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!

Figure skating Grand Prix line-up announced.

The ISU has today announced the entries for this year's Grand Prix of Figure Skating.  You can view the full list of entries here.

American Johnny Weir is making his competitive return for the first time since Vancouver 2010.

Ladies
World Champion Carolina Kostner will compete at Cup of China and Trophee Bompard in Paris. She will face off against formwe world champion Miki Ando in both events and also and Russian talent Elizaveta Tuktamisheva in Paris. Mao Asada will skate at Cup of China and NHK trophy. Other final contenders include Adelina Sotnikova (Skate America, Rosetelecom cup), Kanako Murakami (Skate Canada, Rostelecom), Alena Leonova (Skate America, Rostelecom), Ashley Wagner (Skate America, Trophee Bompard) and World jr champ Julia Lipnitskaya (Cup of China, Trophee Bompard). Following disappointing events at the end of last season, Americans Mirai Nagasu and Alissa Czisny have only one assignment each.

Mens
Biggest news of the Men's announcement is that American Johnny Weir is on the list with 2 assignments (Rostelecom, Bompard) but Olympic champ Evan Lysacek is not. Patrick Chan will skate in Canada and Russia along with Nobunari Oda of Japan. Daisuke Takahashi will skate in China and Japan. Others to watch include Michael Brezina, Jeremy Abbott, Javier Fernandez, Arthur Gachinski and Adam Rippon.

Pairs
Savchenko & Szolkowy will skate in Canada and Paris, whilst main rivals Volososzar & Trankov will compete at Skate America and at Rostelecom Cup in Moscow. Kavaguti & Smirnov will skate in China and Paris. Cup of China will also include a face off between young talents Sui & Han, veterans Pang & Tong and surprise world bronze medallists Takahashi & Tran. There are a few new USA pairings testing the water as well.

Dance
As usual dance fans and critics will be comparing the scores of top two couples Davis & White (Skate America, NHK) and Virtue & Moir (Skate Canada, Rostelecom). The Shibutanis will join their training mates at Rostelecom and NHK. Others to watch are Pechalat & Bourzat (Cup of China, Trophee Bompard), Weaver & Poje (Skate America, Cup of China), Bobrova & Soloviev (Skate America, China) and new Canadian couple Piper Gilles & Paul Poirier (Skate Canada, Trophee Bompard)

Next stop: US Classic

With less than 70 days to go now until the games, there seems to be important gymnastics competitions every weekend.

Next weekend the first real step on qualification for the US gymnasts gets underway. World AA Champion Jordyn Wieber leads the field (although she may choose to sit out an event or two as she has nothing more to prove at this point and the Classic is just a warm-up for Nationals in her case.

Others however, will have more to prove. World Vault champion McKayla Maroney will want to remind everyone she is not just a 1 trick pony, with spots on the olympic team slim, being top of the world on one apparatus may not be enough!

American Cup unnoficial champion Gabrielle Douglas just needs to prove she can be consistent, she has the difficulty and artistry that Martha Karolyi will want to put her on the team (so long as Gabby doesn't do anything silly!)

2 time world AA medallist Rebecca Bross and 2011 world team members Alexandra Raisman and Sabrina Vega all know a strong all-around performance will do wonders for their chances of a not-yet-assured olympic berth.

2008 olympians Chellsie Memmel, Bridget Sloan and .....at last..... Nastia Liukin will be hoping to compete with the young guns. Liukin is reportedly just competing beam here, although she will need to unveil an impressive bar routine by Visa's to be in with a realistic shot. UCLA grad and 2011 worlds alternate Anna Li will also be hoping to show she is a contender for the 'bars specialist' spot.

And then into the mix are new challengers Kyla Ross & Sarah Finnegan, amongst others.

The two contenders who are not in the line-up for classic are Alicia Sacramone and Shawn Johnson.  There's been plenty of press about Shawn this week and while her fans love her courage and will to carry on competing for an olympic dream, it seems the dream may be fading at just the wrong time. I still hope against hope we might see her at nationals and trials.

