mckayla maroney

mckayla maroney

Luiza Galiulina fails drug test.

From BBC Sport:

Artistic gymnast Luiza Galiulina has been suspended from the Olympic Games after failing a drugs test. Galiulina, of Uzbekistan, tested positive for the banned diuretic furosemide on Wednesday, the International Olympic Committee said. 

The 20-year-old, from Tashkent, had her case heard in London on Saturday evening and will have a "B" urine sample tested on Sunday.The IOC said she was provisionally suspended "with immediate effect".

Furosemide is a diuretic or 'water pill', there is really no reason for a young gymnast to be taking it (although it would cause initial weight loss)

Such a shame :-( Galiulina attended her first olympics in Beijing and has improved so so much since then. She would have had a decent shot at the all-around final.

Let The Games Begin!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Friday and is settled to enjoy the opening ceremony. Here in the UK it seems most of the 'bah-humbugs' have gone into hiding and people are truely excited to see the greatest sporting event on earth come to our back yard.

So far we've already had bells ring out accross the country in time with Big Ben, the olympic torch is riding on the royal barge and we're hoping for some early gold tomorrow with the cycling road race (come on Cavendish!), Judo and Swimming. Not to mention our hopes with the British men in the O2 (sorry, North Greenwich arena)

It's sad then to hear the reports of nagging injuries to McKayla Maroney (still very much the one to beat on vault), China and Romania's young talents Larisa Iordache and Yao Jinnan. Here's hoping the excitement of competition will carry them through and they can still look back on the biggest competition of their lives as a success.

Enjoy the spectacle, see you for competition tomorrow!

Just for fun: before they were olympians...

 Tiny Deng LinLin, soon to be 2-time olympian.

 SIX time olympian Oksana Chusovitina

2012 British beam Champion and 1st time Olympian Jenni Pinches 

 Gabby Douglas, hoping to add gold to her medal collection

 Canadian champ Kristina Vakulik

 Russia's top medal hope, the young Komova

 Aussie's first world champion gymnast, Lauren Mitchell

Canadian olympian Brittany Rogers

Childhood friends and olympic team-mates, Kyla Ross and McKayla Maroney

Almost time...

We have counted down to the 2012 olympics in years, months and weeks, now it is just 4 days until the opening ceremonies. Most of the teams are now settling into the olympic village and making final touches in the training gyms.

Here is a brief preview of what is to come:
(all times GMT)

Saturday 28th: Men's Artistic, Qualification
11:00 - Subdivision 1 (GB, Korea, China, France, 2 mixed groups)
15:30 - Subdivision 2 (Italy, USA, Japan, 3 mixed groups)
20:00 - Subdivision 3 (Spain, Ukraine, Germany Russia, Romania, Mixed Group)
UK Broadcast: Live on BBC sport (online or on Sky, Freesat or Virgin)
Also coverage on BBC3 between 11.00 and 14.00

Sunday 29th: Women's Artistic, qualification 
09:30 - Sub 1 (Brazil, 3 mixed groups)
11:15 - Sub 2 (Italy, Australia, 2 mixed groups)
14:45 - Sub 3 (USA, Canada, GB, France)
16:30 - Sub 4 (Germany, China, Russia, mixed group)
20:00 - Sub 5 (Japan, Romania, 2 mixed groups)
Broadcast live on BBC sport, GB's subdivision on BBC3

Monday 30th: Men's Team Final 16:30
Tuesday 31st: Women's Team Final 16:30

Wednesday 1st: Men's AA Final 14:00
Thursday 2nd: Women's AA Final 14:00

Friday  3rd: Men's Trampoline (Qualification and Final) 14:00
Saturday 4th: Women's Trampoline 14:00

Sunday 5th: Artistic Event Finals
(Mens FX, Pommels, Women's vault)
Monday 6th: Artistic Event Finals
(Men's Rings, Women's Bars, Men's Vault)
Tuesday 7th: Artistic Event Finals
(Men's P bars, High bar, Women's beam, floor) 

9th and 10th: Rhythmic Qualifications
Saturday 11th: Rhythmic Individual Finals
Sunday 12th: Rhythmic Group Final

I will of course be watching the games and keeping as much commentary and results coverage coming your way as possible.

