First half of event finals, etc!
As of now, Zoja Szekely remains on the start list for the bars final despite her injury in the middle of the AA that caused her to scratch the rest. The only change thus far is Voinea coming off the reserves list for vault. She had been R1.
Men’s floor final is up first.
Nelson (USA) starts the final, one step OOB on his triple pike, keeps the triple tuck in bounds with a hop back. Holds onto the landing on his front full to double front. Hop back DLO 1/1. 14.133 is down on Q. 6.3/7.933.
Yulo (PHI) up second, hop forward front double pike in combination. Double double lay is so good, lunge. Nearly sticks 3.5 side pass, little hop. Front 2/1 to excellent layout, another hop. DLO 1/1, wonderful stick. 14.533, nearly the same as Q. 5.9/8.633.
Meszaros (HUN) nearly falls on front full to double front pike, big lunge back. Good stick on double front in combo. Bounces back on a randi but keeps it in. Double double tuck, chest down, lunge. 13.266. 5.6/7.766.
Whitehouse (GBR) triple tuck first pass is strong, little hop, much better than Q. Front 2/1 to double front with hop. Randi side pass with hop to the side. Double front pike, small bounce. 3/1 side pass, little rebound. Double double tuck, very solid. 14.666 ahead of Yulo and into 1st! 6.1/8.566.
Minami (JPN) our first major error of the final, opens with a fall on double front tuck. Then sticks a triple double, obvi. Bounces OOB on a rudi. Double double tuck, also short. Hop. A classic FML bow to finish. 12.533. 5.6/7.133
Surintornta (THA) front 2/1 to double front is stuck. Nearly sticks front 1/1 to double front pike, hop. Sticking almost everything until double Arabian, large lunge. 13.700 and into 4th. Great work. 5.5/8.500.
Jarman (GBR) kind of bouncy on triple double lay, OOB. Another shuffle forward on back 2.5 to double front, adding in extra steps after hops on a couple passes. Stuck 3/1 side pass was a highlight. Nearly sticks double double final pass, very good. 14.866 is now 1st. 6.3/8.666.
Someone knows how to react to his scores. Correct.
Karimi (KAZ) double front pike is deep but stuck somehow. Great stick on front 2/1 to double front. Triple full, little movement. Double double tuck lunge back. Fab double Arabian 1/2 out. 13.600 is into 6th place. 5.1/8.400
FINAL
1) Jarman – 14.866
2) Whitehouse – 14.666
3) Yulo – 14.533
4) Nelson – 14.133
5) Surintornta – 13.700
6) Karimi – 13.600
7) Meszaros – 13.266
8) Minami – 12.533
Women’s Vault
Deng (CHN) – VT 1 – Handspring rudi, WHAT THE…….. Were her steps off? She just rebounded off the springboard over the vault and did nothing. Well, now I’m depressed.
She’s not going to be allowed a second vault. They’re giving her DNS.
Roberson (USA) – VT 1 – posting the Cheng number. Twist, gives us the ro 1/2 on front full. Hop forward. Pretty solid, leg sep on the block, tucking knees in the air. 13.966. 5.2/8.766
Roberson (USA) – VT 2 – DTY, landed, lunge back OOB and lots of knees, short of rotation and chest position to take. 13.600. 5.0/8.600.
13.983 for Roberson. Would have been 5th in qualification.
Vaelen (BEL) – VT 1 – Handspring rudi, hit pretty well, chest up, knees snd legs, hop back and to the side – and then the silliest salute, where she step saluted, and then started walking off, and then stopped stepping to salute for realsies to make sure she didn’t get Simone-ed? This final has officially reached bizarre status. 14.100, 5.4/8.700.
Vaelen (BEL) – VT 2 – Tsuk full, solid, hop back, some pike throughout, not an absolute ton of dynamics but done as needed. 13.233. 4.4/8.833
13.866 into 2nd behind Roberson.
Kalmykova – VT 1 – Handspring rudi from her and she did not have the height from the start, short, fall, hand down. 12.866. 5.4/7.566.
Honestly Voinea should have made this final because she’s the only one who can handle these apparatuses apparently.
Kalmykova – VT 2 – Y1.5 is fine, little hop to the side, good direction, a bit of knees. 13.533. 4.6/8.933.
13.199 is still 3rd for the moment.