It's tough to know that if they were citizens of any other country in the world, most, if not all of these gymnasts would be guaranteed an olympic spot, but in the incredible talent pool of team-USA, there will be plenty of disappointed gymnasts by the end of the Olympic Trials process.

And in case all that wasn't enough, there's also Canadian Nationals (all disciplines) and MAG Euro's to look forward to this week!

Thoughts on the olympic team after the first trial

Beth Tweddle and new double-European bronze medallist Hannah Whelan sat out the first olympic trial today in Guildford. However, they are safe in the knowledge that their places on the team are assured if injuries don't get the better of them between now and then.

So, based on today's trial, who would the other 3 gymnasts on the team be?

Rebecca Tunney asserted herself as the top all-arounder with a strong performance to score. 56.55

I've said before GB ideally needs 3 all arounders and another gymnast to fill in where Beth won't compete. With Beth's knee injury it is not actually known whether she will compete floor exercise at the games.

The next all-arounders who have definitely thrown their names into the pot are Danusia Francis, Ruby Harrold and Imogen Cairns.

2008 olympian Marissa King also made a respectable return on vault, beam and floor (so exactly the events GB is looking to fill. Her beam score of 12.65 let her down somewhat, falling on a double arabian. King has a month until the second trial to add the rest of her elite difficulty back into the routine.

Nottingham's Becky Downie and Niamh Rippin both made strong cases on 2 events. Downie said on twitter she does have a double-twisting yurchenko in the works, although she didnt compete it today.

So, in terms of team prediction: I'm still not sure! Tunney and Francis have probably earned their spot (particularly if they stay consistent at the next trial) but the final place on the team is still wide open. Jennifer Pinches, Harrold, Downie, Rippin and King will have to fight it out at the British Champs in Liverpool!

Who would you pick? -please comment!

Liverpool take British team title again.

Without their two top gymnast, Beth Tweddle and Hannah Whelan, The City of Liverpool gymnastics club has defended their British Team title in Guildford.

Full Results: Gymdata

Team Result

1   - 162.200 - Liverpool

2   - 160.900 - The Academy

3   - 160.300 - Notts

4   - 159.400 - Heathrow A

5   - 151.700 - Horsham

6   - 148.000 - Park Wrekin A

7   - 145.850 - South Durham

8   - 144.950 - Dynamo

9   - 141.850 - Europa

10   - 141.050 - Heathrow B

11   - 139.300 - Pipers Vale

12   - 136.200 - Tolworth

13   - 130.550 - Park Wrekin B

14   - 126.900 - Wetherby

 Top senior all-arounders from today (Unnoficial- I might have missed someone!)

1. Rebecca Tunney 56.55

2. Danusia Francis 55.1

3. Ruby Harrold 54.8

4. Imogen Cairns 53.4

5. Jennifer Pinches 52.85

6. Nicole Hibbert 52.7 

7. Jocelyn Hunt 52.5

Event top scorers

Vault

1     14.850  -  Ruby Harrold (The Academy)

2     14.750  -  Rebecca Tunney (Liverpool)
3     14.600  -  Marissa King (Huntington)

4     14.500  -  Nicole Hibbert (Heathrow)

5     14.300  -  Niamh Rippin (Notts)

6     14.200  -  Imogen Cairns (The Academy)

7=   14.000  -  Danusia Francis (Heathrow)

7=   14.000  -  Elissa Downie (Notts)

9    13.900  -  Rebecca Downie (Notts)

Bars

1     14.700  -  Rebecca Tunney (Liverpool)

2     14.450  -  Rebecca Downie (Notts)

3     14.250  -  Ruby Harrold (The Academy)

4=   13.350  -  Danusia Francis (Heathrow)

4=   13.350  -  Elissa Downie (Notts)

6     13.200  -  Jocelyn Hunt (Horsham)

Beam

1     14.400  -  Rebecca Downie (Notts)

2     14.200  -  Danusia Francis (Heathrow)

3     13.700  -  Niamh Rippin (Notts)

4     13.650  -  Georgina Hockenhull (Park Wrekin)

5=   13.600  -  Abbie Caig (Liverpool)

