First, my semi-yearly complaint that event finals should be performed in qualification order from 8-to-1, rather than by random draw. Rewarding performance in qualification should be a thing, and it makes the final more interesting to follow. Continue reading European Championships Senior Event Finals – Live Blog
Let’s go!
As discussed yesterday, Italy is in for Belgium in the team final.
Unfortunately, they’ve placed Italy into Belgium’s slot rather than reseeding, which means we still have major medal contenders in three rotation groups instead of two, which in turn means we’re going to miss more vital routines. It happened more than 24 hours before the final. There was time to reseed. Continue reading European Championships Team Final – Live Blog
| VAULT | BARS | BEAM | FLOOR | |
| Group 1 | DENMARK | SWEDEN LUXEMBOURG CYPRUS CROATIA |
BULGARIA IRELAND GEORGIA LITHUANIA |
SLOVENIA |
| Group 2 | CZECH REPUBLIC |
— |
We’re sans broadcast thus far because the French LIED TO US and Flo LIED TO US. Anyway, here’s what has been happening…
The first subdivision started off slowly with none of the major teams yet competing, though it did nearly bring our first surprise of the competition. After three events, Slovenia was leading the favored Czech Republic by more than a point on the strength of the expected high vault scores and a surprisingly proficient bars rotation that successfully carried out a strategy of low difficulty but not-terrible execution. THE CONCEPT.
Things fell apart for Slovenia on beam, having to count an 8.900 from Hribar, which opened the door for the Czech Republic to pass with a hit floor, which it got, led by a 12.833 from Holasova. The Czech Republic had to count a 10 on both bars and beam and suddenly found itself without expected AAer Lucie Jirikova (who was able to compete only bars), but while it was far from an ideal performance or situation, the Czech Republic still did enough to take a temporary lead. Continue reading European Championships Qualification – What You’re Missing
Gather ’round dear peasants! The 32nd European Gymnastics Championship, sponsored by Surgery, has arrived on our shores.
The story of this competition is how everyone you have ever heard of is broken into a thousand pieces and not competing (the latest official victims being Becky Downie, Anamaria Ocolisan, and Eythora Thorsdottir). On the fun side, that means chaos. Some unexpected nations/people are going to make finals, and significant portions of the traditional order of things have been thrown directly into the garbage.
Here’s your US-time schedule for the women (the men start next week):
Thursday, August 2
5:00am ET/2:00am PT – Women’s Senior Qualification Sub 1
(CZE, DEN, SLO, BUL, IRL, GEO, LTU, SWE, LUX, CYP, CRO)
8:15am ET/5:15am PT – Women’s Senior Qualification Sub 2
(UKR, SVK, TUR, ISL, POL, FIN, AUT, LAT)
11:00am ET/8:00am PT – Women’s Senior Qualification Sub 3
(NED, BEL, ESP, NOR, POR, AZE, GRE, ISR)
2:00pm ET/11:00am PT – Women’s Senior Qualification Sub 4
(RUS, FRA, GBR, GER, ITA, HUN, ROU, SUI)
Friday, August 3
5:00am ET/2:00am PT – Women’s Junior Team/AA Sub 1
(RUS, FRA, POL, AUT)
8:15am ET/5:15am PT – Women’s Junior Team/AA Sub 2
(GBR, GER, ITA, FIN, IRL, GRE, ISR, LAT)
10:45am ET/7:45am PT – Women’s Junior Team/AA Sub 3
(NED, ROU, ESP, SUI, HUN, DEN, BLR, AZE, SWE, SLO, CYP)
1:30pm ET/10:30am PT – Women’s Junior Team/AA Sub 4
(BEL, UKR, CZE, NOR, TUR, ISL, LUX, POR, LTU, BUL, SVK, ARM)
Saturday, August 4
8:00am ET/5:00am PT – Women’s Senior Team Final
Sunday, August 5
5:00am ET/2:00am PT – Women’s Junior Event Finals
9:30am ET/6:30am PT – Women’s Senior Event Finals
As for streaming, the finals on Saturday and Sunday are being carried by a number of outlets like Flo and Eurovisionsports, so you’ll be able to find something that works for you. While it didn’t initially appear that anyone was carrying qualification or juniors, the outlook is becoming increasingly encouraging that we’ll get something from Flo or FranceTVSport or UEG on facebook, which live streamed video of podium training today.
On to the event!
Despite Russia’s requisite team selection drama and the surprising omissions of Komova and Ilyankova, Russia‘s team of Melnikova, Simakova, Perebinosova, Akhaimova, and Alexeeva will nonetheless enter the competition as the favorite to win team gold with the highest scoring potential of the bunch.
If Simakova and Akhaimova are on, Russia should have the biggest vaults, and this team was selected to give Russia an edge over the other contenders on floor. This is absolutely not the most relaxing bars team Russia could have come up with, but everyone competing bars is capable of 14s. Beam is also an event.
But, watch out for France. Continue reading European Championships Preview