Warmup group 2 getting started. Melnikova, Schoenmaier, and Fontaine just need to be normal to medal. But in this vault final. Melnikova just warmed up a crashed Cheng
Schönmaier (GER) – VT 1 – and she has posted the Cheng ahhhh – and it’s great! Upgrades to the Cheng and lands the best Cheng of the meet BUTTTT I have some one-hand and incomplete twist onto the table issues. If you were worried about Leanne’s Cheng hand. Here there’s no contact.
One-hand vault triggers an automatic video review. So that’s our delay.
They took the 2 points off for a one-hand vault. 12.533.
Karina we were rooting for you, we were all rooting for you. She could have medaled with the Lopez.
Another great WTF is my score face.
Schönmaier – VT 2 – DTY is fantastic, great height, bounce back, little bit of knees. 14.033. 5.0/9.033.
This final, everybody.
13.483 for Schönmaier into 3rd.
Fontaine (CAN) – VT 1 – DTY, hits it, not in control on the landing with a hop back and another lunge, but she didn’t rob a bank in the middle of it or something else bizarre, so good enough. 13.933. 5.0/8.933
Fontaine (CAN) – VT 2 – Lopez, good clear open shape so definitely will get layout credit, medium hop back. Solid. 13.733. 4.8/8.933
14.033 and into 1st!
Melnikova – VT 1 – DTY first vault, solid, little hop back, leg crossing throughout. Good. 14.100. 5.0/9.100. Have a bit of an issue with that DTY outscoring Schönmaier’s 2nd vault.
Melnikova – VT 2 – Does the Cheng and lands it, chest down, a couple stagger steps around on landing, near Paseka legs on block, but she’ll get credit for a hit vault with high difficulty, which is all she needed. 14.433. 5.6/8.833
14.466 easily into first.
Mörz (AUT) – VT 1 – Handspring and only does the tuck 1/2, got a lot of height but wanted to lay that out – large bounce back and low difficulty. 12.700. 3.8/8.900
Love this Taishan commercial. What a cool, fun experience.
Mörz (AUT) – VT 2 – Tsuk full to her feet – powerful, out of control with bounces back, some piking. 13.166. 4.4/8.766
13.133 is 7th.
FINAL
1) Melnikova – 14.466
2) Fontaine – 14.033
3) Roberson – 13.983
4) Vaelen – 13.866
5) Schönmaier – 13.483
6) Kalmykova – 13.199
7) Mörz – 13.133
8) Deng – DNS
This vault final is my villain origin story.
The US women won the Fujitsu Infinity Award for excellence in the field of………infinitys?
Wait I found their submission document.
Very compelling.
But if it’s actually supposed to be some kind of combination of fun + good at gymnastics (????), it should have been the Chinese women.
On to pommel horse.
This year’s horse final has a distinct lack of balding men in their late 30s, and I won’t stand for it. Not my pommel horse final.
But we do have a gymnast named Hamlet. Which we need more of. Great feet. Fully tucks a circle right before dismount. Mannukyan goes 14.433. 5.8/8.633. A tad down from qualification.
Hoopes (USA) was very clean in the 2nd position, just a light mustache deduction. 14.566 is into first, same as qualification. 6.0/8.566.
These bib numbers have been through it this week. Everyone’s looks like a mouse chewed the edges.
Idrissov (KAZ) up 3rd and shows the first major error, large straddle into dismount and bails out of it. 13.666. 5.5/8.166
Yolshin-Cash (GBR) rounds out the first pack of competitors, though with the name Alexander Yolshin-Cash, he missed his calling as the host of a Radio 4 show where you have to make anagrams out of the names of historical figures against the clock. 14.366. 5.8/8.566. Into 3rd.
Li (CAN) is up 5th and by up I mean immediately off the horse. Misses his dismount as well.
Hong (CHN) well that was glorious. 14.600 is into 1st. Just ahead of Hoopes with much lower D, but he gets a 9.0 E score because it was magnificent to look at.
Kurbanov (KAZ) was the top qualifier with a 14.7, and he was struggling through it from the first element, ended up continuing for a while but with much less amplitude than his normal, and eventually comes off. 13.533. 6.0/7.533
Tiesssssss. Khachatryan (ARM) finishes out the final very well and also scores 14.600 but will be in behind Hong on the execution tiebreak. 5.8/8.800 for Khachatryan.
FINAL
1) Hong – 14.600
2) Khachatryan – 14.600
3) Hoopes – 14.566
4) Manukyan – 14.433
5) Yolshin-Cash – 14.366
6) Idrissov – 13.666
7) Kurbanov – 13.533
8) Li – 12.366
Uneven bars
Zoja Szekely is here and going. Both knees heavily mummified.