5=   13.600  -  Rebecca Tunney (Liverpool)

7     13.500  -  Ruby Harrold (The Academy)

8     13.400  -  Jocelyn Hunt (Horsham)

Floor

1     13.550  -  Danusia Francis (Heathrow)

2     13.500  -  Rebecca Tunney (Liverpool)

3=   13.350  -  Jennifer Pinches (Liverpool)

3=   13.350  -  Imogen Cairns (The Academy)

5=   13.300  -  Elissa Downie (Notts)

5=   13.300  -  Niamh Rippin (Notts)

7     13.050  -  Imogen Chan (The Academy)

British Teams - Results and videos

Follow updates on our twitter 

@Going4GoldBlog

The competition is taking place throughout the day in 3 sessions. Results are available on Gymdata and British gymnastics will be updating results on their youtube account. I'll try to update throughout the day as new results and videos of the main players come up.

After the second of 2 subdivisions, the team from Notts (pictured) lead by a large margin. Their tea, includes olympic contenders Becky Downie and Niamh Rippin

1   - 160.300 - Notts

2   - 151.700 - Horsham

3   - 148.000 - Park Wrekin A

4   - 145.850 - South Durham

5   - 141.850 - Europa

6   - 141.050 - Heathrow B

7   - 139.300 - Pipers Vale

8   - 136.200 - Tolworth

9   - 130.550 - Park Wrekin B

10   - 126.900 - Wetherby

Teams still to come are Wetherby, Dynamo, Liverpool, Heathrow A and The Academy.

Marissa King has made her individual effort with a strong 14.60 on vault and also 13.15 on floor and 12.65 balance beam. It will be vault that would get her on the team but a consistent beam routine would have done her a lot of favours.....

More to come, check back soon! 

Bitter split for Russian pairs skaters

Journalist Peter Murray (@blazingblades) has reported in interesting story on former world junior pairs champions Lubov Iliuschenkina and Nodari Maisuradze of Russia. The pair who won the 2010 Skate Canada International and were in contention for a spot at their home olympics in Sochi have ended their partnership and Iliuschenkina has moved to France and begun skating with a new partner.

The 20 year old skater has recieved a fair amount of criticism from her former coach Natalia Pavlova both for ending the partnership and for moving to skate elsewhere when reportedly she told Pavlova she was quitting to focus on her studies.

"On April 6, Alexander Gorshkov received a strange letter from Iliushechkina in English. In it she asked permission to stop representing Russia and skate for France. Iliushechkina wrote she has already found a partner in France with whom she plans to compete.

Gorshkov's initial reaction was completely negative toward Iliushechkina: "We invested a lot of creative energies and resources into Iliushechkina and to just approve her request to skate for France 2 years before the Olympics is just unthinkable.

RFSF now says it will do everything possible to keep the talented athlete in the
country. They are prepared to find her a new partner. Also famous
specialist Tamara Moskvina stated she was prepared to coach the skater. It
is not clear what will happen, but if the skater refuses to skate for
Russia, probably she will have to miss two seasons before returning to competition
only after the Olympics in Sochi."

Source: Peter Murray

It's sad when promising partnerships break up in such a way. Iliuschenkina's chances of skating at the olympics would probably be higher skating for France than against the deep competition in Russia, but if beurocracy were to deprive her of an olympic chance altogether, that would be worse.

With less than 2 years to go until Sochi, Russia is building a strong team of contenders who will try restore some of the 'old order' to figure skating, but with several disappointments for their biggest names this year (like Kavaguti and Smirnov at worlds), the road to Sochi is proving to be quite a bumpy one.

Marissa King: "Better to try than regret"

2008 olympian and NCAA vault champion Marissa King has confirmed via twitter that she will be competing at thefirst olympic trial tomorrow:-

@TheBritRiss First Olympic trial tomorrow! Never thought this time would come again. 
So appreciative of everyone's support! Excited yet nervous to be back.. Better to try than regret though. #TeamGB

With her 3 years experience of regular competition for the University of Florida, King has plenty of consistency and a strong vaulting ability, both of which could make her a definite dark-horse for the olympic team, despite having not competed for GB internationally since the 2009 worlds.

