We'll call it a draw!

GB has not one but two Senior men's champions as Sam Hunter and Daniel Purvis tied for all-around gold at the men's artistic gymnastics championships in Leicester this weekend.

The two recently placed an impressive 5th (Purvis) and 9th (Hunter) at the World Championships. Purvis also won bronze in Rotterdam on floor, which also was his highest score at the british champs too.  Here are the all around results.

The apparatus results were as follows
 Floor
1 PURVIS Daniel - Southport 15.700
2 SEAGER Theo - Bury 15.200
3 PANTELEYMONOV Ruslan - Hinckley 15.000

Pommel
1 WHITLOCK Max - South Essex 15.500
2 PURVIS Daniel - Southport 14.700
3 FIRTH Matthew - City Of Leeds 13.600

Rings
1 FERN Samuel - City Of Leeds 14.600
2 SEAGER Theo - Bury 14.450
3 FOLWELL Luke - Huntingdon 14.450

Vault
1 PANTELEYMONOV Ruslan 16.075
2 SEAGER Theo 15.500
3 FOLWELL Luke GBR 15.225

P.Bars
1 PANTELEYMONOV Ruslan - Hinckley 14.800
2 WATSON Ashley - City Of Leeds 14.800
3 PURVIS Daniel - Southport 14.550

High Bar
1 HUNTER Sam - Unattached 14.800
2 OLDHAM Sam - Huntingdon 14.750
3 SEAGER Theo - Bury 14.350

More information can be found at the British Gymnastics official site and facebook page.

Skating in Sheffield

The Junior Grand Prix is making it's next stop in Britain at the John Curry Memorial Trophy in Sheffield. Contendors here will include.

Ladies
Adelina Sotnikova- fresh of her win in Graz
Yasmin Siraz and Kristeine Gong of the US could both be contenders for the podium
Stephanie Ridgley (right)- who I've always seen as being one of Caroline Zhang's rink buddies in California is apparently competing for Great Britain.
Isabelle Olsson- a JGP circuit regular with the ability to reach the podium if she skates well.

Mens
Joshua Farris of the US will definitely be looking for another medal, as will Keiji Tanaka of Japan and Zhan Bush of Russia. None of them have yet added JGP gold to their collection.

Pairs
Japan's Narumi Takahashi and Mervin Tran are the standout names here having been their countries main senior pair for several years now and the reigning world jr silver medallists.
Russian pair Ksenia Stolboza and Fedor Klimov will be hot on their heels after their win in Graz
Fellow russians Alexandra Vasileva and Yuri Shevchuk will also be in the hunt for a medal.

Dance
Aside from Ridgeley, this may be where the GB team has their best shot of a medal with 3 good teams out there
However, competing with reigning JGP champs Ksenia Monko and Kirill Khaliavin of Russia may be a step too far.
Other medallists this season so far include Lauri Bonacorsi and Travis Maeger (USA, 3rd in Brasov) and Viktoria Sinitsiva and Ruslan Zinganshin (2nd in Graz)

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)

Goings on

I'm currently away from home in Newcastle for a family wedding with a wounded laptop in tow - still feel it is right to update on the recent sports happenings when I get a moment.


A few miles from here the GB gymnasts beat the Swiss girls in their latest friendly international. Some of the bigger names were competing here than at the recent GB vs Romania meet. GB (Rebecca Downie, Jenni Pinches, Danusia Francis, Nicole Hibbert, and Hannah Whelan) scored 168.700 in the team competition to convincingly beat Switzerland (Ariella Kaeslin, Jennifer Senn, Jennifer Rutz, Linda Stampfli, Minu Krasniqi) with 152.850.

Becky Downie returned from her recent injury to claim the all around with a score of 55.950.
Becky said: “It feels really great to put in a performance like I have today. I was really happy with Beam and excited to be able to show off my new Floor routine, so overall I’m very happy.” GB also took the top 4 spots in the all-around with Kaeslin in 5th, scoring 53.100.