Blakely (USA) – Owen, be taller, you can’t scrape all that chalk off with this shortness. Stalder full to Church, hit – stalder tkatchev piked to pak, good, muchhhhhh better Pak – toe full to van leeuwen, little leg separation – toe higgins, a bit late – double front 1/2 out, small step. Very strong, her best bars in a while. 14.333. 6.2/8.133
Melnikova – inbar full to inbar shap to pak, legs together, connects to van leeuwen, larger leg break there – inbar 1/2, another leg break, a little past, to piked jaeger, elbows – giant 1/2, past – toe full to FTDT, good stick, a little deep. Strong, not as good as AA final. 14.500. 6.3/8.2 and into 1st.
Visser (NED) – stalder tkatchev piked to pak, good – maloney to clear hip 1/2, late, into yezhova, small leg break – stalder full, no connection, recasts to van leeuwen – toe full, past, into FTDT, hop forward. 14.066 6.2/7.866 into 3rd.
McDonald (AUS) – weiler 1/2 to maloney to clear hip full, a little past – tkatchev is high and excellent, pak a little close – van leeuwen, legs together – toe full to FTDT, chest down, hop forward. Not as clean as Q. But nearly the same score. 14.166 is now in 3rd. 6.0/8.166
Yang (CHN) – healy, tucks her legs after again but still does the jaeger full – stalder tkatchev piked to pak is hit – stalder full to van leeuwen, nice – good hs on high – toe full to FTDT, slightly awkward landing, a couple steps. Ooooh 14.500 is behind Melnikova. 6.7/7.800. Tied overall but behind on E.
Sam and Laurie going hard on “she’ll go ahead of Melnikova” again and it’s wrong again.
Szekely (HUN) – inbar full, hit – inbar shap to pak, legs together well, connects to stadler shap and gienger inbar – piked jaeger, nice – giant 1/2, better final – toe full to FTDT and tries to land it and collapses. Almost like she had a major injury in the AA final yesterday. 12.433. 5.8/6.633
Vasileva – inbar shap to stalder full to pak, smooth – van leeuwen, small leg break – inbar 1/2 to piked jaeger – giant 1/2, bast – inbar full to FTDT, stagger step forward on landing. 14.066. 6.2/7.866
Nemour (ALG) – Inbar full to Nemour to pak to maloney to stalder full to stalder tkatchev 1/2 to yezhova to stalder shap 1/2 – yes – toe full to DLO, small leg separation, stuck. Well, she did that. Give her a 16. 15.566. 7.1/8.466.
FINAL
1) Nemour – 15.566
2) Melnikova – 14.500
3) Yang – 14.500
4) Blakely – 14.333
5) McDonald – 14.166
6) Vasileva – 14.066
6) Visser – 14.066
8) Szekely – 12.433
We’ll round out the first day of event finals with the Buffest Baby Pageant.
Lan (CHN) opens the final, very straight positions on planche and maltese, does have a handstand hesitation, slightly brings rings together, double double layout dismount, hop forward. 14.500. 5.9/8.600, loses several tenths from Q.
Zhang (CHN) also had a light handstand hesitation but his double double lay is better, chest up and hop back. 14.466. 5.5/8.966. Better E but didn’t have the D.
Tim: “That’s called a plange.” It is not.
Asil (TUR) up third, clearest handstands of the three who have gone so far, double double layout is lower, more similar to Lan, with the hop forward. 14.566 is into first. 5.7/8.866
Souza (BRA) some more elbow hesitations in these handstands – triple back tuck dismount with a hop back. 14.166. 5.7/8.466
Petrounias (GRE) does normal Petrounias things but gets a little formy on his double double lay with some knees and a leg separation, bounce back. 14.300 is only into 4th. 5.7/8.600.
Hepworth (GBR) gives us the inverted cross we’ve been waiting for but hands down on his triple tuck dismount. 13.366. 5.8/7.566.
Cuyle (BEL) also takes himself out of it with the triple back, not a fall but a chest down landing with a couple big lunges. 13.933. 5.8/8.133
Whittenburg (USA) finishes off the final with another very strong triple pike dismount, just a hop back, solid chest position, definitely the best routine of the final. 14.700 again, which will win gold. 6.0/8.700
FINAL
1) Whittenburg – 14.700
2) Asil – 14.566
3) Lan – 14.500
4) Zhang – 14.466
5) Petrounias – 14.300
6) Souza – 14.166
7) Cuyle – 13.933
8) Hepworth – 13.366
Asil trying to pick up Whittenburg for a second. That’s not happening. We’re not doing that.