BG media team has confirmed they will try to upload video of routines throughout the day tomorrow although these will probably not be live... watch this space for scores, links and commentary.

First GB olympic trial this weekend

Straight off the back of Great Britain's success at last week's European Championships, this Sunday will be the first of 2 olympic trial events to select the 5 member team for London. The British Team Championships will take place at the Guildford Spectrum.

The event should hopefully be broadcast in a live/delayed fashion via British Gymnastics.

An entry list has not yet been announced, particularly interesting will be whether Marissa King and Beth Tweddle will compete. Marissa is recently returned to the UK from Florida where she has been busy competing with her NCAA team. The same goes for fellow 2008 olympian Becky Wing, recently back from Stanford. Beth Tweddle is (injuries aside) a definite lock for the GB team but it is not known if she will rest her recent knee injury or throw in a bar routine for the Liverpool team and the selection commitee.

The pressure will be on youngsters Ruby Harrold and Rebecca Tunney to show they can cope with 2 competitions in close succession and on other 'on the bubble' seniors to show they are just as worthy of consideration.

The second trial, at which the team and alternates will be announced is the British Junior and Senior Championships on 22 June. This still leaves a month for final training and last minute changes before the games begin.

Italy's Mariani Wins Junior European Title

The reign of the Russian juniors over Europe may be coming to an end. 14 year old Enus Mariani has reinforced the fact that Italy are going to be a force to be reckoned with over the next olympic cycle.

For all the juniors here, London 2012 is not a possibility, they have 4 years to train smart and build-up to the next olympics in Rio.

Success on the junior level at Europeans often translates well to senior success too. Just 2 years ago the junior all around podium consisted of now-senior leaders Komova, Grishina and Iordache.

GB's Gabrielle Jupp also continued GB's streak of strong performances in Brussells, finishing 5th all-around. Team-mate Angel Romaeo had some errors on bars and finished 15th. GB will be well represented in the event finals this weekend.

(Photo credit - Alby.1412 on flickr)

European Gymnastics Youtube page has plenty of videos from today's competition.

Junior All-Around			VT	UB	BB	FX	Total
1.	Enus Mariani		13.700	14.566	13.966	14.033	56.265
2.	Yevgenia Shelgunova		14.133	13.400	14.066	13.600	55.199
3.	Andreea E. Munteanu		13.858	12.766	14.400	13.833	54.857
4.	Elisa Meneghini		13.833	14.266	13.000	13.683	54.782
5.	Gabrielle Jupp		13.766	13.433	13.833	13.666	54.698
6.	Maria Kharenkova		13.866	13.666	12.966	14.133	54.631
7.	Berengere Fransolet		13.775	12.833	13.541	12.900	53.049
8.	Sophie Scheder		13.533	14.333	11.966	13.166	52.998
9.	Noemi Makra		13.366	13.000	13.533	13.033	52.932
10.	Eythora Thorsdottir		13.466	12.566	13.266	13.433	52.731
11.	Roxana Popa		14.641	13.233	12.300	12.366	52.540
12.	Alina Stanila		14.166	12.366	13.333	12.066	51.931
13.	Darya Matveyeva		13.500	11.566	13.700	12.933	51.699
14.	Olena Vasylieva		13.666	14.433	12.033	11.150	51.282
15.	Angel Romaeo		13.233	11.400	13.333	13.200	51.166

Deng Linlin wins Chinese Nationals

In the pre-olympic hype many (including the media) had forgotten 2008 olympian Deng LinLin when picking names for the olympic team. She has thrown herself right back into the frame with a win at the Chinese National Championships. This event was touted as an olympic trial s it would be difficult for the chinese federation NOT to send her to London now. Also putting herself in the frame is the very diminuitive Shang Chunsong, who tied for third all-around with Tan Sixin.

Next to the USA,  China is shaping up to be the deepest team, there will be a lot of VERY talented chinese gymnasts who just miss out on an olympic berth.