Gymnastics: Team GB!

Women’s Artistic

• Imogen Cairns
• Jennifer Pinches
• Rebecca Tunney
• Elizabeth Tweddle
• Hannah Whelan

Men’s Artistic

• Sam Oldham
• Daniel Purvis
• Louis Smith
• Kristian Thomas
• Max Whitlock

Trampoline Individual Female

• Katherine Driscoll

Rhythmic Individual

• Francesca Jones

Rhythmic Group

• Georgina Cassar
• Jade Faulkner
• Francesca Fox
• Lynne Hutchison
• Louisa Pouli
• Rachel Smithre

http://www.teamgb.com/news/eighteen-gymnasts-selected-team-gb-london-2012

Congratulations to all the selected gymnasts.
BG has not yet announced the reserve athletes. Many are disappointed by the absense of Dan Keatings and Becky Downie.

UPDATE
From the sounds of it the reserve gymnasts for women's are Danusia Francis, Becky Downie and Niamh Rippin.
Downie on twitter: It's finally out & unfortunately I'm a reserve for Team GB !! I've had a very tough ride these past 2 years but this is NOT the end ....

Olympic training gyms unveiled.

Thanks to Full Twist for linking this. Equipment provider Gymnova has unveiled their MASSIVE olympic training gym for the olympic games. There seems to be 3 or 4 or 5 of everything all in one big space! It's a very impressive facility although I wonder how frantic it will be when filled with athletes and how easy it will be to maintain temperature etc in such a large space.

It doesn't say where exactly the facility is but it will likely be a short distance from the North Greenwich (O2) arena. At the 2009 worlds the training venue was the David Beckham Football Acedemy.

Any gymnasts out there, would this be your dream or nightmare training space?

More photos here. 

Team GB Gymnastics Announcement: Wednesday 1pm

Unfortunately I'm going to be in a seminar at 1pm tomorrow, so here is the link to the British Gymnastics page where it will be announced and also to the live video announcement.

The GB gymnastics olympics teams will be announced Wednesday at 1pm GMT.

Good luck to all the gymnasts in the mix!

Return of the Queen: Yu-Na Kim targets Sochi

Great news for figure skating fans. World and Olympic champion Yu-Na Kim has announced she is going to make a shot at another olympics. 

Kim raised the bar and smashed records in Vancouver, but her overwhelming fame in South Korea and across the world led her to take some time away from the spotlight after the games.

At a press conference in Seoul Kim had this to say, (source: Korea Real Time)


“I skipped last season and had a lot on my mind about my career, even until last week,” she said, “I had trouble finding my next goal after winning a gold medal at the Vancouver Olympics but the interest of the public and my fans in me got even bigger.”

“I wanted to get away from the pressure, even for a single day,” she confessed.

“I always thought the Vancouver Olympics would be my last destination, but I’m extending it to Sochi……I want to start anew, not as an Olympic medalist but just as yet another figure skater,

This is great news for a sport which has lacked some star power since the absence of Queen Yu-Na.

USA vs the world.

Unless you've been living under a rock, it's pretty unlikely you missed the announcement of the USA's olympic gymnastics teams yesterday.

Men's team: 
Danell Leyva, John Orozco, Jonathan Horton, Sam Makulak, Jake Dalton
Men's Alternates:
Chris Brooks, Stephen Legendre, Alex Naddour
Women's team: 
Gabrielle Douglas, Jordyn Wieber, Alexandra Raisman, Kyla Ross, McKayla Maroney
Women's alternates:
Elizabeth Price, Anna Li, Sarah Finnegan.

There were few surprises on either side, most bloggers and readers picked the ten team members back even before Visa Championships. It was pretty clear who the favourites were as long as they hit respectably.

Marta has played it smart with the ladies alternates too, picking a specialist on each of the events, able to fill a team final spot if one of the favourites goes down (Price: Vault, Li: Bars, Finnegan: Beam and floor).

The USA are the definite favourites (at least on the strength of numbers) for the women's team, all around and vault golds and also have definite medal contenders on the other events too: bring it on world!

Also definitely worth a mention in this olympic focussed post. Germany's matriarch of gymnastics, Oksana Chusovitina has been named to her SIXTH olympic team! She will compete in London 20 years after she won gold with the unified soviet team in 1992 in Barcelona. She should at least be able to make Maroney work for her vault gold!

