Classic - Seniors

I have managed to get a video link of the Senior event- makes the late night worthwhile!

I'll be updating as much as I can, probably between rotations.

Rotation 1
Vanessa Zamarippa - started off with a good vault - but with some big steps on landing - 14.5
Mackenzie Caquatto - came out fighting on bars- looking great 15.05
Alicia Sacramone - got the job done on beam- announcing her comeback - 14.8
Kytra Hunter - threw some massive stuff on floor (full twisting dbl layout, piked + tucked dbl arabians) same music as last year.
Ali Raisman- started a bit wobbly on beam but finished with a dbl arrabian dismount 14.3
Cassie Whitcomb - strong on floor- great landings. - It's all going well so far...
Mattie Larson - looked awesome and so sure of herself on beam - until she sat down on the dismount :-( 13.45
Sam Shapiro - solid on beam, over-time on her routine. Still has a cool beam mount, lots of standing on the top of her toes though - ouchy
After rotation 1 - 1 Caquatto, 2 Sacramone, 3 Hunter, 4 Shapiro, 5 Zamarripa

Rotation 2
Amanda Jetter - double twisting yurchenko
(whoever is on floor in the background is using shawn johnson's old music)
Briley Casanova - bars, good handstands, slightly sloppy releases, big fall on dismount though. She has to do well today to qualify for nationals
Kytra Hunter- dbl yurchenko, small step fward
Ali Raisman - good on floor, 2 tumbling passes stuck. dbl arabian pike and tuck.
Rebecca Bross- fast and furious as ever on bars, stuck dismount, business as usual. 15.45
Mattie Larson - means business on floor - stuck almost everything until last pass- o.o.b.
Sam Shapiro - floor- slightly simpler tumbles, beautiful dance.
Mackenzie Caquatto- wobbly on beam- 1 fall and almost another on dismount.
Katelyn Clarke - pretty good on floor, not all that memorable though.
After Rotation 2 - 1 Hunter 29.45, 2 Zamarripa 29.05, 3 Shapiro 28.8, 4 Jetter 28.7, 5 Raisman 28.6, 6 Whitcomb, 7 Lee, 8 Larson

Rotation 3
Rebecca Bross- hard day on beam, sat down her dbl arabian dismount
Bridget Sloan- squeaks it on bars- a few tricky moment but made it
Ali Raisman- went for an amanar vault, under-rotated and fell. not even close.
Kytra Hunter- landed splat on her bars release.
Mattie Larson - good double yurchenko vault, maybe I will get my wish!
Cassie Whitcombe- good and tidy bar routine - a good day for her.
Sam Shapiro- bad landing on vault - likely done herself an injury (again)
Alicia Sacramone - 2 big vaults, handspring 1/2 and only a yurchenko full - but very well done
Vanessa Zamarippa- painful looking fall off beam, otherwise v. pretty
After 3rd rotation: 1 Whitcomb, 2 Jetter(-0.25) 3 Larson (-0.6) 4 Shapiro (even with the vt crash) 5 Raisman, 6 Lee, 7 Zam, 8 Macko

Rotation 4
Sam Shapiro apparantly hyperextended her knee back on vault. Not too serious but definitely the end of her competition today.
ASac says she is like a fine wine 'I get better with age' !!
Ali Raisman- a great bar routine by her standards.
Cassie Whitcomb - lookied like she had it in the bag until a fall on beam- open door.
Mattie Larson- great bar routine - I have my fingers crossed for her :-)
Vanessa Zamarippa- very expressive floor ex, lack difficulty but great to watch.
Amanda Jetter- no fall but some mistakes on beam, gonna be close...... 13.7

Mattie wins- yipee!!
Jetter 2nd, Caquatto 3rd, Whitcomb 4th

However - Larson's winning score was 57.1 - The Jrs wiped the floor with the Srs today

Anyway - its now 3am UK time --> bed time zzz

Classic- news, results, pics

The Junior session of the Covergirl Classic just wrapped up. The final standings at the top were

1 Jordyn Wieber 59.95 - no surprises there.
2 Katelyn Ohashi 59.1 - Woga's newest star
3 Kyla Ross 58.7
4 Sabrina Vega 57.25
5 Madison Kocian 56.2 (right- beautiful to watch)
6 Lexie Preissman 55.9
7 McKayla Maroney 55.65
8 Mackenzie Brannan 55.45
9 Gabrielle Douglas 55.25
10 Claire Boyce 55.15


Photos are appearing on the Gymblog and on Gymnastike. Seniors start in a little over an hour on Universal Sports. Full results go to USAgymnastics


Junior AA medal presentations


Last minute seniors preview- from the draw on the USAG page- Rebecca Bross, Sam Shapiro, Bridget Sloan and Sophia deJesus are just competing Bars and Beam. Alicia Sacramone is competing vault and beam.

My sensible pick for the all around would be Ali Raisman, although my sentimental fave is Mattie Larson.

Classic Time Again

Today is podium training for the US Covergirl Classic tomorrow.


Gymnastike has already posted several interviews and training videos, like this of Alicia Sacramone on balance beam

Word is World Vault Champ Kayla Williams has injured her foot and won't be competing, also Rebecca Bross and some of the other seniors that are already qualified for Nationals may not compete all-around.

Universal Sports is showing the event online tomorrow- whether that means it will be watchable here in the UK remains to be seen.

A busy weekend.

Apologies for the lack of updates, I've been away at my cousin's wedding this weekend. Most of today's news comes from other people's blogs and websites that I was browsing through when I got back. I promise to be more proactive in future!


The list of competitors for the USA Covergirl Classic is up, and it's pretty full. Those competing include Bridget Sloan , Rebecca Bross, Alicia Sacramone, Kayla Williams, Mattie Larson, Samantha Shapiro, Alexandra Raisman, Jordyn Wieber, Kyla Ross, Sabrina Vega and many others. View the full list here.
Those we won't see (unsurprisingly for most) - Olympians Nastia Liukin & Shawn Johnson and the still injured Ivana Hong.

British gymnast Daniel Keatings has blogged on his progress, 7 weeks after surgery to repair his ACL. He remains positive and ahead of schedule in his rehab. Maybe he is still planning to make a comeback before the end of the season. Good luck to him! Thanks to 'Full Twist' for the link.

Georgia Bonora did win the Australian championships- read the article from international gymnast magazine.


According to blogger 'Aunt Joyce' Olympic Silver Medallist Sasha Cohen, and former US pairs champ Rockne Brubaker have had a pairs tryout- If they form a partnership it could be very exciting.....

Also from Aunt Joyce - Yu-Na Kim is now a Goodwill Ambassador for Unicef. Yu-Na donated $100,000 to the Haiti Earthquake appeal earlier this year and recently spoke in this message to other donors.

Oh yeah, and I think there's some football going on today too....