Provisional All-Around top 5 (source - Intl Gymnast Forum)
1. Deng Linlin             14.1 13.95 14.35 14.15   56.55
2. Jiang Yuyuan          13.8 14.7 13.85 13.75     56.1
3=Tan Sixin                 13.45 14.4 14.45 13.3     55.6
3=Shang Chunsong   13.4 14.35 14 13.85        55.6
5. Huang Quishang    14.5 12.9 13.65 14         55.05

Video of the competition: Parts 1 -- 2 -- 3 -- 4

Raising an Olympian: Shawn Johnson

An enjoyable and telling interview/fluff of Shawn Johnson and her Mum (Sorry American brethren, Mom!) describing the relationship between an athlete and a parent.



Other inspirational olympic commercials:
The Best Job (also by P&G)
The Difference (by VISA)

A question!

To my knowledgeable readers:

Does anyone know for sure what the qualification structure will be for the Olympic Games?

Will it be the same as today at Europeans (5-3-3) or something else (5-4-4 or 5-4-3)?
I had always assumed each team would have to put up 4 athletes on each event, however if it is 5-3-3 this could shake up team compositions and give more room for specialists.

It gives more scope for surpises too, with olympic pressure and no room for mistakes.

I'll try to find the answer myself, but if you know, please comment!
Thanks :-D

UPDATE:
Thanks to a link from Commenter Ashleigh, it's confirmed by International Gymnast the format for the Olympics is 5-4-3 for prelims and 5-3-3 for finals. That begs the question why they did things differently here in Brussels. Still, the more gymnastics we get to see, the better!
 

GB qualiy to team, bars, beam and floor finals.

Boosted by the strong performance of the juniors yesterday, Team GB's senior gymnasts came out and performed strongly in the team qualifying at the European Championships.

Competing in a high pressure 5-3-3 format (5 team members, 3 compete, all 3 scores count) the british girls excelled to place third behind Russia and Romania going into Saturday's team final. GB surprised many by winning the team silver medal in 2010 but they look poised to challenge for the medals again in 2012, even in the absense of Beth Tweddle.

In her senior international debut, Ruby Harrold of the academy made a splash with a 4th place uneven bar routine. Seasoned All-Arounder Hannah Whelan qualified in 5th to the beam final and both she and rookie Rebecca Tunney will represent GB in the floor final. Veterans Jennifer Pinches and Danushia Francis also contributed strong performances to the team title. Were there a formal all-around competition in Brussels today, Whelan would have won the bronze medal with57.633 behind Iordache and Grishina.

The format will be repeated again for the team final. Russia will have a chance to compete on a clean slate and GB will stirive to show this wasn't a one-hit-wonder!

Team Finalists
Romania – 177.472
Russia – 172.563
Great Britain – 169.431
Italy – 168.005
France – 167.122
Spain- 163.638
Germany – 163.022
Belgium-161.972

Vault Finalists
1. Chusovitina (GER); 2. Izbasa (ROU); 3. Steingruber (SUI); 4. Maksyuta (ISR);
5. Grishina (RUS); 6. Fasana ITA); 7. Masela (NED); 8. Boczogo (HUN).
R1. Paseka (RUS); R2. Sotnikava (BLR).

Bars Finalists
1. Komova (RUS); 2. Grishina (RUS); 3. Dufournet (FRA); 4. Harrold (GBR);
5. Bui (GER); 6. Kononenko (UKR); 7. Van Gerner (NED); 7. Iordache (ROU)
R1. Hill. (GER) R2. Ferrarri (ITA)

Beam Finalists
1. Iordache (ROU); 2. Ponor (ROU); 3. Komova (RUS); 4. Whelan (GBR) ;
5. Grishina (RUS); 6. Millousi (GRE); 7. Dufournet (FRA); 8. Maksyuta (ISR);
R1. Ferlito (ISR); R2. Mys (BEL).

Floor Finalists (When was the last time a European floor final contained no russians?)
1. Iordache (ROU); 2. Ponor (ROU); 3. Ferrari (ITA); 4. Whelan (GBR);
5. Croket (BEL); 6. Tunney (GBR); 7. Livchikova (UKR); 8. Pihan-Kulesza (POL);
R1. Steingruber (SUI); R2. Izurieta (ESP)

This may be the most cosmopolitan competition for a while with 16 countries represented in event finals (18 if you count the reserves). It seems everyone is raising their game in this olympic year.