At the Russian Cup, Aliya Mustafina showed she is back on form after collecting a number of medals at Europeans then looking lacklustre performance at the Japan Cup. Mustafina took the all-around with 62.271 (The scores here were inflated as the judges gave extra marks for originality). The Ksenias, Afansyeva and Semenova took silver and bronze respectively. I would love to see all 3 of these girls at Worlds, although I suspect Semenova will miss out on the AA final.

In the skating world, as I predicted the Russian's made a comeback in the ladies event at JGP France. Polina Shelepen completed a 7-triplr jump programme to take gold ahead of Yasmin Siraj (USA) and Rosa Sheveleva (Russia). France's Yretha Silete was 4th and Jiang of the USA 5th. Andrei Rogozine (Canada) held onto the Men's title. Stepanova and Bukin of Russia decisively won the ice dance event.

Stateside- one of the USA's international bar workers, Cassie Whitcombe has a broken leg. This will likely take her out of the World's race. What this means is that either Bridget Sloan needs to get healthy and fast - or Mackenzie Caquatto (who I had dismissed for being inconsitent) may get the call. For such a strong team USA has a big weakness in the bars department- Where's a healthy Liukin when you need her!

And finally - on the other side of the World, Sui Lu won the all around at the Chinese Nationals. Her score of 56.900 bettering Jiang Yuyuan (56.35) and Huang Qiushuang (55.600). Deng Linlin missed the competition with a pulled thigh muscle.

In case that wasn't enough gymnastics for one day!

British Gymnastics has posted videos from the event finals at the recent GB-Romania friendly event - watch them here.

GBR vs ROM event finals

Sunday saw the event finals at the friendly event in Ipswich.

VT
1. Imogen Cairns 13.938
2. Jennifer Pinches 13.938
3. Raluca Haidu 13.638

UB
1. Becky Downie 14.175
2. Danusia Francis 14.100
3. Daniela Andrei 13.600



BB
1. Cerasela Patrascu 14.425
2. Danusia Francis 14.250
3. Diana Trenca 14.200

FX
1. Imogen Cairns 13.975
2. Daniela Andrei 13.925
3. Diana Trenca 13.875



Also as it seems to be the trend at the moment here are my picks for the US world team. This is based on the gymnasts needed for the team final and relies on a healthy and ready Bridget Sloan. If Bridget isn't ready then the US will need another bars worker such as Cassie Whitcome or Mackenzie Caquatto.

Team Members
Rebecca Bross
Mattie Larson
Alicia Sacramone
Kytra Hunter
Bridget Sloan

Team Final Events
VT - Larson, Sacramone, Hunter
UB - Bross, Larson, Sloan
BB- Bross, Sacramone, Sloan/Larson?
FX - Larson, Hunter, Bross/Sloan?

My picks for the AA would be Bross and Larson (but if Sloan is ready it might be cruel to not let her try and defend her title)

Finally - if anyone has been missing it- the Olympic Alphabet will continue from tomorrow!

Yep - still happy!

Congrats go out again to Rebecca Bross and Mattie Larson. 1-2 at the US championships after both completing 2 clean all around competitions in a row.

Full results at USA Gymnastics.
1. Rebecca Bross, Plano, Texas, 120.300
2. Mattie Larson, Los Angeles, Calif., 117.000
3. Alexandra Raisman, Needham, Mass., 115.650
4. Kytra Hunter, Frederick, Md., 114.350
5. Mackenzie Caquatto, Naperville, Ill., 113.350
5. Chelsea Davis, Lakeway, Texas, 113.350
7. Samantha Shapiro, Los Angeles, Calif., 112.000
8. Vanessa Zamarripa, Shiloh, Ill., 111.400

New national team family photos


Also on the other side of the pond- Romania narrowly beat GB at the friendly meet in Iswich 165.400pts vs.163.100pts. The big stars (Tweddle and Isbasa) didn't make an appearance after all but Hannah Whelan (GB 55.65) won the all around ahead of Daniela Andrei (ROM 55.60) and Raluca Haidu (ROM 54.900).


And - even further East - the Youth Olympics have started with Gymnastics taking place later this week. It's all go!

Meanwhile in the world of Gymnastics

Next week I will be taking a much needed holiday from work, revision and dissertation writing. From a blogging perspective though, I seem to have picked a bad week- it's all happening at the moment.

