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!