Romania leads after error-filled qualification for Russians

Following training many concluded the team gold at the European championships would be decided between Russian brilliance and Romanian consistency. In the qualification in Brussels it seems consistency won the day.

Russia began with tentative perfomances on beam, and followed up with a disaster on floor, with their 3 competitors: Grishina, Mustafina and Sidorova all taking falls. They finished off stronger with the top 3 scores on bars after the first subdivision.

Romania have taken a commanding lead with strong performances on beam and floor and respectable scored on their weakest piece, bars. Sandra Izbasa appears to be limiting herself to defending her vault title here, leading the qualification so far. There is no all-around final in the senior competition here, but the unofficial all-around gold would go clearly to Larisa Iordache, with a world-class score of 60.132.

Italy currently stands in 3rd in the team standings following strong bars and floor performances from Vanessa Ferrarri

Subdivision 2 includes Great Britain, Belgium and France
Subdivision 3 includes Spain and Ukraine
Subdivision 4 includes Germany and Sweden

Intermediate results after subdivision 1
Team
1. Romania (177.472)
2. Russia (172.562)
3. Italy (168.005)
4. Poland (155.097)

All Around
1. Larisa Iordache, Romainia (60.132)
2. Anastasia Grishina, Russia (57.799)
3. Erika Fasana, Italy (55.531)
4. Marta Pihan-Kleza (55.232)

Vault
1. Sandra Izbasa, Romania (14.900)
2. Anastasia Grishina, Russia (14.266)
3. Erika Fasana, Italy (14.199)
4. Maria Paeska, Russia (14.149)

Bars
1. Victoria Komova, Russia (15.508)
2. Anastasia Grishina, Russia (15.333)
3. Aliya Mustafina, Russia (14.533) - so no bar final for Mustafina!
4. Larisa Iordache, Romania (14.266)
5. Vanessa Ferrari, Italy (14.233)

Beam
1. Larisa Iordache, Romania (15.733)
2. Catalina Ponor, Romania (15.633)
3. Victoria Komova, Russia (14.916)
4. Diana Bulimar, Romania (14.900)
5. Anastasia Grishina, Russia (14.833)
6. Carlotta Ferlito, Italy (14.466)

Floor
1. Larisa Iordache, Romania (15.133)
2. Catalina Ponor, Romania (14.800)
3. Vanessa Ferrari, Italy (14.600)
4. Diana Bulimar, Romania (14.200)
5. Marta Pihan-Kulesza, Poland (13.833)
6. Carlotta Ferlito, Italy (13.700)

Poor Bulimar misses out on 2 finals as the 3rd Romanian, hopefully this won't affect her chances for olympic selection. She will have more chance to showcase her skills in the team final on Saturday

Results will be updated later today. 3 of the big team players have stated their intentions early in the competition...

Chinese Nationals

Whilst Europe's olympic contender's are measuring up in Brussels, the Chinese national championships are taking place and will form a big part of the olympic team selection. World all-around medallist Yao Jinnan has been forced to sit out the championships after she had a minor knee injury on vault training just before the event began.

Unnoficial, fan-reported scores have kindly been reported by new chinese gymnastics blog Blossom, Chinese Gymnastics Flowers. The scores are someahat lower than what we have come to expect from the chinese, particularly on bars and floor, but it seems the team strategy is to protect injuries and carry on building gradually until the olympics.

Based on this (and past experiences) - who would you pick for Team China?

Strong perfomances from GB junior gymnasts

Great Britain's junior gymnasts have had a strong start at the European Championships in Brussels. Competing in the first subdivision of the team competition/ qualifying for the all around and event finals. Strong all around performances from Gabrielle Jupp, Charlie Fellows and Angel Romaeo helped the team to a 4th place finish, less than a point behind bronze medallists Romania.


