Thoughts on the GB Euros team.

Aside from the absense of the recovering Beth Tweddle. GB has chosen to send their 'A' team to Europeans as a preview of things to come. World team members Hannah Whelan, Danusia Francis, Jennifer Pinches  and Imogen Cairns, as well as highly touted newcomer Rebecca Tunney will face off against the best from Russia and Romania, including Aliya Mustafina, Viktoria Komova and Larisa Iordache.

With olympic selection on everyone's minds, this team may well be a preview of what is to come. In a 5 member team that will (touch wood) definitely include Beth Tweddle, GB will likely need 3 strong all arounders and a specialist on the events Beth doesn't do, vault and beam.

What this means is that unless she can nab one of the all-around spots from one of her more experienced colleagues (Whelan, Pinches, Francis), Tunney may actually fall short of an olympic berth. Her strongest events are probably bars and floor, the same as Tweddle. GB needs a strong vaulter/consistent beam-worker, meaning they may look more seriously at a veteran like Cairns, or Niamh Rippin, who was 4th all around in the recent GB-Germany-Romania friendly meet. 

GB's goals for Europeans will be to test-out upgrades and show that even without a boost from Beth's high scores, they can contend with Russia, Romania and Europes other olympic teams - France, Germany and Italy. For the individual gymnasts, consistency and event final qualifications/medals will certainly be a boost to their quest for an olympic spot.

USA's injured olympians

NBC Olympics has a huge set of galleries on the USA's gymnastics olympic hopefuls, including their London themed promotional shots and also a set of 'through the years' snaps and 'model olympian' fashion-style photos for each gymnast.

The hopefuls included the 2011 world teams, as well as Rebecca Bross, Shawn Johnson, Nastia Liukin and new senior Kyla Ross.

One thing I did notice though is that they chose to take photos showing some of the olympic hopefuls injuries. One photo of Rebecca Bross shows the long scar on her knee following her patella dislocation at last years nationals. Another set shows Anna Li posing, complete with pink leg cast!

I'm far from saying that Anna Li or Rebecca Bross are out of the running for an olympic spot, far from it! But is this the image the USA wants to give to the world of it's olympic athletes?

Anyways, if you are a fan of gymnastics in the US the pictures are well worth a scroll through, especially the photos of these elite athletes back when they were tiny tots - such as Jordyn Wieber bouncing on  her bed and a tiny Shawn Johnson raiding the fridge! View them here.

Beth Tweddle - new floor routine for olympics.

As part of the publicity to mark 100 days to the London games, British Gymnastics conducted a filmed interview and Q+A session with 2-time olympian Beth Tweddle and her coach Amanda Reddin.

You can watch the full interview (about 20 minutes) here.


There wasn't a lot of new or shocking insight for fans who know Beth and the sport of gymnastics well, these are a few of the insights that were available.

Beth has changed her floor music (most will be pleased with this as the music and choreography for her 'Sherlock Holmes' programme were....not quite right somehow...
She says her new routine will be something 'Big and British'! That's all for now but hopefully she will debut it at the European Championships in a few weeks time.

When asked who she considered her main competitors in the olympic year, Beth listed mainly the top bars workers - Mustafina, Komova, He Kexin and.....Nastia Liukin. Whilst Liukin is still a long shot to make team USA, if she does so it will likely be on the strength of a very good bars exercise.

When asked what Beth will do after the olympics she said "That's a very good question, I don't know is the honest answer. I'll never walk away from gymnastics but I don't think I'll do coaching full time."

Best also has a place lined up to study physiotherapy after the games. Even if coaching is not on the cards, I could imagine she will have a role to play with team GB for a nunber of years yet.

The Countdown is on...

In London.....

And at WOGA....

Only 100 days left to London 2012, rather longer for Katelyn Ohashi who will have to wait until Rio 2016 for her shot at Olympic competition.

I got some great news myself this week.  My timetable for my next placments means my summer break falls the same 2 weeks as the games. Where I'm not in London in person I will be infront of the TV with free time to enjoy and provide blog coverage - good times! :-D

Tanaka, Uchimura win Japanese titles.

In an olympic year with team selection on the line, national championships - particularly where there are a few surprises, are always worthy of international attention.

At the 2011 world championships, Japan qualified a women's team to the team final and to the olympics in 5th place. When they are consistent they can challenge the 'big 4' teams and could set up for a possible upset. Their men's team are always at the top of the world stage jostling China for domination over all other nations. Kohei Uchimura, barring injury or disaster has had one hand on the olympic gold for a while now...

Following the suit of Russia last week, Japan is also one of the earliest nations to hold their 2012 national championships, basically firing the starting gun for the selection race to the olympic team. The competition is held with 2 days of all-around competition, but with only the second day's scores counting towards the final result (reference: Gymnastics Examiner). This is probably the most accurate simulation of international competition.

There were a few surprises at the competition, Former winner of the 'Longines Prize for Elegance' winner, Rie Tanaka won the women's title with a second day all around score of 56.45 (which incidentally would have placed her 9th in the all around final at the 2011 worlds). 2nd year senior Natsumi Sasada was second. 6-time straight japanese champion and world medallist Koko Tsurumi had an error-ridden performance landing her in 7th and much hyped rookie Mai Murakami finished in 11th place.

