN – Y1.5 is pretty solid, good distance, medium hop forward and knees. An NCAA 9.850. Or famous team 9.900. 13.500
Spence VT 2 – CAN – Tsuk tuck full, larger bounce back there, solid tuck position. 12.600
13.050 average and into 2nd. Similar Es to Denommee but she didn’t stick.
Moore did not withdraw from this final because pommel horse, a bit lower and more piked than Fraser or McClenaghan, but really good difficulty andddddd it was almost great. Can’t get up to handstand on dismount and falls off. 13.366
2 for 5 so far.
Godwin – VT 1 – AUS – Tsuk 1.5 is good, only a small step back, much better than her vault in the AA, when I thought she had taken herself out of gold initially with a short landing. 13.700
Godwin VT 2 – AUS – handspring pike 1/2 – a somewhat locked landing with a bounce back, good direction. 12.766
13.233 is first on the tiebreak! I would have had Denommee ahead personally.
Hall is up 6th in the horse final, a couple large leg breaks in Russian travel but gets through with a hit routine, he’s not going to have the E score because of that leg break and because of general swing position but successful. Limps away because of life.
13.433 into 3rd. Actually only barely ahead of Moore’s fall.
Whitehead VT 1 – AUS – way way short on her 1.5 and falls, she was struggling on that in the AA as well. 11.866
Whitehead VT 2 – AUS – ro 1/2 on front pike, deep and a large lunge to the side and OOB. 11.933
11.899 and 7th.
Rampersad up 7th on horse, he was the final qualifier into the final, keeps on trend with a large leg break on travel – but pulls it back together. Not the same D as a Hall but managed a solid one.
14.000 and into 3rd!
Archer – VT 1 – SCO – DTY isn’t quite as good and qualification, a large step back and then an additional step, but the difficulty will keep her competitive with that. But .3 OOB for just 13.266
Archer VT 2 – SCO – goes for the Tsuk full but it’s fairly piked, chest forward with a step. Not quite what she needed. 12.900
13.083 is just enough to get ahead of Spence and into bronze position.
Dick finishes the horse final with a serviceable routine. He’s not going to be way up there with a shorter set and a generally lower position, but good hit.
13.466 with a solid 8.466 E but just 5.2 D. That’s good enough for 4th.
Women’s Vault
Gold – Godwin
Silver – Denommee
Bronze – Archer
A second gold for Godwin there, a solid silver for Denommee with the best landings in the final and did out-execution Godwin but the tiebreak on vault is the best single vault score which Godwin had, Archer uses her difficulty and hangs on for 3rd ahead of Spence, who got her bronze in the AA final.
Pommel horse
Gold – Fraser
Silver – McClenaghan
Bronze – Rampersad
A couple mistakes from McClenaghan meant that it was always only ever going to be Fraser for gold. Big surprise was Rampersad’s bronze. Pommels gonna pommel.
Uneven Bars and Ringydingies
Lee starts on rings, having been promoted into the final after a withdrawal, won’t have the difficulty to contend for a medal here, but very solid hold positions, double double dismount is short with his lunge forward.
12.900
Rooskrantz – UB – RSA – good first hs – shaposh to pak, legs together well – van leeuwen, small leg break, good hs on high – blind change to piked jaeger, legs look good – Ray to gienger, catches somewhat close – toe full, a bit late – FTDT, step back. Should score well.
13.433, similar to qualification.
Samual Dick is second on rings, also promoted into the final after qualifying in 11th, also making the most of it, cross position looked high but good handstands, has an issue on his FTDT dismount, also short with a lunge forward.
12.900 as well, behind Lee on the E tiebreak.
Achampong – UB – inbar to inbar 1/2 to jaeger, a little floppy on jaeger but hit – stalder tkatcehv piked to pak, hit – toe full, leg break and pause in the middle – stalder shap 1/2, some legs, caught – FTDT, chest down, hop forward. Similar to what we’ve seen thus far from her, leg separations and body position moments that can take the E down, but big difficulty and a hit.
13.433 and behind Rooskrantz on execution.
Fraser up 3rd on rings, very good flat maltese and cross positions, smooth and comfortable handstands – double double dismount, step back.
14.100 into first by more than a point but down on qualification by a fair margin.
Archer – UB – maloney to bail, good legs together – toe on to toe shoot, close catch, casts out of it fine – blind to jaeger, high, some loose back position early in the release – giant full, good finish position – DLO 1/1, lunge forward. Well, that was pretty much as well as she can do.
12.366
Kaji finishes up this first group on rings, good crisp positions, small hesitation in handstand, but otherwise very comfortable, DLO full, some piking, bounce back.
14.266 is ahead of Fraser and into first. Showed 0.3 more on D.
McDonald weiler and can’t get it up into the half turn, stops aghainst the bar – shap – nice high tkatchev into pak – van leeuwen, legs together – toe full, late – FTDT, hop back. Really nice second half but a large error on the first element.
12.533
Tulloch up 5th on rings, certainly has the difficult to demolish the field. And does, more difficulty and smoother positions. Only issue is DLO 1/1 landing, step back and an additional small step.
14.400 into first.
Godwin – UB – weiler to weiler 1/2 to maloney to pak is all comfortable, good legs – short hs – van leeuwen is solid – blind to piked jaeger, hit – cast 1/2, little bit of legs – giant full – DLO, pinged off but got it, hop up.
13.500 goes into first. On her way to another medal.
Karnejenko up next on rings, not quite as flat and crisp in holds as Tulloch or Kaji, a hesitation on his final handstand, slightly bringing the rings together, could cost him, but just a small step back on dismount, which is a smaller error than most so far.
13.766
Spence – UB – good hs – toe full to maloney to pak to van leeuwen, great sequence, thought a larger leg break on VL – hits jaeger, cast 1/2 a bit late – just a double tuck dismount and it’s almost a disaster, steps back to save it.
Pilakouris 7th on rings, when he goes, rings looks as hard as it is because of all the shaking, but he shows good difficulty, DLO 1/1 with step, some piking. Solid hit.
14.300 puts him in 2nd.
Fenton – UB – opens with the toe-on tkatchev pike 1/2 into yezhova – maloney to pak, feet but solid, legs together – van leeuwen is nice – clear hip to giant full – FTDT, stuck with a stagger. That’s the best we’ve seen so far.
13.900 and first place.
Dolci finishes the rings final, and the big check in his column is the first stuck dismount of the final. As we know, that’s what rings is and nothing else. Shh, don’t tell anyone. Very smooth routine. E score will be huge, but does he have the D?
13.966. I thought his E would be higher. But he didn’t have the D anyway.
Lalonde – UB – stalder full to shap to pak, a bit of back but really nice position overall – van leeuwen, good legs togther – blind to jaeger, pretty – toe tuck 1/2 dismount, step back. Really pretty work. That will be such a high-scoring NCAA routine if she goes that direction. She could get 10s.
13.333 is 5th. Justified top E score of the final.
Rings:
Gold – Tulloch
Silver – Pilakouris
Bronze – Kaji
Bars:
Gold – Fenton
Silver – Godwin
Bronze – Rooskrantz
Fenton the clear class of the bars field. Godwin with her fourth medal, 2 gold 2 silver, in four finals. Rooskrantz comes through with a big bronze on bars. Well done after the miss in the AA