Commonwealth Chaos

Excitement for the upcoming commonwealth games in Delhi has been tarnished as the first teams to arrive have found not only filthy conditions in the athletes village, flood waters near the site breeding mosquitoes and even competition venues falling around them.


Several nations have even threatened to pull out if things don't improve and fast. The organising commitee stands fast that everything will be ready in time. The british gymnastics teams are still in training and planning to fly out Monday. I personally want to see all the gymnasts still attend and do well, and for them all to stay healthy (particularly the ozzies, many of whom are also due to compete at Worlds.)

Speaking of Worlds. The GB world team have been training together at the Lilleshall sports hall and posed held a media day. Photos can be seen on the BG facebook page . Several more nations have also announced their world teams this week.

Romania

Sandra Izbasa, Ana Porgras, Diana Chelaru, Raluca Haidu, Ceresela Patrascu, Gabriela Dragoi, Amelia Racea (one will be the alternate)

Argentina Ayelén Tarabini, Lucila Estarli, Aldana Carraro, Delfina Ortuño
Australia

Georgia Bonora, Ashleigh Brennan,Emily Little, Larissa Miller,Lauren Mitchell, Georgia Simpson,Georgia Wheeler

Also in the world of skating. The JGP has headed to Japan this week with several rematches of medallists from some the earlier events this season. The senior international season is also kicking off with the Nebelhorn trophy in Germany.

Several of the names to watch at Nebelhorn include-
Ice Dance
Anna Capellini and Luca Lanotte - the italian olympians won the short dance earlier today.
Natalie Pechalat and Fabian Bourzat- always crowd favourites
Alex and Maia Shibutani - promising US juniors for several seasons now- hoping to make a splash on the senior scene.
Ladies
Kiira Korpi and Jenna McCorkell are the seasoned faces.
Ashley Wagner of the US has withdrawn due to illness and will be replaced by Melissa Bulanhagui.
Mens
Long time favourite of mine Kevin Van-Der-Perren appears to be still putting off retirement. If he's healthy I'd predict a two horse race between him and Michael Brezina for the title.
Pairs
The promising young russian team Vera Bazarova and Yuri Larionov are the favourites here, although I couldn't like to count out Megan Duhamel of Canada and her new partner Eric Radford.

Also Queen Yu-Na has told the LA times that she has settled in well in California, she is looking for an appartment and will announce her new coach next month. As it is someone based in the LA area some potential names include Rafael Aratunian, John Nicks, Frank Caroll, or maybe even Michelle Kwan (unlikely - but it would be cool!)

Commonwealth Games - Team England

British Gymanstics and English Gymnastics have announced the England team for the Commonwealth Games in Delhi.

As the Commonwealth and World teams are seperate, we can safely expect a GB world team announcement will follow soon.

The girls headed to Delhi are

Marissa King
Imogen Cairns
Laura Edwards
Rebecca Wing
Jocelyn Hunt
(Alternate - Charlotte Lindsley)


Based on this (and the recent team in Gateshead) we can guess some (fairly) safe bets for the Rotterdam Team

Beth Tweddle
Becky Downie
Danushia Francis
Hannah Whelan
Nicole Hibbert
Jennifer Pinches/Niamh Rippin

The Men's Commonwealth team will be:

Reiss Beckford
Luke Folwell
Danny Lawrence
Max Whitlock
Steven Jehu
(Alternates - Robert Payne, Mathew Firth)

News etc

Australia has named it's gymnastics teams for the 2010 Commonwealth Games
Men: Phil Rizzo, Prashanth Sellathurai, Sam Offord, Thomas Pichler + Josh Jefferis
Women: Lauren Mitchell, Ashleigh Brennan, Georgia Bonora, Emily Little + Mary Ann Monckton.

The alternates for the womens team are Shona Morgan and Georgia Wheeler. All these, as well as Emma Dennis, Britt Greeley, Georgia Simpson, Larrissa Miller and Natasha Hammann will attend a camp on 12 September from where the World team will also be chosen.