Youth Olympics kick off in Singapore. A full list of participants is available here. One update is that Jessica Hogg is replacing Laura Mitchell for team GB gymnastics as Mitchell has a fractured ankle.


Other British gymnasts will be facing off against Romania at a friendly event in Ipswich. I'm sad to be missing this one but can't complain as I did see both teams at the Euros recently. IG has reported that olympic floor champ Sandra Izbasa will be returning as part of the romanian team. Hopefully Beth will be there too, giving Izbasa a run for her money on floor.

The Romanian Team has been announced as
Sandra Izbasa, Ana Porgras, Diana Chelaru, Gabriele Dragoi, Ceresela Patrascu Diana Trenca, Dana Andrei
GB has announced their National Squad - but not yet which girls will compete in Ipswich


And the Americans will be fighting it out at the Visa Championships. I'm sure there'll be no shortage of blog reporting on that event, if classic was anything to go by.

The start list for seniors is :-
Georgia Dabritz, Vanessa Zamarippa, Rhaegan Courville, Kytra Hunter,
Lauren Beers, Becca Bross, Samantha Shapiro, Sophina deJesus,
Cassie Whitcomb, Alicia Sacramone, Bridgette Caquatto, Brandie Jay,
Kaitlyn Clark, Sophia Lee, Jaclyn McCartin, Bridget Sloan,
Amanda Jetter, Aly Raisman, Mackenzie Caquatto, Annette Miele,
Morgan Smith, Mattie Larson, Chelsea Davis.

Sam Shapiro is apparently still hoping to compete bars and beam after hyperextending both her knees on her vault at the classic. I haven't heard anything to say Bridget sloan won't be competing all around - she'll be facing stiff competition for her title though, Bross in particular won't want to see another gold slip away.....

A good week.

Last week was a good one for Team GB athletes, looking forward towards 2012.

At the European Championships in Barcelona, Team GB won a total of 19 medals (6 Gold, 7 Silver, 6 Bronze), besting all their previous performances at the event.


Hilights included Mo Farah thrashing the field to win both the 5000m and 10000m titles (apparently easily!) and current queen of GB athletics, Jessica Ennis winning the heptathlon gold. Watch the gold winnning performances here (BBC).

The event took place in the olympic stadium fromt he Barcelona olympics in 1992. These events will prove a useful benchmark from which the boffins at GB athletics can come up with a medal winning strategy ready for the real thing in London.

These championships of course did not include the big names from America or any of the African countries but with 2 years to go many, including Lord Sebastian Coe, believe we are well on our way to great performances at home.

2 years and counting....

Time flies doesn't it? We seem to have just wrapped up in Vancouver and already we have a Youth Olympics on our hands and tomorrow it will be only 2 years until LONDON 2012!

I've heard so many interviews with olympic athletes and hopefuls who always say 'The next four years will fly by' and they're right.

Ollie from BBC sport posted a great video on his blog of Team GB athletes sharing their excitement for the approaching home games. Our track and field athletes will be testing themselves out this week at the European Athletics Championships.

The London games (like any other games) have already recieved criticism on many counts - mainly money related, and of course the 'love-them-or-hate-them' official logos and mascots.

But however you wrap it up- the Olympics will always inspire!

In honour of this milestone I've come up with the idea of an Olympic Alphabet!

More good news!

Britains skating stars Sinead and John Kerr posted this on their website this evening.

13 July 2010

Sinead and I thought it was about time we made some kind of statement as to our future plans….

After much thought and cogitation we have now decided that we will be participating in the 2010-11 season. Sinead and I had always thought that the 2010 Olympic season would be our last but we both feel that there are still things in competitive skating that we would like to achieve before we retire.

We also felt that we would like to end our competitive career on a high and, despite some good results, we didn’t feel like we achieved that last year. The pressure of it being an Olympic season possibly got on top of us last season and we weren’t able to match our own, or others, expectations.

That is something we hope to remedy this season and we have brought in some interesting people to help us do that.

One of those people is Peter Tchernyshev who took charge of creating the Free Dance for us this season. Sinead and I have created a lot of our own work during our career so it was nice to have someone else take the reins. Even though we have always enjoyed choreographing it was nice to not have the pressure of having to come up with something new and original. Peter was awesome to work with and it really gave us fresh inspiration and impetus for the year ahead.