3-time world champion Kohei Uchimura finished almost 2 points ahead of the field (92.65, second place Kenya Kobayashi scored 90.8) although he only took the event title on one of the apparatus, his progress towards London seems to be continuing smoothly however. In 2011 he won his world title with a score of 93.631, over 3 points ahead of 2nd place Philip Boy, roughly the same point margin separated 2nd-14th place, it seems it is still Uchimura.....and everyone else.

Ever the perfectionist however, Uchimura told The Japan Times : It didn't really sink in when I was on the podium. There were parts of my performance that I wasn't particularly happy with, so I felt disappointed about that more than happy about winning five titles in a row.

Uchimura is the only Japanese gymnast who already has a confirmed spot for London, the others will be named  based largely on the results of these nationals and the NHK cup in May.

Results
WOMEN

• 1. Rie Tanaka, 56.45
• 2. Natsumi Sasada, 54.45
• 3. Yumi Iizuka, 54.4
• 4. Asuka Teramoto, 53.45
• 5. Yuki Uchiyama, 53.2
• 6. Yuko Hsinchu, 53.05
• 7. Koko Tsurumi, 52.95
• 8. Mai Yamagishi, 52.35
• 9. Yu Minobe, 52.15
• 10. Wakana Inoue, 52.0
• 11. Mai Murakami, 51.3

MEN

• 1. Kohei Uchimura, 92.65
• 2. Kenya Kobayashi, 90.8
• 3. Shogo Nonomura, 90.05
• 4. Ryo Kato, 89.8
• 5. Makoto Okiguchi, 89.7
• 6. Junpei? Oka, 89.2
• 7. Kazuhito Tanaka, 89.1
• 8T. Shoichi Yamamoto, 88.55
• 8T. Hiroyuki Imai, 88.55
• 10T. Yusuke Tanaka, 88.35
• 10T. Yuyu Saito, 88.35
• 12. Koji Yamamuro, 88.0

China's Yao Jinnan, Cheng Fei golden in Zibo.

Rather like team USA, China tend to announce their intentions in an olympic year by domination of events on home soil. In May 2008 a young He Kexin broke 2 world records at the 2008 world cup event in Tianjin. In 2012, China came away with 6 of the 10 available event titles at the Zibo world cup including landslide victories for Yao Jinnan on the uneven bars and balance beam and win for returning 2-time olympian Cheng Fei on the vault.

Jinnan's score of 15.675 would have won her the world title on the uneven bars at the 2011 worlds (Komova's score was 15.500). Last year's 'rookie' looks like she could very likely be China's strongest medal contender headed into London. The delightful but painfully inconsistent Huang Quishuang added weight to her olympic campaign with consestent scores and strong second places on bars and beam (and a bronze on floor) in Zibo. Australia's Lauren Mitchell beat Canada's Victoria Moors to the floor title, both are strong contenders for a floor medal with a good performance in London.

Whilst I like many others feel it is great to see Cheng Fei back on the competition floor (no female chinese gymnast has anything like the longevity of Cheng Fei, who is aiming for a landmark 3rd olympics). Her win here was not an overwelmingly convincing one and she still has a mountain to climb to become and individual event contender in time for london. It is unlikely the vault podium this year will include a gymnast with a double-twisting yurchenko (although stranger things have happened!) If she can improve her form and get back full difficulty on floor she could still be an asset to the team campaign, although at this stage it still looks like a struggle for her compared to China's young guns.

Also of interest in Zibo, Hungary's Kristian Berki beat GB's Louis Smith to the gold on pommel horse by 1 tenth of a point. These two are masters of the event and it will probably come down to who is cleanest come Sunday 5th August as to who takes the olympic gold.

See the full Zibo event final results here.
Videos: 
Cheng Fei (vault)
Yao Jinnan (bars)
Huang Quishang (bars)
Louis Smith (pommels)
Kristian Berki (pommels)

Mirai Nagasu changes training base & coaches.

According to the Chicago Tribune's Philip Hersh (@olyphil on twitter), former US champion Mirai Nagasu has given up the 2 hour commute from her home in Arcadia, California to Cathedral City (near Palm Springs) and therefore is no longer being coached by Frank Carroll.

@olyphil  "The 2-hour drive each way was too much. She was exhausted by the time she got here."
 Nagasu is now working with several coaches at Pickwick Ice in Burbank  'including Weldy Olson, Jere Michael, Craig Heath, Alex Chang'

Whilst Frank Carroll is undoubtedly a great coach and has added plenty of maturity to Mirai's skating (by many sources he often had a somewhat tricky character on his hands!). I feel  that whatever arrangement gives the talented but inconsistent Mirai some stability and confidence has got to be a good thing!

Mirai's poor performance at the 2012 Nationals left her in 7th place and denied her any international championship assignments, but her silver medal from this season's Cup of China should help to ensure her Grand Prix spots this coming year. Hopefully then we'll see that the new training arrangements are working for her.