German Men's olympic team 
Fabian Hambuchan, Philipp Boy, Marcel Nguyen, Sebastian Krimmer, Andreas, Toba. Alternate: Thomas Taranu
German Women's olympic team 
Elisabeth Seitz, Nadine Jarosch, Oksana Chusovitina, Kim Bui, Janine Berger. Alternate: Lisa Katerina Hill.

Here we go!

The USA olympic trials are well underway in San Jose, California. I'm going to leave the reporting of that to our American brethren and stick to commentry after the fact.

Also this weekend the German olympic trials take place on Saturday. Final confirmation of the olympic teams from Russia, China and Romania are still in the works. The GB team will be named on July 4th (Wednesday)

Congratulations to the ladies of the Canadian olympic gymnastics team, announced today.
Kristina Vaculik
Victoria Moors
Dominique Pegg
Brittany Rogers
Ellie Black

Alternates: Jessica Savona, Maddie Gardiner
and honorary team captain: Peng Peng Lee!

Australia names olympic gymnastics team.

The Australian women's gymnastics team for London 2012 has been announced as:

Lauren Mitchell
Georgia Bonora
Ashleigh Brennan
Larissa Miller
Emily Little

Reserve 1: Georgia Rose Brown
Reserve 2: Mary Anne Monckton

Read analysis of the team announcement over at The Couch Gymnast.

China names olympic gymnastics teams

According to this chinese new story posted on youtube (and no, I don't understand chinese, I'm trusting the translation of the host), the chinese team for london 2012 has been announced as:

MAG Zou Kai, Chen Yibing, Zhang Chenglong,Teng Haibin, Feng Zei.Alternate Guo Weiyang, Yan Mingyong

WAG Yao Jinnan, Sui Lu, Huang Qiushuang, Deng Linlin.
fifth member : one of the three He Kexin, Jiang Yuyuan, Tan Sixin


The story also reports that Huang Quishang landed an amanar vault at the final trial. China means business!

It's great to see Deng Linlin make the team for a second olympics. She won the recent chinese championships but there was still  some doubt whether she would be picked. Everyone will have their own opinions about who the 5th member will be. Leave your comments below :-)

Russia names olympic training squads

The Russian gymnastics federations has announced the training squads for the olympic teams.

On the men's side Denis Ablyazin, Aleksandr Balandin, David Belyavsky, Emin Garibov, Konstantin Pluzhnikov, Nikita Ignatyev, Sergey Khorokhordin and Igor Pakhomenko were chosen.

On the ladies side the team chosen is Ksenia Afansyeva, Viktoria Komova, Aliya Mustafina, Anastasia Grishina, Tatiana Nabieva, Julia Inshina, Maria Paeska and Anastasia Sidorova.

If this is the case I am gutted to see Anna Dementyeva and Anna Pavlova didn't make the cut- both beautiful, truely artistic gymnasts who just didn't seem to have the difficulty. Floor specialist Yulia Belokobylskaya also seems to have missed out.

Source: Eurosport Russia (translated) and The All Around.

Selection competitions across Europe

As I write this post the opening ceremonies of London 2012 are 40 days, 23 hours and 30 minutes away. So far of the countries sending full teams only France and Japan have confirmed their final olympic selection.

However this weekend has been busy with selection competitions, particularly in Europe. The most high profile of these being the Russian Cup. 

Word coming from the Russian camp is that the women's team is mostly set, with Viktoria Komova, Aliya Mustafina, Anastasia Grishina and Ksenia Afansyeva all but confirmed.

The question is who will be the 5th member of the team? The likely players after the Russian cup are Julia Inshina (3rd in the all-around), Anna Dementyeva, Tatiana Nabieva, Anastasia Sidorova or (if she can get her Amanar vault consistent in the next few weeks, Maria Paeska). The Russian's found having a team of specialists didn't work out for them at the European championships so may be looking to keep their options open with a team full of all-arounders.

It's also great to see 2-time olympian Anna Pavlova not out of the running yet (she won the vault event final) She is a VERY long shot though so I'm not getting my hopes up of seeing her in London yet....