Sorry for keeping everybody waiting, especially all you guys and gals on the messageboard (we love you all), but I hope you understand that this was something we had to think long and hard about.

Sinead and I have always felt that we should leave the stage with the audience wanting more which is why we felt that staying till 2010 might be a good time to call it quits.

Let's call this our extended curtain call then ;-)

Hugs and kisses,

S&J

I'm so glad to hear this news. With several big names retiring this year (Belbin & Agosto, Delobel & Schoenfelder, Domnina and Shabilin) it's a great opportunity for Sinead and John to shine and win some more medals.

Plus with a lack of other skaters competetive at the international level - Team GB NEEDS them around for as long as possible.
Good luck this season, Sinead and John!

British Champs - Photos

Here are some of my (slightly blurry) photos from the second day of the British Championships.

Top 4 - Beth Tweddle, Nicole Hibbert, Billie Mackenzie (Junior) , Danusia Francis
Middle 4 - Laura Edwards (I think!), The Heathrow girls, Marissa King, Hannah Whelan
Bottom 4 - Niamh Rippin, Vault medallists, Bars Medallists, Floor Medallists

Gym Videos of the week.

Here is one of my videos from the British Championships - Beth Tweddle's bar routine. She won with a (for her) relatively low score of 15.000. My boyfriend swears he saw her bang her foot on the bar. I can't see it watching it over again but it would explain the deductions.



Edit: yes- he was right - I watched a more side-on version of this routine posted by RETROMADDY on youtube - she does bang her foot on the second swing past the low bar.

British Gymnastics will be posting more videos this week here.
One to watch is Lauren Mitchell's impressive beam routine- she won the junior beam and junior all-around titles.

Also you can watch videos from the team final of the Japan Cup here.
Or from the All-Around here.



Aliya Mustafina appears to have changed her floor routine music since Europeans. I like the new routine, but I think I liked the old one better!

Gymnastics Update.

I've borrowed a friend's laptop after getting back from the apparatus finals at the British Gymnastics Championships today. My own photos and videos will follow later.

Yesterday 2008 olympian Hannah Whelan completed her comeback from injury to win the all-around title ahead of new senior Nicole Hibbert and her Heathrow team-mate Danusia Francis.

Beth Tweddle only competed bars here (not sure if that means she's protecting an injury) but she loooked fit and won the title with ease.

Danusia Francis surprised some by winning the senior beam and floor title, ahead of Whelan and Niamh Rippin.

Seniors
Bars:Beth Tweddle, Nicole Hibbert, Hannah Whelan
Floor: Danusia Francis, Niamh Rippin, Rebecca Wing
Beam: Danusia Francis, Hannah Whelan, Rebecca Wing
Vault: Imogen Cairns, Marissa King, Nicole Hibbert

Juniors
Bars: Rebecca Tunney, Lizzie Beddoe, Jasmine Reed-Yang
Floor:Jessica Hogg, Loriah James, Ruby Straw
Beam: Laura Mitchell, Bethan Evans, Jessica Hogg
Vault: Ruby Harrold, Ruby Straw, Jessica Hogg

For full results click here.

Also at the Japan Cup - Russia won the womens team title over Japan. Ksenia Afansyava showed she is still a contender by winning the All Around, ahead of Koko Tsurumi and Aliya Mustafina.


Thats all for now - much more soon! (These photos from International Gymnast)

Spelbound balance shows and training.

In the recent Britain's Got Talent final it was fairly clear to all that there could be only one winner- the acrobatic gymnastics team Spelbound.

I you haven't seen their performances - watch them here (semifinal) (final)

The team were worshiped by the Judges and Simon Cowell said they would be the perfect act for the London 2012 olympic opening ceremonies.

This instant fame however caused some issues for the group. Being the show's champions they were legally obliged to take part in a 15 stop tour around the country, finishing at the O2 arena. This could potentially hamper their preparations for the World Acrobatic Championships immediately after, in which most of them are due to compete in smaller groups for team GB

However, Spelbound are insistant on keeping to all their planned engagements, training in the daytime at gyms local to the show venues before performing in the evenings. Hard work but very best of luck to them! After worlds they will also perform for the queen at the royal variety performance. The ultimate prize of the talent show seems almost a small stage for this act.