The FIG has announced the 2010 world championships will be the biggest ever, with 690 gymnasts due to compete. Brazil's Daiane Dos Santos is also hoping to make a comeback at Worlds this year.

The British mens gymnastics team (Yevgeni Gryshchenko, Sam Hunter, Ruslan Panteleymonov, Daniel Purvis, Theo Seager, Kristian Thomash) have headed off to train with the Japanese men for 2 weeks. (British Gymnastics)

The British Trampolining Championships take place this weekend at the NIA in Birmingham. Definitely worth a look if you're in the area. If you're in a completely different area the US Covergirl Classic is also happening.

2004 men's Olympic all-around champion Paul Hamm is planning a comeback in time for London2012. Hamm looked a safe bet for the '08 olympic team but had to withdraw at the US olympic trials after injuring his hand. He intends to begin competing again from 2011.

As was going around the rumour mill earlier - US skater Caroline Zhang has indeed changed coaches to Tammy Gambill. The announcement was posted on icenetwork and universal sports.

NISA has posted their assignment of GB skaters for the Junior Grand Prix this season.

In the Summertime.

It's a busy summer on the way in the gymnastics world.
For the USA- competition starts at home. (Click the logos to take you to the event websites)













Then in August- the world's most talented juniors head to Singapore.
The Commonwealth Games take place 3-14 October in Delhi (woefully close to Worlds- so the gymnastics competition may be rather under-attended)

The 2010 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships take place in Rotterdam, 16-24 October. This is the biggest world championships of the quadrennium, over 70 countries will send full teams, which will begin to be wittled down to the final 12 which will win tickets to London 2012.

The Worlds website also has a number of interesting interviews and articles- including this on Beth Tweddle.

Reigning world champ on floor Beth Tweddle is enjoying the rise of the British men, and not just because she enjoys seeing her home country do well at competitions. What with her male colleagues now sharing the limelight and helping her share the burden of expectations, Tweddle is feeling less pressure to do well, which she says is helping her. ‘A few years ago, when we went to a major championships, it was a case of “what result can Beth come home with?” But now it’s more about “what result can British Gymnastics achieve?” The boys have been getting lots of great results on the international circuit for some time and so the pressure has been taken off me and is shared between us, which is nice.’

Tweddle has indicated she intends to stick with the two-events-only strategy she adopted after the Beijing Olympics. Like last year, she will compete bars and floor only at the world championships. However, there are a few changes in the works. For one thing, she is going to get a new floor routine soon. ‘If you do the same thing over and over again it just gets boring, so straight after the Europeans I’m going to change it and get a new choreographer,’ she said. ‘Hopefully, it will put a bit more pizzazz back into my life.’

The 25-year-old is now gearing herself up for the world championships in Rotterdam in October, but as the gymnast explains, she will have to miss the Commonwealth Games because of a calendar clash. ‘Unfortunately the world championships clash with the Commonwealth Games, so for myself I’m hoping to go to the World Championships. All our funding is based on our World Championship results, not our Commonwealths. So our A team will travel out to Rotterdam for the worlds and the B team plus the two reserves from the A team will go to the Commonwealth Games. It works in a good way, as the B team will be the younger seniors who will also be eligible for 2012 and are not quite ready this year. They’ll get the experience of a major championships. Hopefully that will bode well for the future for us.’

The fact that at age 25, she will be one of the oldest female gymnasts competing in Rotterdam, doesn’t bother Tweddle. ‘Age doesn’t really come into it. It’s just an extra number. I’m still out there, still enjoying it and still getting the results.’ So what’s keeping her going? Why, her dream of winning a gold medal at the 2012 Olympics, of course. ‘A lot of people have said, “Why do you keep going?” The motivation is I’ve still got one dream to achieve and that’s 2012, hopefully. We’ll see what happens, and I think with age comes experience.’ (Sources: The Telegraph, 28 April 2010; Liverpool Echo, 1 and 4 May 2010; BBC Sport, 12 May 2010)