Russian Cup AA results:
1.Viktoria Komova 15.200 16.200 15.067 14.300 60.767
2.Aliya Mustafina 15.067 15.867 14.100 14.133 59.167
3.Yulia Inshina 13.700 14.200 14.400 13.867 56.167
4.Ksenia Afanasyeva 13.600 13.500 14.700 14.267 56.067
5.Anna Pavlova 14.733 12,833 14,533 13.600 55.697
6.Anna Myzdrikova 13.833 11.867 13.300 13.400 52.400
7.Yulia Belokobylskaya 13.367 12.500 13.567 12.900 52.334
8.Anastasia Sidorova 14.300 10,333 13,133 14.033 51.799
-----
Tatiana Nabieva 14.233 14.767 0,000 0,000 29.000
Maria Paseka 14.533 13.667 0,000 0,000 28.200
Anna Dementyeva 0,000 14,733 13,067 0,000 27.800
Anastasiya Grishina 0,000 13.800 0,000 0,000 13.800

Meanwhile, elsewhere in Europe:
Fabian Hambuchan, who missed Europeans in order to get competition ready has won the German men's championships. whilst Elizabeth Seitz won the women's title.

1.Fabian Hambuchen 91.100
2.Marcel Nguyen 89.050
3.Philip Boy 88.200
4.Andreas Toba 87.650
5.Thomas Taranu 85.850
6.Eugen Spiridinov 85.450
7.Sebastian Krimmer 84.900
8.Matthias Fahrig 84.350

1.Elisabeth Seitz 58.750
2.Nadine Jarosch 56.150
3.Kim Bui 54.800
4.Pia Tolle 53.100
5.Lisa Katharin Hill 53.000
6.Giulia Hindermann 52.150
7.Anja Rheinbay 50.250
8.Janine Berger 49,750
....
Oksana Chusovitina 39.650 (no FX)

In Italy, veteran Vanessa Ferrari took the all-around title
1.Vanessa Ferrari 56.850
2.Carlotta Ferlito 55.950
3.Elisa Meneghini 55.000
4.Lara Mori 52.300
5.Chiara Gandolfi 51.850
6.Martine Buro 51.700
7.Jessica Mattoni 51.650
8.Elisabetta Preziosa 51.600
9.Alessia Leolini 51.500
10.Adriana Crisci 50.300

And in Holland, just a few days after being named as her country's single olympic entrant, Celine Van Gerner has cemented her title with an all around win.
1.Celine Van Gerner 54.750
2.Lisa Top 53.950
3.Wyomi Masela 52.850
4.Vera Van Pol 52.825
5.Noel Van Klaveren 51.400
6.Maartje Ruikes 51.100
7.Melissa Scherpenisse 50.450
8.Julia Bombach 50.350

(Source: The All Around)

Next week the road to london continues with the British Championships and the USA's olympic trials!

Meet France's Olympic team!

Following the French national championships this weekend, the team for London was named, with a few surprises... Here are the gymnasts who punched a ticket to the games.

Women's team

Youna Dufournet
Age 18
Strength: Bars
Previous experience: 3 time world team member (2009-2011), 4th all-around and 3rd on vault at the 2009 worlds. She won silver on bars at the olympic test event where she also helped the French team qualify in 3rd to the games. She has one of the more difficult bar routines in the world and could easily make event finals, but she is and has always been a bit inconsistent on her showpiece event.

Marine Brevet
Age 18
Strength: Floor
A 2 time member of France's world championship team (2010, 2011) Brevet was 2nd on floor and 7th on balance beam at the olympic test event.

Anne Kuhm
Age 16
Strength: all-around
A new senior this year and helped the team qualify to the olympics with an all around score of 55.257 at the test event in London. She was also 5th all-around at the 2012 European championships in Belgium and is likely to be a familiar face for Team France for a few years to come.

Aurelie Malaussena
Age 19
Strengths: Beam and vault
Also a 2 time world team member (2010, 2011) and member of the French national team since 2006. Malaussena was 21st all-around at the 2011 worlds in Tokyo.

Sophia Seseri
Age 16
Strength: Floor
Seseri competed at the 2011 worlds and 2010 youth olympic games in Singapore. At the 2012 European championships she scored 14.333 on vault and 14.200 on balance beam in the qualifying competition.