(Photograph by Alan Edwards, BG media team
L-R: Raer Thaeker, Gabby Jupp, Charlie Fellows, Angel Romaeo, Georgina Hockenhull)

Results
Team
1. Russia (167.330)
2. Italy (164.031
3. Romania (161.037)
4. Great Britain (160.121)
5. Germany (157.872)

All-around
1. Maria Kharenkova, Russia (56.132)
2. Elisa Meneghini, Italy (55.433)
3. Evgeniya Shelgunova, Russia (55.165)
4. Andreea Munteanu, Romania (54.665)
5. Sophie Schneder, Germany (54.240)
6. Enus Mariani, Italy (54.199)
7. Gabrielle Jupp, GB (54.082)
8. Tea Ugrin, Italy (54.066)
9. Eythora Thorsdottir, Netherlands (53.232)
10. Noemi Makra, Hungary 53.015
11. Angel Romaeo, 52.932


Gabrielle Jupp qualified in 2nd to the beam final. Charlie Fellows is 1st reserve for bars and both girls made the floor final. Jupp and Angel Romaeo will represent GB in the all-around final on Friday.
Russia were expectedly dominant, but the strength and consistency of the Italian juniors surprised many and may be a sign of great things to come from Italy in the next quad.


Also today,  Ellie Downie (Becky Downie's 12 year old sister) had a clean sweep at the UK School Games in London. She took the overall title with 53.200 ahead of team mates Tyesha Mattis (50.300) and Amy Tinkler (50.250). Ellie won the vault(13.850), the bars(13.050) the floor (12.950) and shared the beam title with Catherine Lyons also from England (13.350).

In the girls team event the team from England again took the title with a total of 204.250 ahead of Wales in second 188.900, Northern Ireland in third 131.100 and Scotland in fourth 77.450.

All of the gymnasts mentioned here are too young for London 2012 but are eligible or the 2016 olympics in Rio. The future of GB gymnastics looks very promising indeed!

New partnerships in figure skating

As is common in the off - season, the pairs skating and ice dance disciplines get a shake-up. Two new international partnerships were announced yesterday.

First off, China's 2006 olympic silver medallists Zhang Dan & Zhang Hao (who are not related) have ended their partnership of over 12 years. She has chosen to retire, whilst he has teamed up with a relative unkown Peng Cheng. Here is the original article (not translated) and here is a video of Peng with a former partner (in a very Mao Asada-esque costume!)

Also in ice dance, Canadian Vanessa Crone has a new partner at last, following her split with Paul Poirier last year. Crone and Poirier skated to the Canadian ice dance title while Virtue and Moir were injured in 2011, only to end their 10 year partnership that summer.

Here is the announcement from Vanessa's facebook page.

Vanessa new partner is Nikolaj Sorensen. Its official and they have just recently finished their first free dance and onto their short dance!! They will be competing at Lake Placid!! Come out and watch their debut.

Sorensen competed for Denmark at the 2010 and 2011 world championships. They could very well make a run for the third ice dance spot for Canada at this year's worlds in London, Ontario.

Japan names Olympic team.

Japan has become the first country to announce it's full olympic team for London 2012. Team Japan brings plenty of experience, with only Ryohei Kato NOT having been on the 2011 world championship team. On the men's side Japan has realistic hopes of taking the team and all-around golds, and their women are talented and could easily make the team final and perhaps take some individual medals.

Japan may be the only country to count 3 siblings on one team, in the form of Rie, Yosuke and Kazuhito Tanaka.

(Front row L-R) Yuko Shintake, Koko Tsurumi, Asuka Teramoto, Yu Minobe, Rie Tanaka, (back row L-R) Yusuke Tanaka, Ryohei Kato, Koji Yamamuro, Kazuhito Tanaka and Kohei Uchimura pose on the podium as they qualified for the Japan gymnastics team for the London 2012 Olympic Games after all the competition during day two of the 51st Artistic Gymnastics NHK Trophy at Yoyogi National Gymnasium on May 5, 2012 in Tokyo, Japan.

What do you feel about the timing? Is this too soon because of the risk of injury, or is it better to have time to train with confidence that your place on the team is assured?  please comment!