More British Gymnastics bits and bobs.

Heading into the British Championships this weekend British Gymnastics has announced they will post on-demand videos of as many routines as possible on their website (BGTV) they have also posted a preview video here.

With Becky Downie out it could be the week for new talent such as Jocelyn Hunt or Nicole Hibbert who both competed in the european medal winning team. Or it could be the week for comebacks.

Hannah Whelan, who was the smallest member of the 2008 GB olympic team (pictured here with the tallest athlete, rower Josh West) is making her comeback after a complicated wrist injury. We wish her all the best.

Also Marissa King is back after her first year in American College gymnastics. It will be great to see how her elite gymnastics has changed. Marissa speaks about her college experiences here.

Gymnastics Videos on Gymnastike

With team GB making up two teams this summer- one for worlds and one for commonwealths, Nationals should be interesting. Good luck to all the girls!

British Championships next week.

Guildford Spectrum 3/4th July

World and European Champion Beth Tweddle returns to Guildford

The Women’s British Championships is one of the highlights of the British Gymnastics calendar. The event includes competitions whereby the Senior and Junior British All-around Champions are proclaimed, along with the Apparatus Champions in the Senior, Junior and Espoir categories, on the second day of competition.

The 2010 British Championships will reunite the majority of Great Britain's Team Silver medal winning gymnasts from the 2010 European Championships; Beth Tweddle, Becky Downie, Nicole Hibbert, Niamh Rippin and Jocelyn Hunt made history in Birmingham earlier this year and will again all be looking for support from the British crowd.

Beth Tweddle will return to the British Championships having missed the event last year as she competed at the World University games. Since then Beth has gone on to win the World Floor title and the European Floor and Bars Titles!

Beth Tweddle: “I’m really excited to be making my return to the British Championships in Guildford. The last 12 months have been incredible for me, and the fact that I have won the World Floor title and the European Floor and Bars titles all in Great Britain, shows that having the home-crowd can really make a difference. To be back in Guildford competing in front of many of the fans who have given me such amazing support is something I'm really looking forward too.”

Unfortunately Becky Downie the defending Senior Champion, won't be able to defend her title due to injury, meaning her hopes of securing her third senior title in a row to continue her amazing run of British Championships stretching through two Espoir titles, to two Junior titles to two Senior titles must come to an end.

Other Seniors to watch out for include Jenni Pinches, Imogen Cairns, Hannah Whelan, Marissa King and Danusia Francis who for various reasons are all on the comeback trail in Guildford.

Later this year the Senior gymnasts will be looking to claim places either in their Home Countries National Teams for the Commonwealth Games in Delhi (3-14th October) or for the British Team at the World Championships in Rotterdam (October 17-24th). The 2010 British Championships acts as one of the qualifying events to make these Teams so is of vital importance to many of the gymnasts competing.

In the Junior category the ones to watch will be those that took part in the Junior European Championships- Ruby Harrold, Laura Mitchell, Rebecca Tunney, Billie Mackenzie and Jessica Hogg along with Venus Romaeo and Lizzie Beddoe who return from injury.

We wish all the gymnasts the best of luck for a fantastic 2010 British Championships,

(Article from British Gymnastics)

2010 European Champs - Photos

In May I went to the NIA in Birmingham to watch the women's team final at the European Gymnatsic Championships. A selection of my own photos from the event are below

The romanian girls warm up for vault

Beth Chills before Bars

Jocelyn Hunt- new to Team GB and the big stage

The Russians exude confidence- Euros is still their stage

Either Racea or Chelaru giving a team-mate a helping hand with their stuff

The italians- 'love' the leotard and sneaker look!

Semenova- still the queen of cool

And yes- most teams were wearing national colours.

Congrats to the team GB girls on their first Euro medal- bodes well for London 2012 :-)

You can view more photos from this album here.

Also - I have skating photos from the following events-

• 2008 Trophee Eric Bompard
• 2008 Canadian Stars on Ice
• 2007 Skate Canada International