Alternate: Valentine Sabatou
Age 16
Strenths: vault and bars
Sabatou competed for France at the 2012 Europeans, scoring  13.533 on bars and 13.133 on floor in qualifying. She was 8th on floor (13.325) at the 2012 world cup in Doha.

Men's Team

France's men have a lot of setbacks to come back from following a disasterous performance in Belgium and severe injuries to several of their 2012 olympic hopefuls.

Yann Cucherat
Age 33
Stength: Parallell bars (6th at the 2000 and 2004 olympic games)
Cucherat has already competed in 3 olympics. He was also 8th on high bar in event finals at the 2008 games in Beijing. He won bronze on P Bars at the 2005 world championships.


Gael Da Silva
Age 28
Strengths: Vault and High Bar
4 time world team member ('06, '07, '10, '11). Da Silva was 3rd on floor at the recent world championships in Montpellier (15.166) making up a bit for the team's disaster in the team final.

Danny Rodrigues
Age 27
Strength: Rings
Rodrigues was 5th on rings at the 2008 olympics. He was 4th on rings at the 2012 olympic test event.

Hamilton Sabot
Age 25
Strength: Paralell Bars
A member of the 2008 olympic team, Sabot was 4th on paralell bars and 5th on high bar at the 2012 Europeans in Montpellier.

Cyril Tommasone
Age 25
Strength: Pommel Horse
Tommasone was the silver medallist on pommel horse at the 2011 world championships in Tokyo

Alternate: Pierre Yves-Beny
Age 29
Strength: Rings (6th at the 2004 olympic games)

Headshots from the French gymnastics federation website.

A few thoughts on the US post-Nationals

The USA women's national team & olympic trials qualifiers: 

Back row (L-R): Kennedy Baker, Sabrina Vega, Sarah Finnegan, Elizabeth Price, Kyla Ross, Aly Raisman, Gabby Douglas, Jordyn Wieber.
Front row (L-R): Nastia Liukin, Anna Li, Rebecca Bross, Alicia Sacramone, McKayla Maroney, Bridget Sloan and Brenna Dowell.

The top 4 (Wieber, Douglas, Raisman, Ross) 
Martha Karolyi will need a very good reason to NOT take these 4 girls to London. They all have huge difficulty and so far this year have been very consistent for Team USA. In fact I would guess that the USA could win team gold if they had a 3 member team of any combination of these girls. Kyla Ross was below the other 3 on points largely because she was advised to play it safe on vault and not throw an amanar, but she'll almost certainly have that back in the arsenal for trials in 2 weeks time. If all 4 girls do make the team, that would leave just leave 1 specialist spot - it's up to Martha whether she would want another high bar score to add to the team total or would prefer the almost guaranteed vault gold that would await McKayla Maroney.


The new faces (Price, Finnegan, Baker, Dowell)
Plenty has been said of the depth of the USA and the strength of their new seniors in the wings. I have a feeling great things await these girls on the international stage, but probably not this year. It would take an upset at trials or an injury to one of the top 4 to give these gymnasts their olympic moment this year. Still, they'll be a pleasure to watch in San Jose (if only NBC would broadcast them a little more) and likely on future world championship teams.

The comeback queens (Liukin, Sacramone, Sloan, Bross)
It's not been an easy road to the olympic trials for any of these veterans so far, but it can universally be said that they've done enough to qualify, but they all have to do better to REALLY have a shot at the 5-member team. There has been some controversy in particular over Liukin's place at trials in particular (given she still hasn't shown a full difficulty bar routine and her place at trials is at least partly based on her reputation) but I, like many gymnastics fans, will be happy to see her there.


The 'World Champions' (Maroney, Vega, Li)
It was not a 'bad' national championships for these members of the 2011 world championship team, but they are not locks for the olympics yet. Maroney sat in 7th all-around and a country mile ahead of the field on vault after night 1 before having to sit out day 2 with mild concussion from her fall on floor in the warmups. She can't have been that badly injured though if she was back in the arena in time for the national team photo. Of the 3 I think she most deserves to be on the team (in olympic terms a gold is a gold, whether it comes on vault or in the much more competitive team event). Both Vega (7th all around) and Li (3rd on bars) did well, but again not spectacularly. They could be useful to team USA but team USA is not in need of them at this point.

If you disagree (or concur) with anything I have said here, please comment. In the end it's still just a wait and see game until Martha and the commitee name their 5 girls for London.

Results
All Around

1.  Jordyn Wieber, 121.900
2.  Gabrielle Douglas, 121.700
3.  Alexandra Raisman, 120.950
4.  Kyla Ross, 119.950
5.  Elizabeth Price, 118.100
6.  Sarah Finnegan, 117.600
7.  Sabrina Vega, 114.450
7.  Kennedy Baker, 114.450
9.  Brenna Dowell, 112.600
10.  Bridget Sloan, 112.400
11.  Abigail Milliet, 110.400
12.  Brianna Brown, 109.700
13.  Grace McLaughli, 108.550
14.  Amanda Jetter, 108.400
15.  Mykayla Skinner, 107.150
16.  Brandie Jay, 105.700
17.  McKenzie Wofford, 105.250

Vault (based on 2 vaults on both days of competition)

1.  Alicia Sacramone, 30.025
2.  Brandie Jay, 29.475
3.  Mykayla Skinner, 28.725

Uneven Bars (top 6) 

1.  Gabrielle Douglas, 31.300
2.  Kyla Ross, 30.850
3.  Anna Li, 30.700
4.  Rebecca Bross, 30.400
5.  Jordyn Wieber, 30.100
6.  Bridget Sloan, 30.050

Beam (top 6)

1.  Alexandra Raisman, 30.650
2.  Sarah Finnegan, 30.400
3.  Alicia Sacramone, 30.300
4.  Kyla Ross, 30.100
5.  Jordyn Wieber, 29.750
6.  Nastia Liukin, 29.200

Floor (top 6)

1.  Alexandra Raisman, 31.250
2.  Jordyn Wieber, 30.500
3.  Gabrielle Douglas, 30.350
4.  Sarah Finnegan, 29.950
5.  Elizabeth Price, 29.350
6.  Kyla Ross, 28.650

Uchimura focused on team gold

From Getty Images:

" In this picture taken on June 6, 2012, Japanese gymnast Kohei Uchimura walks beside a vault during a practice session at the National Training Centre in Tokyo. World all-around gymnastics champion Kohei Uchimura insists he will put his personal glory aside at the London Olympics to help Japan steal the men's team gold medal back from archrivals China."

I'm pretty sure Uchimura will be striving for perfection in every olympic routine, once the team final is out of the way, He'll be back to showing everyone he's the best all-around gymnast in the world!

Part of me does want the exciting talent of Japan to beat the ever-so-polished men from China....

Beth Tweddle's new floor routine.

At the international/ olympic trial this weekend Beth Tweddle did an exhibition of her new floor routine during the warm up. It is indeed to something 'Big and British'  - musuc from Live and Let Die by Paul McCartney.

It's not yet sure whether Beth's knee will be sufficiently recovered to compete a full floor routine at the olympics, but the fact she was showing it to the selection committee and the fans means she's still hoping to compete it.

It's not exactly a choreography masterpiece, but it's a lot better than the last routine to Sherlock Holmes

Best of luck to Beth in her ongoing pre-olympic training!


Thanks to susanw1984 on yourtube for posting this video.

GB vs ESP vs FIN Event Finals

The second day of competition and the WAG international and olympic trial event in Ipswich gave a chance for the selection committee to have a second look at the routines of some of the gymnasts on the cusp of olympic selection.

As has been done before at these friendly internationals, the GB bosses pick gymnasts for the finals that they particularly want to verify the routines of. That includes gymnasts who had sub-par routines in the all-around competition yesterday but have the potential to make the olympic team.

Gymnasts getting second chances today included Becky Downie on beam, Jenni Pinches and Danusia Francis on bars. GB also verified 3 of it's gymnasts with double twisting yurchenko vaults (Pinches, Downie and Rippin) and the crowd got another chance to be treated to Beth Tweddle's bars routine.

It was a good day for Jocelyn Hunt, finishing 2nd on beam and first on floor. She's not a favourite for the olympic team but the fact she verified well on 2 events today means she will be in the selection committee's mind a while longer.

On an interview with ITV news prior to the competition, it was said that 8 gymnasts will be picked for the final training squad following the last trial. This allows for a bit of flexibility and (god forbid) injuries.

Tunney wins second trial

With 2 trial wins under her belt, youngster Rebecca Tunney is making a very strong case to join her first olympic team. She was the only Brit to score consistently over 55 all around and the only one to beat the 2 top spanish gymnasts, Maria Paula Vargas and Ana Maria Izurieta.

Beth Tweddle showed her bars is still world class with a 15.45 on bars. Nott's Niamh Rippin was  perhaps a surprise for second Brit all-around, helped particularly by a strong vault score.

From the scores it looks like team GB veterans Cairns, Pinches, Francis, King and Downie all have mistakes to clean up before the British champs in a few weeks time.

Second GB Olympic trial today

The British Gymnastics selection committee will be taking another look at GB's olympic hopefuls today at the GB vs Spain vs Finland meet in Ipswich.

The BG score facebook page will reportedly be providing live scores. The competition starts at 2 pm today and event finals will take place at 12 pm on Sunday.

The picture shows training yesterday. It looks like most of the seniors are there although it's possible Beth Tweddle will be saving herself for the British Championships (the final trial) in Liverpool.

Those gymnasts coming out with something to prove include Jenny Pinches (who herself said on twitter she didn't perform her best at the first trial), former Olympian Marissa King and the highly touted youngsters Rebecca Tunney and Ruby Harrold.

I'll update the results from the event later on. Good luck to all the girls!

Thoughts on the US olympic team post-Classics

The long drawn-out, much hyped selection process of the US women's gymnastics team for the olympics is underway. Watching footage from Classics last night there were plenty of nervous wobbles (but that's no biggie at this stage, the first day of Nationals last year was a complete splat-fest and out of that came the best world theam the US has had in years) and a few surprises.

The first was the early end to Chellsie Memmel's olympic comeback quest. I, like many felt it was a bit harsh to dismiss her petition based on one wobbly beam routine (particularly as the reports are Memmel showed a decent all around performance in training the day before the event). Realistically she was a very long shot for the olympics, but others have petitioned to Nationals with only a single performance before (Rebecca Bross successfully petitioned in 2009, competing only a bar routine with no diamount after aggravating a leg injury). To deny a former world all around champion and olympian the chance to compete does seem like a harsh and unneccesary decision.

Speaking of Bross, There were no surprises really. She came out and competed virtually the same beam and bar routines she has competed her whole senior career, with the same trouble on her beam dismount (yes, I wish she'd change it too!). She's not out of the running for an olympic spot yet, but she's not at the top of the list either.

The pleasant surprise was that 2008 World All Around champion Nastia Liukin came back with one of the cleanest and most confident beam routines of the day. Yes, we have been talking about Nastia's possible comeback for years now, but to compete without wobbles after 3 years away from competition shows she is really on her game. If the rumours of her high-difficulty bar routine prove to be true, she will indeed be a very realistic team threat.

Like many, I'm playing the predicting the predicting game as to who will make the 5 member team.

It I were Martha Karolyi and I were thinking primarity team gold (plus ideally an AA gold and a few event medals), I would go for.

3 strong, consistent all arounders
   (Currently I'd pick 3 from Jordyn Wieber, Gabrielle Douglas, Kyla Ross and Ali Raisman)
1 Vault and floor specialist
    (Most likely McKayla Maroney, Raisman has high floor and vault scores too but no 2nd vault)
1 Beam and Bar specialist
    (It could be an intra- gym battle between Bross and Liukin at this rate) 

Whichever way it goes there'll be some very talented gymnasts who stay home come July 27th.

Great Britain: European Team Champions!

For the first time ever Great Britain have won a team gold medal in major competition. It was a fun but tense experience covering the straight on battle between them and Russia. GB coped with a fall on floor at the start of the competition and a fall from Max Whitlock on high bar in the final straight.

GB looks set for not only a strong performance at London 2012 but a world class future.

2011 Jr European Team Champions
2011 Jr European All Around Gold and Silver
2011 Sr European Team Champions
2011 Unnofical All Around Winner: Dan Purvis

And event finals for all the senior gymnasts tomorrow and Jr gymnasts in EVERY event final

Great job lads!